DDC 2006 Fall Tour / Day 20 / New York City

Got up, hung around, walked down the block for breakfast, then readied ourselves for a trip to the United Nations.208. "A city called, "New York."209. "Guardian of Jess and Amy's flat: Lucy."210. "Amy's sister is an artist. Here's a crop of one of her mosaics."Grabbed a cab and shot up the east river to the U.N.211. "End all wars."212. "Previous UN top brass rug portraits."213. "One of my favorite New Yorkers: Jessica McMenamin."214. "The Secretariat Tower, looking south."215. "A gift from Morocco."We were tickled to be on "International Soil." Think about that for a second. That little plot of land doesn't belong to the United States. It belongs to the International Community. Kinda heavy.Usually, these tours just sorta go fast and it's all a blur. What was refreshing was the chance to ask questions, to learn about U.N. global initiatives and of course, some history of these famous chambers.216. "The Security Council Chamber."217. "The U.N. peacekeeper's main symbol of neutrality."218. "A mosaic of Norman Rockwell's painting that depicts all the world's religions. 20,000 pieces of glass!"219. "Woodcut prints lined the walls. Global rights."220. "Burnt clothes from Hiroshima."Some things to think about: This is the room where Nikita Khrushchev banged his shoe and ruffled many countries feathers. During the entire Cold War between the US and USSR, the two countries sat directly next to each other. This is due to the alphabetical ordering of the seats. Same applies for Iran and Iraq, who were at war for a decade also. Fascinating. 192 countries are represented equally.221. "The General Assembly, representing all 192 countries."222. "The pursuit of Peace..."223. "A proud building."We cruised and picked my car up from the garage. I grabbed my gear from Jessica's flat and headed north up to my cousin Tom's brownstone up in Harlem. Took me a good 45 minutes to go 130 blocks. Phew. Ya gotta concentrate when driving in the city. No way around it.We had a great dinner of chicken, rice, beans, salad and breadsticks. Yum. We caught up on a list of subjects, outfitted Tom with some gear, said some goodbyes and hit the road back downtown. Little Ella and little Owen are growing up well. Eight and six, respectively. It's always good to see my favorite New York family.224. "Cousin Tom, outfitted for the upcoming winter, with ample DDC crap."For the hell of it, I took Broadway allllll the way downtown. Forgot that that little street goes right through Times Square. Phew. Took me 20 minutes to go five blocks. Remember that guy who played guitar in his skivvies? The "Naked Cowboy?" Well, there's a girl there now, topless except for pasties on her nipples, strumming away for Freedom or something. Hmmm.225. "Times Square gridlock."226. "A little logo we did, on a gigantic billboard some 10 stories high. Weird, right? Yes."Got back downtown, found Ben and headed over to his friend's place for a cold one. Beautiful Brazilians, taking it easy in their Chinatown loft. Quintessential New York loft living. It was cool to see it firsthand.227. "Ben and Camilla, high up in a Chinatown loft."Said good bye to Ben, grabbed one last slice of New York pizza for the road and started heading east to escape. Took a drive by Ground Zero on my way over to the Holland Tunnel. Did a lap and thought about the time Baker and I went to the top of Tower One. Surreal.The word was that Bush was going to be there the next morning paying respects. Kinda interesting, in a sad way.228. "Ground Zero, late at night."I got on i-76 in no time and got out into New Jersey for a good 30 miles started to see double and triple and decided to pull off and crash in a reststop. Zzzzz.For whatever reason, this time in NYC was just a little, uh, "ovrwhelming" or something. I wasn't down with it, so, I threw the towel in and hit the road. That's how it goes sometimes, right? Right.