The journey: Drive :6148 miles or 9,899.89 kms in 31 days - but the adventure was completed a bit early

As you can see we travelled nearly 10, 000 kms, and probably walked 300 ks or more too.

We travelled through; and main highlights.

California- Jim and Droni and family, Alcatraz, Monterey, sequoia national park, Death Valley 

Nevada- Las Vegas, 

Arizona- Grand canyon 

New Mexico- Alburquerkie, Santa Fe, Petrified Forest. 

Texas- Lubbock(buddy holly), Post, Wichita Falls(flooding)

Oklahoma- Oklahoma City Memorial, 

Kansas- Fort Scott, National Park

Missouri- Jefferson City, State Capitol,  Joplin hurricane memorial

Illinois- transit

Indiana- George Roges Clark memorial in Vincennnes; West Baden Springs and French Lick resort

Kentucky -distillery, air conditioner defunct, new car Lexington. Frankfort

Ohio- Ashland pub meal and post card in the Bible. Athens- fancy university town

West Virginia- Wheeling...

Pennsylvania- covered bridges, flight 93 memorial, Baseball, Libety Bell,  Amish.

Washington DC- DC, Smithsonian, National Cathedral, 

Virgina-Arlington National Cemetery 

Delaware-Just in transit 

Maryland- just travelled through.

New Jersey - Atlantic City: Big Organ, exploring the Brigatine area Time Share. 

New York.- Empire State Building, Staten Island ferry, 911 memorial, the city.

Of particular note is the non experience of any 'unpleasant" locals ; everyone went (almost) out of their way to be as helpful as they could, especially in New York.  Whilst we didn't drive much in huge metropoli, the drivers and the traffic was not all that bad.  New York, once you got the idea of every street is one way went good.  Most of the towns were easy to get around, logical and  mostly well signposted.   

The roadside many places were in poor repair, particularly noticeable is penchant for using concrete roads which have agressive seams and the channelled concrete roads are horribly noisy.   The drivers are generally detirmined, fast("what speed limit?" ) , don't know what indicators are for, and like passing really close, we didn't experience many instances of agressive or dangerous driving.  The truckies in Australia could learn a thing or two about courtesy and safety fro the semi drivers.  Motorcyclist, don't seem as relatively common here but intelligence is measured by the size of the helmet;from nil with full helmet and leathers, and decreasing for the states where helmets aren't worn. 

The cost of the fuel....ranges from 74 through to about 85 cents a litre.

Driving is not a challenge in the US...the roads are a bit spaghetti like in the cities, so having Julia was essential.

Space for at least another two visits to the US, north and the south US.  As to where we will be going next...mabe South India, maybe Myanmar, maybe somewhere else....all an adventure.

Not there yet!

Last bit of New York, out for breakfast at Friedmans 

Note the "A" in the window.

And the only city more expensive than Phillidelphia for parking

Never having experienced serious delays, of failed to arrive after taking off, in the airline parts of our travels we feel  this contemporaneous account of the QF 18 from JFK.  The driver of the bus collected us at the hotel at 1.30 p.m. local time so the time line will begin there,as zero hour.  That bus ride was quite interesting, but it is obvious that the driver had done this trip many times, and may have done this one with his eyes closed.  It was the first Australian accent we had heard in six weeks though.....

+ 1 hour arrived at JFK and the check in chick could not have cared less, and it wasn't til we nearly got to the sterile area that we discovered that we hadn't even been seated together.

+ 5 hours advised the incoming flight was late so we would be leaving half and hour late.

+ 5.5 hrs left the gate. 

There are now 25 planes in the row waiting for take off.  But then due to storm over Central US we were given a re routed route from the original route to  the north along the Canadian border, then south to Vegas then to LA.

+7 hours  we have waited too long so there is not enough fuel so have to load up another 18 tonnes of fuel   On runway for an hour..before returning to gate for re fuelling before we have even left the ground, but  then Sydney had to negotiate with Icelandic airways to use fuelling bay nine two hours after we left gate three At this time we have already missed the connecting flight so nave no idea what's going on...

+ 8 .5 hours 9.20p.m start refuelling  another 18 tons of fuel.  (Finished watching the film Lincoln)

+ 9.5 hours already 10 pm ( NY time)missed connecting flight...crew don't know what's going on yet...but working on it. Leaving bay 9, and to the taxi way.......

9.20p.m start refuelling  another 8 tons of fuel

10.15 taxi to runway ...

10.26 a favour Atc given us Quebec runway overtaking 15 waiting aircraft....

10.32 take off  4 hours late 3.5 hours in the plane before take off. 4 hours lat

+ 13.5 hrs 3.35 ny land lax we are now told that our re scheduled flight will be landing in Sydney, so we've apparently blown our duty free.

+ 15.5 hrs board 5.45 am ny time.

+16 hrs. The captain tells us the containers  have been loaded incorrectly, so we will be here another 30 to 40 minutes so it is reasonable to suggest we are starting to get a bit grumpy...

+18.5. 0800 ny time the captain is not happy with paperwork so the air bridge in coming back.

+19.00 0830 ny time taxi out. 3 hours late lax

+19.5 hrs  0900 ny time take off, ot is now light so what that means is that we will be flying in the day all the way to Sydney 

+33.5 hrs tending to landing at Sydney 

+35.5hours left Sydney in separate seats, expressed our concerns to Qantas particularly about the hundreds of  extra transit passengers and only two cattle class check in counters open.

+37 hrs back in Melbourne 2 15 am ny time (a day and a half after we started )

+38.5 rs 415 ny timeHome by good graces of Patrick, Saasha, Elroy and Noah 

We are really disappointed with Qantas, particularly the delays which happened in respect of the reasons for the flight leaving JFK late in the first place. It is hurricane season in the US. It was on theTV.  It was on the weather charts at the Airport about the big storms in the central parts.  But at the busiest airport in the world the flight deck crew chose to leave the gate never in their wildest imaginations any anticipation that they might be rerouted, and after lining up behind thirty other aircraft, advised of the rerouting, then decided that we didn't have enough fuel so had to get back to the gate and negotiate to get a spot to fill up..AT JFK!!!!!  How can a reasonable aircrew not anticipate or plan for  this severe weather/ re routing contingency?

The delay at LAX, should not have happened either.  It was due to the apparent incompetence of Qantas (contracted ) ground staff who in incorrectly loaded the aircraft at Thankful that the captain picked this up but his crew should have not let it happen.

The Qantas cabin crew from LAX to Sydney were at best beige, but a bit slack.

 

We were quite impressed with the management of the logistics of the reallocation of "missed flights" by your company..that was well done.( no matter how annoyed we were for the unnecessary delay)

This delay also cost us a number of duty free"bargains" (not equalled in Sydney) which we were ineligible to collect due to Qantas taking us to Sydney rather than Melbourne where we should have arrived as international arrivals. The incoming duty free at Sydney was crap.

Most o these 'unavoidable delays' were avoidable.

Yet another day in ...... well New York...

Having walked about 22 kms yesterday, and getting six hours sleep, at our room with a view of a back wall of a building, albeit very quiet for New York, we got the subway to something avenue and w something street we are going on a TOUR... a real tour, with a bus and a guide and stuff we don't have to find out ourselves......

Breakfast at the Europa Cafe W53 and Broadway before the tour.

Geoff Tour Guide...

We think tour is his middle name.

"Interesting" "Facts" about Manhattan and New York 

41 000 police

18,000 taxis @ $700k for each tag. Which is literally screwed or riveted to the bonnet

Hotels can not refuse people acces to their rest rooms

All Manhattan eateries must have menu in windows, and their latest health ratings.. A(blue) is good stay away from the B (green.)

North to south twenty blocks equal a mile and east to west 100 yards equal 1 block.East to west.

22,000 restaurants in Manhattan 

Soho stands for south of Houston (House ton) street

Can't honk horn $350 fine...and it works

Can't stop and leave car or truck idling $2000.00 fine

The Episcopalian Trinity Church church in Wall Street is worth $2b because of the land it sits on.

Most of the shops on fifth avenue don't make a profit, they are there for prestige.

There were 178 unborn children listed at the WTC site. 

Also visited Central Park and the adjacent place that John Lennon was murdered

The front of the Dakota building.

We went across on the Staten Island ferry where we great views of the SOL 

SOL without stilts 

Including  the armed coast guard escort, which follows every ferry.

And the explosives detector dogs too

Saying goodby to the tour after six or so long hours, we walked up Broadway to Central Park, hired some bikes, and then got lost in Central Park for two hours on the bikes.  It is a huge park, used by hundreds of thousands of people daily, had a number of big lakes where boats are hired out.  It looked like a midget Amanda, but way less organised.   There are huge grassed areas. Where the New Yorkers just take a picnic blanket, something to throw, some food and veg out on the lawns.

The fence at Central Park.

Some of the park trying to show the thousands of people.

It is a place that will require much more close examination.

Then to a Mexican restaurant near Times Square, which took the liberty of adding the gratuity to the bill....only in America.  Having said that the meal was good and service very good...but bit of a cheek.

Fajita and other Mexican stuff 

After a pit stop for a shower and a change of undies..very hit and humid today, headed out at about 9 pm on the subway to the WTC to see it at night.   Got there, and surprisingly it was dark...closed up, not lit up at all...oh well.... Make that a point in favour of the American habit of making the structures more important than the memorial they represent.

On the way back we sidled by the Madison Square Graden, which is A. Not square B. Not a garden C. Nowhere near Madison ave. but very impressive.

Walked about 20 ks today, rode about 10 -15 ks.

Go home tomorrow.  Précis and wrap up to be done in due course goodnight.

4120679 confirmation number 

New York New York, well Manhattan really....maybe Camelot

After dropping the car and Julia off, we walked south to the High Line, which is an abandoned elevated train line which has been turned into a garden, walkway and community space...

The NY we are experiencing at the the moment is very busy, always noisy, and lots and lots of cars, which we, now as pedestrians, have to really watch out for.  The concept of waiting til the red hand (red man) has stopped before one crosses the road is not in the practical vocabulary of these people, lulling we foreigners into thinking the lights have changed.....Oi vey!!!

Caught the subway again, very ably navigated and guided by Nathalie, we found the ground zero WTC site.  It's the place missing two substantial buildings.    It is a very impressive monument/ memorial to the more than 3000 people who lost their lives that day.

...but similar to the flight 93 memorial, is very close to being a tribute to the memorial rather than the people interestingly it also remembers the 9 people killed in the 1993 bombing at the WTC.

Then we walked to Battery park where near the Irish Potato Famine Memorial(true,!!!) we happend upon a young Amish couple and their eight month old child.  They were down from Lancaster county for the day, as a company picnic type thing.  

Obviously they were not ultra orthodox, because he didn't have a beard, and there weren't a long line of horse and carriages blocking the street.  Plesant to chat with and  very interested in what we were doing, but had no idea where Australia was.  He was in construction, she was a home looking after the child.

Then caught the subway back to near our accommodation 

The Gem Hotel., obviously via the largest department store in the world: Macys. checked in, and were blessed with a fifth floor tiny room (room 604) at the going rate of about $240 a night...pretty expensive in these parts. But we got our own bathrobes...not to keep though.

Had a little bit of quiet time then......,,,

Out for tea and then walked again to Times Square, it is just a huge expanse of neon, billboards, five storey high tv screens  and many many people, just milling about.  We also saw at lest six Statues of Liberty, most on stilts sand frankly looked like scarey preying manti. 

A resting SOL

Andrew, Nathalie (front row) and a five storey tv screen behind.

Sat for a while here, then wandered all the way up to where one would find the Empire State Building.  It would have been 10 p.m by the time we got there, so did not expect the still huge crowds.  Paid our money...lots of it, to go to the 86th floor, which is the last floor before the pointy bit on the top.  The views were spectacular, and it was much cooler up there albeit windy.... With the haze of the last day the view at night as probably much better.

From the top...well the 86th floor.

And the genuinely unique gift shop 

Then we walked back,to our travellers garet, to await another exciting day....well now it is today...not tomorrow, because it itninnthe wee hours of Saturday now.

New York, New York...a probe...

Drove all the way into NY, well Brooklyn, NY.  I think this makes the 21st state.  The tolls are astounding, $20.00 to get in $18 to get out.  Our plan was to have the first probe, a look at the lower or Brooklyn part of New York.   The big ticket item here is the Green-Wood Cemetery -This place is absolutely wonderful.  It is several hundred acres in one of the most populous areas of the country.    To have such a quiet and peaceful place, with not only lots of history, but just the grandeur of some of the crypts, and graves is quite facinating. The main gate looks like a church steeple, but there are rare parrots that have taken up residence on the spire, and have built enormous and horribly ugly looking nests.

The front gate 

The nests, just below the pointy bit

One of the star residents, Leonard Bernstein, has a surprisingly humble grave...as opposed to the thousands of grand graves of people no one other than their loved ones will remember.  We had a quiet..well very quiet picnic lunch nearby.  

Leonard Bernstein - well not him his grave.

Parking as at an absolute and very expensive premium in this part, and getting on exceptionally well with the very plesant man on the security checkpoint, he couldn't see a reason, we shouldn't leave our car parked in the cemetery, while we explored some other spots in  Brooklyn. Which is what we did via the subway. To the point where the Manhattan bridge goes over the Hudson River, which is also close to where the Brooklyn bridge goes over the Hudson River.  Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass or DUMBO.  This area also has a huge number of attractions and activities for the local people from a cart which has library books, to take read and return to soccer pitches, many areas of grass, basketball courts, and thousands of people using it.   

It was a pretty warm 30 deg and quite humid, and very hazy, so we had to use a lot of hydration.

The selfie stick, Manhattan bridge foreground, Brooklyn bridge background and Empire State Building back back ground

Harry Chapin park.

On the pak built above the expressway there was a tree, covered, neat tidy and well used kids playground, which was nice enough, but looking at the dedication plaque we note that it is dedicated in memory of Harry Chapin.....who...who wrote Cats in the cradle, and 30,000 pound of bananas.  Andrew knew who he was.  But it was more for his unsung (now sung) charity work in NY for children's charities.

Drive all the way back to AC, once again the traffic was horrible but it was more the roads that were the problem.

After a bit of a fright about the hire car;  an email from the company saying they expected it back yesterday, a phone call to our travel agent,and it was fixed...as it should have been before our trip....but is good now.

An early start from Brigantine  to travel the two and a half hours, and $23.00 in tolls north to New York. Where we will say goodbye to the car...and Julia (the GPS machine) .  The traffic in New York is not necessarily the problem nor are the drivers...Melbourne drivers leave them for dead....it is the roadways that are the problem . Found the hotel, dropped the bags off, then dropped the car off. 

Julia says we travelled 6148 miles. 9894.24 kms.

Goodbye Chrysler. 

Proof read by Nathalie. The biggest musical instrument in the world.; an organ; And a visit to Intercourse Pennsylvania ,

On the boardwalk there is the Atlantic City Boardwalk hall (Convention Centre) Built in 1929 ish this centre in its day could seat 42,000 people and was the biggest single arch span building.  Walking along the boardwalk we saw an advert for a free pipe organ recital.    This organ is the biggest, the loudest, and tallest musical instrument in the world.

It took three years to build, has more than 33,000 pipes and it so happens the builder/ designer was also a state senator so the $$ was less of a problem.    We went to the recital, and it did fill the huge hall with noise.   After this the organists, Dr Stephen Ball, took us on a tour of the repair shop, and the console, and the inner workings.  There are pipes all throughout the building in fact the hall was built around the organ pipes, and each keyboard relate to a certain area of the pipes.  There area lot and lots of buttons, and pedals.  It was damaged in a hurricane in 1944, disasterously 'repaired', and has been in demise till two years ago...$13 m and 14 years it will take to fix it to its previous grandeur...

Spoke to one of the professional organ repairers and he was saying that kangaroo leather is the best and toughest for these machines.

Sort of gives you an idea how big this hall is, that little speck on the stage right is the organist. And the openings above and to his right are about 40 ft tall.

Dr Stephen Ball

The dashboard .

Some more of the pipes.

The sound chanber, with a 64 foot pipe, not pictured here

Inside the chanber

Drove south to a place called Sommers Point, where we found a lovely restaurant (The Anchorage) and had a meal...

The feed, l to r. Ribs chips, coleslaw, chips, coleslaw, fish and crabs

 

The journey to Lancaster County, and Intercourse PA   

Lancaster county in Pennsylvania, is renowned for its population of Amish people.  Eschewing the culture of the 'English' or non Amish. particularly a reliance upon things of the wider society for example, electricity, gas, phone lines, banking,  Unfortunately the most popularly known place in Lancaster county is a town called intercourse. Allegedly this town showcases the Amish life style.  One look at the tourist village in this town, one look and we were out of there...it could have been in mid Texas, or Central Australia, just the name on the tea towels and the t shirts are different, and where would you wear a T shirt saying 'I love Central Australia'?  So we picked the smallest town within 20 miles and set Julia to find it......and we did. The countryside was idyllic, cows horses green bits and brown bits.Nathalie did enjoy sightseeing at the intercourse canning company and the 

Stoltzers grocery store.

Through the drive through ATM 

Road hogs

Irony...Americans aren't good at appreciating the fact that one of the world's biggest tractor and farming machinery factory, (New Holland) is right in the middle of Lancaster county, where many of the locals still use horse teams, and ancient ploughers.   During the day Nathalie also managed to find a shop, where she had her iPad mini screen (destroyed in Jefferson City) replaced.

We did try a local food, baked pretzels, at  Immergut soft pretzels shop was a great place to stop for fresh lemonade and a warm pretzel. Wandered around the farms ending up back at Exton to pick up the iPad beautiful , but no protective cover so making do with glad wrap.

Then, rather than straight back to AC we headed south to Cape May, which is the first beachside resort in the USA, and is mostly stuck in the 1880s to 1920 s, as in 1880 ish, most of the town was destroyed in a fire and in 1970(?) the whole town was declared a heritage site.   There is very clearly much $$ here abouts as the cheapest no star accommodation was $150.00 

1882

Drove home in the dark. A big,  but enjoyable day without micro abrasion work done on any of us....so mostly a successful day.

Philadelphia- Atlantic City- Brigantine

After settling into the time share, it was really disappointing to see that the weather was still crappy.

The time share room

Still crappy misty weather.

Anyway headed the two or so hours to Phillidelphia, via the toll roads, which in retrospect is cheaper than a trip along any of our toll roads, but must confess that east link and City link In Melbourne are in far greater state of repair.

Once in town, we had to see the central attraction in this town which is the Liberty Bell.  So much fuss over a bell that wasn't properly made and broke...a clanger if you like.  Had to wait in a line for a long time through security, and it was quite a let down that so much fuss over a relatively small broken bell.  What was also surprising was how close we could get to it...

Yep, he's checking for the clapper, and it's cracked!!

Without wanting to sound like a philistine it's not so much the bell, but what it represents in gonging in the Declaration of Independence in what was the then capital of the then USA.

Then off to a ball game.  At the Independence Bell tourist information centre, there was a little kiosk machine to get tickets to a baseball game.  The Philadelphia Phillies (am told it is not short for philistines) were at home, at the Citzens Bank Park, playing the San Fransisco Giants. So we got some $38.00 tickets...( with the assistance of the information centre lady ) and were booked for a 3.05 pm game.

View from our car park

The park...and Nathalie 

Got in and were given a first ever Phillies games certificate, 

and it was quite an atmosphere.  Pre match stuff celebrating the anniversary of D day, and all vetrans since. Which took a while...a long while... Then it rained....

The covers come out

So there was time for a local delicacy, a cheese steak, at Tony Luke's, and some curly fries....

And you can see the covers coming off

The game started and apparently the highlight was a three homer play, where the ball was hit into the crowd and three of the phillies ran around.  The weather got pretty good then, and Ron, our neighbour answered all the questions we had.   And many many we didn't have.  They still lost, not badly, but lost...like our car....which we did finally find.  

Running running

See we were there.

Tolled our way back home and the mist had cleared finally.

Sunday....

We saw something today we hadn't seen since Texas

The sun.

Standing in the Atlantic Ocean, Brigantine NJ

If you squish your eyes up you can see Atlantic City. In the distance.

An outrage to we Australians, however, as of next week it would cost us $8.00 a day to go to the beach.   You have to buy and wear a beach tag in these parts...apparently the money us used to keep the beaches clean...clearly they haven't collected enough money to start yet.  

Anyway back into Philadelphia the first stop being the Mutter museum.  This is quite a macabre place where all things medical and surgical are on display.....somewhat akin to the anatomical and forensic and parasitology museum in Bangkok, but a lot more polished and ordered.  Starting with the two hundred or so skulls from a variety of peoples, conditions, and demises, to civil war surgery, to the 8 ft tall skeleton, to the drawers of collection of more than a thousand items removed from people's airways by doctor from 1910 to 1930.  This museum is run by the Phillidelphia College of physicians.

Then to a local Terminal Food Markey a bit like Queen Vic, but it's been there since 1849.. 

Back to Independence Hall, which used to be the parliament of the US.  A few facts...there are more than two hundred 'original' copies of the Declaration of Independence.   Abraham Lincoln had nothing to do with it.  This one was George Washington's. The signed original, original, is in the Archives in DC.  

 Apparently where it all happened...independence Hall.

Many of the houses inPhillidelphia are really really old going back to the early 1700 s.

 

Then Atlantic City for a wander along the Boardwalk....allegedly named after a bloke in the 1870s called Board, who owned a hotel, and got the other hoteliers inntHe area to get together to fund a wooden walkway along the sand, to stop sand being traipsed into his hotel.   Believe it or not..there are several HUGE casinos here, and due to an absolute ban on smoking inside, they only smell half as bad as the Las Vegas ones....

It goes on and on and on five and a half or so miles. Looking towards Cesar's casino.