The “Gettin’ It Out Of Our System” Reloaded Tour 2009 – Day Seven (and one-half) – New York City!!

Man, are our dogs barkin’ – we hoofed more than a furlong yesterday – even thoroughbreds wouldn’t gallop as far as we wandered in the city.

The plan was to see NYC, and that we did. Also an emotional day in the city, with reminders of the violence that can shadow a big city, this one in particular.

We started the day off by cabbing out to Ground Zero, the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. You’d think that would be hard enough to view, but it was the stop beforehand at Saint Paul’s Chapel that affected Mrs. That Dan Guy even more.

That’s the tiny church that survived the attacks and collapse of the twin towers, and became a staging point for the recovery efforts. They have an incredible display there which still affects you, all these years afterwards. Powerful images and remnants on display – and also a remionder of one of the odd quirks whenever we travel – visiting and snapping pictures of churches. I wonder what that’s all about?

From Ground Zero, we wandered the Financial District, and Tribeca, where my flippin’ camera battery died. Which would explain why we fell short of 1000 pictures yesterday (total, not just single day – wattaya think we are, nuts?). Mrs. That Dan Guy snapped a few on her camera phone, but nowhere near the images I might have captured. C’est la vie…

The second stop that was pretty emotional was in Soho. We stopped to view the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, Annex NYC. Quite a facility, and loaded with rock history. A replica of the historic CBGB club, outfits and guitars from Buddy Holly, Elvis, George Harrison – handwritten lyrics from Dylan and Jim Morrison, Bruce Springsteen’s convertible from his “Born To Run” period – crazy nuts for fans.

The museum had a feature exhibit, “John Lennon, The New York City Years”, filled with items from his time in the city. Pianos he composed the final recordings of his life on - clothes, glasses, and even the Grammy he won.

The emotional part was the bloody paper bag containing the clothes we was wearing when he was murdered outside his apartment. Yoko Ono has made this a graphic plea for changes to gun laws, indicating that John was “the King Of The World – he had everything any person could want, but at the end of his life, he came back to me in a paper bag”. Sobering and powerful.

We left the Annex, and made our way out of Soho, stopping at a neighborhood restaurant for a late dinner, not too far from Washington Square Park, which we visited after our meal. This is the park where you always see chess players engaged in games, unless you stop by on holidays, and try and find them. We couldn’t even find Frisbee players.

Crushed, we moved up along 5^th Ave., straddling the borders of Greenwich Village and West Village, eventually passing through Gramercy and Chelsea before getting back to Times Square.

So, we really got a flavor of the city, in just 90 minutes of gentle strolling. Whew.

Today, we hope to see Madison Square Garden, and do some shopping before we head out to what used to be Shea Stadium, to see Sir Paul McCartney in concert. Being a stadium show, this is the first day of rain, predicted to last through the night.

Excellent. Super-good…

Chow for now!