Blogs from New York, United States, North America - page 411

Attempting to work on Apple Mac on third floor of hostel Apologies for my last entry - we were having a hellish time with the internet in the last hostel. Cost $1 for 10 minutes - but these were no ordinary 10 minutes. I think time went double. And we were trying to sort out Washington at the same time, so there was no proper time to write in blogs. Tonight won't be much better, cos I'm writing on an Apple Mac which I can never seem to get right and I have had mucho free German beer. We were so lucky with that! The bar opposite h ad some issue about losing the lease and the owner of the hostel signed a petition to save them so they had a free-for-all thing. I really ... read more

OD New boots for CC today. We drove to Syracuse and found new boots that are lighter and fit much better than her old ones. I swapped out my heavy boots for much lighter ones also. The average person takes about 2,000 paces per mile. 1 extra pound per leg means you lift a ton or more unnecessarly per mile per leg and 10+ tons per day lifted. It has also been calculated that one pound one your foot equals five pounds on your back. So by going to lighter boots we should be able to cover the same miles with less effort. We also ordered a different jacket set after returning the one we got from LL Bean. We have swapped out her light sleeping bag for my gore-tex shelled down bag, it is good ... read more

My first stop has brought me here to sunny, tropical, exotic New York City. For those who have never heard of it, it's a small regional trading outpost in the province of New York of the United States. Faneuil is still the same animal you know and love. I miss that little fucker. Sklar has transformed from a smooth-talking, panty-dropping english major to wall street yuppie in front of my very eyes. I saw the suit and tie with my own two eyes! Maybe he has given up his dreams of becoming a dog in hopes of making it to white collar prison. Tonight is going to get sloppy I fear, as we're meeting up with Beck, Kosegarten, C-Balls and Kissling. Pray for us. - I promise my next entry will be from a real destination...... ... read more

The Chinese Musclepower!!! That would be the takeaway for me from the New York - Washington, DC trip... The famous American consumerism of "King Customers" can be seen replaced by the low cost Chinese economic model. "King Customers" as they spend like King and expect being treated like a King has a challenge now. A chinese owned travel group 'eastern travels' was our obvious choice of travel as the fare $35 for return was almost 50% less than that of the nearest option. Greyhound was $80 and Amtrak was $67 one way. We booked the tickets on net much in advance as these cheap tickets exhaust really fast especially on weekends. (however, the tickets are available at bus stop also.) so the customers had a choice now not to be 'the king' in spending. we had ... read more

Yesterday I had both the longest and shortest flights of my life. Manchester to London was fine - over really quickly and we got sandwiches and drinks for free! The London-Newark, however, seemed to last a lifetime. I do not fly well, and especially the end part (splitting headache and the roots of my teeth randomly hurting) wasn't much fun. Then we had to go through immigration and that was an equally lovely experience. The guy asked so many questions - and when I said I'd given up my job to go travelling he definitely wasn't impressed. Not sure what difference it makes - if I was here I couldn't be working and earning any more money anyway! We then got an airbus-monorail-esque vehicle to a random carpark, then there was an airport shuttle to the ... read more