Wet In The City

This week I had a quick business trip to New York City for a meeting on Thursday morning. On Wednesday, I took an early afternoon Acela so I could meet a friend for dinner. As the train approached the city I could see flashes of lightning in the sky. I figured we were in for a quick afternoon storm, but I grossly underestimated the situation.

When I got out of the train station, this is what I saw:

It was pouring, and the sidewalk was flooded with puddles several inches deep. People making a run for it looked like they were wading up to their knees!

I waited it out for about 1/2 hour, and then finally bought one of those $5 umbrellas from the newstand. Just then, the skies opened up for another deluge, so I kept waiting under the building overhang while I assessed the taxi situation. The storm had blown over the taxi queue dividers, and there was a free-for-all of people racing to be the first into the few taxis that were stopping. Once a bit of organization was restored and the rain slowed to a heavy rain, I got into the newly forming queue and waited for another 20 minutes until I finally got in a taxi. In my rush, I threw all of my bags on the seat, and then realized that water was pouring off the umbrella into my lap. Ugh!

I gave the taxi driver the address of my hotel, but apparently that was not a good decision. The last time I stayed at this hotel I walked from Penn Station, but I noticed that we were going much farther than I would have walked–even on a nice day. I finally realized that he had confused the street number I had given him with the cross street, and was heading about 32 streets too far! Luckily I noticed this when we only had gone about 15 blocks past my hotel.

By this time, the situation was so ridiculous that I didn’t even think of being mad. I remembered that Carla (@MizFitOnline) had an even more bizarre lost taxi driver experience in New York City, and so I decided to celebrate the detour in honor of her birthday. 🙂

When I made it to my hotel, I changed into one of their crazy bathrobes while I used the hairdryer to dry my dress.

By the time my dress was dry enough to put on again, it was time to meet my friend for dinner. It was still raining, but barely. After being fourth in line for a taxi for 10 minutes, I decided to walk to the restaurant, which was about a mile away. My friend already was there waiting for me, and I was more than ready for some girlfriend time!

We had a lovely dinner, and she was nice enough to walk back to my hotel with me, to extend our time together.

Do you have a crazy lost taxi story?

Have you ever had to dry your clothes with a hotel hair dryer?