Brisbane, Australia is a long way from Boston, USA -  35hours traveling time to be precise, and a full two days later our bodies are still in the wrong time zone.

At Extra Space Storage the start batteries were a bit sluggish but with a quick connect to the solar backed up house batteries all was good.

A new side map on the vehicle now showing lots of squiggles all over the continent of North America, then a re-stock of the refrigerator and we are off to Cape Cod.

Summer vacation in full swing, the Dunes Campground and Provincetown are bustling with visitors.

However sleep depravation could stop us from indulging in the local speciality of Lobster. Perhaps we should not have overdone Boston’s Sam Adams beer, but is was a good drop !

See even the picture is blurryy.

THEN... we got lost walking back to the camp ground.

In all, a good start to the next leg of our travels!

Tuesday morning and sleep was intermittent. Explored to town of Hyannis, some more Lobster this time without the beer !

On arrival they have a one night vacancy in this rather special campground. Right on the beach, and the lucky few who stay here say it is booked out 6 months in advance and this is the case a split second after the internet bookings open.

Camp 199:   Horseneck Beach State Park Camp

Cost: US$15

N41* 29.946 W071* 02.433

Last Couple of Days : 470 Kms.  

Trip Total :78,496 Km

Wednesday 23rd August:

All around are cars with shining three pointed stars, Big ‘L’s’, and Olympic symbols. Then there are the Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Maseratis.

We must be up in that league because the driver and passenger of one bright red Maserati called out “Great Truck” and thumbs up high in the air.

Then about 150Kms down the freeway to New York. As for the traffic through Manhattan and the Holland Tunnel, it was not so bad because we had had some serious driver training in China !

Camp 200:   Liberty Harbour Camp in NEW YORK

Cost: US$55/night

N40* 42.793 W074* 02.722

Today : 458 Kms.  

Trip Total :78,954 Km

Thursday/Friday 23rd/24th August:

On with the walking shoes and Metro map in hand, we hit New York. We had both been here about 15years ago and I had also been a few times on business, however on all previous visits it was always during the depth of winter. Previously we had been up to the top of the World Trade Centre and as for the Statue of Liberty, it was always closed for restoration.

With 9/11 being so much a part of modern history, and like half the planet, we remember where we were at that moment in time, a visit to the Memorial at Ground Zero was a must.

It was moving to stand at the side of two massive pools set within the original footprints of the twin towers, their 30Ft waterfalls cascading down from where nearly 3,000 names are inscribed.

Around us is construction, and the rising of the four new World Trade Centre Towers.

Surrounding the ponds are symmetrically planted White Oaks. There is one exception, a Callery Pear Tree known as the “Survivor Tree”

Planted in 1970 in the WTC Plaza, it was but a stump in the wreckage at Ground Zero.

Nursed back to health at New York City park, it was  then uprooted by a severe storm, but true to its name, it survived.

In December 2010 the tree returned to the WTC site as a testimony to survival.

Unlike our previous NYC visits, ours is now complete with the Statue of Liberty visit, be it that the old lady climb is ‘Closed for Renovations’

Lyn suggested she wanted to see “Jersey Boys” and as it was on in Broadway this evening, why not. It was a great show, we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Walked the streets of Broadway and Times Square, finally arriving back at ‘camp’ around midnight.

Friday we had planned, however with feet that could not keep up the pace of our intensions, Central Park was crossed off the list and we settled for another ‘must do’ - walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.

It’s time to leave New York, yesterday we spent half our time waiting in line for either a security search or just waiting in line, and today just a city block from where we were, a crazed shooter kills 2 people and wounded 9.  .....and come to think of it, so many Americans warn us of the dangers of going to Central America !

Tomorrow the Amish Communities and on to Gettysburg.

Camp 200:  Liberty Harbour Camp

NEW YORK

Cost: US$55/night

N40* 42.793 W074* 02.722

This is the ‘dry’ camp area amongst the dry docked boats. Here there are no hook ups.

Suits us !

All the others are crammed in like sardines on the hot bitumen.