Here is another pair of items that I finally threw away a few weeks ago with the Sports-N-Stuff tickets. These are tickets to Circle Line Cruise around Manhattan. I bought them for $5 each when the sales folks came in to one of my classes in college. This was not an unusual occurrence in my college, as these folks stopped by once in a while to sell tickets like this, or tickets to Comic Strip Live.
I must’ve bought these tickets about 10 years ago without any plans to use them. When the opportunity finally came in the form of a girlfriend (not my wife) about a year or two after I bought these tickets, I made reservations for two on this cruise. Of course, I had to pay more than just the $5, I believe I had to pay about $25 to $30 per ticket, and maybe more to renew the tickets because these tickets expired when I tried to use them. But still, for a cruise around Manhattan, with one or two free drinks, I thought it was worth it.
I picked upn my then-girlfriend (in Ridgefield, NJ) in my then-car (Mitsubishi Eclipse). I kept the cruise thing a complete surprise, as I drove down the Jersey side of Hudson River and into the Lincoln Tunnel. The cruise was leaving right around there, on the west side of Manhattan, at about 38th Street or so. I wasn’t too familiar with New York driving and parking back then, so I drove around a couple of blocks looking for a good parking spot. Notice I said “good” parking spot, not “any” parking spot. I did see an open spot or two, but I wanted to find a better spot.
I still had time before the cruise, so I wasn’t in a rush… but the rest of the traffic was. It was rush hour, and there was the usual evening trffic jam leaving New York. And by accident, I ended up in that traffic. By the time I reaized the traffic I was in was only going one way, it was too late to get out. I was in the innermost lane, covered by two outer lanes from freedom, in bumper-to-bumper traffic. There were also cones set up to prevent anyone from cutting into the line. Well, in thi case, they prevented me from leaving the line.
Stuck going back to NJ, I was very disappointed. We would not make the cruise in time, as cruise is not something you can be late for. I finally spilled the guts on what I had planned, and although she was sad it didn’t work out, she was still impressed.
So I ended up not using those tickets on that day. I kept the tickets, thinking I would use them later. Well, about 8 years have passed since then. I still had the tickets, but the reservation phone line was now disconnected and their website was also no longer there. These tickets were now officially worthless. So they finally went in the trash.
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