2021 Awareness Drive – Fathers’ Day Road Trip to Long Island, NY

There is only one place in New York I have not been and I told my hubby we are going to be intentional on this specific route because I have to meet a friend, see USMMA and see what the fuss about Coney Island Boardwalk. Well, it was all good until we hit the traffic. We left Severn MD at 9AM and we didn’t arrived in Farmingdale until 5PM … a 5 1/2 drive supposedly that lasted 8 hours. As we are nearing New Jersey/New York borders, the traffic is getting worst and worst. I realized that for folks living in these States, the sight of bumper-to-bumper traffic wasn’t uncommon, but for us passing through, it seemed a nightmare to experience it day in and day out. The 127 miles stretched took us nearly 4 hours to get to. Additionally, since it was our 1^st road trip to New York hauling a small camper, we didn’t realized that it is illegal to tow anything in your vehicle in any New York Parkway roads. Luckily, since it was bumper-to-bumper, a kind motorist flagged us of the law and the potential fine if we get pulled over.

Even before we traveled, Gina and I have talked about “contingency plan” — for the visit, for the stay and or how to approach Matthew — because we do not know how he would react when we are meeting them for the first time. We try to be spontaneous but when it comes to Matthew, there is no such a thing — as the “elephant within him” can decide to get out of hiding and that would be the end of our visit.

Gina and I have been co-workers since 2014 but we have never met in person. We’ve talked about work but the latter years, we’ve been shifting our conversations about each other’s family. When we started our AS Awareness in 2019, she was as excited as knowing that in 2021, we will be doing an East Coast route. Being that it is Father’s Day, when we got to their place, we were crashing their family get together. We’ve met her family, kids, and her in-laws. We were able to sit down on long table and told them about Angelman Syndrome. When you talk about AS and Matt is right beside you showing his tendencies (while Mike tended on him) while I was explaining the ups and down of the Syndrome … it was a lot easier to sell something when proof is right in front of you.

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During our stay, the Dreher family were gracious of Matthew’s behavior, they were generous of their home and their time. We stayed and chatted until Midnight and just catch up on everything … from conversing about getting to know their family dynamic, their respective jobs and being respectful of the limitations we have in caring for Matthew and vice versa. The following day was very informal … while we have told the family to not treat us like guest, their kind-warm-hearted personalities spoke so much about how they have treated us. Their abode is beautiful and their backyard retreat is very peaceful. Matthew and I ate our breakfast in the backyard.

After breakfast, Gina, as beautiful as she is, her heart is giving. She took the day off just to tour us around. She drove us to see the beach and boardwalk in Long Island. We were able to celebrate Father’s Day exclusively. While she and I were continuing to converse from the interrupted midnight chat… “I know, I know, women never ran out of stories when the company is right”… Mike and Matthew walked on the shoreline. While the fog and chilly air is eavesdropping and the sun is awakening, the boys were focused on checking out the sea breeze. We stayed in the boardwalk until the sun finally decided to show up. You can tell that Matthew didn’t like to leave the place … he was fighting us, screaming his will on us and passersby are wondering if the child needs to have an attitude adjustment. He was very loud and we have to coaxed him of “ice cream time” before he finally gave in.

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Since it was still very early to go back to Gina’s house, she toured us to her work place the United States Marine Merchant Academy {USMMA}. I’ve used to work in the accounting area for USMMA and it was fitting for me to see it while I am there close by.

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We were planning on staying one more night, but because of the possible traffic in New York, we opted on leaving early and camp out outside Long Island so that we have a head start on the traffic. As we bade goodbye, it was so hard to let go on good visit. We stayed overnight but both my husband and I felt like we have known the Dreher for a lot longer than one day. As we looked back on our visit, we were good to leave knowing that we have spread awareness in a group of people who were empathetic and very kind.

As we are leaving Long Island, you can tell we are a tourist through and through because instead of us driving away from the traffic, we drove to it instead … yes, we drove our camper to Manhattan, in the busiest downtown of them all. As we got lost, both hubby and I have to keep reminding ourselves that there is a silver lining. At least we can say we have more exposure on our Awareness in New York due to traffic stoppage. Other motorist that were idle have ample of time to check our camper.

As we looked back on our visit, we were good to leave knowing that we have spread awareness in a group of people who were empathetic and very kind. However others take our story, we are taking a softer side of the Awareness … if in all these travels, there are only few people that we are making aware of our cause, then it is all worth it.