“Have a nice day, young lady.”
“Thanks, you too, old sir.”
….
Monday wasn’t planned past getting the car from Enterprise. I’d considered the art museums or etc, but nothing was set in stone. It was a half hour walk to Enterprise or a five minute call to them for a pick up. Since I’d had a migraine since about 5am, after not sleeping until 2am… I figured a pick up at 10 wasn’t out of the question. I called at 9, and after being transferred twice, I finally got someone to agree to picking me up.
I took a shower and got dressed: boots, jeans, jacket, hat. The hat was my good blue/light purple striped hat my friend Loren gave me from his trip to Egypt..Jordan.. somewhere over there, he’d be able to tell me exactly where. I remember he had said he didn’t like it on himself, and since we both share a love for hats, I was the next best owner. I always get a compliments on it so I’m not sure why he didn’t like it, but I love it.
I waited about ten minutes on the stoop in front of Karen’s house for the van to show up. Watching people leave their homes to either go to work or run errands. The sun was high already for ten am. Usually it’s still pretty low back home.
The red van pulled up slowly in front, and I hopped off and around to the front seat passenger side. I don’t like sitting in the back if I can help it – especially if I’m the only person in the car; I’m not the type to be chauffeured. The driver was a nice old man. Jay had started to text me during the ride over while I conversed with the driver about GPS things and how I was here for the week. As we approached, I asked Jay if I should tip the driver… I decided to before Jay could respond. He was nice and the quick ride was enjoyable. $5 to you sir.
As I went in, there was a woman on her phone, both talking to someone and talking to one of the Enterprise agents. She was complaining about possibly driving a Prius or some other thing. She was all in a fluster and who knows what about. I glanced over the wall of brochures of things to do while another agent dealt with some young couple about driving.
“She’s under 25, and wouldn’t be driving, and I don’t have my license with me.” The boy had said. “Hm, I also don’t have a car so my insurance would have been canceled too.”
Something told me they would not be renting a car today…
As I waited, still going through brochures, a southern man was being helped at the desk. When the agent asked what he’d like to drive…he replied:
“Ah, I consider myself a Ford man, myself, you know. American cars.” His heavy southern accent, worn jeans, dirty boots, and faded cap showing his stereotypical redneck self.
I smirked.
Finally an agent helped me, and ten minutes later I was driving out in a silver Chevy Sonic. Now, I didn’t get asked what kind of car I’d want. It’s gotta be because I’m female and male rental car agents think women know nothing about cars. While I’d never heard of such a car, I still didn’t think it was fair to not asked what I’d like to drive. The car was basically a Chevy version of a VW Golf or Rabit or a miniature Mazda 3 Hatchback. It was a pretty nice little car I thought; very easy to drive and was making me wish that instead of having my car fixed back home I should be thinking about a new little car.
Hmmm. I thought. Little did I know my driving experience would be changing 48 hours from this moment.
Well, I headed out, turning right from the exit on Canal street towards Broad street and started driving around the city. Somehow I ended up near the WWII museum without GPS or any clue where I was or where I was going. I took this as a sign that since I fly home on the 7th, this is something I should see and it was something I did want to do. I drove around and found some parking on the back side near a construction zone. Two hours later I’d almost fall while trying to add an hour to my parking and a man would be taking a photo of my feet because of the unfinished construction zone.
I walked down and over to the museum entrance. The building across from me was tall, grey, and newish, spanning an entire block, plus the movie theater on my side. A group of younger students were exiting one of the theaters into the courtyard surrounded by the theater building. I crossed over to the museum entrance, looking at the names engraved in metal plaques on the ground of the front entrance, which was also a construction zone. They’re adding on the museum, of course.
In I went. In front there was a large train section for a future exhibit and above were two WWII plane replicas. I love planes. Grandpa probably would have loved the planes too. There were vehicle replicas as well to my left.
“Come on in, little lady, what can I help you with.” Said the greeting man. The place was bustling with people.
“Oh I’m good, just gonna wander over here to buy my tickets. Thanks!” I waved and walked to the line.
There were a couple movies as options to add to the museum. With nothing else to do today, I figured, hey, why not see one? So I got the one that was narrated by Tom Hanks, because well Tom Hanks and military movies is a thing.
Up I went to the right, and climbed the stairs to the exhibit levels. Now, not to take you out of the experience, but here is where things get a little fuzzy as it’s been a few days since and I wasn’t allowed to really take photos. I remember that the exhibits were so well laid out between the actual memorabilia, the sound effects and voices telling stories throughout.
While my Mom may think I don’t like history, this is incorrect. I am fascinated by history, greatly. Just don’t ask me to take a test on it. It wasn’t my best subject and I was not fond of the whole remember-this-on-this-date thing. I want the stories, to see things that existed in their state then and as they are now, years later. Soldier stories, letters, etc, lead the way through each level, from the start of the war to the end. It’s always interesting when you see these things from the American perspective versus the other country perspectives. We just end where “we win”. But once you get through to the end of the Pearl Harbor attack, to when Japan surrendered to us years later… it just stops on our atomic bombing. You don’t read much more than that about the devastation to Japan.
“Here, your grandfather, and son were fighting. Your Uncle didn’t, he got out of it.” I heard a man say to his son.
A specific section was for comparing American weapons and uniforms to Japanese. It was round, and both had giant flags behind the supplies. Japan used more grenades from what it looked like in this exhibit, but I think our machine gun was more advanced? I’m not positive but it looked like it might have been.
There were more weapons, of course, and photos, videos, voice recordings. I was so distracted by the stories that I realized I didn’t know what time it was. The movie was at noon, so I went to grab my phone, when the realization hit – phone is in the car. Damn it. I had to speed through the rest of the Japan exhibit a bit, to get back to the car and hope that I wasn’t missing the movie.
I hurried down the stairs, and out across the street to the my car. Luckily it was only 1148, so I had plenty of time. I went into the theater, behind many elderly folk.
I saw the giant line for the movie and got in. A man came down to take my ticket, then the younger asian girls’ tickets behind me. It was quite the mix of people here. Mostly older men and women but a few of us young folks.
We went into this large room with a few benches and about 8 large tvs, hung vertically instead of horizontally. I didn’t think this was the actual theater, I mean, who watches a movie on tiny tvs like this. I found a spot in back to sit. You could see the tvs from any angle in this room, whether or not you were tall or short. Good setup WWII museum, I approve.
A short, ten minute or so movie played as an introduction. Tom Hanks was on the screen, and the movie utilized two tvs as one. It was pretty well produced I’d say. Just wait till I get to the real movie… I’d be vibrating in my seat in about thirty minutes, literally.
We went in through the double doors – and really, I don’t understand how when there are two doors, people don’t use the two doors. Like, they made them both open so more than one person could go through at a time, I don’t understand how people just continuously, wherever you go, do not have this common sense. Okay /rant.
I found a seat in front, semi- middle away from people, but near to the exit in case I had to leave. My parking was up at 1:02, and I was concerned I might not be out in time. Don’t worry: I’d be okay later, as I’d find I’d have about 14 minutes to talk to my grandma and buy two decks of navy and air force playing cards before the meter ran out.
The movie was crazy awesome. Let me just say that now. I recognized all the actor voices for quotes from actual soldiers: Brad Pitt, Elijah Wood, Gary Sinise ( I think ), and several others. Tom Hanks narrated, of course. The production value was pretty incredible, as it not only had seats that shook during tank drives on screen, but built stage props and buildings, and screens with the names of those speaking at the time that would show and hide. There was fake snow, and smoke, – they really went out of their way to try and recreate the battle scenes/feelings, so that it wasn’t just something to watch, but a real interactive experience. The screen was large and wrapped around half the room, middle side to the opposite middle side. I bounced from the stage area to distract to the screen. I think part of the seating area even moved a little with the movie when there were planes on screen, as if we were flying. One Part I remember, they dropped the nose of a plane from the ceiling to match the plane in the movie – this was where I felt the seats were moving.
“So that was worth the extra ten $ into the museum.” I said to myself as I walked through the gift shop.
I checked my phone, Tiff had texted me a bunch, so I began replying to that when I saw my grandma had called. Of course she would call while I was at this museum. She had no idea I was there, but it just made sense because the first thing I thought as I went through it was that my grandparents would have loved it.
I found a small corner in the shop, and called her back. She had some chores for me to do from here. She does that, doesn’t matter what I’m doing, she has things for me to do.
“Yes ma’am, I’ll take a look and see if your name is anywhere, and I’ll check on that password when I get back to my rental. Bye Gramma, talk to you later. You too.”
We hung up. Yay, homework from Gramma… ha. Anyway, I went back through the books they had on the war, and few other things. I always buy cards when I travel as I love playing cards and it’s tradition. I like the ones that had different navy ships and planes so I got those.
I thanked the cashier guy and waved. I walked over to the exit and smiled at the greeters again.
“Thanks, Guys.” I said as I left.