Until our recent trip to the Newark airport town of Elizabeth, New Jersey, the nearest I had come to fulfilling the old saying, “You can’t get there from here” was at the tiny Pacific coastal fishing village of Yalapa, Mexico, where the only two options to get there are horses stomping through the rain forest and a water taxi from Puerto Vallarta. I shall never forget that great jaunt by water.
But after we got off of the New Jersey Turnpike and followed the directions that we had to get to Wyndham Gardens Hotel, where we were intending to stay, it would truly seem that finding it was impossible. After the directions didn’t work we stopped twice for directions, the last one even getting them from the Internet. Still we couldn’t find it. We ended up staying at the Newark Airport Hilton for the next two nights.
Even when my cousin was bringing me back from our trip into Manhattan, he directed his iPhone to take him there and it misdirected him to that hotel! I have no plans on a repeat of that venture, though I enjoyed the evening in Manhattan and the time at the hotel with Rhonda very much.
So the next time someone tells me jovially, “You can’t get there from here,” I won’t be laughing. I’ll be looking for another destination.
In the meantime, get a copy of my book, Most Comprehensive Origins of Cliches, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions online in either paperback or Kindle, and be looking for the first volume of Exploring Our Exciting World due out before Christmas.