To America We Go

We hung out at the airport until our 10:30pm "red-eye" flight to NY and arrived in overcast, warm, humid weather. There had been a massive storm in NY the night before and there were broken trees everywhere. We knew we were in trouble with our Haitian taxi driver when, as we pulled off, asked us if we could phone someone to get directions. After 90mins, during which time we had deteriorated to shouting at each other, me with my GPS in hand, him insisting that he knew where he was going but just stopping and getting out to ask people the way, we arrived at Jupiters in Brooklyn.

Jupiters is a small operation owned and run by Chris and we really enjoyed his attitude. After packing our clothes into the panniers we set off in the direction of New Haven, intending to not ride too far as we were quite tired.

What a wonderful sight it is to come around the corner on Queens Parkway from Brooklyn and to see that Manhattan skyline across the water.

It was immediately apparent that the drivers on the east coast are different to what we had got used to on the west coast. Hesitate and you get hooted at and they will drive over the kerb to get around you. Just like home :)

We crossed over the East River and headed north-west, getting off the interstate as soon as possible and following the coast. The buildings in the area are wonderful: old churches on every block, restored and replica brick edifices and wooden homes with porches and no fences and an American flag flying in front

The traffic is heavy: stop, start, traffic-signal all the way.The RT from Jupiters is running perfectly and we are very happy with it. The only problem is the GPS mount which is in a position that blocks one of the mirrors which makes it difficult to ride in traffic.

We found a nice hotel at about 2pm and got some food then settled down for the night. The time difference with the west coast is also a factor so we'll have to force ourselves into sleeping and waking at appropriate times (I woke and couldn't get back to sleep: it is 1:30am now).

Tomorrow we'll reach Cape Cod.