New York 2010

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Comet Dealer Conference - New York October 2010

From all corners of the country and across the world the Young Turks of the '70's were heading to New York for the 2010 Comet Dealer Conference.

By Train, Plane and Automobile they descended on New York.

The carpark of the Days Inn Hotel, Newark

The Skeena - Prince Rupert to Jasper. Our Antipodean cousin, Badge, may not have read the instructions quite well enough. He noted that you could get to the Hotel by train, so jumped off the plane and jumped on a train. Shame he was on the West Coast.

Newark Airport with the elusive Hotel in the background

No matter how you arrive you still needed to navigate thru this :-

To get to the hotel one needed to get to P4, it was less than 500 yards from the hotel but on the hotel shuttlebus it was over 6 miles. From P4 you got on the airtrain which took you within 50 yards of the hotel on the way to Newark Penn Station. The hotel website instructions give detailed instructions on how to get from the hotel to New York. believe me if you can find this hotel you do not need instructions on how to find New York. The instructions below need to be read backwards if coming in by train. It's pretty simple until you get to Newark Penn Station. At that point there is no mention of Newark Airport, no mention of the skytrain, no escalator to get your luggage off the platform and the choice of going up a ramp or down some steps. No Amtrak personnel to be found anywhere.(Hint: they are all hiding downstairs)

Take Days Hotel Shuttle Bus to P4. From P4 go upstairs and board the Airtran to Terminals A, B or C. Follow signs to Ground Transportation and board the #62 Bus (Price $1.50- Approximate time is 20 minutes). The bus will drop you off at Newark Penn Station. Go to the ticket window and purchase a ticket (Price one way $4.00 Adults, $1.75 Children & Seniors, Round Trip $8.00 Adults, $3.50 Children & Seniors- Approximate travel time is about 20 minutes). Train will stop in New York Penn Station located on 33rd Street on 7th Avenue in NYC.

This bus actually exits the main road onto an airport inramp directly opposite the hotel, just four lanes of traffic and a concrete wall and you would be there.

Obviously Jim was aware that it wasn't going to be easy, as he checked in a week ahead of time.

Barb, Brian & Jim

The Appalachian Trail is a bloody long walk, he could be anywhere.

Brian & the Boys

No worries, mate, says Brian, I have got the boys lined up to go look for him.

Meanwhile, Badge has found a bigger train and is on the move again.

Given the chaos involved in getting in to the Days Hotel, Joe & Louisa decided, having noticed a small estuary leading to a landing bay at the back of the hotel that they would head across by boat.

The famed Ohio to New Jersey waterway, not much used these days, would appear to be the perfect vehicle for a relaxed and enjoyable trip to the Big Apple.

Estuary

Landing Bay next to the carpark and under the Airtrain.

Bloody hell Louisa, I told you we shouldn't have sold the Catalina.

Beautiful meandering across the top of the Appalacians.

A little tricky sailing down to the East Coast

Monday was travel and check-in day, a huge thunderstorm raged over New York making locating the hotel even more difficult, but find it they did and the next morning dawned clear and bright giving most of the attendees their first view of their surroundings.

A beautiful sunny dawn over Newark Airport

Robert, Jim, Barb & Louisa gobsmacked by the surroundings

The little bridge over the creek near the boatshed.

Early morning sunrise in downtown Newark.

Jo & Louisa's craft parked out the back.

OK, enough playing at tourists, it's time to get down to work.
The participants congregated in the ground floor meeting rooms.

Bob A.,xxxx, Tom, Steve. Robert

Justin, Jin, Barb, Brian.

Frank, Stan, xxxx, Greg, Alan, Louisa & Jo trying to hide.

Smith & Wesson , Badge, Steve, Carl, Gerry & Frank again. Whoops, where's Badge ?

Arriving in style at Newark Penn Central.

Wait on fellas, I am almost there, on the way from Montreal to New York.

Wow, Ice on three floors and soda.

After a hard days discussion the prospect of some liquid refreshment was high on the list.
A quick perusal of the Hotel highlights.
OK, looks like its New York City.Join the 10,000 irate and frustrated would be commuters 
There us just so much excitement that we old blokes can stand.
Even if it does mean negotiating spaghetti junction twice.

Penn Central departure gate

Penn Central train schedule

Platform and Train Spotting

The hottest game in New York,

gather at Penn Central,

preferably at peak hour,

when there is likely to be train delays and gather under the departure boards.

Join the 10,000 irate and frustrated would be commuters jockey for position nearest to the most likely gates.

Periodically, one will flick up with a departure time and a platform. Then it is every commuter for himself in a rush to the platform and then a charge through the train to try and get a seat.

More thrills and spills than the old wild west unassigned land stampdedes.

Barb off and running with Brian nowhere in sight, watched on by Robert, Jim & Megan

Brian with a clear break on a steep downhill. An appreciative audience watches his descent from below.

Stair running.

At suburban stations where you do not have the luxury of Neon display boards and multiple platforms, there is a far simpler game.

Similar to the Pelleton in a cycling race, the main group will straggle like sheep from one escalator to another whilst the astute stair-runner watches to catch their opponents napping and then breaks from the crowd and a hopefully a clear sprint to the end of the escalator.

Final night and the gang are heading for Brooklyn, Justin is going to show us his haunts. Robert, Barb, Justin, Jim, Brian, Gerry, Louisa, Joe & Megan, with the obligatory empty seat for Badge.

Megan, Gerry, Jim and the invisible man. There was a selection of beers which were tried by all and then Gerry checked and yes they did Martinis, so a small selection of them were sampled as well. There is a vague memory of something cheesy and some meatballs.

Queueing for a table at Frankies Italian restaraunt.

Brian, Justin & Greg.

Joe & Robert opposite Louisa & Barb.

Louisa & Barb.

Jim & Robert trying to understand the intricacies of modern technology. What is an app ?

Gerry, Joe & Justin.

Although you can't see it, this is the barmaid from the bar we are drinking in after our dinner at Frankies. She is berating the policemen that came in mob-handed wielding torches like CSI and crawled around the back of the bar, looking at paperwork stuck up on a board. Something wasn't quite correct and she copped a summons to go to court, she was not impressed. They aslo backed into the car behind themas they were pulling out from the kerb.

After the excitement of the shakedown it was back to the subway for the two hour trip back to Newark.

Brian and Louisa doing there best to set-up Justin. Gerry, Joe, Justin and Barb look on in amusement.

As we were all heading out in the morning it was time for the traditional final night early bed call. Jim's room was the biggest so that was where we ended up.
Robert had a selection of expensive scotches that he had sourced in New York so we had a small tasting.

Alan.

Stan.

After a few hours of intense discussion and a few scotches we received a phone call from Stan to say that he had lost his wallet and was somewhere out of town at a place called Poughkeepsie.

After some concern from Louisa and much mirth from the males it was revealed they were actually downstairs in the lobby. They joined us and sampled Robert's burnt, wet lichen.

Barb turned up with Arnie and they sampled Robert's wares as well.

In the early hours of the morning the die-hards crawled off to their rooms and anotherDealer conference wound down to a succesful finish.

Sunset once again.

Once again the sun sets on a dealer conference and we will say goodnight until next year.