A wrong turn on the BQE

We had a great time in NYC--we got to see Steph and Brett both in the city and at our campground in Long Island. They're doing really well- and we had some great dinners in the city (although the sticker shock at $13.00 martinis and $9.00 glasses of wine is still with us! Can't wait to see our VISA bill next month) We enjoyed being in Long Island (home to "the Hamptons" and the all of the NYC summer get-away beaches. Although, we were on the more full-time residential end of the island- in a community mostly made up of Jews and Hispanics! John found the local bagel shop when searching for the NY Times in the morning- and I can tell you for a fact- you haven't tasted bagels until you try a Long Island toasted bagel with cream cheese. They do know how to make bagels. Needless to say, the diet wasn't on for a few weeks.

We had an interesting experience leaving NY. In order to get from our campground in Long Island to New Jersey, we had to cross Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens. The network of roads in the NYC area is a combination of parkways (NO trucks or RV's- with bridge clearances under 11 feet) and expressways. You have to be very aware of this when driving a 12 foot high RV. So, we were very careful about our return route. We headed across the Long Island Expressway- and the road was horribly old and twisty. We came to a split in the road with no obvious signage-so we took the route that looked to be a continuation of the Expressway....WRONG--we found ourselves headed to a bridge leading directly into lower Manhattan- with our 45 foot motorhome and VW in tow. At this point, I think John was ready to throw me out the window. We had no detailed maps of Manhattan - and no idea of what to do once we got there. We opted to make a U-turn and John was forced to go down these narrow NYC streets with the VW going over the curbs. We finally got back across the bridge and thought we were home free. Wrong again! We followed the signs for Highway 287 and found ourselves plopped in the middle of Brooklyn in a 5 way intersection with NO signs. The streets were teeming with Hassidic Jews (the ones with the long black coats, strange black hats and springy curls). Not having a clue what to do, we stopped in the middle of the street and John hailed one of the local Hassidics to ask for directions. But first, we had to get our terminology straight. While we had a highway number (287), the locals don't use numbers. So, we got this puzzled look - then a question, "Are you looking for the BQE?".... Now it was our turn to be puzzled...until we figured out that the BQE= the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. We got a long set of directions (right at the light, go down 4 blocks, turn left....) With no confidence in our ability to ever get out of Brooklyn, we headed out and somehow found our way back to the Expressway. After about 3 hours of silence, we finally realized how hilarious the situation was - and wished that we had the foresight to have gotten out to take a photo of John in the middle of Brooklyn asking a Hassidic Jew for directions. I guess it was what John's mother used to call "making memories".