The Adventure

“You’ll miss the adventure.” 

Haley rubbed the sandman out of her eyes, but faked sleep. It was too hard to wake up at 5:30 in the morning. Mom’s adventures meant getting up before the sun. They really were adventures, though. On one wake up call, Mom had taken her to the docks in New York Harbor. She didn’t know then that the big ferry boat with its giant paddle wheel was their destination. The Alexander Hamilton, as the boat was called, took her on a grand adventure up the Hudson River to West Point and back. On that lazy trip up the river, Haley watched the Palisades slip by and the green round hills replace them. One was called Bear Mountain, though it didn’t look like the huge mountains of her childhood.

“Zu Dir erwach ich liebster Gott” Mom began the Morning Prayer.
Haley found herself praying along, “Fuer mich steht's halten Dein Gebot." She pulled back the covers in mid prayer to ask, “Where are we going?” She knew Mom wouldn’t give away the secret. She never would. So Haley continued the prayer.

“It’s a surprise,” Mom said at the Amen. “Hurry, you won’t want to miss the bus.”

Haley wondered what bus would be running this early. She put on her warm sweater and the stretchy pants Mom bought her for Christmas. It was cold out, though the snow had already started to turn to slush on the street. When Haley left the apartment with her Mom it was still dark. Ten minutes later, they reached the Grand Concourse subway station at 188^th Street. During the rumbling screeching ride into the city, Haley tried to guess where they might be going on such an icy morning. She pulled her shawl tighter around her neck as she followed Mom up the subway's exit stairs in downtown Manhattan.  A huge sign across the sidewalk read Greyhound. A loping dog was its logo, and buses were idling all along the parking area under the sign.

“What’s our bus number,” Haley asked full of anticipation, knowing these weren’t city bus.

“Ten,” said Mom. “Over there,” she pointed down the line of buses quickly filling up with other pre-dawn riders.

Haley wrinkled her nose at the pungent smell of the diesel fuel. Looking up she read the bus’s destination bar, “Bear Mountain.” Remembering her ferry ride up the Hudson, she wondered why Mom was taking her to a boring green hill. Of course it wouldn’t be green in the thick of winter, but she asked, “Are we going sledding in the snow?”  Haley couldn’t guess the real purpose of the trip, because buses had many stops on the way to their final stop.

Mom didn’t hear Haley’s query because she was studying the schedule. “We’ll get there by eight thirty,” she said boarding the bus with Haley in tow. “Catch some sleep,” she added as she put a blanket over Haley’s knees to keep her warm. Mom always brought along plenty of things to make an adventure comfortable. Besides the blanket, her bag was full of good things to eat and travel games to play.

Haley stomach growled in spite of the pungent smell of diesel fuel in the air. Her mother opened the big bag and pulled out a boiled egg and crackers. “This will hold you over until we get there.” She handed her pig-tailed child the thermos full of hot chocolate.

With her hunger gone, the rumble and swaying of the bus put Haley to sleep.(to be continued)