 |
| I almost went to prison in order to get this shot. |
I hate packing. If there is one single task that would make me not plan a trip, a cruise or a walk across the room, it would be packing for the journey. Packing seems like taking everything you own on vacation. It wears me out . I become stressed. I am not fun to be with while performing the drudgery of packing. However, my deodorant, toothbrush and underwear all get to go where ever I go worry free. I worry if I am taking enough cash. I worry about whether or not the van that is going to take us to Bayonne will get here let along get here on time. Even when the van gets here earlier than expected, I worry about whether the van will get us to the ship. Why do I worry about that? Because the van driver who makes five trips a week to NYC gets in the van on Boas Street and immediately sets his GPS to where I tell him we are going. Heaven help us! As the second hand continually makes its sixty-second journey across the face of time and the odometer continues to add by one-tenths, all the stress, worry and anxiety slowly drain through the hour glass of time and are buried in the sand.
I did not even let the fact that, as we passed the exit for Cabella's, the Ford van started to signal the driver and all conscience occupants of the van that the anti-lock breaking system was failing. Not a problem because I know we only have to really stop once and that is at Cape Liberty. Heck, he has a whole week while I am cruising to get the van repaired.
There was another unscheduled stop. It seems the one who needs a GPS to find my ship is also being paid to transport coffee from York to a rest stop just across the PA/NY line. As I exit the van somewhere inside the Garden State, a much less stressed traveler is heard saying, "Wow! Bermuda looks an awful lot like New Jersey!" The tourch that lights the Delp sense of humor and warped way of looking at life has certainly been passed from my generation to the next.
 |
| "Welcome Aboard!" to the love-of-my-life. |
The van reached Cape Liberty, stopping at the correct place without incident, Hallelujah! This was followed in order by 1) a quick baggage check-in at the van, 2) a quicker passenger check-in 3) a short walk through the terminal where I (click) was yelled at by a uniform wearing, badge toting, lady of the up-sized fashion world (click, click) for taking pictures inside the building (click), 4) a bus ride of about 300 yards and 5) a walk across the gang-plank.
A grip, a grin, a glass of bubbly champagne and eleventy-billion "Welcome aboards" made me realize that this is for real and there's no turning back.
A buzzing beehive. The crackling caused by electricity between to wires. The high energy excitement of my fellow passengers, as we waited for and finally heard the deep throat-ed bullfrog blast of the ships horn signaling our departure from terra firmam, filled the air. It's difficult to tell exactly when the ship breaks the chains of inertia but I realized that we were indeed moving forward and that New York City was not moving away.
 |
| Lady Liberty in New York Harbor |
Lady Liberty shone her light for us as she waved goodbye while NYC feel off the stern and vanished in our wake. NYFD joined the festivities and said 'bon voyage' by sending a fire boat to create a rainbow for our departing pleasure. Approaching and finally passing beneath the Verrazano Narrows Bridge puncuated the departure as the masses began to sing and dance to the frenzied beat of the pool band.
Unlike the rolling crescendo of excitement that climaxed with the bridge passing, the entrance to the sea and the announcement that luggage had been delivered to the rooms perpetuated an instant evaporation of energy and excitement on-board the Summit.
As the sunset on Day One of our cruise, the Main Land gradually disappeared in our rear-view mirror. The sleep that was chased from us the night before by worry and packing, caught up to us as we set out watches ahead one-hour and sailed east into the darkness that would be our bridge from the real world to the amazing fantasy we were about to experience on the Atlantic Ocean. - DD
