So as discussed previously, on January 17-19, my friend Aaron Stone and I went up to New York City for a weekend trip. We knew that it was supposed to be cold while we were there, and snow was in the forecast for the last day of our trip, but that was about it, and nothing that we couldn’t handle.
Our route up, however, was intentionally planned to be a bit unorthodox. Normally, for a trip to New York, from where I live, you would go straight up I-95 through Baltimore and then take the Delaware Memorial Bridge just before Wilmington, and follow the New Jersey Turnpike most of the rest of the way to the city. This time, we decided to be a bit more roadgeekish, taking US 15 up to Harrisburg, taking I-81 a short distance to I-78, and then taking I-78 all the way to New York. The goal here was to complete all 146 miles of Interstate 78 in one shot. It would only add about 45 minutes to the drive by going this way, and we got to complete a highway. I had previously traveled most of I-78 in the nineties and early 2000s, but I was missing a section in New Jersey, as well as the small New York portion. Aaron, to my knowledge, had never done any of I-78.
My memories of I-78 were never particularly pleasant, as I always associated it with family road trips in the nineties, where my father would drive. He was always very concerned about making good time on these family trips, and that meant some very long distances in the car along some incredibly dull stretches of highway, with nothing of any note to break up the trip. For an eight-hour trip from Stuarts Draft, Virginia to Fairfield, Connecticut, we would make maybe two stops the entire way, once around Paxtonia, and then another one somewhere in New Jersey, and those would be kept as short as possible. In other words, the journey was viewed as a chore, a necessary evil to be knocked out quickly, and not as a part of the adventure. And in those pre-Internet days, there was only so much that one could do to keep one’s self occupied. We would bring all sorts of books and such to read, but those only went so far before we got tired of reading. I-78 in Pennsylvania is largely rural, and while it does go through the Allentown area, it skirts it to the south, far enough away for there to be nothing interesting to see. It’s what led my sister and me to start calling Pennsylvania “the forever state” because it felt like it took forever to get through, and it was incredibly boring. About the only thing interesting on I-78 in Pennsylvania was the Delaware River toll plaza, and that was on the westbound side. I remember, at 12 years old, wishing that the toll plaza was on our side just to help break the monotony.
Fortunately, as an adult, as well as being the driver, I-78 isn’t as bad as it was when I was a kid. We also make more stops than Dad does, and plan things to do along the way to keep things interesting. Thus, ideally, the only “slog it out” part of a road trip is the final stretch back home, because outside of that, there is always something to look forward to within a few hours. In this case, we planned a brief stop in Harrisburg, where Aaron had wanted to film an elevator that Elyse had recommended (that didn’t pan out), which then turned into a visit to a nearby Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Then we did a Paxtonia stop for food, but going to Sheetz instead of Burger King, like we used to do in the nineties.
Then it was time for I-78. Noting the rural quality of much of the road, we made no stops on I-78 until we got to Allentown. There, we planned to do a quick dip in and out. I just wanted to fly my drone around the downtown area and get some high-level views of the town. In other words, I knew that I wanted to photograph Allentown, but I also knew that I didn’t have much time to do it. This was the compromise, where I would fly the drone around and get some overview shots. So I parked the HR-V the 1100 block of Hamilton Street, and sent the drone up for a late afternoon flight. The flight largely centered on the PPL Building, which is the tallest building in Allentown as well as the Lehigh Valley as a whole.
Views of Allentown that did not include the PPL Building were kind of an afterthought, but I got some:
From there, we got back in the car, and went out the same way that we came in. That was important, because if one is to fully complete a road, one needs to get on at the same exit that one got off on. On the way back, we stopped at a small professional building that Aaron had spotted on the way in that he thought might have a vintage elevator. It didn’t have one, but it did have a surprising combination when it came to fire alarms:
I would never have expected to see a big Edwards coded pull station be paired with a SpectrAlert Advance. The former is from the 1960s or so, while the SpectrAlert Advance was introduced in the mid 2000s. I would have expected that whatever system upgrade gave us the modern horn/strobes would have also replaced the big Edwards pull stations. Apparently not. I wonder how it all works together, since coded pull stations have not been a thing in building alarm systems for many decades.
We then continued on our way, past the aforementioned toll plaza and into New Jersey. Once in New Jersey, we stopped off at the Walmart in Phillipsburg for a few odds and ends. We also went to the White Castle out in front of the Walmart. I don’t mind White Castle, and Aaron had never been, so this worked out well, even if it wasn’t the healthiest meal.
Meanwhile, by this time, I had noticed that I had a very mild sore throat and a tiny bit of congestion, but I dismissed it as nothing and said nothing to Aaron about it, and kept things moving (this will be more important later).
We eventually got to the more urban part of the trip, going through a few toll plazas and over some large viaducts as we headed towards New York. By now, the skyline was very visible, and I pointed out the World Trade Center and the Empire State Building. Aaron, meanwhile, began this odd obsession with Frank Sinatra’s recording of “Theme from New York, New York” as he wanted to play it, while I wanted no part of it. After all, I’d been to New York before, and that just seemed overly cheesy. Then we reached the part where I-78 followed that pair of surface streets, and then we went through the Holland Tunnel. At the end of the Holland Tunnel, we were in Manhattan, and I was determined to follow I-78 to the bitter end. As such, we went around this little roundabout with several exits off of it. We went to the end of it, and then made a right onto Varick Street. That completed I-78, adding another freeway to my list of completed roads. And Aaron got to play his song (and I was quick to turn it off when it ended).
Our next stop was one for Elyse: the IKEA on Beard Street in Brooklyn. Funny thing about that store, though. Back in 1992, when we first moved to Virginia, we saw the sign in Waynesboro that indicates where Broad Street splits from Main Street going westbound. And for some reason, I misread it as “Beard Street”. I later recognized my mistake, but Elyse and I had much later jokingly referred to Broad Street in Waynesboro as Beard Street. Then one day we looked up if there were any actual Beard Streets around, and we turned up the IKEA. So I knew where this was, but I never thought that I would actually go there. After all, I can go to IKEA close to my house, and IKEA is very uniform in its design – more so than many other brands. And if I’m going all the way to New York, I’d rather not spend it at IKEA. Yet here we were. Elyse wanted a stuffed “Blåhaj” shark, so I got it for her.
Sign at IKEA next to an emergency exit. However, note that they misspelled “personnel”.
Notifier BG-12 pull station at IKEA. Note the plate behind the station with the diagonal stripe on it. That diagonal stripe is a New York City requirement, and is common on pull stations found within New York City.
After we left IKEA, I spotted this vintage motorcoach parked nearby.
Then from there, it was on to our hotel, the Aloft on Duffield Street, which was the same one that Elyse and I stayed in when we went to New York last April. The way I figured, I liked it, so it only made sense to stay there again. So we got checked in, and then went around the corner to stash the HR-V. With that done, we went out in search of food. We ended up walking to Hoyt-Schermerhorn and took that to 4th Avenue/9th Street. The goal was to go to Table 87, which was a pizza restaurant. Unfortunately, however, by the time that we got there, the restaurant had closed, and only their bar was open, with no food. That just wouldn’t do. We ended up going back to the Subway and took that over to Jay Street-MetroTech, where we ended up going to the 99-cent pizza place that I was trying not to go to. However, when you avoid the fancier styles and just go for basic pepperoni, it turns out that they do just fine.
A G train, consisting of R160 cars, departs Fourth Avenue/Ninth Street station.
Tile mosaic signs at Fourth Avenue/Ninth Street station.
Vintage “Subway” sign at one of the entrances to Fourth Avenue/Ninth Street station.
Ninth Street platform at Fourth Avenue/Ninth Street station.
An N train, consisting of R46 cars, arrives at Fourth Avenue/Ninth Street station.
Interior of R46 car 5587.
Our train departs Jay Street-MetroTech station.
The next day, we were up and about, and got breakfast at Pio Bagel. After breakfast, we got on the Subway and headed into Manhattan. Our first stop was Macy’s.
Geoffrey’s Playground area in the Toys “R” Us-branded toy department at Macy’s. I was amused by the traffic signals. Especially so with the traffic light, which, with its black front, yellow back, and no backplate, which resembled traffic signals found in Maryland.
“1.5” button for the first-floor mezzanine level in one of the elevators at Macy’s.
SigCom pull station with Simplex branding at Macy’s, with a more traditional version of the New York fire alarm stripe, right across the front of the station.
First floor at Macy’s, viewed from the mezzanine level.
We then wandered around a bit, and ended up heading up to Grand Central Terminal via the subway.
Platform signage at 42nd Street-Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue station.
A 7 train consisting of R142 cars arrives at 42nd Street-Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue station.
Arriving at Grand Central, we wandered around the station and outside, and Aaron got a sandwich at Chick-fil-A. We made our way back to the subway via the basement of the Chrysler Building.
Corridors in the basement of the Chrysler Building leading towards the Subway. These were very quiet and somewhat dark corridors. I got the sense that these corridors once hosted retail space, but now solely serves as a passageway to the Subway.
Vintage signage just past the door visible in the second photo above, advertising various businesses in the Chrysler Building. This lent credence to the idea that those corridors that we walked through once hosted shops.
By this point, my nose was running, my sore throat had gotten more intense, and I was also having trouble keeping up with Aaron. I usually don’t have any problem keeping up with him, so something was up. It was starting to sound like I was in the early stages of getting sick. Of all the times to get sick, it had to happen when I was traveling. But the trip was paid for, so I did my best. Additionally, I didn’t do much as far as photography went. Most of what we did was stuff that I had done before, plus the weather was kind of gray. Plus with my not feeling too well, it sapped me of much of my inspiration.
Then after Grand Central and vicinity, we got back on the Subway. We got on the 6 train, and rode it to end of line, at Brooklyn Bridge. There, we just casually remained on the train when the train went out of service. Did I know what I was doing? Absolutely. We rode around the loop and got a look at the long-closed City Hall station.
Riding around the City Hall loop.
Close up of that “OH YEAH!!! WHAT’S UP” graffiti in the tunnel on the City Hall loop that appears at the end of the video.
We then made our way to the World Trade Center, since it was about time for me to eat again. Aaron had previously eaten near Grand Central, but I didn’t have anything there. While Aaron checked out elevators around the mall, I went in search of food. I eventually found my way to Gansevoort Liberty Market, where I got a burrito from Sammy’s Taqueria. Good place. I would go there again.
We also dipped into a Duane Reade (read: Walgreens) store at the World Trade Center to pick up something that I never wanted to have to purchase: a COVID test. They were behind the counter, so I gave Aaron my credit card and sent him to go up and get it, since I was really coughing at that point, and didn’t like the optics of being sick and going up to the guy for a COVID test. Better to wait in the wings and send the healthy guy to get that. I put that in my bag for now, out of sight, and then we took the Subway back to our hotel, because I felt spent.
When we got back to the hotel, we got a chance to put stuff down, and then we went to a nearby Target store. On the way over, we spotted a LinkNYC kiosk, which we at first both thought was just for advertising, but as it turned out, it provided free wi-fi, and also allowed one to make free phone calls. Check it out:
So we took that for a spin. First we called my phone, which came back with a number of (917) 341-5504. As it turns out, this is a generic number for the service, and if you call it back, it gives you information about the service. Then Aaron prank-called a friend of his. Then we called Elyse, who was confused about why we were calling from a New York number. We then hit up the Target, where I got various drinks in order to hydrate myself, and also picked up some nasal spray to hopefully address my dripping nose. We also spotted this sign in the little mall where this was:
I got the distinct feeling with this sign that they were trying to be all-inclusive with their rules sign, i.e. including every single little thing possible, but by doing so, I felt like that left a lot of loopholes. Like on that “Loud radio, tape, CD or electronic device playing is prohibited” line. It says nothing about records. I mean, what if I came in there with an old-timey phonograph and played that as loudly as I could. It’s not a radio, a tape player, or a CD player. It’s also fully mechanical, so there are no electronics inside of it. If a security guard stopped me, I would be like, “Show me where this is prohibited.” Because according to their rules, it’s not. It would be a lot of effort just to make a point, but it might be fun. I mean, if they’re going to be like that on the sign, you might as well troll them for it.
Finishing up there, we headed back to the hotel. There, I stayed in, and Aaron went back out. He went out to Times Square and did some other stuff in Manhattan. I wanted to go, but I knew that I would be a drag on things if I went out, because it was clear that I was sick, and I would do no one any favors by going out. I needed the rest time, anyway.
When Aaron got back, we collected the samples for the COVID test, and then while the test processed, we went down the street to the 99 cent pizza place to get food and come back. When we got back, this is what the test read:
I was like, eh? upon seeing this result. I could see the outline of where a line on the test part would be, but there was no color to it, unlike the control line. Was that how it was supposed to look for a negative, or was it a positive? I didn’t know. I posted it on Facebook along with a general rant about being sick on a trip, and got a lot of discussion both ways about what it was. That led Aaron and me to rule the test to be inconclusive. The kit came with a second test, and we would try that later on. Of course, whether or not it was the Ronies or something else, it didn’t change the fact that I felt terrible.
The third day, we retrieved the HR-V and got checked out of the hotel. I was still feeling sick, but I was also determined not to ruin the trip, so we continued on. We left New York via the Manhattan Bridge and the Holland Tunnel, which led us to our first stop: the Newport Centre shopping mall. There, we visited the Sears store, which was in the process of having a closing sale. Figures. This was the “local” Sears store for much of the east coast. Now, the nearest Sears will be in Braintree, Massachusetts. It sounds like the mall will be fine, though, as news reports indicate that Primark and Dave & Buster’s will take over the space.
Lower level entrance to Sears.
Lower level at Sears, with the closing sale underway.
Large boxes of product blocked off access to the escalators and the elevator. The store had been consolidated down to just the first floor, and the second floor was completely closed.
Upper level mall entrance to Sears. This entrance was closed. Curiously, they used remodel signage to explain why this level was closed. I suppose that sounds better than admitting to being lame and not having enough product to fill two floors.
Upper level of Sears. The company has completely vacated this floor.
We also had a meal there, with Aaron’s getting Popeyes, and my getting Qdoba. Not bad.
On the subject of Sears, when planning this day, we had also considered visiting the Kmart store in Bridgehampton, New York. With the closing of so many other Kmart stores, that was our local Kmart, and one of only two Kmart stores remaining in the continental US (the other is in Miami, Florida). We ended up skipping this mainly because of distance. Bridgehampton is near the eastern end of Long Island, and it would have been more than two hours’ driving time to get out there, and then another two hours just to get back to New York. So that would have been about four and a half hours’ driving time on top of the four hours’ driving time to get home from New York – and it’s not like there were any shortcuts there, because Long Island is quite linear, and any travel on or off Long Island involves going through the city. And taking transit would have been even longer, even though there is a LIRR stop nearby. We quickly determined that all of that trouble for a Kmart store just wasn’t worth it. Oh, well.
Finishing up at Newport Centre, we then headed over to our big stop for the day: American Dream. This was the big shopping mall in the Meadowlands area, with a long, somewhat troubled history. As I understand it, the idea of a mall on this site was first conceived way back in 1994 by the Mills Corporation, intending to make a mall called Meadowlands Mills. That project was ultimately abandoned due to environmental concerns. Then a new site was selected, and the project morphed into something called Meadowlands Xanadu. Construction took a very long time, with a few stops, as well as some notable structural failures, and the complex, now renamed American Dream, finally opened in 2019.
The sense that both of us got when exploring this mall was that the facility had a lot of potential, but a lot of it was as-of-yet unrealized, as it appeared that there was about as much unbuilt tenant space as there was stores open for business. Will it ever realize its full potential? I don’t know. I suppose that time will tell.
One of several courts at American Dream. Note how most of the spaces are simply walled off, with plastic sheeting covering the top third. This was common for much of the unbuilt spaces in the mall.
The second court that we encountered.
A small food court space, partially built out.
Another court immediately adjacent to the food court space.
Entrance to the DreamWorks Water Park. This is as close as we got to it, since neither of us was prepared for swimming, nor did we allocate that sort of time.
Nickelodeon Universe at American Dream. Like the waterpark, this is as close as we got to it, but I’m sure it’s lovely.
Surprisingly, there was a section of the mall that was completely barricaded off, and I couldn’t figure out why. The spaces around it were fully unbuilt, but I didn’t see why it couldn’t be used as a pass-through, rather than requiring that one go up or down to continue (this portion of the mall forms a loop).
Another court, this one making a big display of the guest services counter and two escalators.
One more court, this one with some seating areas. Surprisingly, seating in this part of the mall was somewhat hard to come by.
At one point, Aaron and I were able to get our phones into an unbuilt space. And it’s exactly that: unbuilt space. The structure is built and the space is defined, but no finishing work has been completed, and won’t be until a tenant is found.
One of two “escalators to nowhere” on the third floor of American Dream. As I understand it, these escalators were built to provide access to a movie theater that was to have gone up there. However, the theater was never completed, as pandemic-era restrictions put the brakes on those plans. From what we could see, there is a fourth floor space enclosed up there, but there’s no tenant for it. Stay tuned, I suppose.
One of many restroom corridors at American Dream. They all looked like this, with this interlocking-circles pattern that I found to be kind of gaudy. A less-dense pattern would have looked a whole lot better.
Dream Live, which, as far as I can tell, is an event space available for short-term rentals.
Five Guys restaurant at American Dream. I wasn’t going to touch this with a ten-foot pole, because Five Guys, while wonderful, puts me right to sleep.
Advertisement for Geoffrey’s Express, the mall train at American Dream. This wasn’t anything special – just your typical mall “train” that drives around the mall. The only difference is that this one is Toys “R” Us-themed.
Toys “R” Us store at American Dream. This is the brand’s attempt at a revival, and it was a bit underwhelming. The sense that Aaron and I both got was that this was a fairly generic toy store that was wearing the Toys “R” Us branding. You may remember that I had the same criticism of the toy department at Macy’s, and it still rings true here. This place may call itself Toys “R” Us, but it’s not Toys “R” Us. If you want to see a proper Toys “R” Us, you have to go up to Canada.
The last part of American Dream that we saw was the upscale wing. Unbeknownst to us when we came in, we parked very close to the dividing line between the super-upscale wing of the mall and the remainder of the mall, which was more accessible to regular consumers. The upscale wing was very different from the rest of the mall:
The guiding principle when it came to this part of the mall was, “If you have to ask, you cannot afford it.” Seriously, this was super bougie, with brands like Hermès, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Saint Laurent, among others. There was also a Balenciaga store here at one point, but it had gone out of business. The decor of this wing was intended to be super upscale, but I thought it looked tacky. It definitely exemplifies the old saying that money cannot buy good taste. It also shares a similarity with the rest of the mall in that a lot of it is still completely unbuilt.
So that’s American Dream for you. I know that I missed photographing the ice rink, but I want to say that other than that, I captured the essence of the place. I was also surprised at the way that the tenants were dispersed throughout the mall. The ends of the mall, i.e. the upscale wing and the part near the waterpark and Nickelodeon Universe, were fairly sparsely populated, containing the most unbuilt space. The highest tenant density was near the middle of the mall, though even that still had a lot of empty space. I suspect that the mall was intended to be destination retail, but I couldn’t imagine that many people would travel out of their way to go there, at least not for what is currently presented here. The mall is located next to the Meadowlands sports facilities, and is most definitely in the suburbs, with transit access from New York provided only by bus. And considering that it was a Friday night, American Dream was pretty quiet. I’m not going to read too much into that, though, because there had been snow in the forecast, it had snowed earlier in the day, and the temperature was expected to drop below freezing that night. So take my observation about crowding with a grain of salt.
Finishing up at American Dream, we went to a Stop & Shop store in nearby Lyndhurst. Aaron had never been to a Stop & Shop before, and I had been all of one time, back in 2010. We knew that Stop & Shop was owned by Ahold Delhaize, with its closest corporate relative’s being Giant-MD (as in the Giant stores in the DC area), and as such, we expected this to be a Giant Food store by another name. For those not familiar, Ahold has a very interesting corporate structure. They have three major divisions in the US: Giant-PA, Giant-MD, Stop & Shop, and Food Lion. Food Lion came from their acquizition of Delhaize a few years ago. Giant-PA and Giant-MD were separate companies that were acquired by Ahold at separate times, as was Stop & Shop. Ahold later put Giant-MD and Stop & Shop in the same operating division, and left Giant-PA, which runs Giant stores in Pennsylvania, as well as Martin’s stores, separate.
That said, we were both surprised to see what greeted us in Lyndhurst:
Front facade.
Produce department, with deli beyond.
Back aisle.
Dairy and bread aisle, up the left side of the store.
“Marty” robot. That was a first for me, as I’ve seen them in Giant-PA stores before, but never at Giant-MD.
Front aisle, running alongside the checkouts.
Front aisle on the other side of the checkouts.
This was essentially a Giant-PA store, but with Giant-MD decor and products. Weird. Turns out that this store likely began as an Edwards Super Food store, which Ahold had originally placed with Giant-PA, which explains the Giant-PA architecture. Edwards was later phased out and replaced with Stop & Shop, and thus placed under the Giant-MD banner, which is how we ended up where we are today. Still quite odd to see, for sure.
From there, we started making moves home. It was about 8:30 PM, I still felt pretty crappy, and it would take four hours to drive home – with reports that the snow had been more intense near home vs. in New York. In other words, it’s time to go home. We only made two stops coming home: one at the Walt Whitman Travel Plaza on the Turnpike, and then again at the Sheetz in Elkton, Maryland. Getting home, I got unpacked, and more or less went right to bed.
All in all, this wasn’t a bad trip, though I’ve had better. However, my complaints were largely due to factors beyond my control. The weather was cloudy all trip, which certainly dampened my inspiration for photos, and shifted things to more indoor activities. Then as far as health goes, I felt fine when we left, and things just deteriorated from there, as my illness gradually developed over the course of the trip. And for what it’s worth, I went to an urgent care facility a few days later to get some meds for it, and showed the doctor my various tests, and they quickly identified that first, ambiguous COVID test as being a positive. So it was the Ronies. Lovely. No wonder everything hurt where it did (my lungs were sore!) and I had trouble keeping up. Meanwhile, no shade on traveling with Aaron. He was a great travel companion, and I would definitely go traveling with him again. I just hope that my body is up to it next time.
So there you have it. I just hope that this trip where a lot of stuff went wrong isn’t a preview of travel adventures to come in 2024.