125 Days Remaining

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Originally uploaded by pezz361356

I'm a bit late uploading the blog for my exploits in New York, needless to say it was a rocking time in the city that doesn’t sleep, Mike joined me in this hop over the pond, there was plenty of photo’s over the 5 days, a couple of the nights we were out at different bars with various American rally teams. The US teams were all great, they were very friendly, most were a bit nuts but all in all we hit it off pretty well. They all have plans for their vehicles such as paragliding off the back of their ice cream truck etc...

The start of the trip was a bit manic, we woke up about 6.30am on the Thursday morning, Mike had stayed over on the sofa, so we grabbed a shower, and headed off to Victoria to catch the train to Gatwick airport. We’d managed to pre-book the tickets and god £3 cheap singles to the airport, all was going well until we had to get the tickets from the machines within the station, with 10mins till the train departed the machines said they couldn’t access our details so we waited in the queue to speak to customer services, now I’m pretty patient, but these guys were sloooowww! We got the ticket guy and he insisted on printing off about 5 tickets each then making us sign all the documents and he was in no hurry, Mike got his ticket first so he went to check the platform for the train, all this with 2mins left to go. Once my ticket was printed I ran to the concourse and couldn’t see him, so tried ringing him, as I’m ringing I run to platform 19 for the train presuming he’s already gone there. I get to the platform and can’t get hold of him so I get on the train hoping he’s already on it. Just as the doors close and the wheels take their first movements I look out the door window only to see Mike rooted to the platform with an angry face. Needless to say, not a good start, after a slight delay he catches the next train without any issues and meets me at Gatwick, he was not a happy bunny, but as I explained I couldn’t be sure where he was so I got on, in the hope he was already on board. Oh well, we’re still fine for check-in. We wonder through to the departure lounge and set up shop in the Wetherspoons there. I grab some breakfast and a Kopparberg then a nice shot of Jameson whiskey with ginger ale which was a free taster.

Once on the US airways flight, there were plenty of spare seats so we could spread out and I even managed to get a slight bit of sleep on the way to our connecting flight from Philadelphia to LaGuardia New York. Once at Philly we went to grab some food & a beer at the bar there. I managed to confuse the waitress royally, by asking for a Cheeseburger with cheese...yeah I know, school boy error, well the burger was nice an fresh, but I got stung by offering Mike a beer, and then the bill showed they were at $9 a piece it turned into an expensive lunch!

We were on a tiny internal jet from Philly to NYC, which reminded me of the planes we used to catch from Guernsey to Southampton. Anyways, we got to NYC a little earlier than expected and caught a cab to Hotel 17, which was our residence for the 4 nights we were going to be there. It had great reviews online and was very cheap, mainly due to the fact you have to share the bathrooms. But it lived up to the reviews, very clean, not too small, very comfy beds & a certain shabby chic; it happens that a couple of films have been filmed there in decades past, including a Woody Allen film. It also has live-in residents that include dwarves & transsexuals, so it had quite the mixture of clientele.

The first day we walked for miles, wondering up to central park, then mainly due to my loss of landmarks got lost for a while within it. Mike tried to instil his understanding of the streets & avenues, as spines & ribs; my brain just couldn’t help thinking that avenues went up/down, streets when left/right. Each to their own I guess.

We went and met up that evening with the Rolling Cones, an American team that invited us to a bar they were having a fund raiser at. They had good tunes, plenty of good people but more importantly they were sponsored by 2 drinks companies. One was a tequila supplier called “Inocente”, which Mike can vouch against that name, after he was hanging out of his arse the next morning, it was far from innocent! The other drinks sponsor was “Jolt”, an energy drink in the US that has been around for ages, it comes in what only can only be described at a WD40 canister only without a straw, I avoided this stuff, purely because those who were drinking it looked like they were under the effect of substances a lot stronger than the average energy drink! We got to mingle with some lovely ladies, as well as some of the rally organisers who flew in from a new South American adventure.

The next day we went to get breakfast, but I relatively untouched from the previous nights events, Mike was not in a good way, the weather was also very sunny & hot, which I’m not sure is good or bad for a hangover. Either way we walked for a good few miles taking photos of the various places & sights, including Grand Central Station, the Woolworth building, ground zero & the Brooklyn Bridge. That evening we had a rally tea party to attend, it was at a really good venue again, with the help of a live old new York style band people unwound and got to know the various teams, we met a guy called Domino the night before but this evening we were talking and it hit us, what a legend he is! I don’t want to spoil any of his stories, but If you get a chance to catch up with just ask about one of his many hitchhiking nightmares &various other exploits.

So, the next day we did more sightseeing & then in the evening we ventured up the empire state building, the views at night are pretty impressive, we paid a little extra to go to the very top as well, that was the 102nd floor, the photo’s are on my flickr account for people to check out, I was annoyed though, because I took my tripod to get good night shots without camera shake, and at the security booth I was told they’d have to hold onto it as it may trip people up. Luckily I kept the camera bracket in my bag and this did the job almost as well, and allowed Mike to use it on his camera as well.

We headed back the next day, with good memories of our little adventure, more than a few good photos & quotes from the adventure and hopefully some helpful friends to give us a hand come rally time.