I landed in Newark just in time to catch the monsoons that Hanna brought up the coast. Was incredibly humid. 76 degrees and pouring.
Had a rather snarky Hertz rental car dude "helping" me. Kept trying to get me to rent the Chevy after I'd asked six times for either a Mazda 3, a Mazda 6, a Mazda Miata (yeah, not in Jersey - and awful with the top up in the rain anyway) a Toyota Corolla or the compact level Kia whose cutesy name I had forgotten. I trooped out to the lot to find a Chevy Tahoe parked where a Nissan Versa was supposed to have been; again to try out a Subaru Imprezza (too big for me), found the Versa - stall 114 dude, not 214 - and it also did not do. Hair totally frizzed out from the humidity now, I stalked back in to ask why I couldn't have the red Mazda 6? Sitting. Right. There. But he'd managed to come up with a Corolla so I took it to get out of there.
Made it out onto the 1 & 9 to 78 to the Garden State Parkway and thought I'd done it right but somehow had managed to go North rather than South on the Parkway. It's monsooning like crazy out there, visibility just about nil, so I pull off thinking I'll find the ramp to go South and all will be well. 'Cept I forgot that Northern Jersey doesn't work like that. I could see the freakin' Parkway but couldn't get turned around the right way to get on the South lanes. Toured some really choice neighborhoods and went through a puddle that I thought might swamp the car (didn't - whew!) before finally finding the South onramp. But I was still nervous I'd done it wrong after about 10 miles or so. Where were the little round green signs with the Parkway logo? I pulled into the first services exit I found and asked the bemused Indian guys at the counter (this is going to be a very 'stupid' question) "what highway is this that I'm on anyway?" Turned out it was indeed the Garden State Parkway South and they had no idea what happened to the signs either.
Slogged it on to my hotel in the lovely wide spot in the road known as Neptune. Checked in teased by the tantalizing aroma of the Indian clerk's dinner and with mouth watering for saag paneer and tandori chicken asked if there was a good Indian restaurant around. There was, but it was a half hour away. If the weather had been nicer it might have been worth the trip but I didn't want to chance getting lost out there in the dark and rain. Got out the phonebook looking for something edible that could be delivered (!) but the Chinese restaurant whose menu looked appetizing and had delivery also had a disconnected phone number. Yellow pages were from 2006. That and my cell service was sketchy. In some sort of a TMobile dead zone. I got in the car and found a strip mall Chinese take away place and got hot and sour soup, twice cooked pork and some broccolli dish - all perfectly awful. I picked the meat out of the pork, ate a couple pieces of broccolli and put the rest in the trash.
The next morning dawned sunny and clear - and cool - next to no humidity! I lucked out and had a perfect spot next to an open door with a beautiful breeze at the customer event, got to go walk on the beach at someplace between Brielle and Sea Girt after the event was over, and the entire rest of the trip was graced with perfect sunny and dry late summer weather. Too bad I'd already decided to fly home Monday instead of taking the week to hang out in the city. NYC would have been at its best
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