I had two pieces of checked luggage. One of them had full to the brim with valuable crap.. two Kindles, a bunch of iPod accessories, some Kindle cases, headphones, a backpack, cologne’s and other assorted stuff… someone opened that one bag, neatly pulled crap away, took ONE (the more expensive of the two) Kindle, put everything neatly back again and sent it on it’s merry way. I’m VERY particular about how I pack my bags, so I would have noticed if they had rummaged through it but they didn’t.. they hand-picked that one item before they even opened the bag… in other words, it was the TSA guys that actually x-ray all the bags that did it.

Well, it was.. interesting 😀

When I flew over, I actually flew over Hurricane Irene as it left the US and headed for Iceland.
Once I landed in the US, I see that Amtrak still had not cleared their railroad, so I had to take the bus.
Arrived at the Megabus terminal at 3:50, having just missed the 3:45 bus to Philadelphia.
Thanks to congestion (what with Amtrak being closed and all, there was a slight increase in traffic), the 4:40 bus only arrived at 5:55.. which meant I stood in line in 85°F (29°C) heat for two hours.. never suntanned while queueing before 😀
When I finally got to 30th Street Station in Philly at 8:15, the first of the Amtrak trains from New York has just pulled up… yes, they opened the tracks while I waited in line !
Spent a glorious week in and around Philly, but on day three I had become sick… I didn’t let that bother me, though.. I just plowed through it.

My first night in Philly, however, I see the news that another Hurricane is headed to Philly AND a Tropical Storm as well, and if both would hit at once (as it looked like they might) the entire area would be flooded to shit.
That didn’t happen, but I left Phillly on Wednesday around noon and the storm arrived a few hours later, flooding the area that I just left 😀

I found my B&B at about 5pm and immediately sat down in front of the AC and de-melted myself before showering and leaving for the first broadway show (The Phantom Of The Opera is spectacular, naturally). But when I was leaving, one of the guys in the B&B asked me if I’d want to borrow an umbrella, since it might rain?

“Naaw! I can handle some rain! It’ll just cool me down!”

…. indeed!

When I exited the theater, the weather was perfect. I made my way down to 1st avenue via subway and when I stepped out of the subway there I literally stepped into a flying swimming pool. I was drenched in 0.4 seconds, and it took me 8 minutes to walk from the subway station to my B&B. Suffice to say, everything was wet, and with no heating going in the middle of the summer and 90% humidity, things were not about to be getting dry any time soon 😀

The next day I walked (some rain, but tolerable) down to a store and bought an umbrella. When I got out of the store it had stopped raining. I carried that umbrella with me every second from that moment on, and it never rained again.

So that tourist, walking around Times Square with a camera around his neck, his cellphone at his ear, his coat around his waist and his umbrella in his hand for two whole days… yeah, that was me 😀