Even Further East

David and I spent the 4th of July weekend with this two older brothers in Massachusetts. We did it the crazy way and drove because our knowledge of East Coast geography is flawed. For some strange reason we thought Massachusetts wasn't very far away but Pennsylvania is a long-ish state and we took a detour to pick up one of his brothers in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn, like Bed-Stuy, where Jay-Z, Biggie and Lil' Kim grew up.

The only part of this trip I was against was driving into Brooklyn at 3 AM (we left after David got home from work and drove through the night). I adore my husband's brothers and we would have picked up any one of them on the way if possible. But driving into Mordor is not my idea of fun. We have a GPS navigator so I wasn't afraid of getting lost and I wasn't afraid of the ghetto. I was afraid of David's terrible driving instincts when wielded in a big city. We didn't get lost or run anyone over but on the way in we did start to doubt the GPS. It was telling us to go in loops and we ended up in an industrial part of God knows where. I called my bro-in-law to ask for directions. Never ask a New York transplant for directions. He started asking me questions. "Are you in Manhattan? Did you take the BQE? Are you on this bridge, that bridge?" I just wanted the boy to speak English. There weren't any street signs. My knowledge of NYC is paparazzi shots of celebrities. The one piece of info he gave us that helped was that the GPS was telling us to go "weird ways" because we were now in one way street land. I hate one way streets with the same hatred I have for toll roads. At this point it was 3 AM, we had been in the car for 10 hours trying to obey the law and drive properly unlike the citizens of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and I had witnessed two cows fornicating in Pennsylvania so I was ready to get to Massachusetts. We successfully picked up David's brother and he drove the last leg of the trip.

Two days in, what I call, Granolaville, Massachusetts city of hippie-ish-organic people where David's oldest brother lives. Totally chill, no complaints about Massachusetts.

I did dread the drive home and the thought of having to be in the car with David driving during the day in Brooklyn. Our car has Ohio plates we might as well have the word HICKS written on the windshield. David's Brooklyn brother drove us in and we drove out in remarkably good time. Several of my friends and family found it odd that David and I would just make NYC a pit stop on our trip. We weren't there for touristy stuff we just wanted his brother. I am not the adventurous type and I have no problem never going back to NYC. I never had the dying need to go in the first place. I can take it or leave it. Crowds,trash and crazy people aren't really my thing. I know there are awesome parts of NYC but I'm okay just knowing they exist.