While Oklahoma was enjoying warm sunny weather, the east coast was getting walloped by a massive snowstorm. Two of my friends, Andy and Nora, who live in NYC, couldn't get a flight back after Christmas because of the snow, so instead decided to rent a car and drive from Oklahoma to New York, a short 23 hour drive covering nearly 1,500 miles. I decided it would be fun to spend another New Year's Eve in NYC, so I asked if I could go with them, and they were more than happy to have a 3rd driver to split the hours.
We stayed overnight with Nora's parents in Tulsa, and the next morning before we went to pick up the rental car we had to feed Nora's horse. (We are in Oklahoma). We got the car and left Tulsa on Thursday morning, the 30th of December, at 11am, with the goal to arrive in NYC by noon on Friday, the 31st of December. Our route took us through half of Oklahoma and the full length of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. I had forgotten how funny the billboards in the Midwest can be, and found myself laughing out loud for many hours. We passed the time by playing quiz games with each other (figure out if the state names are of Indian, English, or Dutch origin?) and telling stories.
We arrived without incident, except being slightly delirious. We fell into Andy and Nora's house at noon on Friday and slept until early evening, when we finally roused ourselves to get ready for New Year's Eve. We went out in Manhattan, but decided not to face the crowds in Times Square, and instead opted for a quiet bar on the Lower East Side. New Year's Even in NYC is always fun, and I met up with a really random mixture of people I knew from many different points in life.
