New York - Day 1

The plan to spend 3 full days exploring Manhattan was dampened a little with a forecast of 72 hours of soggy weather, thanks to Tropical Storm Lee that cast a rain band all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada.

The first day we woke to rain but the ferry was only 100 metres away, so we pulled out the raincoats and headed into New York.  We walked down Wall Street, snapped photos of the New York Stock Exchange and then made our way to Ground Zero – World Trade Centre site.  

NY Stock Exchange

One World Trade Centre

We then braved the NY Subway - wet coats, pram, lots of steps and one very independent little girl ho insisted on walking up and down the stairs on her own!  

Kids on NY Subway

As we exited the subway on 42^nd Street the rain was teeming.  We walked to Times Square but it was difficult to get the full impact of the place with the rain and all the tourists, us included, seeking whatever shelter the buildings could provide.  

Soggy Times Square

We made a beeline for Toys R’Us, 3 levels of kid heaven including a merry-go-round.  We happily spent over an hour playing in the store until it was time to go.  Chloe received the fireman’s carry out, kicking and screaming. 

After lunch we hailed a taxi to Richard’s cousin’s place in West Village.  Richard hadn’t seen Mel for over 12 years.  We’re good friends with Mel’s sister Vicki, so it was nice for me to finally meet Mel.  We spent over 2 hours there, drying out and enjoying the company of other adults.  Mel had a box of toys for the kids to play with and they happily played the entire time – another miracle….

Pennsylvania to Jersey City!

The trip from Pennsylvania to Jersey City was memorable for a number of reasons.   First we missed a couple of turn offs half way through the trip.   No problem, the GPS recalculated and took us another way – the long way. 

Second, which we hadn’t expected, was this incredible view of the Manhattan skyline as we came up and over a crest of a hill.  The picture doesn’t do it justice as it wasn’t a clear day, but it did take both our breath away for a moment as we took in the sheer size of the city.  It just didn’t appear to end.

Our third incident was getting completely and utterly lost just 3 miles from the RV Park.  The GPS lost its bearing for a while as we hit road works.  At one stage we were under an overpass, stopped at a railway crossing with an old freight train going by.  We were the only car in the vicinity which was an odd feeling having just left the busy freeways.  It was dark and very seedy, the kind of place in the movies where the homeless hang out and dead bodies are found.  We made sure the doors were locked.

We returned to the chaotic traffic, praying that a wrong turn didn’t take us into a tunnel to Manhattan.  Miracles of miracles, Rich took a right turn through this narrow passage while all the other cars were going left, we popped out on a major road, came down a hill, stopped at traffic lights and got our bearings.  The Holland Tunnel to Manhattan was up ahead, so we made sure we avoided it, took a right and drove another a mile to the RV Park, very relieved and amazed we made it.

Streets of Jersey City

We went for a walk around Jersey City and viewed the impressive skyline of the business district of lower Manhattan.  On the boardwalk there was a memorable to the people of Jersey City who lost their lives on Sept 11.   The twin towers would have been directly opposite, across the Hudson River and you could see the new building ‘One World Trade Centre’, being built.

One World Trade Centre building being built.  Tallest building with two cranes on top.

Goodnight Irene

We survived Hurricane Irene.  It hit the coast way south of us as a Hurricane and was downgraded to a Tropical Storm by the time it went through our area.  This meant the winds were not as strong but the rain was still torrential and seemed to do the most damage in some areas with many swollen rivers.  This part of the country had already received record rain falls at the start of August, so the ground was completely saturated.

In less than 48 hours you can see the rain damage, washing away the gravel and exposing the pipe.  This was only minor compared to what it did further north in places like the State of Vermont.

We are now biding time in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, waiting to go to New York on the 5^th September.

Hurricane Irene

We’ve postponed our trip to NYC due to Hurricane Irene.  We had planned to be there this weekend, the same time the hurricane is forecast to travel through there.

Unfortunately this was the only vacancy the RV Park had, otherwise we would have been there during the week.  It is a very popular park for it’s great location, just across the water from the south tip of Manhattan, with views of the Status of Liberty and easy access to ferry’s. 

We’ve changed our booking to the 5^th Sept and fingers crossed New York doesn’t suffer too much damage.  One of the main concerns is storm surge.  It also doesn’t help that it will coincide with a high tide.

We have headed North West into Pennsylvania.  Although we may not be immuned from strong winds and rain, we think we’re in a pretty good spot.  We’re away from the trees as much as possible and on a slight slope for water run-off.

Viriginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey

Unless we like hot, humid and hurricane weather it is a little early to venture south to look at more boats.  So we are slowly heading up the East coast through Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey to New York.  We are staying in RV Parks with swimming pools, water parks and mini golf. 

We hit the beach and the kids had a fabulous time, with Luke trying out the boogie board for the first time. 

Most of the RV Parks are a good distance from the ocean and as we drove up the coast today you should have seen the queues at the toll booths into the beach car parking.  I don’t think we realise how lucky we are back home.  Our appreciation for home is growing more and more.  We really do live in a fabulous country.

East Coast

After 2000 miles and 10 days we had arrived on the East Coast of America.  Why Virginia – there was a boat in Deltaville we were interested in looking at.  Lucky that’s all we wanted to do, cause when we arrived at the brokers to inspect the boat he told us it was ‘under contract’.

On the up side we stayed in a nice RV Park ‘Grey’s Point’ that had fantastic swimming pools for small kids and a water park.  

It also had activities for the kids, which Luke loved.

It was a large campground with many permanent holiday sites and everyone whizzed around in golf carts.  The Manager of the RV Park enticed us in to being in a photo shoot for their brochure, with a free night’s accommodation.  We also got to zip around in one of the golf cart which the kids thought was pretty cool.

On the Road Again

We hit the road and spent the next 10 days heading east until we reached the Atlantic Ocean.  It put a smile on Rich’s face to see the sea again.  We initially drove a little north out of Denver to avoid the heatwave across the Great Plains.  From Colorado we drove through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia to Virginia.  The weather in those states wasn’t exactly cool, but the mid 30’s seemed better than 40+.

We knew we wouldn’t go hungry on our drive across America.  If we missed one of the ‘fast food’ exits, the Rest Area's had vending machines!

For most of the trip across, the land was flat and full of corn fields until we hit West Virginia, which is very mountainous.  Although not particularly high in altitude, it is extremely rugged and many of the highways had as winding through the trees.  It was very pretty.
We crossed the Mississippi River dividing the states of Iowa and Illinois, which was a bit of a highlight - tells you something about the rest of the road trip!

At one RV Park, we decided our ‘Minnie Winnie’ was actually mini.