Travel

Focusing in on New York

First, let me apologize that it has been so long since our last post. My wife and I do travel quite a bit, and Betty and I usually try to get ahead with a few staged newsletters before heading out. But this trip, time got away from me. So, it has been a while. The good news is that the discussions Betty and I had about travel have served to inspire us. Betty has been all over this country and also traveled internationally. And getting into some of those adventures seemed like a great idea.

So, this week, we are going to look at Betty’s travels to New York. Betty’s first trip to New York City was accidental. During the summer of 1969, she and Charlotte traveled to Niagara Falls. When they got there, they discovered that the falls had been turned off. I know that sounds crazy, but I did some research, and this is what I found.

The US side of the falls was turned off on June 12th, 1969, and it was off until November. This is the only time in history that this happened. The Army Corps of Engineers wanted to study erosion. The large amounts of rock and debris had been causing fear that in time, the falls would become rapids rather than falls. So, they did what they are good at and built a temporary dam. Scientists determined that there was no problem, so no action was taken, and the falls were turned back on. Since then, there have been flow diversions, but the falls have never been completely stopped.

After leaving upstate New York in their convertible, there was a map reading incident and somehow, they ended up in New York City. They never actually stopped but crossed three bridges and saw the kids playing in the fire hydrant water. I believe the summer of 1969 is quite infamous and it was a hot one. Incidentally, the Stonewall Uprisings began on June 28, 1969. Betty can’t remember the exact date they were there, but I thought it was really cool to think how close she came to being there.

After leaving New York, they drove through Rhode Island and around the outskirts of Boston and then had a brief visit to Provincetown, Massachusetts.

She doesn’t have any photos from that 1969 trip so we decided to post a few from her first real trip to New York City which happened in 1994 for the Gay Games. At that time, she visited Stonewall, the Statue of Liberty. There is a photo of the Opening Ceremony of the Gay Games which was held at Columbia University. And Greenwich Village was closed to car traffic for the participants to gather.

This is a photo (likely from the ferry to the Statue of Liberty) of the Twin Towers. The building in the front is the Whitehall Building.

This on was taken at Ellis Island. The trains that brought new immigrants to their new homes.

One crazy story from that trip involved the taxi ride back to the airport. She said the group was in two cabs on the bridge heading toward LaGuardia, the driver pulled over on the ramp and kicked them out of the vehicle. Betty doesn’t have any idea why it happened. Fortunately, they all piled into the other taxi. Other than that, she says the cab drivers in New York were very nice.

When Betty was on a big post-retirement trip in her van, she visited Niagara Falls one more time and of course, this time the falls were on.