Beginner's Luck

All,

After being in New York City for two days, I've already had a flat tire and a fender bender! It's funny, I was in the city driving for the first time back in May, and I made it through unscathed. Now, the second time around, I haven't been so lucky! Actually, I'm 0 for 2, which is a pretty crappy way to begin a three week run in the city!

The first problem was yesterday, as I drove around in Queens' Chinatown. As you all know, I drive a truck and pull an 18x7x12.5 ft. high trailer. It's not exactly maneuverable. Because of this, city driving can get interesting. Let me tell you what happened. My trailer is wider than my truck as its wheels stick out about a foot on each side. Considering the narrow streets in this part of Queens, evidently my trailer tires rubbed along a curb that had a sharp spot and it popped my tire on the side. The flat tire that resulted was unable to be patched. Luckily, because it's NYC, there was a shop only a block away. They were able to change the trailer tire for me, so we were only out about 45 minutes! If this would have happened in the small towns I typically frequent, this mishap likely would have wasted the whole day. It ended up being a great day as I made a friend in the distributor sales rep I worked with and he invited me to dinner last night with he and his wife at an excellent Italian restaurant in Long Island!

Today, I had another unfortunate encounter driving, this time while merging onto 2nd Avenue from the Queensboro Bridge in Manhattan. Rush hour got pretty crazy and as I was trying to make my way off the bridge, a tractor trailer got a little too close to me and as I moved ahead, my trailer's fender (over the same wheel well with the flat tire!) hit him and got pretty bent up. Fortunately, it was not badly damaged and still operational, so I moved along and so did the truck. It's hard to say whose fault it was, so we both nodded at one another and went our separate way. The rest of the morning was intense as I drove through Times Square, up to Harlem and down through Greenwich Village. The day ended in Brooklyn, which seemed like a cakewalk after navigating Manhattan!

I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend in Danbury, CT, where I'll crash tomorrow and Saturday night. Sunday afternoon, I'll head back to the city, where I'll be for the next two weeks.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and I hope you're all well!

On the road,

Matt