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Travel Tales:
Trey Mink's Big Apple Experience

Over the years, I have been blessed with opportunities to travel. While the “getting” to various places is not always the most enjoyable experience, I almost always have an abundance of notable memories to take with me back home.

Sharing highlights of my own and, more importantly, hearing of other people’s ventures is something I have always found enjoyable, and think others might as well. That is why this week I am kicking off a running interview series called Travel Tales, where I speak with ITD colleagues about their various adventures in travel.

Jess:  Thanks for sitting down with me, Trey. Last year you visited New York City —how'd you make the decision to go?
Trey: Well, first off, I agreed to go to New York because the flight was free. Second, I had been wanting to try Neapolitan pizza for a while; and third, I wanted to spend the day with my son, Colton. He works for an airline, which is how I was able to travel at no cost.

Jess: Did you accomplish your goal of eating a New York slice?
Trey:  We went to the famous Grimaldi’s Pizzeria in Brooklyn. We got there at 11 a.m. and by that time they had a line of about 300 people waiting outside. We weren’t there very long when a guy came out and announced, in a very unapologetic fashion I might add, that only half of the people there would be getting a slice of pizza that day. We were unfortunately on the unlucky end of the line.

Jess: I don’t mean to tell you “I told you so,” but before you left I did warn you that you likely wouldn’t get into Grimaldi’s.
Trey:  Yeah, but it was the first place we went after we landed, so I figured we had a shot. Luck was still on our side though, because just after that announcement was made I noticed there was a guy parked in a motorhome across the street who happened to be selling pizza out of his window.
We walked over to the motorhome and placed our order but when I went to pay with a $20 bill, he looked at me with a bit of an attitude concerning the amount of change he would have to make. We added a few Pepsis to the order and that seemed to make him happy.

Jess: So how was your first taste of Neapolitan pizza?
Trey:  It was okay. It was fried bread, tomatoes and cheese, but other than that, I wouldn’t say it necessarily qualified as pizza. I honestly think I could do better making it myself, but I sat on the sidewalk in Brooklyn, eating pizza with my son, and checking off an item on my list. I was impressed with the guy selling pizza though. There were about 25 other customers at the motorhome and even though he never took my name, when the order came up, he looked directly at me in the crowd, pointed my way, and repeated our order back verbatim.

Jess: How long were you there? Did you ever get to try Grimaldi’s?
Trey: No. We arrived at 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning and I was back in bed in Gooding by 9 p.m. on Sunday night.

Jess: You go bed that early?
Trey: I had a long couple of days! I actually fell asleep during the Broadway show "Chicago." Colton had to wake me up because I was snoring. That was actually a fun experience though and I recommend everyone try to see a show on Broadway at least once in their life. The tickets were expensive and I am not much of a musical guy, but the play was much better than the movie and it revealed to me that Broadway is not this mystical place in the clouds that I grew up hearing people talk about on Johnny Carson. It’s a real street in a real city.

Jess: What other interesting things did you do?
Trey: We went to Central Park and saw all the tunnels and locations where crime scenes are filmed for television and movies. My goal was to talk to a mounted NYPD officer, but I never saw one of those guys. I did however, almost get run over by an officer on a scooter that was zooming past a sign which said “no bicycles on the sidewalks.” Those officers were less intimidating than one would have been on horseback – they reminded me of the geek squad from Best Buy, but with firearms.

Jess: New York is famous for food. Did you eat anywhere else while you were there? Please don’t tell me you ate in the Theater District.
Trey: We ended up eating a few blocks away from there at a deli/convenience store type place.

Jess: Those are called bodegas.
Trey: Well, there was a bouncer at the door and the only way they accepted payment was with a debit card with a chip. There was no sampling at the food bar allowed and customers were only allowed 15 minutes to eat at their counter. If either of those rules were broken, or you tried to pay with something other than a chipped debit card, the bouncer would come over and yell at you.

Jess: No way you actually saw him intimidating people in that manner!
Trey: Yes, I did! And I’m pretty sure I recognized him from Monday Night Football! But I guess in a town with that many people, space is a luxury, so I kind of understand the reasoning behind it.

Jess: You’re making me miss New York more with each tale you tell.
Trey:   It was actually quite an adventure. I did get yelled at…twice, but overall I could understand the mindset of people trying to survive in a city of that magnitude that has literally zero downtime.

Jess: So, you also fit the Metropolitan Museum of Art into your 24-hour visit?
Trey: Well, we didn’t even see half of the Met and when it came time to leave, it took 20 minutes to find our way out, but I did get to see an Egyptian exhibit with a lot of ancient relics. I tried to pass as a New Yorker because they can enter museums for free, but unfortunately no one was buying my act.

Jess: How did you get around Manhattan and Brooklyn?
Trey: We used Uber and the subway system.

Jess: What did you think of the Metropolitan Transit Authority?
Trey:  It was…an experience. I found it both confusing to navigate and disorienting. Climbing down the stairs at some of the subway stations was like going into granny’s cellar, and there really are rats running around on the tracks, that’s not just in movies. Apparently, there are also unspoken rules for riding the subway and while we didn’t know them, people were quick to clue us in.

Jess: What would you consider a highlight of the trip?
Trey: Going across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Jess: Is it still your favorite bridge?
Trey: Yes. Just the abutments and rockwork at the abutments is artwork in itself. The craftsmanship on that structure is spectacular.

Jess: Anything or anyplace you left out?
Trey: We also visited the 9/11 Memorial while there.

Jess: Would you like to go back?
Trey: Yes, absolutely; I’m actually anxious to go back again. I’d like to spend more time checking out the Brooklyn Bridge and some other things in the area. I’d even cough up the money to see another Broadway show.

Jess: So how does New York compare to Idaho?
Trey:  Nothing compares to Idaho.