Sharing the love...

I'm also appreciating SuperShuttle this morning!

I called up the shared-ride van service SuperShuttle--love them!-- because who wants to try to catch a subway train to JFK at 3:00 in the morning while toting two large bags and one suitcase? I definitely didn't. And taxis are pretty scarce around my section of Queens at any time of day, let alone at 3 in the morning!

Besides the convenience of having someone pick you up at your door at any hour to take you to the airport, cost was another factor on my mind-- since I moved out of Manhattan, my rides to my usual airport, Newark, have skyrocketed from their usual $17 to nearly $50-- for that price, I might as well pay a bit more for a cab and not have to share it with anyone! 

[For the record, a cab ride from Newark to Manhattan costs about $60, which includes the tip and the toll fees between NJ and NY. I don't know how much it would cost to get there from Queens--I've never tried.]

But I've never flown out of JFK before, so that, combined with the early flight time, extra bags, and unpredictability of catching a subway train or cab at that hour, convinced me to call up SuperShuttle. It wasn't a bad price (only about $30 plus tip), the driver arrived at 4:30 on the dot (when do rides ever arrive entirely on time?) and he took me straight to JFK.

Normally the shared rides pick up several passengers in the area before heading to the airport, in order to make an efficient trip. But apparently, I was the only Astoria-to-JFK customer at that hour. Hey, no problem-- I don't mind being the only passenger!

I've had the occasional problem with SuperShuttle, usually involving the length of time it takes to get a ride from the airport, but for the most part I really like them. I switch back and forth between them and AirlinkNY, the other shared-ride van service. For anyone visiting NYC, that's one of the best ways to get from the airport, in my opinion. Yeah, you can take a cab, but the cost can add up quickly unless your hotel is nearby.

Even better, I found out after my flight landed in Tampa that SuperShuttle operates in Florida, too, so I had an easy ride to the hotel in Clearwater. One much-needed vacation and family reunion, coming up!

Jet Blue love

I am all about JetBlue!

I haven't had the opportunity to fly JetBlue before, mainly because they don't fly to my main destination, Knoxville. I WISH they would (ahem, JetBlue!), but the closest they get is Nashville, so I'd have to rent a car and drive about 3 hours east. Kinda defeats the purpose of flying, right?

I arrived here at JFK at an ungodly hour in the morning (anything before 6 a.m. is far, FAR too early for my tastes), and nearly every food vendor in the JetBlue terminal is open for business. What a difference from my usual airport, Newark-Liberty (EWR, for those familiar with airport lingo), where my regular terminal, Terminal C, is busy with passengers even in the early hours but only two or three food vendors are open at that time. JetBlue also offers free Wi-Fi --at least, in this airport. 

Yes, I really was blogging at 5 in the morning! [Picture taken 5/23/07]

And with the exception of the Valentine's Day disaster, JetBlue usually has great service, too. I haven't encountered a single employee who hasn't been really helpful and even (I can't believe it!) a little cheerful at 5 in the morning! When I forgot to take my laptop out of my bag at the security checkpoint--I was still half asleep--and my bag got flagged for inspection because of it, the screener was joking that he sees this kind of stuff all the time... he didn't have any problem inspecting yet another bag. Of course, maybe his shift had just started, so it could be that he hadn't checked that many bags yet today!

My only disappointment so far is that JetBlue has changed terminals at JFK. Back when they were still small fry in the airline world, JetBlue used to be housed in Terminal 5 or, for those of you into architecture, the old TWA terminal designed by renowned Finnish architect Eero Saarinen. It's a pretty cool building, designed to evoke impressions of--what else?--flight. But it's also a small building, and like other airlines that were once housed there, JetBlue has outgrown the space and moved to a larger terminal next door. I think the officials at JFK are on the verge of expanding the terminal, if they aren't in the process already. I just hope they work with Eero Saarinen's design-- yeah, they really need a larger terminal to handle the passenger traffic they see on a daily basis, but it would be a shame if they replaced a structure shown in many architectural books with something more utilitarian. Hopefully they can find a way to incorporate the original design into their new plan! 

The old TWA terminal at JFK, designed to give the impression of a bird in flight.

More New York for you!

I was headed to Home Depot earlier today when I nearly stumbled over some New York roadkill. I'll give you three guesses to figure out what it was, but trust me, you'll need only one... Yeah, it was a rat, completely flattened. It looked like the Roadrunner cartoons where Wylie E. Coyote gets run over by a steamroller or squashed under a giant boulder. Eeew!!!

Just when I was beginning to think we didn't have roadkill in the city! Reminds me a bit of home... and one of the reasons I'm glad I don't drive anymore. I must have been a magnet for roadkill as a driver, or maybe I was just driving at the wrong times, but I swear, I seemed to hit at least one of just about everything! To date, I've hit a rabbit, two birds, a snake, two or three squirrels, a handful of chipmunks, numerous cicadas during the summer of 2004 when they emerged from hibernation, and even a skunk-- that one I felt really bad about, since it happened in front of someone's house! Thankfully, I never hit a cat or any really large animals, such as deer or cows. But the one thing I expected to hit--and never did--was a possum. Never could figure out why I didn't-- they're everywhere back home during the Spring.