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Published: October 24th 2014
New York
"This is a 2 line express train to Woodlawn.
Stand clear of the closing doors please"
Our stop was 125
th st. Our apt was on 126
th st. Ground level. The TV did not work for the entire time we were there.
new york is 3 hours and a world away from Boston. Where Boston was refined and demure NY is wild and frenetic and footloose. We arrive at Penn station and get a 7 day metro pass (with help of our friendly subway assistant). This is the best investment we make in NY. We get a 2 train express and then wonder how we will know when we get to '125
th st. Thankfully a lovely lady with an Irish accent puts us right. We emerge in Harlem. We find our street and Gina our contact is waiting at the apt. Down 3 steps and we have a ground floor one room apt with bathroom. There are 2 windows at the front. No other natural light.
Start spreadin’ the news.
New York was like an 8 day blur. It consisted of subway to our start point for the day and usually lots of walking.
One of the highlights was catching up with old friend and 2 til 5 colleague Dean Parker. Dean has been living in NY for nearly 20 years. Dean is a musician and managed to be in the right plaqce at the right time to hook up with film composer Carter Burwell not long after he arrived. Steady work led to permanent residency and he now lives in the Bronx with his wife and 2 kids.
So here is the kaleidoscope version of NY
· Staten island ferry. It’s free and you get to see Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty
· We bought the New york Pass which was supposed to save us money. But we failed to read the fine print. A pass to the Circle line (boat trip round Manhattan) was not the full trip but an hours journey out to Ellis Island and the S of L. You ahve to upgrade. Of course when we tried to upgrade the full circle line was booked out wasn’t it?
· We went to Macey’s
· We went to the Metropolitan museum of art, the Guggenheim, the museum of natural history
· We ate at Chevy’s in Times Square which was quite good Mexican. We ate at Bubba Gumps cause we were starving after attending the theatre. We ate soul food at Sylvia’s in Harlem and had a sandwich at KATZ’s. Dean introduced us to a lovely Swiss restaurant which did a lovely schnitzel. We ate hot dogs and bagels but no pizza.
· We attended THE BOOK OF MORMON, a theatrical highlight not just of this trip but of my life. The writers are also the writers of South Park. The irreverence and the satire is superb. I suspect that on its various tours around the US Salt Lake City will not be one of the venues.
· We walked through Chelsea and the West Village and Greenwich Village. We did the Highline walk which is quite extraordinary to see this greenery and sedate culture in the middle of and above one of the busiest cities in the world.
· We went to a Yankees game. It was the last home game for Derek Jeter who was retiring after a 20 year career. Jeter was/is god to New Yorkers. Imagine a cross between Peter Sterling, Danny Buderus, Michael O’Loughlin and Tim Cahill and you get some idea of how highly he is regarded. We bought our tickets in January before he announced his retirement. We found out later from an Aussie we met while looking for sporting caps that scalpers were getting $800/ticket. Anyway it was a fairytale ending. Scores are tied at the bottom of the 9
th and the Yankees are 1 out with a runner on 2nd. Jeter comes up to bat and dives a grounder between 1
st and second to score the runner. The place breaks into pandemonium.
· We went to the top of the Empire State Building and ran into a couple from Adelaide
Some impressions of NY:
· As with anywhere people can be kind or indifferent. Overall we found NYers to be kind, accommodating and helpful
· NY is more than Manhattan and Manhattan is more than downtown.
· Like London and Paris the subway system works as an essential aspect of everyday life.
· conductors on the railroad over here don't speak English. They speak TRAIN and are unable to be understood.
· i think i have crossed over to the dark side. i asked for directions to the rest room not toilet yesterday
Baltimore
2 ½ hrs by train our B& B is a lovely old turn of the century home. Beautiful semi-spiral staircase made of lovely dark mahogany type wood.
We spent the afternoon wandering the harbour area. Without doubt the best harbour foreshore i have ever had the pleasure of spending 3 hours exploring. Went to Broadway pier, site of the police headquarters for HOMICIDE LIFE ON THE STREET. Building is run down and derelict. So it goes.
Bo Brooks for dinner. Seafood platter followed by blue swimmer crabs freshly steamed and served covered in salt and pepper. Bo was recommended by two women from Baltimore we met on the cruise. Was a special experience.
one of the most frustrating days thus far. Got to airport to hire our car. pre arranged. documentation ready and presented. then got told our credit cards were no good cause they were debit cards and we could only use a de3bit card if we were flying out that day. go figure that one. so instead of $31 to pay it cost $90 to hire a car from another company.
finally got to Gettysburg. spent 3 hours driving around the battlefield. very strange both Gettysburg and Antietam were battles that were unplanned. Lees army literally bumped into the Northern army on both occasions and the battle "grew" from there. so many moments in history turn on a chance happening or a misunderstanding. Lee could have won the battle on the first day had Ewell, his general taken the initiative and stormed Cemetery Hill. Stonewall Jackson certainly would have, but he was killed by a bullet from his own men who fired at him in mistake at Chencerlorsville. Little Round Top would have fallen but for the bravado of Colonel Chamberiln and the 20th Maine who charged a much larger force and dispersed them. And Cemetery Hill would have fallen on the second day but for a foolhardy charge by 1st Minnesota against a force 7 times their size. this caused the confederate advance to falter and the gap they were trying to exploit was plugged. which brings us to Pickett's charge, the most shameful and disastrous order given by Lee. Pickett's 14,000 men were destroyed in an hour in a futile frontal attack on Cemetery Hill. Lee was so distraught when the survivors returned that he rode out to apologise to them. Pickett refused to even speak to Lee after that day.
we drove through the Maryland wilderness to get to Antietam after that but it was late so we just had a cursory look around.
Gettysburg is a touchstone place in the imaginations of many Americans. i overheard one bloke at Little Round Top say "yes but the problem i have is that we lost" i am reminded of Chou En Lai's comment when asked about what he thought were the effects of the French Revolution. His response; "it's too early to say". don't let anyone tell you the civil war ended in 1865.
Washington
2 days of Smithsonian and national archives and white house and Old Ebbetts Grill for a wonderful seafood stew. Ford’s Theatre where Lincoln was shot was a highlight.
Billings
Best hotel we’ve ever stayed in. Cookies and tea/coffee available all day. Ate at a subway version of Mexican. You order your ingredients and they put t together in front of you.. Australian accents sure do win people over.
Headed off to the Little Big Horn national monument.
Custer's last Stand is also a signature moment in American history. When news reached Washington they were in the middle of the centenary celebrations of the declaration of independence. Custer had been a nationally known war hero, promoted by mistake from Lieutenant to General during the Civil War he helped defeat Jeb Stewart's cavalry at Gettysburg thereby denying Lee the cavalry screen he had come to rely upon. he was last in his class, a dilettante who loved flashy uniforms and the trappings of rank more than he loved his men. he ignored the first rule of warfare which is to concentrate your forces, by dividing his force in 3. he also declined the offer of extra men and to take Gatling guns with him as he felt it would slow him down. he also chose to ignore his one avenue of escape and dismounted to fight on the ground. The native Americans were fighting for their culture and way of life. the Americans were fighting for land, greed and gold.
what strikes you at the Little Bighorn battlefield is how a real attempt has been made to include the commemoration of the Indians. there is a (relatively recent) memorial to the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes which took part. the video presentations in the visitor's centre is both respectful and balanced towards to Indians. the locals and descendants of the 3 tribes have set up a tribute to peace which is celebrated every year in June. it is heartening to see that the chauvinism i was expecting was hardly evident at all.
the battle was spread over about 5 miles. Majors Reno and Benteen were in charge of the 2 other columns. they were pinned down for more than 2 days before being relieved. interestingly Australian author Delia Falconer has written a novel about Benteen: THE LOST THOUGHTS OF SOLDIERS.
my favourite representation of Custer is the wonderfully over the top performance by Richard Mulligan in LITTLE BIG MAN. it's total fiction but there is a deal of evidence that he was a publicity seeking megalomaniac. In any event it's worth a look for the truly virtuoso performance of Mulligan.
Drove through the most amazing country and climbed to 10,000 feet. Stunning views. And that’s before we got to Yellowstone. Called in at a lookout point on the road. There were only 2 other people there, two young women. I said to one of them: “this mountain is 3,000 feet higher than our highest mountain in Australia. She said: “yeah i know mate”. They were from Sydney.
Yellowstone was bison and geysers – what’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison? You can’t wash your hands in a buffalo.
Some amazing experiences, particularly of the “Yellowstone grand canyon”. Pity the lodge we stayed at was so old and in need of an upgrade. We loved the park although we found the rotten egg gas and the altitude did get to us a fair bit. our trip from Billings means that we are at altitudes above 5,000 feet for about 10 days.
Spent the next night in Verbal Utah. Quite a large city In our drawer at the hotel was a Gideon’s bible and THE BOOK OF MORMON. Now who said there was no such thing as synchronicities?
We drove from vernal to Mexican hat via Arches National Park. Brilliant. Cannot recommend this highly enough. We then drove to Mexican Hat Utah just short of Monument Valley. Had an interesting Mexican meal at a local “restaurant”. We set out next morning for Monument valley. Unfortunately there was a huge dust storm so we declined to drive through the canyon and just did the entrance. what we saw was spectacular but would have been nice to have the on the ground experience.
majestic, spectacular, splendid, superb, each is inadequate to describe the grandeur of the Grand Canyon. This is the most extraordinary example of natural beauty on a mammoth scale. We3 walk the rim and take photos and snap madly at sunset trying to capture the changing colours. The history of mining and particularly uranium mining casts a pall over this beauty. The scale takes your breath away. It’s 250 miles long. It is relatively recent in its creation. At many of the lookouts i am overcome with vertigo. I have to inch my way forward to the edge holding on for dear life. Pictures will be worth a thousand words.
we have been really spoiled over the past few days but this experience is something else. we are in majestic landscape overload and each time we think we have reached the apex of spectacle the next experience comes along to trump it. it's hard to describe the enormity of the place. Those of you who've been to Katoomba will get a feel for the kind of experience but you would have to multiply that experience 20 or 30 times to get a sense of the scale of this place.
Antelope canyon is THE most amazing experience. It is the most nondescript appearance from the outside. Looks like flat desert floor. But once you enter into the canyon a whole world of reds and purples punctuated by sunlight opens up to you. Stunning.
Drove into Zion National Park on Monday night. the drive once you entered the park was a series of hairpin bends and switchbacks. speed limit was 35 mph and often you were down to 15. went through 2 tunnels. the second was 1.1 miles in length. it was built by workers under the Roosevelt New Deal program in the early 1930s. the drive was pitch dark with only the car headlights and the lights of the car in front providing any kind of illumination. it was quite eerie with a sense of being totally isolated in the middle of blackness. there was no sense of landscape as the headlights illuminated just the road and its verges. We had to stop suddenly to avoid a couple of mule deer so named because of their large ears. our destination was Springdale just outside the park. Springdale emerged from the darkness with an explosion of neon. the place was alive with restaurants, bars, hotels, galleries all with the obligatory neon sign. It was the perfect example of a visual non sequitur. we went over the road from our hotel to a neon supporting Mexican restaurant. food was good. Today we did Zion canyon. another great day of outstanding natural formationBottom of Form
Just walked the "strip". Every cliche, every stereotype about Las Vegas is true. It is a citadel, a shrine to Mammon. Caesar's Palace occupies a whole block. food halls, retail outlets are fronted by large rooms of slot machines that you negotiate before getting to your destination. it is Kitsch made human, made large. just when you think an example of over the top largesse could not be topped you come across a 1/10 sized Eiffel tower or St Marks Square or the Trevi Fountain tastefully recreated in 3 separate locations along with the statue of David with his private parts seemingly enlarged to satisfy the American sense of proportion.
as we walked by the escalators that take you to the overhead crossing of the street (where you just happen to walk past a raft of retail outlets), i happened to notice two black men sitting in a maintenance room under the escalator. They were exhausted. the reality of that image punctured, skewered the artifice of the plasticine world outside their reality.
The next day we go to Death Valley. This somehow seems appropriate.
Death Valley has to be close to the most desolate place i have been. The Americans just do everything better than the rest of us.
