New York is a state like no other. There are five “Boroughs” and that’s just the city that shares its name. Upstate, Western, and Northwestern. There is agriculture, livestock, and more culture than can simply be summed up in one blog story.

When we started flat-bedding, we got our first load to NYC and we were terrified. On the way there, we committed to going to every square mile, borough, whatever. And that’s exactly what we did. Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, Manhattan… we have navigated our truck around all of them- some more than once.

The first time we went in at about 3 am just south of Flushing ave. in Brooklyn , hoping to get in and out before 6 am and traffic. That didn’t happen at all as we had to wait till 9 am to even get unloaded. We double parked after backing through an intersection. It was interesting to pull that off to say the least. The neighborhood literally came to life like nothing I have ever seen before. Car horns are simply a method of communication there. Everywhere else in the country it signifies anger and road rage. Not in NYC, just a way of telling the large crowd of pedestrians, double and triple parked cars and trucks that, “hey, I’m coming through, heads up.”

As I sat there observing through my windshield, I saw, and I mean impeccably dressed, four Hasidic Jews, three Muslims, a few Asians, and what appeared to be some wealthy businessmen standing in the same corner waiting to cross the street. Good luck seeing that combo anywhere else in the world.

As I was in awe of this scene, a young lady tapped on my door and politely stated she need to get out, I was blocking her in. I let her out and another car immediately took that spot. He backed in and bumped the car behind him. I thought, “crap, he hit that car!” He just casually turned his car off got out and ran into the store. Before I could process this another car pulled up, backed into the space in front of him and bumped into his car! I looked around and most of these cars bumpers were touching. How the hell the cars not on the end get out I’ll never know.

There are many low bridges and “no trucks allowed” routes throughout the city. Unless you have to go there for delivery. I could try to describe how stressful it is free-styling your way through these situations, but you would simply have to try it even in a car to fully understand. The GPS is turned off because it won’t work anyway. It just knows you are not supposed to be where you are and gives one warning after another until it just quits.

We tried it, all of it. There is extra money to go there, but ultimately, we decided it wasn’t worth it to us. We put ourselves on the “no NYC list”, although we will and do go to the rest of the state and every where else in the lower 48.

I’ve seen what I wanted to see, The Statue of Liberty, a glimpse of the Empire State Building and all the iconic bridges. I sure am glad we did that, and made it through all those crazy runs. It’s an amazing place, and an unbeatable and resilient, diverse group of people.