Off On Our Own - New York

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This will be my travel diary for the next year, I'm going to try and put down my feeling and thoughts while I am travelling, as this is only going to happen once in my life and the things I am going to experience are going to be put of this world.

So, T minus 11 days to go, this is like waiting in gods waiting room, in the garage, just watching the time ticking by, it's like waiting for the big day, and it is getting closer I know it is, but it just seems to be taking so long to arrive.

I'm very nervous, not so much of the journey, more about making sure we run on budget, so no spending, just looking. At least the direction of travel is the most expensive countries first. So planing if the key to start off and making sure we have a good budget, at the moment the budget is £13k, but is should be £12K, buggers already over budget, you see what I mean, where do we find the extra grand from, or more importunity how do we save a grand while we are travelling?

What am I looking forward to? Well with each country I think about I get excited about what I'll see and do, of course some countries have more presence, such as Mongolia, New Zealand, and Canada. But countries like Cambodia and the far east are going to be a real traveller dream. So I can't say which is which, but for sure the next year will be the most exciting and most adventurous I have ever done.

Stay up with Wow for a few days before our travels, having a lovely and relaxing time. But still the thought of going for a year is a bit daunting, I know it will be okay once we get going but we are not going yet, it's only two days away, camera batteries fully charged, backups taken, bags packed, buggers I seem to only have one pair of trousers, I'd better find them on Friday. With all the gadgets I am taking the amount of cables and plugs means they become quite heavy. So it looks like these will have to go in my hand luggage, along with my laptop, passports, and documents. So where will my pillow go, I'm sure I'll find somewhere for it to fit, or hang off.

Final got it all in, not sure how.

Final night at Cosmo, where all the parents get to meet each other, went okay, all got on very well. I was really pleased that Becki could make it too, I was so happy she could make it.

Final the day has arrived, OMG this is it, we are here we are Off On Our Own…..!

Keith kindly drove us to Heathrow terminal 3, we said our goodbyes to my Mum and Dad and to Jody's Mum and thanked Keith for driving us down, and set off to catch the plane.

Arrived in JFK, 30 minutes early, then had to queue to 1 hour to get through US customs, well we did say if we get through customs in less than 4 hours then we should be grateful, so we are truly grateful USA for letting us in.

Short bus ride on the Express Bus to Port Authorities, cost us $15 each, did not take too long about 45 minutes, it was dark so hard to see anything.

Arrived at our Hotel, Hotel Carter, right in the centre, perfect for Times Square and The Port Authority. But, and a big but the hotel is a dive, dirty and old, so much so that when we went to our room, the plug sockets where hanging off the wall, the bathroom looked like it had not been cleaned, the bedding did look white, but not sure about that, perhaps it was because the room was so dirty that brown would have looked white in the room? Jody began to cry, oh no, we can't change hotels, I comforted her, but this was not enough, she was so worried that this was what we would have to endure for the year, I was worried that it would be like this too. We locked our bags together and headed out for something to eat, as were getting tired too.

The walk to Times Square, was only 50 metres away if that, all the bright lights and masses of people, we found the M & M sweet shop and took a few photos and thought of Wow, as she was so excited about the shop in Las Vegas. We finally ended up in an Maximus restaurant, I had a rare American cheese burger, and Jody the Veggie burger, both very nice.

On returning to the Hotel we asked to move rooms, which they did and the new room, was better, and Jody was much happier, but she still walked around the room in her boots, with just her kickers on, so funny.

Finally got to bed about 10pm, work and out on the streets of New York for 7am, yes Jody was up on a Sunday morning at 7am walking the streets, fully dressed.

Today I realised that my dream to travel had become a reality, I remember the first day I mentioned it to my old friend Richard and his dad, that one day I would travel the world, and this was it, over 24 years later and I was travelling and on day 1.

I must say that I am so pleased that I am travelling with Jody, she and I get on like a house on fire, always laughing with each other, at each other and just have a way with each other that is just so perfect that I could not have asked to travel with someone more special than Jody.

So early Sunday morning on the streets of New York, it's a must, walking through Times Square, down Broadway and off to see the Empire State building, Starbucks for a Salt and Cameral Hot Chocolate, yep salt in a hot chocolate, it was quite nice as it happens, our breakfast cost us $10, wow too much, we've already blown our budget. Then sitting down we noticed Double Eggs and Roll for 99c, okay we no know that we should be eating on, so we ordered our Egg rolls, which were lovely, as we ate them walking down the streets.

Madison Square next, then a walk to Grand Central Station, and oh what a beautiful station, the ceiling was the star constellations, and the station was full of marble, even the ticket office was the old style, very nostalgic and old fashioned.

Walked up Park Avenue, popped in to the Waldorf Hotel for Jody to pick up the phone for a quick photo to call home, and someone answered the other end, so funny :-)

Then a brisk walk to Central Park, on a crisp winters morning.

Now on the Greyhound bus on our way to Boston, Wifi on board, so good to be able to catch up on Facebook and chat (text) to my mum on Skype.

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