When the Big Apple Bites Back

A couple of weeks ago the Man of the House and I headed north for several days on Long Island.  It was a business trip for him.  I got to tag along for a little sightseeing and we stayed an extra day to tour New York City.

I want to tell y'all what a great trip it was.  And we'll get to that.  In another post.  Unfortunately, it didn't start off as well as one would hope.  No, wait ... I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let me back up.  It started out just fine. Before taking a sharp downhill turn.

We left bright and early on a Tuesday morning.  Pre-bright and early, really.  It was a 5:30am flight.  Our local airport suggested arriving 2 hours before your flight, so we were there just after 3:30am.  Of course, what they didn't mention was that airport personnel such as airlines and TSA agents don't arrive until 4:00.  Which would have been nice to know, since that would have meant an extra 30 minutes of sleep.  But, we were first in line to check in and go through security, so it's all good.

Flights went smoothly and we landed at JFK before 10:00.  Had our rental car and were making our way through the insanity that is Queens traffic by 11:00. (Seriously, that was cra-zy!  And it wasn't even rush hour!)  Fortunately, once we got past Jamaica it opened up and we had smooth sailing the rest of the way.

Ever heard of Ronkonkoma,  NY?  Me neither.  Not before this Spring.  The best I can tell you is that if you take a map of Long Island and point smack dab in the middle - that's about where it is.  (I might be off a little... please don't hate on the little southern gal Long Islanders.)

We had a whole afternoon in front of us to do whatever we wanted.  But after being up to get to the airport at 3:30, all we really wanted to do was take a nap.  And after grabbing some lunch, that's just what we did!

Once we caught up on a little sleep, we drove over to Sayville. Found a local seafood place for dinner and did a little exploring.

It was an early night, as we were driving out to Orient Point in the morning to catch the ferry across Long Island Sound to Connecticut.

(Hang on... this is where things get ugly)

I woke Wednesday morning with a bad headache.  That's an understatement of epic proportions.  It was terrible.  Horrible.  Excruciatingly painful.  But I tried to be logical and think positive.  I had taken two flights the day before with altitude and pressure changes wrecking havoc on my sinuses.  I was probably dehydrated.

Take a shower, I thought.  You'll feel better after that, I thought.  I.  Was.  Wrong.  After the shower my head still hurt.  And then the stomach pains began.  I kept trying to power through. The stomach pains got worse.

I kept telling myself it would pass.  Until about 15 minutes before we had to leave.  When I found myself knealing in a hotel bathroom being violently sick to my stomach.  That's when I accepted that I was not going to Connecticut that day.  You know how after you vomit you usually feel better - at least for a little while?  Nope.  Not even a little.

I felt bad that I had to stay behind.  The Man of the House felt bad, because he had to leave me there.   But he had appointments scheduled.  (This was his business trip, remember?)  So, he went.  But not before going down to buy me a couple of bottles of ginger ale.  And after hours of alternating sleeping curled up in a fetal position and vomiting; I did start to feel a little better in the early afternoon.

And that's why this was my view for most of my first day in New York...

Things did improve quickly and the rest of the trip was better.  But we'll get to that in the next post...