New York, New York (...and Colorado)

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Wednesday 15/08/12 – We rolled out of bed, into some clothes and then into the car for the trip to the airport. The sun was just coming up which made the trip out of the city more interesting. After waving goodbye to Andrew, we headed into our first (of many) brushes with the American airport security system. We had to go through the usual metal detectors and ticket checks before having to remove our shoes and walk through their full-body X-ray machines. We booked our flight from Denver to New York via Dallas Texas as it was $150 pp cheaper. The first of our flights went fine but the flight from Dallas to New York turned into a bit of a production. A lightning storm was sitting over the city which meant that the plane went into a “holding pattern” to try and wait it out. Unfortunately after about an hour of flying in circles, the plane started to run low on fuel so they had to backtrack and land in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to fuel up. After then waiting on the runway for another hour or so (the airport did not have any room to let us off, so we were all stuck in the plane), we finally flew to NY and jumped on a bus to our hotel in Long Island City, arriving about 4 hours after schedule. Luckily there was a Filipino restaurant still open only a block from our hotel, so we nicked over and ate some great food, it sure did bring back some memories.



Thursday 16/08/12 – After a great restful sleep, we threw the curtains open to greet the sunny morning with great gusto, only to find that our hotel room overlooked a massive graveyard that stretches for over 3 city blocks. At least it seems like a quiet area…

Our hotel stay includes continental breakfast each morning, so we trundled down bright and early to feast on orange and apple juice, jammy toast, bananas, bagels and donuts. After sneaking off with an extra bagel, donut and a banana, we headed to the subway and rode the train into Grand Central Station. It was built in 1923 and is the biggest train station in the world. Despite being renovated and modernised, they have still kept some of the old elegant sandstone areas, so it kind of feels like you are stepping back in time. We had some time to kill so we went to the New York Public Library which seemed like a fantastic place to get lost in. Around every corner was something interesting, of particular interest were the reading halls, the entrance foyer and an exhibition looking back at the history of “lunch” in Manhattan (and yes I am being serious, it was really interesting following the trends and social developments of midday dining over the generations in a city where time is money). The library had an ambient and peaceful feeling of deep quiet and sorrow that I have only really felt before in churches, perhaps it is a trait of all large old sandstone buildings.

After making many small but interesting discoveries in the library, we jumped on a train and headed out to the ball game. We arrived at Yankee Stadium to watch the NY Yankees play the Texas Rangers, I kept my eyes out for Walker but I didn’t see him (yes I did look behind me cause I know “that’s where a rangers gonna be!”). If the action on the ground wasn’t enough to get our hearts pumping, then our lunch of hot dogs and chips smothered in thick, fake cheese sauce sure did give our hearts a workout. Everyone was drinking which was crazy as the beers were $9.50 each!! One interesting aspect of the game was the fans, they are pretty interesting people, also the seat number on your ticket seems to be worthless as the crowd seemed to be mobilised and fluid for most of the game. Despite it being our first baseball game, we had a ball! The Yankees struggled early and started playing unsportsman-like (behaving like spoilt kids) so we started cheering for the Rangers. The Yankees hit the lead again in the middle of the game, but the Rangers ran out winners 10 – 6.

We went out to a Mexican restaurant for a delicious meal and there were two young Asian guys who were playing guitar in the restaurant. They were amazing! After a big day of entertainment at the ball game and the Mexican restaurant, I turned the TV onto Fox News Channel (aka the Republican lies and propaganda channel) which may have been the most entertaining of all.



Friday 17/08/12 – We smashed a huge breakfast this morning (I included two donuts in mine!) as we would need plenty of energy for the day ahead. We caught the subway into Federal Hall in the NY Financial District, where we met a tour guide for a 7 hour walking tour of NY City. It would be impossible to give a detailed description of all the things we saw so I will just mention the highlights. Federal Hall was poignant starting point as it is the place where George Washington was inaugurated as the first US president, and it included an interesting photographic insight into the lives and main events of the various presidents since then (why did George Bush Jnr look like a fool in all of his photos? Oh I remember now, it is cause he was). We headed down Wall Street over to the East River to see the Brooklyn Bridge. We also checked out Broadway and the new World Trade Centre before catching the subway out to Little Italy. After some fantastic pizza, even more fantastic cheesecake and the most fantastic Gelato for lunch we headed through Chinatown which was wild. We went to one of their street side grocery stores were you could not only buy all your fruits vegetables and dried meats, but also some live turtles or toads for dinner! We then ran a gauntlet of old Asian women whispering offers of fake Gucci handbags and Rolexes, and headed to the main park in Chinatown where people were gambling, playing checkers and kickboxing. This area has some really interesting history, it was sort of an experiment in multiculturalism where Italian, Chinese and Irish immigrants where housed with the already existing African American community. As you can imagine it was a very wild but unforgiving place to live. The tour then went through SoHo and the West Village before finishing in Washington Square Park where we watched an old homeless man covered in pigeons (and their shit) picking a fight with an Italian tourist. I think Pigeon-man had a problem with the Italians stance in World War 2 as he kept ranting about wars and Italians and how this poor tourist wasn’t in the military because he was Italian (?), anyway the Italian wasn’t scared or backing down. Every time pigeon-man got particularly excited he would start waving his arms about and the birds would all fly off and then return to his arms when he calmed down again, it turned into a fantastic and almost beautiful spectacle! The tour was a great way of seeing the more interesting sights and going to places that aren’t in the brochures. Also the tour is free – you just tip the guide at the end for whatever amount you think the tour was worth. It’s the first time I have tipped without gritting my teeth and having vivid visions of what I could be spending the money on (yeah I know, I’m just another tight Aussie tourist who is not used to tipping).

We caught the subway home and bought some grapes and strawberries from street vendor for dinner.



Saturday 18/08/12 – After customarily downing a donut for breaky and pilfering one for morning tea, we headed to Central Park and the Museum of Natural History. The museum is the one that was used to film the Ben Stiller “Night at the Museum” movies where all the exhibits come alive at night time. I was like a wide eyed child for much of the morning, wondering through the exhibitions on early human and (other) mammal evolution, Asian and African mammals, bioluminescence, and a large and creepy living spider exhibition. The Planetarium was awesome, as was the extensive dinosaur exhibits (complete with a David Attenborough documentary).

After exiting the museum with a big grin on our faces, we took a stroll through Central Park. We spent some time on the bridges and lakeside watching the frogs and turtles in the water and the squirrels dropping nuts from the tree tops onto passing tourists. There was also a group of great street performers who were dancing and doing acrobatics. They were very talented and funny, making fun of themselves and the surrounding tourists. They were black and kept saying that if we didn’t tip them they would send some of their brothers over to rob our houses.

We headed home and ate snickers bars for dinner. There was a vending machine right outside our hotel room which is a problem as I have a history of being addicted to Snickers bars. At one stage back in school I was eating at least 3 a day, and today I ate at least 3!



Sunday 19/08/12 – The typical morning routine ensured (shower, donuts, and subway), but this time we headed to the liberty cruise terminal. After lethargically and reluctantly jumping through the usual American security hoops, we boarded a ferry and headed out to cruise around Liberty Island. Unfortunately they are currently doing maintenance on the statue which means the public doesn’t have access to the observation floors within the statue’s crown. We got our photos in front of the statue (you know the typical holiday snaps where you look dishevelled, slightly overweight and have a forced grin on your face) and then went to visit the Immigration museum. The museum is on Ellis Island which was the main entry point for immigrants arriving on the east coast from the 1890’s till the 1920’s. Over time it became known as “The Island of Hope and Tears” as whilst the majority of immigrants where processed and allowed to immigrate to the US mainland, many who arrived on Elis Island, were refused entry and had to catch a boat back to their home country. Immigrants who were refused entry were usually done so due to failing their medical exam; however some got turned away if a particular ethnicities monthly quota was filled or if they did not bring the equivalent of US$25 with them.

After returning to Manhattan Island, we walked over to the 9/11 memorial park which is built on the site of the original World Trade Centre towers that fell during the 2001 terrorist attacks. All the rubble was removed and two massive pools now occupy the holes that were the tower’s foundations. Water is fed into the pools via waterfalls all around the edges which also contains the names of all the direct victims of the attacks. The Immortal Tree was also in the park which is a tree that was originally on the World Trade Centre grounds and survived the towers falling. We left the park and walked past a group of homeless nearby that turned out to be the Occupy Wall Street protesters, I guess sometime along the way the movement changed, got hijacked or lost its relevance. Anyway they didn’t seem to be occupying much anymore.



Monday 20/08/12 – With half a day up our sleeves before being required at La Guardia airport, we headed into the city and up to the Rockefeller Building observation decks. The city of New York appears completely different when you’re looking at it from 70 floors high. After jostling for the prime photo positions with all the other camera wielding tourists, we headed back down and with our feet firmly on the ground we looked for somewhere to eat. We ended up heading into the “Little Brazil” part of town and got some Brazilian grilled chicken sandwiches. Our previous experiences with Brazilian food meant our expectations were high (it’s similar to Portuguese and Mozambican food), we were not disappointed!

After bumming around town for a while, we washed up in Times Square; a vague disappointment compared to the lights of Vegas. We caught a train and then a bus to the airport via the hotel to pick up our bags. After dealing with security again (the sixth time in five days), we jumped on the plane and took off to some great views of the city. The flight was smooth and fast! Despite leaving right on time, we landed half an hour early and were greeted by Andrew who was duel-wielding Mars bars for us. It was kind of like those movies where the hot girl is fanning herself with money waiting for the guy to come and take it, except my uncle was the hot girl and the Mars bars were the money. I guess it wasn’t really like that at all – now I just have a bad image burned into my brain…



Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 21/08-23/08/12 – I won’t bore you all with the finer details of these three days. We got the bikes serviced and made a few final minor adjustments and modifications to them; soon we will be riding off into Mexico and beyond! After spying a few unruly wires protruding from Kenz’s front tyre about 300 kms ago, we were aggrieved to see that the problem worsened and at least one quarter of the tyre tread was now wire. Along with a new set of tyres for each bike (Kenda K761’s, we got over 16,000 kms out of our previous pair which isn’t bad for Canadian and Alaskan roads), we also got fuel filters, new air filters, new chain and sprockets and other exciting goodies!

Despite the time spent on the bikes, the other highlights of these days were spending dinners and evenings with Andrew and Lisa. We have been eating like kings and have been totally spoiled by Lisa’s cooking which has included roast vegetable lasagne, lamb chops, pasties (they were actually made by Andrew), chicken satay, and a feast of southern food (fried chicken, mashed potatoes, backed beans, beef brisket, corn and sweet-potato pie). For our last night they shouted us to a fantastic taco bar.



Friday 24/08/12 – We got up early this morning to say goodbye to our fantastic hosts before they headed off to work. Sometime during the night, Maggie the dog must have snuck into our room and stole my motorbike pants as they were found outside on her bed covered in dog hair. I am surprised she didn’t bury them as I imagine they would smell irresistible to a dog (and absolutely, totally, undeniably resistible to a human – myself included). After finishing packing the panniers perfectly, we adjusted the bikes chain tension and saddled up, ready to ride off into the great south! Only then did I realise I had no idea where my keys were. After about an hour of furious finger pointing and blaming (firstly at Kenz and then Maggie who I assumed lost them by dragging my pants around the garden all night) I found them in the toe of my shoe in the bottom of my (previously perfectly packed) pannier.

We travelled south from Denver down Highway 285 along the scenic highway which included two spectacular mountain passes. Whilst riding through the forest a beautiful bear, that perhaps had a death wish, came bursting out from the bushes right in front of me! From what I remember I don’t think he was fully grown, he would have probably reached just under my belly button whilst he was on all fours. Luckily I zigged and he zagged and a horrible ending for both of us was avoided. It was an incredible moment to be so close to a bear that was running at full pace. I clearly remember the sun shining through his brown fur, and sort of lighting up into a bright red/crimson at the tips. Also the way the fur was moving and whipping around over his muscles was hypnotic. I guess at one point he was only about 2 metres from my leg before he leapt into the bush on the other side of the road. The scariest part was that I had one of those huge American Ford trucks right on my tail, and if I had come off the bike he would have ground me into little more than a puddle.

We pulled into a fuel station at the next town we came to. After calming down a little, fuelling up the bikes, and getting terrified of the gnarly redneck service station attendant, we went to pull out and get on the road again. Only then did we realise that whilst paying inside, they had shut the highway off about a kilometre down the road for a bike race. After deciding that neither of us really wanted to end up as fertiliser in this rednecks garden, we rode the bikes to the edge of the service station, parked and waited out the race.

Later we continued onto a campground on the edge of the Mesa Verde NP which is about 600 kms SW of Denver in south western Colorado. We set up camp and jumped in the pool to watch another beautiful desert sunset. Soon we realised we weren’t alone in the pool as there was a tarantula drowned on the bottom of the pool! I fished him out using various pieces of pooling equipment to get my first look at a proper tarantula. After plopping him on the poolside and then running around doing that involuntary and uncontrollable funky-chicken run with all my body hairs standing on end that occurs when I see a GIANT spider, I started poking him with a stick and tripping on his size and hairiness. I officially aged 3 years when he moved and I realised that he was actually still alive! After a bloodcurdling scream and a terrifying sprint from the poolside we went looking for some dinner. It turned out that the shops were closed and we had to improvise from what was available in the office. 1 bag of Pringles chips, 1 bag of salted peanuts, 1 Snickers bar, and 1 Snickers bar ice-cream later I crawled into the tent with an impending stomach ache looming. I double checked the zips on both tent linings and my sleeping bag before unsuccessfully attempting to think of anything except GIANT hairy spiders from the desert climbing into tent.



Saturday 25/08/12 – The Mesa Verde NP (Green Table in Spanish) is an area that was inhabited by native Indians who originally emigrated from Central America. The park is home to many ruins dating between 700 – 1400AD. The older ruins are pit houses where families dug out a large area of earth and built a dome-shaped roof out of logs. It was during this time that the people shifted their way of life from hunter-gatherers to villages supported by agriculture. Then for reasons unknown, the people moved from the flat mountain tops and built dwellings into the cracks and caves of the sheer canyon cliffs that riddle the area. Often the only access to these new villages was by scaling the sheer rock walls of the canyons. They still farmed the land on top of the canyons, and used to drop their crops down the canyon walls to the villages built bellow using crude ropes. The entrance to one such village was reached first by climbing down the cliff face (although today, us tall fat people who visit get to use ladders!) and then squeezing through a small tunnel that I couldn’t fit through without turning my shoulders. The average height of these Indians was just over 5 foot and they must have been incredibly nimble and dexterous to live in these amazing villages. The Spanish encountered these people and called them Pueblans (meaning people of the village) and they considered them more civilised than the nomadic “wild” nomadic Indians. The Hopi are modern day descendants of the Pueblans. It is believed (by studies on the Hopi and Pueblan artefacts) that they share common social order and religious beliefs. The Pueblans were incredible architects who built their homes and villages around huge boulders and jagged rocks rather than pull them out or remove them. The Hopi explained this by saying that the Earth is their mother and it would be wrong to remove an undesirable piece of their mother. I guess it translate to how we forgive our mothers their failings and intricacies rather than berate them over it or try and change them (What would happen if we started treating and caring for the Earth like we do our mothers? What a concept! WOAH some one hand me a crystal or kick me a hacky sack!). Sometime during the 1400’s all the inhabitants of these amazing villages just left the region leaving their villages fully stocked with items, trinkets, pottery, and some food stores and headed south into parts of Arizona, Mexico and New Mexico. It almost seems like the people just got up and left one day leaving all their possessions behind. Whilst there are many theories as to why they left, they still don’t have a definitive answer. The most plausible theories include a social or religious driver; however drought and environmental change may have also played a role.

We spent the whole day exploring the many ruins in the area and being totally amazed at what these people achieved in their time here. As the dwellings are mostly out of the direct rain, snow and harsh sunlight, they have been preserved remarkably well. Also the number of tourists allowed in the ruins is limited in an effort to ensure their conservation. We went on ranger led tours of Cliff Palace and Balcony house and explored other ruins on our own such as Spruce Tree House and the Sun Temple.



Sunday 26/08/12 – Despite spending all day yesterday in the Mesa Verde ruins, we still wanted more! So we got up early and travelled to the other side of the park to the Long House ruins. Again we were left speechless by the villages that these ancient people built and inhabited.

At some of the more memorable places along our trip so far, we have been collecting a few stickers to put on our bikes (it seems like the thing that touring bikers do!). Until Denver we had just been throwing them in a bag, however we decided to stick them onto our panniers while the bikes were getting serviced. As it turns out it was a HUGE mistake!! Now when we get off the bikes to go and do something, we return to find 1 – 3 random dudes hanging around wanting to talk with us for about 20 mins about our trip; and they always start off by saying “Well, it looks like you’re having quite the adventure!” I know I should be happy that people are friendly and interested, but it’s hard when you’re in a hurry and are just fuelling up the bikes when a small crowd gathers around wanting to chat which then leads on to other people wanting to see what the fuss is about and then wanting to talk! Sometimes it’s easier when you’re just another random biker who looks like they’re on a weekend camping trip.

Coming back from the Long House ruins was interesting. There was a 5^th degree black belt in freaky weirdo who was sitting in the car park next to my bike with some tomatoes on the ground (salting them in the gravelly oil-stained tar) and tomato seeds and skin all over his mouth and face. He looked like the lions you see in documentaries that have had their faces in a bloody zebra carcass. To complete the picture: he was about 6”5, looked about 60 (it turned out he was actually over 75), had crazy feral eyes, and was wearing an army style cammo jacket and those leather crotch-less biker pants over his jeans. He was so excited to meet us and wanted to stand there talking for hours about bikes and the trips. Despite him looking kinda freaky (and he kept thinking we were Austrians, he had heard of Australia but didn’t know where it was) he was an interesting guy. He was one of those kinds of people who have way too much energy; he made me feel exhausted after talking to him for 10 minutes! Kenz had to endure him cracking onto her, it turns out that girls who ride their own bikes are a bit of a myth over here and are definitely the most desirable woman possible to many of the bikers we’ve met in the US. I am constantly referring to her as “MY WIFE Mackenzie”!

After bidding the freak goodbye, we left Mesa Verde and headed west to the Four Corner monument. It is the only place in America where 4 states meet at a single point (Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado). Despite it sounding like a cool place, it wasn’t. It was way overdone with 8 flagpoles (can you guess how many American flags?! I think there are more American flags over here than Americans), plaques everywhere and 4 sets of stadium seating all facing each other across the borders. Our cure for being totally underwhelmed was quickly found by heading west into Arizona and through some spectacular desert landscape.

We were just missed by a dust storm about 60 kms from nowhere. It was so windy we were having trouble staying upright and we started to worry when the wind began picking up the desert sand and blowing it in tendrils across the road in front of us. Luckily the storm had already passed and this was just the finish of the storm. It looked like a really heavy rain storm in the distance, however instead of rain in the air it was sand – terrifying to imagine being in one on a bike!

Although riding in the desert is spectacular it was a relief to reach Tuba City. It is situated on the Indian lands of the Hopi and the Navajo. We tried the traditional American Indian food called Fry Bread. It’s basically fried bread, and it tastes like fried bread. We went to Denny’s for a cheap meal where we spied a maple-bacon milkshake on the menu, with real bacon bits. Yuck.

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