If you are an American tennis fan, the granddaddy of all tennis is the US Open. This is located in Queens, NY and is one of the four grand slams of tennis. I LOVE the US Open and have been there quite often. For years, Bob Neff Tours offered an overnight bus trip to this event and it was very easy to attend. You simply showed up at the scheduled pick-up point in the morning and the bus took you to the Billie Jean Tennis Center and dropped you off. You returned to the bus at the end of the day and it took you back to your motel and in the morning back to tennis. At the end of that day it took you home again. It was fun and relaxing and I got to enjoy a lot of tennis matches.
Unfortunately, a few years back, Bob Neff discontinued this bus trip and I had not been to the Open since. I was really wanting to go again, but the thought of driving was intimidating. The New York traffic scares me, plus the tennis center is located right next door to the Mets baseball stadium and if the Mets have a game, it can be an absolute nightmare trying to navigate through the city to a motel, late at night after the last match. Steve and I did consider it, but the timing this year wasn't that great for Steve to go so I started looked for an alternative way to get there.
The US Open website encourages people to use mass transit to get to the tournament. Now that was really frightening to me. The last time I was on a NY subway I was 12 years old and on a school trip. Well, I may have ridden it a time or two since, but never when I paid any attention to how they operated. I just followed someone else's leading. I knew I would need help if I was going to take the mass transit route. I decided to recruit my friend Becky. She is much braver than I am, and she was a little more familiar with the subway system, having a brother-in-law and sister-in-law that live in NY and also having used the mass transit system in Europe when she was there as a college student. She also enjoys tennis so I asked her if she would want to go with me to the US Open and handle the transportation end of things. She was up for the challenge and so the two of us set off early Monday morning.
We arrived at the Lancaster train station and boarded the Keystone Line headed to Penn Station, NY and enjoyed a leisurely and uneventful ride. At Penn Station we disembarked and walked up the steps to the huge open floor building. There were a lot of people mulling around, but since it was the middle of the day it wasn't too bad, and Becky (I was following) found the exit for 8th and 34th Street and we walked out of the building onto the sidewalk. Crossing several busy intersections we followed the signs for the subway and walked down the steps into the underground transit system. The first order of business was to purchase a Metro Card so you could ride the subway. That mission finished, we (well, Becky) found the E Train and we boarded it and headed west toward Flushing, NY. The subway wasn't full and it was actually pretty pleasant riding in it. I soon got used to the man's recorded voice saying, "stand clear of the closing door" as the train stopped often and picked up and dropped off passengers. It didn't pause long and if you weren't ready to board you missed it and had to wait for the next one. Nobody gave the two of us a second glance and most people were either sleeping, on their phones, or looking off into space.
We got off the E train at Jackson Height-Roosevelt Avenue and followed signs to the 7 train and boarded it toward Flushing Meadow and the Tennis Center. This train was not as nice as the E Train and there were no red, flashing ticker tape, letting you know what stop you were at, and what the next plaza would be. You actually had to watch out the window to read the signs for yourself. No recorded voice told you the name of the plaza or where you were headed. Nevertheless, Becky had done her research well and when the train pulled into the Mets-Willets Point station, we stepped off onto the platform and found ourselves within walking distance of the gigantic US Open Tennis Complex. We had arrived!
We had a great day watching tennis and even got to see the match of the day where American Sloane Stephens was able to prevail in a third-set tiebreak. We also saw Serena Williams and several others. Roger Federer was scheduled for the evening on Arthur Ashe stadium but got cancelled because of rain. At around 10:00 we headed for our motel. We got back on the 7 train and rode it eastward one more stop to Flushing. This is actually the end of the line for the 7 train and where it turns around to go back to Manhattan. When we came up the steps out of the subway, we paused to try to figure out which direction to walk. We had a map and knew that our motel was only 2 blocks away but we were unsure which way to go. We started walking one way and then I made the comment, that I could probably use the GPS on my Smartphone to guide us. This seemed like a really intelligent idea however one has to know how to operate it for it to be useful. I fumbled around and never did find the Navigation icon (which somehow mysteriously disappeared from my phone). After a few minutes we gave up and kept walking. As it turned out, we had gone the wrong way but we turned around and retraced our steps and were able to walk to the motel without any more difficulty.
After a good night's sleep we headed out the next morning to enjoy another day of tennis. When we were about a block away from the subway station, we noticed that there was a lot of people on the sidewalk. As we got closer to the subway, the crowds increased until they took up the entire sidewalk and spilled out into the street. Buses that said "subway shuttle" were everywhere. We soon realized that the subway was not operating and buses were shuttling people out of the area instead. It was bedlam. People were frantic to get on a bus and when one would pull up, they pounded on the door for the driver to open it up and let them in. The drivers were mad because the people stood in the street and wouldn't let them pull up to the sidewalk, so they blasted their horns and made angry motions with their hands for the people to move back. Policeman stood in the street and hollered to the crowd to "get off the street and onto the sidewalk." The line of people trying to get on buses was a block long and 8 or 10 people deep. The buses tried to pull up to the end of the line to load passengers and people kept running up to the front and pushing their way through in the hope of getting on one. Those of us that were halfway back the line had little hope of getting picked up. I figured we would be there for quite a while. In the middle of all this commotion, an ambulance tried to get through with lights flashing, siren screaming and horn beeping. The buses had the street so jammed that it could barely get through and people were crossing the street trying to get to buses on the other side so the ambulance had to navigate through buses, cars and people. It was a miracle that it finally got through. Becky and I were standing at the edge of the sidewalk, in the middle of this crowd not really knowing what to do, when suddenly a bus pulled up right beside me and opened its door. I jumped into the bus with Becky right behind me and we sat together on a seat. People surged into the bus. Once the seats were full, they just stood wherever they could. It was so full that the driver couldn't shut the door. He kept saying, "move away from the door. I can't drive the bus until the door is closed." Somehow, the person in front of the door managed to shift a little bit, so the driver could secure it properly and away we went. The man in the seat in front of us said, "I have no idea where this bus is going, but I'm going with it!" Becky and I nodded agreement and waited to see where it would take us. As it turns out, it drove us to the next subway station which was where we wanted to go anyway, and was right at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
After that exciting beginning to our Tuesday, we enjoyed a great day of tennis. We were there early enough to secure coveted seats in the shade in the Grandstand Stadium and we stayed there all day watching whatever matches were being played. We got to see the number one American John Isner and several other big names. We left the tennis complex around 4:30 so we would have plenty of time to make it back to Penn Station to get the 6:30 Keystone train to Lancaster.
We found seats on the 7 train that was headed to Manhattan and Becky said to watch for the Jackson-Roosevelt Station where we would make the transfer to the E Train. Unfortunately, Becky had been looking at station stops for the E train instead of the 7 train, so we rode for a little while blissfully unaware that our plaza stop was never going to appear. Finally, we realized that something was wrong and Becky went to investigate (remember this was the train that doesn't tell you anything about what stop you are at or where you are going). She found a map and soon realized what had happened. We had already stayed on the train 3 stops too far. This didn't seem like too big a deal because we only had to get off at the next plaza and take the east train back 3 stops to 74th Street which was where we needed to be to make the transfer. What we didn't think about was that it was now rush hour and everyone was coming from Manhattan on their way home from work. To say that the train was full would be an understatement. When it stopped, I went to try to step on the already over-crowded train and a man said, "Get back. There are some people that have to get off." Several people pushed their way through the mass and out on to the platform. Then some of us tried to board again. There was absolutely no room and the train does not wait for anyone. I wiggled and shoved and managed to get on and Becky was trying to come right behind me. She got her feet in and most of her body. As she tried to push her body forward, the door was closing behind her. It banged her on the head as it closed but she made it! I was very relieved, because I'm not sure if I would have panicked or not if we had gotten separated. That was a ridiculous ride back to our missed stop. We were packed like sardines. I certainly didn't have to worry about losing my balance, because I couldn't have moved an inch if I would have wanted to. We suffered through the next couple stops, where people again tried to board or get off. People didn't want to step off the train to let others disembark because there was the fear that you wouldn't get back on again. Finally, the train pulled up to the 74th Street station and Becky and I pushed and shoved our way off the train and on to the platform. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. The thing I can't believe is that people put up with that everyday. No thanks for this country girl!
We walked over to the Jackson-Roosevelt Station and soon boarded the E Train toward Manhattan. We had plenty of space and we were both glad to sit and relax a little bit. We exited the subway system at 34th Street and walked the short distance to Penn Station. It was a lot busier than the last time we were there. The large open room was full of people and most of them were just standing and staring at the big departure board high up on the ceiling in the center of the room. The board tells you whether your scheduled train is on time, but it does not give you the track number until about 10 minutes before departure. The public address system announces the train and track number and as soon as people hear what track their train will be departing from they make a beeline for that exit. When they announced the track for a train going to New Jersey, about 3/4 of the people in Penn Station all tried to cram into one little escalator that would take them to the track. I was glad we were not taking that train. Periodically you would see someone running frantically through the station in an all-out sprint, trying desperately to make a departing train. We had to wait about 40 minutes but eventually our train and track number was called and flashed on the departure board and we were able to make our way to the correct exit and board the Keystone Line toward good old Lancaster. Fortunately not too many people were making this connection so we did not feel hurried.
I was glad to sink into the seat of the train that would take me back to all that is familiar. I've decided that traveling to New York is not for the faint of heart! I owe a huge thank-you to Becky for getting us there and back. I would not have embarked on this journey by myself. There is not too much that fazes Becky and even through our ordeal of a broken subway system and missed connection, she remained calm and acted like this was ordinary (which it probably is for New York).
Would I do it again? I think so. Once you understand the system, the mass transit is probably the easiest way to get to the tennis venue. Since I love the US Open, I'm sure I will want to go again. That is why I wrote everything down in detail so that the next time, if I need to I can navigate the way. Here's to being brave and learning new things when you are over fifty!
This is a video of the number one American John Isner. He is 6' 10" and has an incredible serve. Watch closely when he is serving. He bounces the ball between his legs from back to front before he starts his serve motion.
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