USA Road Trip

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An American Road Trip.

Having spent eight months travelling around the world I come to the final leg of my journey, joined by my son’s Oliver and Josh. As part of my adventure, I arranged for my son’s to fly and meet me at JFK Airport New York.

My flights from Nassau, Bahamas transferring via Miami to New York was running about an hour late, but thankfully I made it across JFK to meet the boy’s flight in the arrivals lounge, where I enjoy a long awaited hug. Soon after, we were on a shuttle bus heading to New York City where we chatted incessantly, catching up on the latest news. It wasn’t long before we were walking through Times Square, our necks craning towards the sky in awe of the skyline buildings above. Around 10pm we find our Hotel Carlton on 43rd Street, which would be our home for the next five nights. After a long day of travelling and NY Burger King, we collapsed into our beds for a good night sleep.

First thing on the Friday morning I rose early leaving the boys in bed heading for a live open air TV show in the park, where the Broadway cast of RENT would be performing some of their hit songs. When I Get back to my room the three of us then go out to Carnegie’s Diner Time Square where we enjoy a slap up breakfast. Over the next four days we take in the highlights of the city such as a ferry ride round Manhattan Island where we pass the Statue of Liberty, Staten Island, Ellis Island and the Financial district where the World Trade Centre once stood. We climb to the top of the Iconic Empire State Building, shop at Macy's and Bloomsbury’s. We visit ground zero and Madison Square Gardens. Had fun at the Bodies exhibition, Madam Tassauds and went to see A Chorus Line on Broadway. We also saw up and coming American music artists in concerts in central park and visited a comedy club downtown East Side. As well as passing through Brooklyn and the Bronx.

On our fifth morning we rise early to catch a coach to Tappan, an hours ride out of town where we would collect our 25ft motor home for our 21 day road trip, which would take us through the East side states of New York State, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, West Virginia, Virginia, Michigan and Ohio as well as Ontario Canada. This American finale to my round the world trip was very much a gift to my son’ s and it’s course and eventual destinations designed by them. Highlights of the road trip took us to Boston and then onto Gloucester where we went out to sea where we spotted 21 humped backed whales. The we headed to Buffalo for chicken wings and then across the border to the Niagara Falls in Canada. At Toronto we climbed to the top of the world’s highest observation tower for a posh lunch in a revolving 360 degree restaurant. Then we head South crossing Ontario back into the US to Detroit - America’s motor city famed for its Motown music. Here we went to a pro-baseball match to see The Detroit Tigers take on the Toronto Blue Jays. Next we travel to Cleveland to visit the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame where we saw exhibitions, costumes and musical instruments of stars from a diverse musical history of artists from The Beatles to Bowie - Elvis to Metallica. Then we drove across Pennsylvania to Shippensburg to see Josh’s favourite America Metal Band - Underoath live in concert. As part of our final week we head down to Virginia where we visited the amazing Luray Caverns via the Shenandoah River and The Blue Ridge Mountains. Finally we head for the US Capital Washington DC where we stay for three days visiting many of their Iconic National buildings, Monuments, and Museums such as the White House, Capital Hill and The Space and Aircraft Museum.

On the way back to New York we stopped off in Philadelphia for lunch, then got lost in New Jersey and the Bronx’s, eventually returning our motor home to Tappan before our travel back to New York and the JFK Airport for our flight home to London.

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Photos

Night Out On Broadway
A Chorus Line - New York's Famous Broadway Show