Jersey City to Fort Worth Part one

I had decided to travel with my son on a Road Trip from Jersey City to Fort Worth in Texas as he was moving there to start a new life with his family ( wife and baby daughter )

Arrived at Newark Airport on 29 June following an uneventful journey from Dublin via Heathrow ( its much easier to going through HRW on the way out ).
Met by my son and back in his apartment in about half an hour .Having been greeted by daughter-in-law and grand daughter , the two of us set out for a night on the town ( Manhatten ),with some of his friends and collegues from work , a combined bon voyage and birthday celebration .
On the following morning while final tidying up operations were taking place inside , I sat on the steps of the apartment in the beautiful morning sunshine hanging out with my grand daughter . Many neighbours and casual acquaintences dropped by to say goodbye , chat to the little one , and view the furniture and fittings which were laid out on the pavement , there for the taking . The genuine sadness of these friends and neighbours to the imminent departure of this young family , gave lie to the image that people in this part of the city were self absorbed
Mother and baby set off for the airport , to fly to Texas , accompanied by various suitcases , bags , boxes , baby stuff , a huge 'steamer chest' and a stunned cab-driver.

I got my first opportunity to have a close look at what we will call Hugh Hall , this combination of a Honda Accord and a U-Haul trailer. Both had been loaded up to , and in my opinion far beyond their capacity , weight wise .The trailer was taller and wider that the car and every square inch of space inside was full , it had the cables for brakes and lights and the connecting tow bar had an overriding 'fail-safe' steel chair . Advice from friends from the night before was to the effect '' don't let U-Haul see this , they will probably tell you to unload half of the stuff..
The Accord likewise was fully loaded to the roof in the back , both the side windows and the rear window ,all obscured ....I was already having doubts about my offer to do some of the driving...

However , before we left we had the little problem of despatching seven parcels /packages of various shapes and sizes and to convey these parcels to the local US Mail offices meant having to borrow a trolly from the local liqour store ( question , how come my son was on such good terms with the local off-licence?).
We had to make two trips , when we arrived at the Mail offices , the lady in charge first lowered her glasses down her nose and then raised her eyes to heaven , pointed to the nearby parcel desk and ominously handed me a large pair of scissors and two rolls of clear sealing tape .

I think the battle really started when my son approached the lady at the Parcel Desk . Seven large to medium parcels , .first she said they were not properly wrapped , some were too bulky some too heavy and ALL should be wrapped in brown wrapping paper , ( had she any brown wrapping paper ....of course not , anyway the labels should all be printed .....)
As the battle progressed , between bouts the lady paced up and down , like a boxer waiting for the next round....she was too rude even for Ryanair...
The tall parcel was a Christmas Tree , it had a picture of a christmas tree on three sides and the words Christmas Tree printed clearly on the other three sides .....''what's in THAT box she said'' , We said it was a christmas tree , Why were we sending a christmas tree from Jersey City to Fort Worth on the 30 th June , did we not trust the speed and efficiency of the US Postal service ???
Eventually the score was 5...2 , she accepted five parcels , we had to take two away.
Meanwhile a row broke out between some of the people in the queue behind us , people who had been waiting impatiently , four-letter words were thrown around and blows were about to be struck , the lady in charge threathened to call the COPS .As we left I tried to offer our apologies for our part in the kerfuffle , but my son , ever the diplomat , guided me outside by the elbow....inside the voices got louder and I think I heard a police siren in the distance....
As we made our way back to the apartment it started to rain...

We checked over Hugh Hall , made sure everything was in readyness for our early morning start and went to sleep on two seperate duvets , all that remained in the apartment...