It was another great day in NYC.

This morning we took our bikes on the 8.45am ferry, but this time to midtown Manhattan.

We made our way the the start of the Highline, an old above ground railway which has been converted to a walkway. But bikes are not allowed up there.

We locked our bikes up under the stairwell in a dubious location. A dark spot, very little foot traffic, grafitti etc.

As we walked up the steps, an unusual looking homeless person of an unidentified gender walked down. I just knew I didn’t want to mess with them.

They wandered off, not even looking at our bikes. We looked around some of the Highline, then looked down to double check on our bikes. The homeless person was back, now standing near our bikes.

They took a pee, smoked a cigarette and had a drink, then moved on. We deemed it safe to leave our bikes there and continued on.

At the next lot of stairs, there looked to be a better place to park our bikes, surrounded by cafes and more pedestrians walking by, so we went back to get our bikes to move them.

Two guys were standing by our bikes smoking a joint, but they weren’t interested in our bikes. But, we moved them anyway feeling better that they weren’t parked in a tramps toilet.

It was cool walking along the high line, away from all the traffic and hustle and bustle. Plants lined the edge of the walkway, nestled between old railway tracks, while skyscrapers towered above us.

We stopped and had some tacos at a food cart and they were yummy.

After we’d finished the Highline, we checked on our bikes then found a bagel place for lunch.

We both opted for the cream cheese bagel and it was soooooo delicious. They bake their own bagels on site and it was the best one I’ve ever had.

After our bagels we were both so exhausted from the heat. We cycled along the Hudson greenway to the downtown ferry and the 5 min trip back to Jersey.

We cranked up the air conditioning in the van and had an afternoon nap.

We both felt so much better after our break. We went out for lobster rolls again, then walked to the waterfront to watch the lights come on in Manhattan. I didn’t want to stay too late, unsure about walking back in the dark, but when the lights started coming in, it was so beautiful I didn’t want to leave.

We walked back in the dark, and I commented how dark it was, the streets not very well lit. it felt like a safe area but I put my dog spray in my pocket just in case.

Little did we know, danger lay ahead…

‘Walk like you have a purpose,’ I kept saying to Mike, something I’d learned to do while living in London.

Up ahead we saw a man lurking. Why was he just standing there, what was he going to do? Both of us were on high alert, we knew he was about to say something and I was getting ready to run.

I’d read Jersey was a dangerous city on the drive here, and a turn off the wrong street could have you in a bad area. I didn’t think that was the case here though, we’d walked this way, it was a nice area. But that was in daylight.

We continued walking towards the man, refusing to be afraid.

The man stepped towards us and held up his hand. ‘Watch out!,’ he said.

Why we didn’t just cross the street when we first saw him, I’m not sure, but it all happened so fast.

‘Watch out,’ he repeated to someone coming from the other direction.

And then we saw it, sauntering along the street towards us, tail in the air, getting ready to attack us if threatened.

Can you guess what it was?

It was a skunk! I’d never seen one before, but we’d run over a dead one on our car a few weeks back and the smell was disgusting. Apparent you do not want to get sprayed by a skunk, you’ll never get the smell out.

The man was amazed it was in such an urban environment. I managed to get a short video of it without getting too close. But if you didn’t know, you would have thought it was a cat!

We are just amazed at all the wildlife we’ve seen since being here. Skunks, alligators. Armadillos, turtles, raccoons, snakes, a bear, chipmunks, elk, squirrels and a tick!

We leave NYC tomorrow and head for the Catskills mountains.

We had a fantastic day celebrating my birthday in NYC.

We caught to ferry with our bikes in the morning from Jersey city and it took about 5 minutes to get to NYC and arrived about 10am.

We cycled along the Hudson River greenway which is a dedicated cycle route alongside the Hudson River and we followed it all the way to Central Park.

We spent a while cycling around Central Park. There were loads of turtles hanging around one of the lakes probably hoping to be fed.

Then came the exciting bit. Cycling through Times Square! We were glad we did as there was actually less traffic on the roads than the footpaths!

We then went to Grand central station, forgot to see the Chrysler building, saw the Empire State Building and decided we’d had enough.

We cycled back to the Hudson Greenway and caught the 4.15pm ferry back.

For dinner we went back to Surf city and had their lobster rolls, which were delicious. We sat on the waterfront enjoying our meal overlooking the NYC skyline. Perfect!

We booked another day here, so tomorrow we’ll do the High line , ground zero, and whatever else we find to do along the way.

Today we drove to New York City. It was a 4 hour drive from where we camped, and all went well until the last 25 minutes.

We were on the interstate when the car started making a rattling noise. At first we thought it might be a stone in the tyre but the rattling got worse.

We pulled over on the side of the freeway to see if there was anything obvious wrong. Even while it was idling the rattled continued. I thought oh no, I don’t want to break down in a dodgy part of Jersey city.

Mike decided to carry on driving to our destination, an RV park in Jersey city. It’s basically a big carpark with water and electricity on site. There are also showers, toilets and a laundry here. We’ll be making use of all of them.

We took a walk to the waterfront where there was a clear view over Manhattan, with regular ferries to take out there.

We were both pretty tired so we spent the afternoon soaking up the atmosphere. The part of Jersey city we’re in is all new and modern. There is a marina and many apartment blocks. You can even rent kayaks and jet skis.

After our walk, Mike looked at the car engine to see if anything had come loose in there to cause the rattle. Sure enough, one of the belts was missing. But which belt? Mike’s first thought was alternated, but thankfully it wasn’t that. We looked up to part number and it’s apparently the smog pump that lost its belt . Apparently that’s not a problem, we can drive it like that and get it fixed at our next service which is due soon.

We went to dinner at surf city which is next door to the campground. It was a bustling bar area right on the marina with many options of food to choose from. We both fancied pizza and chose a pepperoni one and sat down, overlooking the harbour. It was the most delicious pizza I’ve ever had, cut into squares rather than rectangles. They also had lobster rolls which I’m keen to try.

It was really cool seeing another side to New York, away from the tourists. Locals hanging out together, yachts coming and going from the marina. I’d never thought of New York as somewhere to go sailing!

We are going to explore Manhattan tomorrow by bike.

We spent the day exploring the Finger Lakes and some of the hikes were exceptional.

We started with the Taughannock falls which was a flat walk to the 215 foot falls.

Next we visited the Buttermilk Falls which was as delicious as it sounded. The walk was up a steep rocky path following the buttermilk creek which cascaded over rocks on the way down. It was such a picturesque walk and not too many people considering it was a Saturday.

Our next stop was the Robert h Treman state park which we made a mistake at. There was the choice of a 1.8 km walk, or a 7.7 km walk. We accidentally started on the longer walk which took us a a steep, never ending hill. It was supposedly a gorge trail but it was all in a wooded area.

We had walked for about 45 mins before we decided we’d had enough forest walking over the last few weeks so we turned around. We had to drive to another carpark to find the other walk, and we were glad we did.

It was a magnificent gorge trail with towering cliffs next to waterfalls. It was so much more beautiful than Watkins Glen and only a fraction of the people. We wondered why nobody had recommended this walk. We almost didn’t do it as we’d never heard of it.

There was one more glen we were going to do, but we were so tired we decided to go back to camp. Mike decided to go on a trail at the camp wearing his jandals. I told him he was silly and should put on his trainers and long socks as the path was overgrown.

We headed back to camp and did a tick check, and sure enough, Mike had a small tick the size of a poppy seed. I tried to remove it with tweezers but the head remained. This is apparently the worst thing that can happen.

We went to the camp office to see if they knew what to do. She looked at it and confirmed the head was stuck in his skin. She said we needed to go to the medical centre, which was luckily open until 7pm.

The one good thing about not having a public health system, is there was no queue on a Saturday afternoon. We got in straight away, the nurse did her bits, taking blood pressure etc. Then the doctor came in to look at Mike’s leg.

Then it got a bit embarrassing. There was no evidence of a tick head. We couldn’t even remember where it but him. But all we can think of, was it fell out. The doctor said they don’t tend to do anything anyway, as it can cause bigger problems.

But, she was very nice and gave us a special tool for removing ticks and sent us on our way.

We’d heard how emergency care can cost 1000s of dollars just for a consultation, but they didn’t take any money from us. I think they took pity on us. Either that or we’ll get a whopping bill from our travel insurance.

Tomorrow we are going to New York City and are staying in a RV park in Jersey City, just a short ferry ride from Manhattan. I think we’re going to explore the city on our bikes.

It was weird staying in a hotel last night, I really missed Rodger. But it might have been a little uncomfortable sitting in him in the rain and thunderstorms when it was still warm and sticky.

This morning we went to Canada! It was just a short walk across a bridge and we were there! There was no queue at the border and we showed our passports and were in.

We were pleased we hadn’t driven as there were queues of cars heading into the USA.

I was very excited, never having been to Canada before. And the Niagara Falls were amazing. There weren’t too many people out and there were many viewpoints of the falls from the top.

We did think about doing the boat trip into the mist at the base of the falls, but decided against it. the falls were impressive enough from the top.

We spent about an hour in Canada, then headed back to the USA. As we left Canada a big queue of people were waiting to get in so we timed that right!

On our way back to our car, we passed a lot of Indian food trucks, so we had a masala dosa and it was delicious.

We are now back in the Finger lakes region and tomorrow we will do some hikes in the area.

On Sunday, we start spreading the news.

Today was not my favourite day.

We left camp at 7.30am and it was the most beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. I felt good for getting up and leaving early, despite Mike’s protests. Everyone we met said we must to to Watkins Glen, so we figured it was really popular, so an early start was a must.

I thought it was only 1.5 hours drive which would have got is there by 9am, but that somehow turned into a 2 hour drive by the time we filled up with petrol and a few other stops. There is a store here called the Dollar General, and it sells $1 chocolate which is yummy, so we stopped and bought a few packets.

We finally arrived at Watkins Glen and parked up and were on the trail by 10.30am. But we weren’t the only ones. There must have been a couple of tours arrive as it was heaving with people.

Watkins Glen is a natural wonder located in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. The glen is a series of 19 waterfalls that cascade over a 2.3 km stretch of the Genesee River. The waterfalls range in height from 15 to 60 feet (4.6 to 18 m), and they flow through a series of gorges, ravines, and potholes.

It was about an hours walk though the gorge, cliffs of layered strata towering over us, waterfalls gushing and swirling their way down. It would have been very beautiful, but it felt really touristy. The path was paved and there were formed steps, not like the lovely bush walk we had in Ricketts Glen the day before.

There were too many people to make it enjoyable, so we’d obviously picked the wrong time. At the end of the walk, most people turn around and go back, but we decided to walk up the 180 steps and walk back via the north rim trail, which was much more pleasant. We met another couple at the top from Pennsylvania, and they were blown away by all the people too. We walked back to our cars together, and they have given us some good information of things to do on the way to Connecticut.

We couldn’t wait to get out of the busy town of Watkins Glen, and head to the even busier town of Niagra Falls. We didn’t arrive until after 5pm, and there was nowhere to camp. I’d read that there were some 24 hour carparks we could camp in, but alas, we couldn’t find them.

We went to go explore by foot rather than driving around, but a guy stopped us and told us thunderstorms were imminent, within 30 minutes.

I asked at a hotel if we could pay to park overnight and they said no. We didn’t want to have to drive in the thunderstorms to find camping, so we ended up booking a very expensive room over looking the skyline in Canada and the spray of the falls. It was an awesome view and we even had premium seats for the fireworks display at 10pm.

Tomorrow, we are going to Canada!

Just a short drive today to Ricketts glen state park, but we still didn’t get there until after lunch.

We booked into the camp, had lunch then went to do the waterfalls walk in the state park.

It was such a beautiful walk, alongside a river with a waterfall at every bend. It was normally a loop walk of 21 waterfalls, but due to rockfalls we had to hike in, then out again, so only saw 18 waterfalls. But I suppose we saw them twice so could be 36 waterfalls.

The walk was a steep rocky staircase all downhill and it took us 2 hours to make it to the bottom, but that included stopping to take photos. It only took us an hour to hike back up.

We were both pretty knackered afterwards but feel very good after a much needed shower.

Everyone has been telling us how beautiful Watkins Glen is, so we’re going there tomorrow.

It was a Beautiful campground and we hadTofu noodles for dinner.

Overnight it rained hard and we awoke in the clouds again this morning in the carpark of the lodge. At 7am I went inside looking to buy a coffee and was pointed to a free coffee stand in the corner. Nice!

Our drive was cloudy for most of the morning and we were both tired and felt like we’d had enough of beautiful views and hikes.

We kept on driving until we got to ravens roost which was a stunning overlook. A hand glider was getting ready to launch himself off a cliff. I was terrified watching him. He stood there for ages, the strong winds putting him off balance every so often. It wouldn’t take much for things to go wrong and have him to tumble over the edge.

Mike and I stood there, poised with our cameras, not wanting to miss a thing. Then finally he launched, like a bird, soaring up into the sky. I almost cried, he looked so beautiful, graceful like a large eagle.

After that excitement we headed on down the Blueridge parkway and suddenly it ended! We’d done it. But wait, there’s more…

The Skyline drive through the Shenandoah starts where the Blueridge parkway stops. Feeling like a break and a shower, we headed into Waynesboro to a very expensive campground. But we were able to get our laundry done.

The lady at reception was very negative about northerners, calling them damn Yankees. It kind of reminds me of the rivalry between Aucklanders and the rest of NZ. Apparently the northerners ( Yankees) look down on people from the South which I have noticed in some TV programs.

Northerners apparently think southerners are slow and incestuous, but we found them all to be so friendly and nice. And I understand why they speak so slow with a drawl. It’s cos it’s so damned hot down there it’s best not to do anything fast!

We’re not sure where exactly we go from here, but we’re heading towards the Niagara Falls.

We’d only expected to be driving the parkway for 3 days and here we are 5 days later, still going!

Our engine check light has been coming on and off for a few days. When we stopped at a garage to fill up we asked the mechanic there to take a look at the codes. He said as long as the van is running fine, none of the codes should be a problem.

We stopped off at the music centre which is on the parkway. It has a museum about the history of bluegrass music and it was interesting. They had some mountain music scheduled to start at midday, we we went for a hike to fill in time until then.

The band was 3 guys and a lady, 2 guitars, a double bass and my new favourite, a banjo!

We watched them for a bit then headed on our way. we saw many deer on our drive today, but no bears.

There were more stunning overlooks, but we didn’t feel like stopping off for hikes as it was really hot and humid.

We arrived at the national park camping ground just before 6pm and there was no internet coverage, and I was planning to talk to dad at 6.10 pm for his birthday. apparently there was a lodge up the road with wifi.

We decided to choose our camping spot first then go up to the lodge. As we drove around the campground, it was very dark and damp, surrounded by trees and the parking spots were rutted and not level. There were only a handful of campers there so plenty of space, so we headed to the lodge first so I wouldn’t miss my call with Dad, John and Paul.

We had a good chat with the boys, Dad seemed to be happy watching Paul’s fancy organ play happy birthday. It was quite impressive.

After the call, neither of us fancied going back to the damp campground so we asked if we could stay the night in the lodge carpark. They said it shouldn’t be a problem, so we had dinner there and slept in the carpark.