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Hi folks.
Sorry that there wasn’t anything from us yesterday but as I
said, I think, at the end of my last blog, we were heading into unknown
territory as far as internet access was concerned.
Anyway……it is now 9.50pm Sunday here and I am now sitting at
a kitchen table in a lovely holiday home right on the edge of Keuka Lake one of
the ‘Finer Lakes’ in Upstate NY. This is
the next lake over from Seneca Lake and Watkins Glen is at the Southern end of
that lake. We have found an internet connection here so I’m going to do a quick catch
up and try to get it published.
To get to this stage, of course, I need to go back a back.
Saturday was ‘moving day’ and we got up, just a tad later
than we have been and showered etc, had another fresh fruit, Greek yogurt,
granola and cuppa tea breakfast before checking out of the Yotel. I had to pack my bag during all this as well
but that didn’t seem to take too
long.
We got packed up and as you can guess from some of my
diaries, we are carrying a little bit more stuff that when we arrived!!!!!!
However we packed a lot of ‘stuff’ into some of the giant sized, very fancy,
paper carry bags that came from the Outlet shopping ‘extravaganza’ and had the hotel bring a bag trolley up to
the room.
We headed down and settled up and went down to the lobby
where I had a NY yellow taxi hailed for me and was driven to the Budget Rental
car office on West 49
th St where I was to pick up the rental car we
are using for the next week.
That all went fine until I realised that I had left the
TomTom GPS we had bought back with the all the gear at the hotel.
Now I’m not saying I know my way around NYC BUT I managed to
navigate my way back to the hotel without incident, even taking into account all
the one way streets and avenues and pulled up in front
of Yotel like an
expert. I had been given a very tidy
Hyundai Elantra and after taking a minute or three to get orientated to the whole
left hand drive thing I was pleased with my efforts.
We loaded up the car, fitted the GPS in place and loaded in
the first town that we wanted to get to on the way to Watkins Glen, Harriman.
No problems with that and off we went navigating our way through NY City. PIECE
OF CAKE with the GPS and we soon found that we only had to drive about a hundred
metres and we were on the road to the Lincoln Tunnel. Got that done with no hassles and just went
with the flow, through the tunnel under the Hudson River and into New Jersey and onwards
and upwards!!!!! Only took one wrong turn while getting completely used to the
GPS and the direction giver. We didn’t get lost but did make a rather long
detour until the machine got us back on track.
That’s when Joy, who was sitting beside me with a map of NY
State on her knee discovered
that the freeway we were taking actually took us
right past Woodbury Common Outlet Centre AGAIN!!!!!
She decided we should go there, seeing as we were passing,
to buy another case/bag, to carry all the extra stuff. She just happened to
have the centres booklet with her and found a luggage outlet. Who was I to argue so when we got to the area
we followed the signs.
Well on Monday when we were there the place was busy but not
overly. However today was Saturday and it
was a long weekend here with Independence Day on Friday and the place was now
filled to overflowing with both people and cars. We managed to get a park in an
area reasonably close to where were needed to go, thank goodness, but the whole
place was simply manic!!!! WE navigated our way to the shop, bought a large
bag, used the bathrooms and then tried to buy a cold drink from a vending
machine. It didn’t want to know my money
so I headed to the foodcourt which was not far away. Man what a mistake. It was just full, it
was overflowing. However there was one food shop that had no
one at it, the Haagen Daas Icecream shop.
They sold drinks so I managed to get straight in there, pick up the
drinks and get out.
I have to admit that I was glad to get back to the car and
the air-conditioner!!!!!!
We headed off on Route 17 towards the town of Roscoe now and
had an uneventful drive the 80 or 90 ‘miles’ there. It was fairly boring driving on the big ‘freeway’.
You don’t go through towns, they are all bypassed and it is just zipping
along at 65mph on either 2 or 3 lanes. Car set on cruise control and go.
Had a nice Panini sandwich lunch at Roscoe, a very small
town and then headed to Watkins Glen, about another 2 and a half hours away.
Again boring driving and so different to driving anywhere in
NZ as there is really nothing to see.
We arrived at Albert
and Judy Pearce’s on the outskirts of Watkins Glen at 6pm
feeling very pleased
with our self that we had got there with no major hassles!!
It was great to catch up with everyone here again. The whole family, including Becky and Ted and
his wife Niki and the two girls, were there and we spent some hours catching up
and chatting and exchanging gifts etc.
Joy had picked up many ‘kiwiana’ things for everyone and Ted had brought
some things he had promised us last time were here.
Robyn and Trevor WE HAVE THE PRESIDENT OBAMA M&Ms, one
carton of them. Plus many other momentos
from Washington DC and a genuine NYPD cap Ted said he got from a mate at No.1
Police Plaza, HQ of the NYPD.
We had a fabulous steak barbecue with all the vege trimmings
with lashings of fresh fruit etc. for dinner before Ted, Niki, the girls and
Becky headed off to her place just a town or two away where they were staying.
We had a great evening!!!!!!! Thank you to Albert and Judy
and the whole family for making us so welcome again.
We had one of the earliest nights for a week, we were in bed
by 10.30pm
Sunday morning dawned nice and sunny and after breakfast we
packed up and headed to Keuka Lake where we were to stay in a lakeside holiday
home belonging to one of Judy’s best friends.
The Lake is beautiful.
The arm of it we are on is long and narrow and the houses are built
right on the lake edge and there are plenty of them.
We arrived here about 10.30am and have had the most fabulous
day relaxing beside the lake chatting with everyone. The people that own the house are staying in
their other house next door and some other friends came for the day and Becky
arrived with Ted and Niki’s girls late afternoon as they are staying with us
for the night.
I was honoured to cook the hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch
for everyone and we even went for a long ride on the lake in a rather big boat
belonging to the people who
own the houses.
The evening finished with toasting marshmallows over a huge
fire and eating Hershey’s S’Mores…..the toasted marshmallows between two
Grahams Crackers (sort of like a bran biscuit) and a slab of Hershey’s
chocolate……YUM!!!!
So it’s been a much needed ‘relaxing’ day after the hectic
pace of the last week in New York City.
We are only here for the one night and head back to WG tomorrow afternoon
but it a very welcome break.
That’s it for the last 2 days. Different from the last week but very special
in its own way and we are really looking forward to spending the next 5 days
here.
Not sure when you’ll hear from us again as that will depend
on the internet access.
Bye from lovely Keuka Lake. (Look it up on Google to see
exactly where we are).
PS I apologise for the way the photos appeared on the last blog. I did write some captions up as to what they were but obviously
didn't save them. I'll find time to fix it later.
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