The First Few People you meet in Manhattan (after a disaster)

Actually we began by going out to Long Island to visit Walmart and Trader Joe’s. All I can say is, “Never again.”

On our way back I thought it would be cool to go to Queensbridge Park, just across from Manhattan on our side (Queens), and look at the skyline. Well poor old Garmin was challenged and led us over the Ed Koch Bridge into Manhattan (no toll). That was not on our game plan, but hey, why not ride around for a little? So we did! I loved it and Laura was “concerned.” We went south for a long time and then back up north to 59^th Street east. We turned the corner from 3^rd Ave to 59^th and suddenly we had clouds of steam coming out of our hood. There was absolutely no warning.

I pulled over in a place where there was plenty of room. As I was checking out the car, immediately, a woman came up with an Irish accent and a guy came over and began giving us advice. He was Jewish and said that his reaction would have been, “Why me?” The woman was a hostess in an Irish pub a few feet away and said we could use the phone in the pub or she would give us water if we needed it. The Jewish guy kept giving us advice until we remembered, with his help, that State Farm has its own road assistance. We’d forgotten, but alas we had left our cell phone in our room.

I found the problem and was almost able to fix it with a vacuum cleaner crevice tool, but the VW part was unable to be “missionary engineered.” Still it was good to know it would be an easy fix if I just replaced one plastic part. Now we had to call for road service...and we had left our phone in our room.

The people in this very full and loud Irish Pub were super helpful. State Farm was very helpful and said we were covered to be towed back to the church in Queens (where we are staying). So Laura and I sat in an Irish Pub in Manhattan for two hours on Super Bowl Sunday and watched the game. What a treat.

In the meantime we discovered that we did, in fact, have our cell phone with us. How did we miss that?

At half time our tow truck driver showed up. What a nice guy. Where the car died there was plenty of room to load up the car. We had a great time talking to our chauffer back to the church and at the end of the day I thanked him, talked to him about Jesus and invited an Egyptian to church.

What a wonderful way to meet so many helpful people and enjoy the Super Bowl at an Irish Pub in Manhattan.

We’re looking forward to our next “adventure.”