Well, the first part of my US Open story is the journey. Thirteen hours on Monday the 29th spent going all around the mulberry bush – and then a cab driver who couldn’t find 114th and 37th, though it’s less than 10 minutes heavy traffic time from LaGuardia.
But Diane and I made it to our hotel in time for a brisk walk around Corona/Flushing/Queens (definitely not Cincinnati), dinner in the hotel’s Pine Room restaurant – pretty terrific, great service, TVs all turned to the US Open. Not what one would expect from a Holiday Inn, even if it is the closest hotel to the Open. I got to watch Roger play his first set – not very well. So I went to sleep, ready to deal with whatever the news in the morning.
It was all a quick reminder of how much I love New York – the noise, the attitude, the energy. A general outrageousness which requires a lot of energy just to be in. It is so ‘nowhere else in the world.’
p s The whole area around the Open barely suffered at all from Hurricane Irene, although she devastated much of the rest of the Eastern Seaboard. When we flew into DC on one leg of our journey, the Potomac was huge, with water covering much more ground than the norm. No sign at all in Queens – and the weather all week was crisp, cool, high of about 80, cool evenings.