We left early to try to beat rush hour. Our plan was to drive to Liberty State Park, leave our car there, take a ferry into the city, walk through Manhattan, then take the subway back down to the ferry stop, take the ferry back over to Liberty State Park, and drive our car back to my Aunt’s house. This was actually our easiest option. We left the house around 6:30 AM. My uncle Gerry was coming back from a morning run when we were pulling out and he gave both me and Stick some NY spending money. It was very thoughtful of him and very helpful to us. New York gets expensive very quickly.
We beat the traffic and even found free parking at the park. We texted our new friend David, who stored our carts overnight, and he met us to pick them up. He purchased ferry tickets for us and surprised us with them. It was such a pleasure meeting such a kind human. Our day was off to a great start. We caught the ferry just in time too. It was perfect!
It was overcast and light rain here and there but nothing too bad had come down yet. We got off of the ferry and touched our 10th state on this walk, New York!
The ferry dropped us off right where the World Trade Center area is. The Freedom Tower standing tall and proud just a couple of blocks away. It seemed as if it never ended when looking up at it from the street. The locals say that the spire on top symbolizes a middle finger to the terrorists who attacked the Twin Towers in 2001.
We walked around and saw the Ground Zero memorial. It was very powerful. We both got emotional and had to have some time to ourselves. We spent at least 30 minutes there. We had to take our time leaving to process everything. We chose to walk down to Wall Street and see the famous bull and girl statues.
It was total chaos. Even early in the morning we couldn’t get a picture of the bull. I got a good picture of the girl though. I like her better anyway. We walked from there up Broadway headed towards the Empire State Building.
A few blocks up, we met up with Angeliea. She has been following our walk and wanted to come out to show support and walk with us today. There were a few other people planning on joining us today so I was excited for that. She was the first and was really cool. I liked her a lot. She fit right in with us and we walked and talked. We got off of Broadway to get on less busy sidewalks and ended up in Washington Square Park. It was a cool place to people watch.
We met a guy who looked just like Abraham Lincoln sitting on a bench with a guitar. He saw our carts and was all excited about what we were doing. We stopped to talk to him and he introduced himself as Abraham Lincoln. Definitely a busker with a cool niche. Really fun conversation. We moved on and took some photos and kept on going towards the Empire State Building.
We got to the building and took some pictures. We touched the side of it and were satisfied enough with that. We couldn’t afford to go to the top of it. It costs $60 a person to go to the top deck. Stick and I have way better things that we can spend $120 on. We are on a mission, sight-seeing comes second to that. Touching it was still pretty cool. Many people never get to do that.
On the same block, 2 women talked to us when they saw our carts. Neither of them knew each other but they both knew of someone directly affected by a loss of a loved one to an overdose. They both were so nice and they both donated in honor of the ones who they knew who passed. It was very powerful for us.
Angeliea had a friend come join us as well. Gani (sorry about spelling) was awesome. We had a blast walking and talking all day. A commended them for actually coming out to meet us. Many others either didn’t come at all or it just didn’t work out for us to find each other. So the four of us all walked up into Times Square.
We did a little live video and talked to a few people. Some NYPD officers came up and talked to us. It was awesome. Real heroes being interested in our efforts. This was Stick’s favorite part of the whole day. He has a wonderful respect for police officers.
We crammed our way through people until we got to the Plaza Hotel. A very upscale place where it’s a huge deal to eat lunch there. Well, many people don’t know that there is a food court that is under it. So we went down there and had a lot of fun telling people that we were having lunch at The Plaza. The girls insisted on paying for our lunch and we ate and then played around in the fancy hotel for a while. I am very surprised that we didn’t get kicked out. We had our carts in there and everything. It was fun stuff.
We left there and headed into Central Park. We tried meeting up with someone else but we just couldn’t find each other. We had to have been right next to each other but there were so many people. It was just taking too much time so we had no choice but to continue to walk. We walked through central park. It was awesome. Gani said goodbye and went to do some other stuff. Angeliea stayed and even pushed our carts for us.
We walked almost the entire length of the park and then we exited to the east to get a change of scenery. As we were headed over to another street, a guy stopped us and asked about my sister. He read our carts and he told us that he had lost his daughter in November. I am tearing up now just reliving the scene in my head. We all hugged it out and cried on the sidewalk. He was just coming out of radiation to make things even harder. We gave him our sincere compassion and some resources for grief support. My heart goes out to him and his family. I know what it’s like 🙁
We all took a moment there before moving on. We had to let that process through our minds and hearts. We got back to stepping, with a fresh reminder of how important this is.
We were entering the neighborhood of New York called Harlem. I loved it. Spanish food everywhere and people were a little more engaging than they were in midtown. A much cooler vibe than the hustle and bustle of tourists and 9 to 5ers.
We were waiting at a crosswalk and there was a man standing in the middle of the street talking to himself. The cars were flying around him coming within inches of hitting him. No one cared. We heard people making fun of him behind us. We were all scared that he was going to get hit. I didn’t want to see that. I could tell he was listening to violent music in his headphones by the gun gestures he was making with his hands. Well, I wasn’t sure if it was the music or the voices but there was definitely dark thoughts there.
I have been there myself. I thought back to one time where I was in a unhealthy state and a person came up to me to see if I was ok. They were able to get me back to a place where I wasn’t a harm to myself or others. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pay it forward. At the risk of possibly getting punched, I stopped to talk to him in the middle of the crosswalk while everyone else went around us.
We stared at each other in the eyes. He was reading mine and I was reading his. I made sure to show compassion and understanding with mine. I was read his eyes go from defensive to grateful over a matter of a few seconds. He broke and we shook hands and talked for a second. I asked him if he wanted to walk with me. We made it safely off of the street and all three of us talked to him for a few minutes.
He was very intoxicated but slowly coming closer and closer back down to Earth. He asked if he could walk a little bit with us. We were honored to have him join us. We walked a few blocks and we parted ways. He thought about going back out to the sidewalk but we watched him fight off the darkness and turn back towards his sister’s house that he said was just up the street. We were so happy for him. I felt my sister helping me out through this whole scenario. It was awesome.
We ended our day at a restaurant where a friend from back home works at. She knew my sister well and offered to help us out as we passed through the city. It was so cool to catch up. She helped us with some logistics stuff and also by posting a photo of us with a description of our cause on the restaurant’s social media. She also got us a free meal and that was awesome.
We were pooped and had a long commute back but we were so happy that we made it successfully to our goal for the day. Everything worked out great. Angeliea rode back with us on the subway until her stop. We said goodbyes for now and we both hope to see her again someday. Amazing person and doing great things for people who are suffering with addiction.
Stick and I rode the subway back and then walked a few blocks to the ferry, it pulled up right when we got there. We rode the ferry and then walked to our car. Then drove back to my aunt’s house where we were able to all catch up on each other’s days. Life is good. I felt a strong presence with my sister all day. She would’ve had a blast today. I am so grateful that I was able to do a lot in her honor today.
Such a beautiful and an emotional post to read. I am so proud of the barriers and stigma that you seem to be able to break through. Stay safe and much love to you guys and Domino.