Day 98: Romancing the Trail

June 13: Today was meant to be another zero day, and it started off well. I woke up and hit the breakfast room at the Super 8. Unfortunately, they didn't have the waffle maker that I so love, but they had something even better: a TV that wasn't playing one of those morning news shows that are always so depressing. I don't really want to hear about the latest vehicular crash that killed five people and closed the Interstate. I don't want to hear about flooding in India, or the latest political scandal, or what Kim Kardashian wore last night. I just don't care about it, and there's nothing I can do that will change any of it. Sometimes, the local weather forecast can be useful, but I've already gotten that from the Internet so whatever they show on the television is superfluous.

No, on this television set, they had the channel changed to a movie that I immediately recognized as Romancing the Stone, and I love that movie! I probably haven't seen it in 20 years, so I started enjoying it while munching on cereal with too much sugar, bagels, and bananas.

When I finished breakfast, I returned to the hotel room and turned on the television so I could finish watching the movie. It was a zero day! I could relax! =)

After the movie was over, I did some work on my laptop, then for lunch, Amanda drove us out to a nearby Italian restaurant. We were enjoying the food, chatting, and looking through the trail guide to see what I'd be doing tomorrow and--I'm not quite sure what happened here--but a few minutes later, we were discussing my hiking a bit of the trail today. The day was beautiful. Warm, perhaps, but nowhere near has miserable as the humidity of the last couple of days. And it would be a short day of hiking--a mere 6.3 miles to the Palisades Parkway. In the center divider, there was a small parking lot for a gift store and vending machines and Amanda could pick me up there.

So quite unexpectedly, we quickly drove back to the hotel where I picked up some snacks and changed into some hiking clothes (the Crocs I was wearing at the restaurant would not do for the trail!), then she drove me back to the trail from where she picked me up two days earlier.

The day's hiking was largely uneventful. I didn't see a thru-hiker the whole time, so no interactions there to report. I did see a snake and two remarkably calm deer that allowed me to get some nice photos of them.

And then there were views of the New York City skyline which was neat to see. During my 2003 thru-hike, I never saw the city's skyline--it was too humid and the skies not clear enough. Even today, the view was hazy and unclear, but it was definitely visible and I tried picking out individual landmarks. That one over there on the right must be the new Freedom Tower. More towards the middle, I'm pretty sure I spotted the Chrysler Building.

Although New York City was visible, it's still a good 30 miles away and even on the clearest of days, you're not going to see many details, but I was kind of amazed at how close the trail does come to the city. You'd think with a city teeming with millions of people, there wouldn't be many forests or wild areas for a trail to run so closely to it.

In any case, Amanda picked me up at the Palisades Interstate Parkway a few hours later and whisked me back to our hotel for the night where I continued working on this blog. Hope y'all are enjoying it! =)

Although I could see the New York City skyline from the trail, it's not particularly clear! And I had to zoom in my camera as far as it would go just to get this much!

Zoomed out a bit more so you could see more of the skyline.

New York City! Just 34 miles away! This is the Palisades Parkway, where I stopped for the day.