Things start well enough on Sunday – my mother calls to wish me Happy Birthday, and from my window, I see a partly sunny day. I suggest to my girlfriend that we go to the Bronx Zoo, something which I had not done in years.
We opt for public transportation – the subway has a zoo stop.  A short distance outside, however, and it is clear that this is going to be a hot and very humid day. But I remain optimistic – trains are air-conditioned, and the zoo is shaded and also has indoor exhibits.

This trip requires two trains, a local to the express. When we get to Astor Place, however, the local train is not running at all. Out to the street for a six-block walk to Union Square for the express train.
Signs indicate that the number 5 train is also not running for the weekend. We jump in the first express train which arrives quickly – things are starting to look up.

But once we arrive in the Bronx, I notice the stops don’t look quite right. That’s because only the number 5 runs to the zoo, not the 4 which we had taken. A brief conversation with a passenger confirms my mistake and that I will have to take a bus across Fordham Road. We exit the train, armed with our Metro Cards, expecting a free transfer.
However, the bus driver indicates that we need to go back to the machine on the street and purchase reduced price tickets at $1.10 each for this BX12 bus.
Off the bus. Buy tickets. Back on the bus. The ride across Fordham Road is quite depressing.

Our stop is Southern Boulevard, and the driver tells me I have a choice of two entrances. I forget the East Fordham Road entrance is the main one, which is quite beautiful. Instead, we traipse nearly twice as far down Southern Boulevard for what feels like an interminable distance in the heat to finally arrive at the side entrance. We see “The Complete Experience” listed for $27 per person, with no posting of general admission prices. This already smells of a zoo sadly doing badly. Being late in the day, we opt for general admission at $15 each.

The day’s humidity is almost unbearable, even in the shaded areas of the zoo. We quickly learn that many of the best exhibits are part of The Complete Experience and can be purchased ala carte. $6 more gets us into the Congo Gorilla Forest – can’t miss that. We watch a movie, and the screen lifts to a live panorama of gorillas.

I overhear a disappointed father of a family asking his wife who is reading a map – “No elephants?” (there are only two left which can only be seen from the Bengali Express monorail). We decide to purchase a drink after building up a thirst and $2.75 buys a small bottle of water.

A zoo employee tells me that the zoo closes at 5:30 PM, so I pace myself for that. However, an announcement at 5PM tells us the zoo is now closed, so we barely get to the gardens and exhibits at the main entrance, which I was saving until last.

We exit and make our way back to the Fordham Road bus stop. We purchase those silly tickets for the crosstown BX12 and wait at the bus stop, confident that we have the system mastered. The bus arrives quickly, but it stops inexplicably some distance before the stop and we miss it. Not to be fooled, we move, and the next bus stops behind us. A quick jog in the heat with camera equipment in tow, and we just make the bus.

The train ride itself is uneventful. But at our final stop, I notice a man with a VERY wet umbrella – he confirms a torrential downpour outside. This provides a most amazing photo opportunity and, of course, a wet journey home. The streets are littered with downed tree branches.

We decide to go Indian for a birthday dinner. The place I frequent is typically nearly empty, but tonight the place is packed, and there are a couple of huge parties. We are seated at one of the few remaining tables. We wait for some time, but I have a bad feeling that this will be a painfully slow process, so we leave as gracefully as possible.

My spirits pick up as we opt for Trattoria Spaghetto just a few short blocks away. They are also unusually crowded, and the only remaining table is sandwiched between the kitchen and the service exit to the street used by the waiters. Not daunted by eating on a super highway, we sit and get our menus. I do not need to even open mine, because I am ready to order my favorite dish here: Fusilli Puttanesca. However, our waiter informs me that he is sorry, because tonight there is no fusilli 🙁

As far as money goes, New Yorkers are like most other Americans – they like a deal, and FREE screams loudest to them.
People at trade shows collect enormous numbers of brochures they will never read and wait in huge lines for premiums and freebees worth virtually nothing. I have seen adult men and women practically brawl over free T-shirts thrown into an audience at a Macworld convention.
With free food it is even worse. At the Japan Festival in Central Park on Sunday, people were in lines hundreds deep, waiting in the hot sun for free noodles or a free dumpling.

When it comes to tunnels, bridges, and other roadway tolls, many seasoned New Yorkers consider it a matter of principle and a source of pride to avoid paying a toll. Ironically, in most other ways, New Yorkers spend huge amounts of money for conveniences – prices for items at a green grocer can be substantially more for identical items at a supermarket a few extra steps away. There are endless examples of this behavior. But put the same people behind the wheel of a car and give them the option to wait in horrendous traffic to avoid paying a toll, and they will.

If you are coming from the outlying neighborhoods of Brooklyn by car, you will most likely use the Belt Parkway or Prospect Expressway and then a leg of the Gowanus Expressway. If you are heading to Manhattan, you have a big life altering decision to make: do you take the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel for FIVE DOLLARS, or do you cram into the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the BQE (Brooklyn Queens Expressway) and take one of the bridges for FREE?

By now the answer is obvious, n’est–ce pas? Any self-respecting New Yorker takes the free road and saves five dollars (perhaps to spend it whimsically soon after at Starbucks). Admittedly, five dollars is quite a bit of money for a short tunnel ride. However anyone driving a car into Manhattan is already indulging in a luxury that most can not afford, so why not spend five dollars and go in style?

These were my thoughts on Saturday evening when, coming back from my adventures in Brooklyn after an exhausting day of driving, I decided to do the unthinkable and spend five dollars for the tunnel experience. It was extraordinary. The highway spur to the tunnel (top photo) and the tunnel itself (bottom photo) were virtually empty.
I was back in Manhattan in a few short minutes, while thousands jammed onto the BQE. Of course, many of these travelers were not headed to Manhattan, but trust me on this – if there were no toll for that tunnel, I would have had plenty of company. And, of course, an extra five dollars…

Photo note: Against better judgement, these photos were taken one-handed while driving. Camera shake, shutter speed, aperture – no time for these considerations. After spending $5, I was feeling rather reckless anyway 🙂