Near death experience on the Long Island Expressway

 I exaggerate, of course. I avoided the accident…

I sometimes refer to Becca as “my-daughter-who-lives-in-Manhattan”.   East 56th Street, to be more accurate.

She was supposed to be in Los Angeles this weekend, but canceled her vacation when my mother fell ill, and has been staying at my mother’s house.

(My mother is doing much better, thanks for asking,)

So last night (Friday), Becca called me.  She and her boyfriend had just been invited to an engagement party.  The party was scheduled for 3:30 Saturday afternoon (today).  Would I drive her back to her apartment in the city so that she could go to the party?

Drive into Manhattan?  In December?  The whole month is one big “gridlock alert” day!

But I love my daughter more than I hate driving in Manhattan, so …

“Mom’s Taxi Service” came out of semi-retirement.

I left my apartment this morning and drove to Drew’s house.  Why?  Because Drew had a package he wanted me to bring to Jen.  

I drove to my mother’s house, gave Jen the package, and then Becca and I drove to Dunkin’ so she could get some coffee and hash browns. They we headed to the Long Island Expressway, west towards NYC.

I was dreading the Manhattan traffic, who knew the worst of it would be on the Expressway?  

I guess I should be grateful the traffic moved so slowly through Queens, if we’d been traveling at real highway speeds…

The expressway is three lanes in either direction.  I was in the middle lane.  A gray Camry came down the entrance ramp.  Rather than merge into the right lane, the Camry cut across the right lane and attempted to enter the middle lane…right at the spot already occupied by my blue Prius. He wasn’t merging into the lane, he was trying to enter the lane at an angle. Seriously, if I hadn’t been able to stop my car, I would have hit the driver’s door of the Camry.  Becca was riding shotgun, she probably would have been hurt more than I would have been.  

The Camry got in front of us, and I realized the car had TLC plates.  In NYC all  cars for hire, including Uber and Lyft, are under the control of the Taxi and Limousine Commission.  Becca says Uber drivers favor Camrys. We took a picture of his license plate, and Becca plans to report him.

Well, the Uber driver must have scared his passengers as much as he scared us….I can imagine them screaming at him…he drove very slowly all the way to the Midtown Tunnel.

We lost him around 39th Street.  I was never so happy to see another car disappear into traffic.

After that, the traffic on First Avenue was nothing …

We got to Becca’s apartment building, and of course there was no place to park.  There was an empty space next to the fire hydrant, so I was able to pull over.  

Becca ran into the lobby to retrieve a package from her doorman , which she put on the back seat of my car.  “Give this to Jen.”

(I swear, I’m going to have to start charging for delivery services.)

Then she grabbed her suitcase, thanked me for the ride, and kissed me goodbye.

Seeing as I was on 56th Street, I briefly considered taking the 59th Street …er, the Ed Koch Bridge.  You pay a toll for the tunnel but the bridge is free. And it would have been appropriate —every time I drive over the bridge I hear the theme from Taxi in my head…

But my GPS told me there was less traffic in the tunnel, so I drove down Second Avenue back to the tunnel … and back to Long Island. Drive time in excess of 3 hours,

Yes, I must really love my daughter.