Burke versus the Bronx -Continued from March 2008 blog

Moving to the Bronx, New York, without the proper amount of cash was probably not the smartest thing that I ever did, but what the heck, you only live once, right? I needed a change of pace. I had been living in Spokane, and I was recently divorced , so a whole new agenda was in order. I had dreamed about living in New York since I was a kid. When my Spokane roommate moved there, it seemed like the perfect time to spread my wings and take the plunge.

When I left on the Greyhound out of Spokane on that Thursday night, I left with a minimum amount of cash on me. By the way, if you really want to see our great nation, I heartily suggest the bus for your mode of travel. Of course, you will never want to do it again after you have gone coast to coast on the big Dog, but what the hey. it was, if nothing else, entertaining. There was the drunk that sat next to me from Missoula to Billings. There were the rats that ran over the top of my shoes in Minneapolis.There were the three beautiful French girls who got on in Chicago, and who had on, well, let's say, bare essentials, and chatted away, bending over once in awhile so that one could get a better look at their peaks and valleys,not that I would have done so. I was from Wallace, you know, I was the perfect gentleman.There were the ugly, and I mean ugly, brown fields of North Dakota. Who can ever forget the Red River Valley, and the desolate clay of Indiana? The one bus stop that I really did enjoy was the stop in South Bend Indiana, and yes, it stopped right in front of the Notre Dame Stadium. My whole being came alive as I looked at the sacred grounds of some of the greatest grid iron clashes ever fought. I could hear the Notre Dame fight song playing over and over in my head. Goose bumps broke out all over my arms.

I vaguely remember crossing over the Delaware River early on Sunday morning, and thinking about how George Washington crossed that same river with his men so many years ago. Suddenly, I was alert. After hours and hours of that smelly old bus, I knew that we were getting closer to my future, NYC was only about two hours away now, and I was ready for it. I had seen so many pictures of that great sky line, and I had read so many books about it, that I felt like that I could find my way around  even though I had never been there, at least on this lifetime. Now, all of a sudden, the Big Dog pulled into the depot in Newark, New Jersey. Now, let me tell you, I don't know if you know anything about Newark, but it is one of the murder capitals of the good old USA, and judging from the assorted thugs on the street, I could see how it had earned that dubious recognition, All of a sudden I was not so sure that I had done the right thing by coming here. What did a kid from Wallace,Idaho know about life in such places? I was more than a little frightened. As the bus pulled out, I breathed a sigh of relief, for right on front of me, straight over the river, was a sight that I knew by heart.For there stood the gleaming twin towers of the World Trade Center. I was almost there.

To be Continued