Buffalo to Baltimore

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Buffalo, NY to Warwick, RI

A somber reminder of the date as we rode out of Buffalo, NY this morning; all flags were flying at half mast. I felt it also symbolised the strength and resilience of the people of the US.

We were headed for Springfield, Massachusetts and took in a couple of Starbucks stops to break up the trip. On our first stop we met Craig who is riding a Triumph Tiger. We had a quick chat but as we had finished our coffee stop we carried on. When we stopped at our next stop Craig arrived and asked where we were headed (Twisted Throttle in Rhode Island) to which he most generously offered to accommodate us all at his home, which just happens to be in Rhode Island! We quickly accepted before he thought this through. Craig had pursued us to extend the offer since the last stop. We were all very grateful for his generosity! We followed Craig back to his home, (which was gorgeous) it was nice to have a guide into the city!

Next morning, fuelled with coffee and doughnuts (thanks Craig) we got ready to ride over to Twisted Throttle, Craig was going to be guiding us but went one better and decided as he'd not been to Manhattan before, he'd take the opportunity and come with us. Gotta love spontaneous decisions. We rode to Twisted throttle (got some new riding pants and a free hat) and then rode to Manhattan via the Queensboro Bridge. Spectacular riding into the bustling metropolis and on the whole, easier than we anticipated.

Once we arrived at our accommodation we were escorted by our tour guides, Raewyn and Elaine, to see a few of the sights. We got the hop on hop off bus and did a loop to check out the well known buildings before going to the M & M store and the Hershey store in Times Square. By the time we'd eaten dinner and meandered past the statues down the street we were well and truly ready for bed.

Next morning we headed straight for the bus to take us downtown to the ferry. We were lucky enough to get on the ferry before it got busy. We (Trev) decided it would be best to tick off the Statue of Liberty before it got busy; this proved to be a good idea. SOL done, we headed back to downtown and on to the 9/11 memorial. We went up the Freedom Tower to the observatory and just the lift was an attraction on its own! Photos taken (thanks Craig) we headed back to earth and searched out the breakdancers we'd noticed from the bus and watched them for a while.

The architecture was fantastic along with just people watching, there's some interesting characters about.

Manhattan to Baltimore

This morning Craig sadly had to leave us to go back home to reality, we'll miss having him about. The ride out of Manhattan was much less stressful than we anticipated and we were soon cruising on the i95 toward Baltimore. Heading south toward Maryland was a bit gusty but not windy enough to keep me awake, a Starbucks stop did the trick though and before we knew it we had arrived in Baltimore in time for a quick trip downtown and fivesies watching the sunset.

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