Eastward Bound
 

So, here I am in NE Ohio. Today, I decided to take a ride and when I got to the bottom of MI, I took a left.

I decided to stop and see the Cuyahoga Valley National Park here, near Cleveland. They have a choo choo! I love choo choos!! I think I might feel like going on to PA tomorrow, anybody want to come along?

My way was long and full of construction and I'm going to bed now.

Oh goody, a road trip! :) Have fun AMN!! :hug:

Wish you would have taken a right :(

Let's see.....who's in Pennylvania?? I know, my LDN doctor..:D

Have a great time!!!!! Yay.....Roadtrip:D

I'm glad you are getting to do this leg of your dream. I know it's been something you've wanted to do. How many miles did you do today? and how many will you average?I leave tomorrow (Friday) for home. I should be home in a week or so, not going to do the three day marathon drive I did getting here, but then again, when you are going TO a vacation, you want to get there as soon as possible, going HOME (to bills, phone calls, etc) not so much.

Safe journeys my good friend, safe journeys.

Turn left at PA and come up to NY for a visit!! :D Have a great road trip. :)

Happy Trails, Cindy!

Thanks for taking us along. We'll be waiting for pics of the choo-choo.

Try to steer clear of road construction today, k? :)

I'm in PA if you get down near Pittsburgh before I leave for the beach.

If you take a sharp right along the way and keep going you'll make it to GA!! :D

Ya'll come......take your shoes off.....sit a spell. We'll have some sweet tea and homemade nanner puddin'!

All right...taking Skippy on tour. Good woman!

Now be safe and no cops! Aw, who am I fooling? Be safe!:D

Nuts, you guys! I'm already in NJ! What was I thinking???:eek:

I did try to get ahold of JessieSue but she either hates me now or is off in Thailand discovering some new cure. I was pretty disappointed, I love that chick!

Holly & Weav, sorry, I wasn't aiming that far South. Maybe another time?

Kelly! *smack* Get a grip! ATL is slightly out of my way, ya' know!

I need food & a shower, I'll come back in a bit, stand by...

Hey, I did said a sharp right! Sorry......:o. You know how us southerners are......we get excited just thinkin' about havin' company!

Just means more nanner puddin' for me! :D

Have a fun trip.....we're waiting for pics! http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/k...s/exaide_2.gif

Sorry, Weave, I just get to looking at the mountains & those blasted roads I love so much, and poof! States are MIA before I know it.

I woke right up when I saw this sign, though:

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I really must be nuts!

Pics are boring from today, mobile snapshots were a bit tough. Ah, those high, green hills of central PA; it's good, 'ol ear-poppin' clean fun. I just love seeing the clouds' shadows in the distance.

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This is cool, notice the notch in the top of the hills?

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A guy at a rest area told me how far it would be from where I shot the pic, and here we are almost 90 minutes later, right in it!

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This made me miss DM, it's a lot like sitting across from her at a table.

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Oh dear.... oh my! :eek:

I think you gunna be in twubble when our DM gets back from where she went! :rolleyes:

I don't know if I could live in NYC, but I can't say I'm a country girl either. Only thing I ever liked about out in the sticks is it's quiet and there's almost no crime.

Other than that, i've wanted out ever since I got here lol... I think I could trade the quiet for something to do and being able to walk there or catch a bus.


AMN - thanks for the pix! That brings me back. Lots of good memories.

:)

wooohoooo I am ready to jump aboard!

I just LOVE a vicarious road trip! :D Happy Trails!

Well, I am whipped and I've had my fill of NYC, and its minions, for life!

Today, it was a ride to Joisy City and whoa! What an insane town. It's quite fascinating really, it's one of the very old cities that quickly grew immensely— so immensely, the roadways could not keep up. It's that kind of city where the expressways come and go, curve all over creation, literally disappear for a couple miles, and have dozens of ramps on and off per mile. It's mania, kind of cool though.

So, on the way it was necessary to go through Newark as its awful reputation warrants my attention. Tony Soprano would have been so proud of me.

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The locals truly do hang out on their stoops!
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So, the objective in Joisy City was the great lady. This is a look at the ferry station which was built in 1890-something as a train station to cart new immigrants to their new world. It's really cool because the old train tracks and their signs are still there along with a few old train pieces all of which are eerily overgrown with grass and vines.

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Here's the Manhattan skyline from the ferry, the green-top-pointed building is the Empire State building. When my parents took us there, my mom was such a drag, she wouldn't let us drop pennies over the roof's railing. :eek:
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Okay, too tired now. Tomorrow, we'll get you to Ellis Island and the great lady. Bubbye.

Thanks, Nappy...I do love the NYC, I remember from the late 50s to mid 60s..:hug:

Okay, it's morning and I feel a lot better than last night. Whew! It got up to a humid 93° and I was just flopping to and fro all day.



Aha! Thar she blows, Ellis Island where up to 10,000 eager immigrants PER DAY were huddled and herded to be processed as our nation's newest citizens. It's a wonderful story and I would urge everyone to take a little time to explore this amazing page in our history.

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This great hall is the first interior on American soil that all the newcomers would see. It's the baggage room of the main building on the island. Over 12 million new Americans were processed into our nation via this very room.

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This exhibit contains at least 200 pieces of immigrant luggage that was lost or abandoned upon arrival (several pieces were donated to the museum by their owners' descendants). Most came with virtually nothing but the clothes and shoes they had worn the day they left their homelands.

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I have to do this, this pic is of some of the original tile in the baggage room, it has been trod upon by the millions who came through. It may have been your own grandparents, great grandparents, or any number of other relatives. It's wonderful!

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And there it is! Liberty Island, home of our great monument.

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Taaaaa daaaaaah! Amanda and I proudly present the Statue of Liberty (well, most of her)!

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Here's a view we don't often see, check the size of that foot!

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She is a vision. She seemed a lot bigger when I was 6, but, she's still larger than life to me.
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Well, I have to admit, Johnny Depp has nothing on Txisun, my new object of lust.

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Some of my new friends, none of whose names I can pronounce much less spell. It was quite obvious to me that they truly do heart NY.

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I'm heading out of here in a bit for a little stop to visit with my niece up north a ways. It was my pick for a town on her train route, so naturally, it's Fishkill!!!:D

Loving the pics and the new friends!!!

Keep on having a great time!!

It's nice to know some things never change.

I love the "kissing spot" at Ellis island. When folks would be allowed into the country they would run out and kiss the ground of America. That kind of passion and perservance make ya marvel.

My husband is from Italy, and his grandparents went through Ellis Island. He came over on some other kind of boat, and all his papers were in order before they left. As a teenager, he expected this country to be full of cowboys, and real golden streets. He learned to speak english by reading comic books, and comparing the action to the words.

Enjoy lady liberty. she is wonderful. I am glad you can go to her crown again.

Loving the pictures and the adventure East - I personally have never been to NY City - pretty sad when I live so close.

I thought of you today when I was driving in the North Maine Woods!!!

Hey there Cindy! Just discovered you're on another of your road trips -- You Go Girl!!! Too bad summer finally got here with a vengeance, 90's yesterday and today! I can only imagine NYC. Whew!! Visited the "Lady" in my younger days as we lived in NJ. The highway (80?) sign for Ledgewood and Lake Hopatcong were very familiar. You maybe passed an exit for Hackettstown? Lk. Hopatcong used to have a small amusement park, Bertrand Island, my first roller coaster ride at age 4 with my father. What was he thinking??? I was scared to death......but loved it later on.

Today Fishkill? A distant aunt, uncle and cousin lived there. The cousin is still around but in Ewing, NY.

Are you coming back through PA? If you're anywhere in the Scranton -- Wilkes-Barre area, just PM me. My house is air conditioned and have two showers and a guest room!! Come on over!! Your scooter would roll right up the ramp into the house! Do you like little white fuzzy dogs? My Bichon/Maltese desperately needs a haircut, but she's a real "kisser"!

Have a great trip and thanks for the pics and up-dates. Just seeing this has raised my spirits. Take care......:)

road trip and I missed the ride...hey you could come north on way back... the U.P. is a great place to visit hehehe hugssss and have a great time, sarah

oh and also the NY and Joisy pics, has me missing Baaasssstannnn I so miss it... hugsssss again, sarah

Everyone should go see the Statue of Liberty at least once in their life. The sight of her choked me up. Even my kids felt something special about her. I wished so bad that I could go back and ask my great grandmother what that had been like, seeing the first glimpse of it, coming into harbor.

It makes you think about who you are, your roots, where you came from - not just the place, but the kind of people. That took guts, coming all that way not knowing what they'd find.

When I lived in NJ - and we did not say Joisey, lol - we were right off Rt 18 in Old Bridge. The pic is probably of Hoboken. That's my Mom and Dad when they first got married, I think '51.

Um...where ya headed??? :) More north? Should we order a crate of lobs?

Naps, you take such awesome pics and make neat friends everywhere you go!
It is exciting to see where you land next. Thanks for sharing.

Hi, everyone, sorry I'm so late, time just keeps slippin', slippin'...

So, yesterday, I met my niece (who lives in Manhattan) up in Fishkill, NY. It was grand to see her and we had a splendid day that was a lot of hunting and no fishing.

Georgie is singing for a wedding next month in the little tourist town of Cold Spring, NY and we went on the hunt to find this little chapel on a river bank. It's literally on a river bank (Hudson)! She went up the little path of rocks and did her acoustics check while I took a little rest.

Then we went hunting for food. Here she comes with a big thumbs down on the cute little ex-train depot gone greasy grill.
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Then we went hunting for MY pick of the day and we were off to Newburgh, NY in Orange County. Then, *ahhhh ahhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh* we found it!

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Don't recognize it? It's Orange County Choppers (OCC), home of the Pauls and Mikie.... American Chopper guys! There's a great backstory in this, Georgie was taken aback when I told her what I wanted to do, having never heard of the show or these guys, she conjured images of Hell's Angels and all kinds of awful things. Then, on the way through the grossly dilapidated Newburgh, she began trying to talk me out of this.

But! Once she saw "regular" people and families with kids, and then the amazing works of artful bikes, I had a hard time convincing her that it was time to leave!

There are so many amazing bikes, and the details so phenomenal, I can't possibly show all we saw but I'll start with a very important bike the guys did to commemorate the 9/11 tragedy. Most of these choppers are upwards of 11 feet long so we shot them in segments.

Look for the many details on this bike, it's astonishing. Notice the carbureter shaped like a fire hydrant:
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The exhaust pipe is a fire hose, the yellow oil pan is an oxygen tank, there's a ladder for the rear guard, and the handlebars are fire hose nozzles. There's so much to see in this one bike, I recommend googling for the professional pics. The display is filled with authentic memorabilia (if it's even right to call it that).
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The saddle on the NBA theme bike
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Mikie's design, the Santa bike on which he rode with a trailer full of toys to donate to Toys for Tots.
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These guys look rough, act tough, talk tough and act like the relatives we all deny; but, they are generous to a fault and have done dozens of bikes for everything from Make A Wish to Yankee's Baseball and they do these wonders for the art of it and a good cause. They are all genuine, running bikes and are all street legal, and have all been driven.

There were about 75 people there and I fooled them all, no one suspected a thing, not one!
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The standard, "rack" choppers go for $35k
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