New York...the good...the bad....and the ugly!

19 October - We got up to get the train into NY and travelled 20 mins in the pouring rain to get to the station only to find there were no trains as the line was still out from Hurricane Irene....noone thought to mention that when they were giving us directions to the station. WTF? A sign said to go to another station - half hour drive - still no trains. We finally went to Suffern - 40 miles from our camp and caught the train there. Basically this meant at the end of the day we got one train NY to Secaucus (10 mins) then another to Suffern  (60 mins) then a 40 min drive. We got home each night about 2 to 3 am. We did so much in NY that I will just list them and comment appropriately (or inappropriately)

• Went to the Post Office to post parcels to Australia - amazing - open till 11 PM and on weekends....WOW!!
• Lined up for an hour to buy discount tickets to Billy Elliot matinee. Loved the show. Any unsold tickets for a performance you can line up and buy for up to 50% off.
• Lined up again for the night time ticket sales and went to see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Starred Daniel Radcliffe and John Laroquette. Both were superb but Daniel sang and danced his little heart out. Was absolutely the best thing we did in NY.

• Saw the Naked Cowboy :) 
• Ate hot dogs and a shaslick and hot nuts in no particular order - yum
• Drove home - got in at 3 am - was super scary - bucketing down, pitch black and semi trailers coming out of nowhere at 80 mph spraying so much water up that the wipers couldn't keep up. :(

Naked Cowboy

20 October - 

• More hot dogs but this time with sauerkraut - yum again
• Better day today - drier and warmer
• Queued for 1 1/2 hours for tickets to Mama Mia. I loved the Aussie version and the film but was disappointed in this one - especialy for Broadway. Still love the music though.
• Saw the Empire State Building - impressive. NBC - Radio City Music Hall - 5th Avenue - Rockefeller Building. Also the Dakota Apartments where John & Yoko lived and he was murdered just outside :(.
• Saw the building with 3 towers where Steve Jobs lived. 
• Caught a Pedi Cab which took us on a 45 minute trip around Central Park. Saw the Fountain from the opening scenes in Friends.

'Friends" Fountain

21 October - Cool sunny day. We decided to hire a limo. It was actually cheaper to do this than catch cabs and race around trying to see as much as possible. Our driver was James and we nearly fell over backwards when it turned up

• Lee had champagne and I drank OJ and munched on cheese and biscuits.
• My first Limo ride - we had it for 2 1/2 hours
• We saw Chelsea, Greenwich Village, the "Friends" building, Meat Packers area, Car Impound, City Hall, Seinfeld's Restaurant, Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, Bleeker Street, Chinatown, Little Italy, the Occupy Wall Street protesters, Grants Tomb. Statue of Liberty.
• Loved the limo experience.
• After the ride we queued up again and Lee went to see The Lion King and I saw Chicago. Loved it although there was obviously not all the brilliant dancing that Catherine Zeta Jones did in the movie.
• Got home about 2 am - exhausted

Seinfeld's Diner

Friend's Building

22 October

• World Trade Centre - they are still in the process of building the Freedom Tower and the place was very busy with crowds and crowds of people. It was amazing to try and envisage just what happened on September 11 and be on the spot where so many poor people died. The film we saw on TV was hard to relate to the actual location. Still defies belief.
• Went to Wall Street and the financial district
• We rode the Subway and some Rappers jumped on at one station and performed on the train and a Mariachi Band did the same at another station. Very entertaining.
• In the evening we went to two different Comedy Clubs. Very funny.

23 October Left New York for Philadelphia and stopped for petrol on the way and found my purse was missing. I hadn't used it since the day before. So I didn't have to keep getting it out my back pack I kept a handful of notes in my jeans pocket and so hadn't noticed it missing. It must have been lifted out the bag at some stage. Tears...tears....and more tears.  Went to a Maccas and Lee rang to cancel the credit cards. Went to Police Station at Mahwah to report the theft for insurance purposes. Met Lt  Jeffrey Dino - lovely man - we have been very lucky with our Police Officers. He thought our van was a bit out there lol but was impressed with our travels.  Miles 172.8 (278 kms)   Bugs # 928    OLD#  $3.00

24 October - Drove from Philadelphia to Washington DC and went straight to Australian Consulate to work on getting a new Passport. Impressed with Washington and the roads are wide and traffic light so no stress, A sure winner for me lol,  Saw a glimpse of the White House. Need to go to Consulate again tomorrow and then the British one. After that we will be sight seeing and popping in for tea with the Obamas.
Miles 150 (241 kms)   Bugs# 934  OLD # $3.00