The City That Never Sleeps

If you had less than two hours to spend in New York City, arguably the greatest city on Earth – what would you do? What would you see? Which of the hundreds of landmarks would you visit?
The bus rolls to a stop at Broadway and 42nd just after one on the morning. We’re on our way from Holmdel, NJ, to the next show in Montreal. Another 8 hours of road time ahead of us.
This is Mike and Sasha’s first time in the Big Apple. They’ve heard the stories and the hype – now what?
We file out and immediately their necks crane upwards. Sasha’s speechless. Mike whips out his phone and starts recording everything for his girlfriend back home.  He snaps a picture of a Leonard Cohen poster. “She’ll love this,” he says.
But the clock ticks away. It’s 1:15 and we’re not quite sure where to take these New York virgins. Mike wants to see the Empire State Building but we tell him that’s impossible. Too far. Same with Central Park. (Besides –anyone who has ever spent time on the East Coast will tell you to stay far, far away from Central Park after midnight.)
First things first – a stroll through Time’s Square. We take a picture with some beautiful girls waiting for a party bus. One of their typical meat-head boyfriends in a black sleeveless shirt wants to fight Dan for dragging ‘his woman away’.  No fight ensues, despite Dan’s drunken instigation: “Oy!”
Next stop – a slice of New York-style pizza. Jon finds a good place on his phone. After that – the group splits. Eric meets up with two childhood friends he hasn’t seen in years. Dan and Mike take off for the CBS studio. Jon and the rest grab drinks at St. Andrews.
Time flies in the city that never sleeps. At 2 am the band reunites at St. Andrews. The owner, a guy by the name of Mark, grey hair down to his collar, slides into our booth. He shares a story or two about his wildest concert experiences, and then buys us all a round of drinks. A second round soon follows.
At 2:30 we’re high-tailing it back to the bus. ‘High-tailing’ in the sense that everyone knows there’s only a five minute window before the bus driver leaves us all behind. And he would. Really. But we can’t help it. We’re mesmerized.  By all the lights and the high-definition screens dozens of stories above our heads and the sounds and the smells and the aura that is New York.  
“Come on!” Jon yells to those of us lagging behind.
Bumbling, stumbling, we finally board the bus. Eric wishes his friends goodbye as we wish goodbye to Vofka, our photographer. He’s headed back to L.A. for another gig.
As we pull away, the question is posed: “So, Mike – what’d you think?”
“Awesome,” is his answer. Albeit brief, he searches his mental vocabulary for the right words to describe the experience. But all he comes up with is, “awesome,” again.
The next day, we wake up in Montreal. Another city. This time – another country.  Brimming with possibilities.
“And to think,” says Mike, still in awe, over breakfast. “Just this morning we were in Time’s Square.” You can tell by his nerdy grin that the stop was everything --  and maybe more than --  he could’ve hoped for.  “I can’t wait to go back in a week.”
And so we mentally prepare for the next New York stopover, the question constantly on our minds: what’s left?
Everything.