Nothing personal, I just had other stuff to do. Last September we tried to take the Ecto to New York, but the engine exploded and we had to cancel the whole thing. Never accepting defeat, the Denver Ghostbusters rallied again this year for an epic road trip from Denver to Atlanta for DragonCon, then on to Washington D.C. and New York City to tour the filming locations.
Anyway, DragonCon was a LOT of fun. Met tons of new friends and met old internet acquaintances for the first time, which is what that is all about, right? The drive to New York was relatively uneventful, unless you count stopping to see SR-71s, Space Shuttles, and getting pulled over by the Secret Service for causing an alarm at the White House when you got too close in a car covered in tanks and antennas and "radioactive" labels as being boring... right? RIGHT?
Yeah, that's all true. I can go into it if you want, but I really just want to share the part of our trip that was THE MOST fun.
On day 7 of the trip we found ourselves in Manhattan. We did the normal Ghostbusters things like the library and 55 Central Park West, and the Firehouse.
Here's the video us taking off, even running a red light!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naze4G_tubYIt was a fun day and all, but thing didn't really start to come
off the freaking chain until the evening. I-I-I don't know how to describe it. Frankly, the whole night has barely sunk in -even a week later.
So we're back at the hotel. We've been tweeting the entire journey and Kris has been following the tweets of other people since DragonCon. People like Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage and mc Chris. We'd actually met mc Chris months before at one of his shows, and he'd absolutely loved the car, then we got to talking about the Jurassic Jeep and all this other things, mostly just really casual stuff like comments here and there on Facebook. Apparently mc's cousin had recently committed suicide, and he was taking it pretty hard. I suggested, jokingly, that we should take him for a spin and let the amazed shouts of New Yorkers get a chance to lift his spirits. Kris immediately started messaging him, but we didn't hear anything back for some time. Eventually this popped up on the feed: _mchris - because someone up there likes me, the ecto 1 is gonna pick me up and we're gonna drive around and bust ghosts.
So, it was on. He texted us his number and we got ready. We picked him and his assistant/friend Cat Greenfield up in Brooklyn. AJ climbed into the trunk to make space and we were off, hanging out with mc Chris.
Hanging out with mc Chris.
Again -
hanging out with mc ChrisAnyway, Chris wanted to make a few stops to say hi to friends, these stops turned out to be the awesome Forbidden Planet comic store and the Upright Citizens Brigade theater.
Holy ffffff! We mounted the curb and did the whole lights/sound thing and people went nuts, it was fun.
Around this time I wanted to do a run through Times Square, as it was early evening and we hadn't done that yet. So we drove over and did a slow cruise right through it, with everything but the lights absolutely maxed-out. Cat was laughing non-stop from the fun and Chris was keeping his twitter feed flowing steadily. EVERYONE inside the car and out seemed to be having an awesome night.
Now, we'd had some pretty heavy experiences with police during this trip, and it wasn't until we cruised Times Square that I really thought we'd show up on the NYPD radar as something that might need to be addressed. I mean, come on. It's New York freaking City, they have bigger fish to fry than a nerdmobile filled with nerds. But as we pulled out of the Square, a police car whipped in behind us and followed at a very close distance. Sphincters tightened and I prepared for the lights to turn on us to get our asses handed to us on the side of the road. But there were no lights - at the first opportunity the car pulled up alongside and the officer simply asked, "Hey, can you pull over so I can get some pictures?"
Suddenly the mood was completely changed. We pulled over, got out, and turned everything on. The officer and his partner we freaking jazzed to see the car come to life and started snapping pictures.
It wasn't even two minutes before Chris had their police lights on for a "siren party."
AJ suddenly had an idea, grabbed my arm and dragged me across the street to make a quick video parodying our pull-over clip that surfaced on youtube from Atlanta.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqXv4DEbltwEh, I thought it was funny.
The cops finished up their pictures and thanked us. Not one to ever waste an opportunity, I politely asked if there was any place in Times Square where the Ecto might pull over so we could get photos a little better than if it was in the middle of traffic. Something like a taxi pulloff or a vacant ambulance spot, anything. I knew it was an impossible question but one would have to be an absolute idiot to come this far and not even ask. The cop began to describe an area off to the side near one of the police towers, but then cut himself short and simply said, "Follow me."
We immediately piled back into the Ecto and began following the police car as it headed back toward the Square. The officer had radioed ahead and arranged for Broadway to be
shut down in order for the Ghostbusters to drive directly into the middle of Times Square.
At the earliest chance, I flipped on our lights and followed our
FREAKING POLICE ESCORT around to a barricaded area, where an opening was made. One cop car blocked off traffic in one direction from 47th, and another veered off to cover the other side. We then drove into the pedestrian area of the Square, next to the TKTS stage.
For the next forty minutes, tourists and New Yorkers alike mobbed the area to see what all the excitement was about, and thousands of people crowded around the car for pictures.
What started off as a lark and a potential traffic violation had turned into an unforgettable and unprecedented moment for us. We shook hands with police and thanked them profusely, but it seemed the whole ordeal was enjoyed equally by both parties.
Not wanting the moment to grow stale or outstay our welcome, we gave one last round of thanks to the members of the NYPD present and loaded up into the Ecto. Traffic into Times Square was once again shut down as the Magnum backed out of its spot and into the Broadway intersection. After receiving a send-off salute from the crowd present, the lights and siren were turned on and we departed down 47th in true "end credits" fashion.
Un. Freaking. Believable.
Here's the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EfQT9Asx8oForgive our gooniness, but we were all just moment from f---ing soiling ourselves.
After that we headed back to Brooklyn and trolled some of Chris favorite spots to grief hipsters. There is almost nothing as fun as watching groups of people seeing something that makes them really excited, and watching them try very hard not to
look excited.
Anyway. Yeah. I don't... I don't even know what's real anymore. I need to find my totem....
