Feeling good from a warm lunch on the flight from St. Paul, to New York City, Sandy stood stone-still, like a soldier guarding Fort Knocks, with all its gold, with a beautiful red rose in her hand, stood right there, centered perfect by the walkup ramp in the airport, at gate #33; I caught sight of her almost instantly. She was, she did, stand out. I saw her tall thin body, straight shoulders, standing all alone, away from everyone so I'd see her plainly, how could I not devour that scene I told myself afterwards, she had planned it out to be remembered ten years down the road I do believe; it was 10:36 AM, "Baby, you look striking," I said as I now stood in front of her. The February snow was thick in New York City, as it was in Minnesota, as it would be on our way to Upper New York State, and over to the town-let, of Stockbridge.

We stared at each other"face to face"I could all most hear the hiss inside of her, and then we hugged. I'm not sure what I said, perhaps some thing unintelligible, I was excited to see her, our silence was broken by her voice, "Lets go before the traffic gets too heavy (I had rented a car, only to find out, they would not take my credit card, and had to go to 'Dollar Rent a Car,' who would take my card, and we were on our way throughout the city)."

We were meeting for the first time in a while of course and tried to be on our best behavior, or at least for the moment; the traffic was heavy in New York City, and I saw told to get out of the city before 2:00 PM, lest I wanted to get swamped with cars, and it was heavy enough at 12:00 PM, when I had finally gotten my car, and now we were at Battery Park, I wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, there was a mist in the air, hence, the view of the statue was faint at best. I found a parking place in some kind of construction company parking lot, I wasn't allowed to park there, but what the heck, I did anyhow, (there wasn't any other parking, unless I wanted to park for $25, dollars an hour, a mile away) and Sandy was willing to stayed in the car, to insure it would not get towed away, and plus, it was to difficult for her to see had she come along, to see the faint statue in the far distance, and so I did on my own.

You could barely see it, the Statue of Liberty; it was a moment's fascination nonetheless. By the time I got back, the guard was pacing close by my renta car, looking at Sandy, and then quickly jumped in beside her, took off before he locked guess what was happening, and call the police.

I had learned in New York City, you drive with one hand on the wheel, the other on the horn, and your head out the window screaming at everyone, and one foot on the break the other on the gas, and go like hell. So I became a NYC-driver instantly, and it worked, I made it out of the city alive.