Moving to Buffalo

After several days packing stuff, and two days later than I originally thought, I left Jersey City, NJ, toward Buffalo, NY, in the first afternoon hour of April 30, 2008. It was a Wednesday, and a pleasantly warm and dry day throughout most of the itinerary. In the morning, with the help of two Brazilian friends, I had uploaded all my belongings to a rented truck. Believe-me dial-up users: it's much easier to upload a large video file in a rainy day!

Carrying boxes and pieces of furnitures all morning is not only physically demanding (and not a bit rewarding), but also mentally stressful. As soon as I parked the 12-foot truck, I decided I had rented too big of a truck. As soon as the first three boxes were put into it, I changed my mind, and a minor state of panic started to unsettle me, causing fears of having to leave behind part of what I had, in the previous several days, so judiciously concluded worth carrying along. I started prioritizing, putting the most important items first in the truck, half-expecting a last-minute Solomonic decision-making session involving whether to carry or leave behind a metal-frame futton sofa (hard to assemble anyway), several boxes full of plastic household items (cheap to replace), and other objects of relatively less importance. At the end, everything fit into the truck's box, and I was happy to postpone those objects' fate for at least a few weeks.

Driving the truck was a cinch. My friend Skye drew a small map and taught me a way to exit Jersey City towards Route 280, better way than that offered by the Google Map I had printed the night before. She also suggested a great place for me to buy the water and foodstuff I expected to need during the trip. It is a "Wonder Bagel" on Route 1/9 Truck North that actually sells wonder focaccia sandwiches! I grabbed two, and never for a minute regretted.

The first third of the way felt really like driving a truck. Driving a 12-foot truck fully loaded with personal trash up Mount Poconos gave me a notion of what the life of a truck driver must be like. More of such a notion than I ever wanted to have, with my left hand constantly reaching for the gear shift to try to maintain a stable speed. But the last two thirds of the way, down the Poconos and beyond, with the cargo weighting in my favor, it felt like I was driving a... Ferrari! Yes, yes, yes, a gas-guzzling yellow Ferrari made in the U.S. by GMC!

There were several moments of great scenic beauty in the way. Delaware Gap, Mt Poconos, then a valley, then deer grazing in the open fields... The truck's odometer showed 400.1 miles when I finally parked it at the Holiday Inn in downtown Buffalo. It was 9:20pm, and the skies had just turned, slowly and graciously, dark.

Buffalo, NY, is a very interesting place. There are many cities in the U.S. like it. There are many cities in the world better than it. And yet, there is something very particular about Buffalo. "Buffalo, an all American city", says a road sign on New York State Thruway I-90 as you approach the Queen City. What is it that attracts me to Buffalo? Why Buffalo?