Home ▸ JT's Random Randomness ▸ 36 Hours in the life of………

I know this is a wrestling website, but sometimes I like to break the norm and do something outside the box and talk about something different.  So I decided to tell you all about my trip to New York City in a timeline sort of fashion. 

9/14/2011

Approx. 5 AM:  I wake up kinda excited and worried at the same time, eat breakfast and put a on a pot of coffee for my girlfriend.  I shower, get her up and finish packing and double and triple check everything.  We finally leave Syracuse, NY at approx. 7:30 her with coffee and me with a Monster energy drink (cause that’s how I roll).  I made a set of goals for the day:

Today’s goals:

1. Get to New York City safely!
2. See an awesome concert at Yankee Stadium!
3. Buy a Megadeth T-shirt!
4. Buy a new Anthrax T-shirt!
5. Buy a download card for Metallica’s set!
6. Stay awake the whole time.

Approx. 8:45 AM:  We stop at a truck stop just outside Binghamton, NY where we get gas, buy more energy drinks, (we both were going on less than 6 hrs of sleep) and use the bathroom.

Approx. 10 AM:  We hit Scranton, PA where Google Maps directions I printed out tells to get off and take route 6.  We then realize that after after taking it for awhile, we got off at the wrong exit.  Folks with smart phones, get the Google Maps app for your phone it literally saved us because it got us back on track.  We lost an hour of travel time due to the directions I printed out.

Approx. 11:45 AM:  We hit New Jersey and get off at the first rest area, and we thought we saw our first Guido!  False alarm it was just an Indian with the rest of his family.  (there were many more rest area stops because of my condition I have to drink a lot of water which means I have to go a lot but this was the most eventful one)

Approx. 12:45 PM:  We made it, well not exactly.  We got to where we could see the whole city and wow I was amazed, I’ve never seen something like that before.

Approx. 1 PM:  We follow the flow of traffic and the signs and make it Yankee Stadium.  YAY!  I breathe a sigh of relief.  That part down, no to park.  Since it was $45 to park at the Stadium, we said hell no and drove for a little bit and we found a place only charging $25 and it wasn’t full yet so parked there, it was the Concourse Plaza.  It’s like 4 blocks away from the stadium.  We then went to the plaza to have lunch and let everyone know we made safe and sound.  What did I eat you ask?  Taco Bell.  Yep, I drove all that way and ate Taco Bell.  We met a Police officer who said he heard rumors that Anthrax had pulled out (I was wearing my green Anthrax t-shirt).  I knew they weren’t since they were hosting a pre-show party at the Yankee Stadium Hard Rock Cafe, but I checked everything just to make sure. I also heard Megadeth had pulled out too, but I’ll get to that later.

Approx. 2:20PM:  We arrive at Yankee Stadium and get in line and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  While we were waiting a very good looking woman gave us an Anthrax Rosary that they had made to promote their new album “Worship Music” while on the other side we had the religious nuts.   the line did move and rather quick after about 45 mins. the cop escorted a whole bunch of us to the gate we ended up entering.  I think it was 4.  While standing in line at that gate to get in I look over and there is Eddie Trunk, Don Jameson and Jim Florentine the hosts of VH1 Classic’s That Metal Show.  While I wasn’t able to get a pic of them, I did get to shake Jim Florentine’s hand and forgot Don Jameson’s name.  Sorry, I was kind of star struck.

Approx. 3:16 PM:  I enter Yankee Stadium after explaining my medical situation to two security guards.  Don’t worry I came prepared and had all my paperwork with me so it wasn’t much of a problem.  I then go to the t-shirt vendor to buy some shirts and whatever.  The had a nice Metallica baseball Jersey but it was way too expensive.  After standing there for at least 30 minutes and almost passing out due to the heat and countless douchebags cutting in front of me and taking up the vendor’d time by asking 20 questions each, I finally get a new Anthrax shirt and a Metallica shirt for my girlfriend.  They weren’t selling Megadeth shirts for some reason.  We then head to our seats behind home plate passing two more t-shirt vendors selling a bunch of different ones.  I quietly “D’oh”.

Approx. 4PM:  Anthrax takes the stage opening with “Fight ‘Em Till You Can’t” off the brand new CD and all is well.  The kick some serious ass for an hour playing favorites such as “Got The Time” “Caught In A Mosh” and “Metal Thrashing Mad” before ending the set with “I Am The Law.”  Best performance so far.

Approx. 5:25 PM:  Megadeth takes the stage opening with “Trust.”  They played a few of their slower songs to start out with such as “She-Wolf” and the brand new song “Public Enemy #1” then Dave Mustane tells us that needs neck surgery and he wasn’t supposed to de there, but he was doing it anyway and then the go into the song “Head Crusher” and they are fast and heavy the rest of the way closing out with “Holy Wars”  Second best performance thus far.

Approx. 6:30 PM:  Since I’m not a huge Slayer fan and since everything is mobbed between bands and I have to eat so I can take my meds, I decide to get some dinner.   Guess what folks for $13 you can get a hotdog and fries!!!  Yep that’s what I had to eat and that’s how overpriced everything was there.  A 16 oz. beer was $9.50.  I think this makes me hate the Yankees even more.

Approx. 7PM:  Well I made it for Salyer’s set, but other than “Raining Blood” and “Seasons In The Abyss” I’m not too familiar with their stuff.  But they still kicked ass though.  I did make an attempt at buying a couple more shirts since I could and not miss any of their set but yet again the vendor’s were just standing there and refusing to help anyone so I basically said screw this and went back to my seat.  They finish at about 8:15 and then the wait begins.

Approx. 9PM: Metallica takes the stage  and yet takes it to a whole different level.  This was the 3rd time I’ve seen them live and have to say that they were at their best.  They were not gonna be outshined on this day by anyone.  Their setlist:

• Creeping Death
• For Whom The Bell Tolls
• Fuel
• Ride The Lightning
• Fade To Black (at this point I thought they were gonna do the whole Ride The Lightning album)
• Cyanide
• All Nightmare Long
• Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
• Orion (I freaked out when they went into this one)
• One
• Master Of Puppets
• Blackened
• Nothing Else Matters
• Enter Sandman
• Overkill with members of Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer
• Battery
• Seek and Destroy

Approx 11:40 PM:  We return to the car and try to find our way around.  Here again is where the Google Maps app is a useful thing.  we then hie the worst traffic ever leaving Yankee Stadium, but hey what do you expect when 50,000+ people leave at the same time.  After at least an hour in traffic, we finally hit the road to find a hotel in Jersey.  Yes we did the dumb thing and didn’t reserve one, but hey it didn’t go that bad we only had to go to 2 hotels to find a room. And it benefitted us the next day.

My goals for the day:

1. Get to New York City safely!  Check!
2. See an awesome concert at Yankee Stadium!  Check!
3. Buy a Megadeth T-shirt!  Ok didn’t happen but did get to meet the guys from “That Metal Show” and forgot one of their names.
4. Buy a new Anthrax T-shirt!   Check!
5. Buy a download card for Metallica’s set!  Nope, but got an Anthrax rosary instead.
6. Stay awake the whole time.  Check!

9/15/2011

2:20 AM:  We check into a Travelodge hotel and go to sleep.

6:30 AM:  I wake up because I can’t breathe and take my allergy meds.

Approx. 8:45 AM:  I wake up since checkout time is 11, I get up and get ready while my girlfriend gets a little more rest.  Our goal today is to find some orange people.  Actually it was to find the Gatsby Salon, which is where one of our favorite TV shows Jerseylicious is taped.  Yes I just admitted to watching a show with Jersey in it.  Whatcha gonna do, you already made it this far why stop now.

Approx. 11AM:  We head out to find the Gatsby.  Luckly in our travels the hotel we stayed at ended up being on the same road as the Gatsby so we just had drive on it until we found it and guess what we did!  Neither one of us had the guts however to get out of my girlfriends car and actually gone in it so we just sat in her car and took pictures of it like crazy stalkers.  We then hit a nearby seven-eleven in search of their brand of beer and ended up in the one that doesn’t even sell beer. Oh well.

Approx. 12 PM:  We stopped at a nice diner in Scotchville called you guessed it the Scotchville Diner and had some brunch (she had breakfast, I had lunch).  The food there is really goos so if you are ever down there you should try it out.  It’s really shiny on the outside and I woul’ve taken a picture but it started raining before we left so I couldn’t.

Approx.  12:45 PM:  We hit the road.

Approx. 5 PM: We made it home.

Well that’s my trip.  All in all it was a great time and I would do it again except I’d stretch it out longer than 36 hours and make it a few days and probably ride in a shuttle bus down there and back.

Thanks again for reading and see you all next time.

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