Cruzin with Geoff and Susan

Philadelphia to New York

Monday 29th September Off to a flying start to beat the Monday morning Washington traffic.  Travelled up to Philadelphia for a very quick look at this city with a population of 4.5 million.  Took a wander down a quaint cobblestoned street – Elfreth’s Alley, which was really the size of a laneway. Lots of cute … Read more

Washington DC Day 2

It was an unusually warm Fall day for Washington, about 27C, so after applying plenty of sunscreen it was time to explore.  The White House was the first port of call as it is only 2 blocks from the hotel and then onto Arlington Cemetery.  It takes up an area of about 600 acres and … Read more

Washington DC

Saturday 27th September We drove into The Mall – it is home to the Smithsonian Institute e.g. the Air & Space Museum, American Indian Museum, Natural History Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Castle, Museum of African Art, Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery to name just some of them.  At one end of Mall … Read more

Back to the USA

It was an early start to cross the border back into the US. It still took over an hour.  We made a couple of stops before arriving in Lancaster.  There is a large population of the Amish (pronounced “armish”) People here.  The faith originated in Europe with members immigrating to America more than 200 years ago. Today in our modern world they continue to lead a simple life – no electricity, very plain clothing, no jewellery, no telephone, no cars.  They mostly farm for a living although some have developed small industries around wood working and tourism.  The children are educated until about Grade 8 level before becoming involved in full time work on the farm.  They use horses and horse drawn equipment to till the soil and harvest the crops.  Their mode of transport is a horse and buggy or a kick bike (looks like a scooter but with larger wheel at the front and back).

Dined with an Amish family. A typical wedding feast was served.

Pumpkins are in abundance at the moment so they are being sold in lots of street side stalls.  Some people have become very creative and put a coat of shellac of them.  This makes them very shiny and they will last longer.  With Halloween approaching the large ones will be used for carving.

Visited a typical (but very large) supermarket and noticed that they sell Tilapia in the fish department.  Also tried some snow pea crisps, lightly salted.


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Niagara Falls

Thursday 25th September.  It was all about Niagara Falls today.  It certainly lived up to all my expectations.  The WOW factor is certainly front and centre.  Just like the Grand Canyon it can be explored “any which way”. Helicopter flight Walking behind the Falls Dining overlooking the Falls Turning spotlights on to light up the … Read more

Day 5 Missouri to Oklahoma City

Another fine day and a blast for 417km to “Brick Town”. Oklahoma City is big and has a few centuries of clay brick construction to show it. Most of the new buildings are concrete and steel.

Day 4 (Janis) Joplin for my birthday

A long day 7.30am to 5pm for 462km. Thankfully the weather has cooled to be Tshirt comfortable instead of T shirt sweaty. A lot of bike riders are wearing “beach” shirts and a little miffed at the need for a full face helmet. Mind you the real Harley riders don’t wear any helmets! My birthday.. … Read more

Day 3 show me the way to St Louis

A hot day…even on the bikes. We pulled out of Springfield around 8am, a routine we are now used to and thundered off on a contorted series of over passes, wobbling our front wheels between streams of traffic and “filtered” 14 bikes through the mayhem, 45 minutes later we passed our hotel we had just … Read more

Day 2 Picking up the HARDLY Davidson i.e. BMW

Just outside Chicago there is a place that looks like Harley Heaven. About an acre of bikes and riding apparel. I resisted the urge to buy anything with HD on it. Contracts for hiring are frightening, I signed away my retirement funds and any inheritance that Sean and Liam thought they were getting before being … Read more

Toronto Day 2

Toronto is a busy city with plenty happening, especially lots of road and rail construction as well as condominiums going up everywhere. There are currently 116 condo projects. Had a guided tour of the city and checked out the different areas of Toronto. It is divided up into about 8 areas – Harbour, Financial District, … Read more

Toronto

After checking out the Art Deco inspired Lord Elgin Hotel we hit the road for an all day but very easy drive to Toronto.  A few stops along the way proved that some of those really corny American TV shows are quite true. They are such a consumer society.  Traveling along the Thousand Island Parkway … Read more

Ottawa

22nd September 2014 Easy drive (2 hours) to Ottawa today, the capital of Canada with about 800,000 people living there.  It is on the St Lawrence River.   The hotel, Lord Elgin is right in the heart of the city.  It is a compact city and very easy to navigate whilst on foot. The Canadian … Read more

Montreal

It was only a couple of hours by road from Quebec to Montreal.   Montreal is on an island and was host to the 1976 Olympic Games.   Much of that infrastructure was still evident as we drove onto the island across the bridge.  Today Montreal has a population of about 4 million people. It … Read more

Quebec

Saturday 20th September. A spectacular blood red sunrise managed to peek through a tiny opening on the horizon on what turned out to be a heavily overcast morning that eventually turned to drizzle by lunch time. We  spent 2 hours touring the city by bus before being set free to explore this magnificent city.  It … Read more

Boston to Quebec

Friday 19th September We had an early start as we had some distance to travel which included a border crossing into Canada.  We started to experience the magnificent country side as we drove north from Boston.  The weather is still blue skies and sunny and we are constantly reminded how lucky we are and how … Read more