Coming to the end of this leg of the trip - Philadelphia and New York revisited

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18th Sept ’12 York to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Today it was raining!! We were driving through the Amish farm lands of Pennsylvania and had intended to do Aaron and Jessica’s buggy ride but by the time we reached the farm it was tanking down and a buggy ride didn’t sound as much fun!

We did spot a few buggies around and about and lots of Witness style barns but it just wasn’t the same in the rain. So we carried on along a very complex route to get to Philadelphia Airport. At one point it was raining so hard you couldn’t see the road at all which was a bit hairy! However it eased off to a mild torrent and we made it to the motel ok.

19th September ’12 Philadelphia

After we checked out of the motel we drove the car to the car rental return place and said goodbye to our trusty steed which has carried us along for 5000 miles on our epic road journey!

Then it was back to public transport and we caught the shuttle to the airport, then the train to 30th Street Station, the tube to 2nd street and it was all very déjà vu. Have to say though 14 months later and I still reckon Philadelphia is the nicest, friendliest city in America. The people are just so lovely and helpful and the atmosphere is so laid back, I love the place.

After crossing over the gigantic bridge and walking along the riverside we reached The Comfort Inn and despite being 3 hours early managed to get checked in! Incidentally there was a wedding party staying here also!

So tonight was the big Kiss/Motley Crue gig so we got changed and set off to get some food and have a few drinks. We found a great pub – it was kind of like a very old school British pub, more of a long narrow hole in the wall where everyone sat on wooden bar stools at the bar. It was also a real ale pub and had a two hour happy hour going on when we arrived.

We were handed a menu which described all the ‘beers’ in great detail and made them sound like wine, Howard sampled a few while I found a good cider and stuck with that. So two hours later after the bacon popcorn was brought out (an interesting combination!) we staggered out and walked down to the ferry station.

The gig was in the Susquehanna Bank Center stadium which was the other side of the river in Camden, New Jersey and the ferry was the easiest way to get there. While we were in the queue a guy came around selling bootleg t shirts which were pretty good but when I asked the price he said $20! No way was I paying that for a bootleg t shirt, after some hard haggling I got him down to $10, he went away saying don’t tell anyone else how much you paid and I reckoned all my months in Asia paid off!

A short walk and we were at the stadium and picked up our tickets and were in. It was another massive amphitheatre but this time we had seats, albeit at the back. We had a walk around and looked at the merch stall and it made me even more pleased I had bought my bootleg shirt, the prices were ridiculous!

It was a great atmosphere with everyone wearing either a Kiss or Motely Crue t-shirt but I was disappointed not to see many of the Kiss Army, I did meet 3 young girls with their faces painted which was nice, 1 very tall large man and spotted a family with children all wearing the full outfits and with painted faces but apart from the odd bit of make up here and there that was it.

We did meet a group of Harry Potter fans though who were lovely and were chuffed to bits to meet us as we were English! So we chatted with them for a while, took photos and discussed whether or not you cried when Dobby died ha ha.

The support band were The Treatment from Cambridge in the UK and bless them they really tried hard, it cannot have been easy playing to a crowd who were just waiting for the next band but they were clearly loving being there and got quite a good reaction from the audience (well those who were there anyway).

Motley Crue put on a stonking show! Excellent sound, great special effects, loved the upside down drum solo (made drum solos a lot more bearable) and despite saying on numerous occasions that our Looci and the Steel Cats could have done better than the girls they had on stage REALLY enjoyed every minute of it!

Kiss were just Kiss, can’t fault any aspect of the show, it was a real show! Great songs, everyone singing along, lots of special effects and death defying platform boots and an unexpected bonus when at the end they played Strutter.

What a show! What a night! The ferry back was no problem, walked to the motel and the next day died!!

20th Sept ’12 Philadelphia to New York

Well I know we didn’t really have much choice but to move onto New York, but having to be out of the hotel by 11am after that gig was an absolute killer!

The journey back to 30th Street is a bit of a blur, then waiting around until 1 before walking to the Mega bus stop was hard, then we were on the bus and 2 hours later pulling into New York.

Then we had to negotiate our way via the tubes out to Sutphin Boulevard near JFK during rush hour with a rucksack, a suitcase, a back pack and not really knowing what we were doing aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh! It was a total nightmare, involving several changes, rushing up and down steps, jumping on and off trains, the suitcase handle snapping, forcing our way onto packed trains and standing for what seemed like hours.

I have never been more glad to see a motel!

21st Sept ’12 New York

Feeling a lot better but still tired we set off to do some sight-seeing. As we were here only 14 months ago (was it really that long???) and we did all the main sights then we decided to just do a couple of things today. We visited the New York Public Library (Day after Tomorrow) and very impressive, then we took the ferry over to Staten Island and we saw the Statue of Liberty again which is a great sight. We walked from here to the Tramway over to Roosevelt Island and then caught the tube all the way back – which took ages but at least we didn’t have luggage this time.

Tomorrow we are going to try and go out to Coney Island as our flight isn’t until late in the evening and then it’s goodbye and thank you USA it’s been awesome dudes!

Next stop....London and then Nepal

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Photos

Motley Crue
The suspense!

Motley Crue
Upside down drum solo!