After the excitement of the previous night we weren’t up until late, Marie went out to buy a new phone while I lazed around. We went out for bagels in a cool little store nearby and decided what to do with the rest of the day. I wanted to go to a legendary camera store which was closed the previous day so we set off to walk most of the way there. It was hot and sunny again and, despite my protesting feet, another perfect day to spend in one of my favourite cities in the world. I was really going to be putting the miles in on those shoes, new or not. We took a subway a few stops since the store was going to close reasonably early and its a good job we did. The place was a mad house! Its jewish owned and run, which means its closed on Saturday so it was full of local shoppers who packed the place out. It was a huge store anyway and they stock everything. I got given a catalogue on the way in which was 3 cm thick and despite the masses of staff still had to queue to ask questions. I had wanted to buy a big telephoto zoom but I was still waiting on my last pay cheque so decided to hold off. I did pick up a nice point and shoot though which will now live in my pocket when I need something convienient to take with me. The store has a set of tracks that deliver the items to the assistant within a couple of minutes that is a wonder to see. They didn’t have the elusive backpack I was after though, that will be a job for ebay I think…

We wandered back up town and when we got close enough had a look down the sewer that Marie had her accident with the day before. All the other sewers in the city were dry and quite shallow, but shining my flashlight down confirmed that she had heard correctly, it was a muddy pool full floating debris… No phone rescue here. She only had to put something on her facebook and myspace accounts and people would be able to work out she had lost all her numbers. She would still get stupid people texting her ‘why did you do that?’ and not saying who they were… :p Why did my feet hurt so much when I had a 7 day subway pass? Too much walking. Around central park after getting on the wrong train and nearly ending up in Brooklyn on the express we gave up and took a taxi back to the apartment. I had to get going if I was going to see the Shuttle Launch and Marie had to do some homework. No rest for the wicked eh? My car was parked a few miles up town and despite my blisters I decided to walk it. Another two $115 fines were waiting for me, parked less than 5′ from a fire hydrant. Oops! I had a last check on the shuttle status at Maries, installed the next tomtom map on my spare memory card and said goodbye to Marie and New York city. The visit was short and sweet…

Not like the drive I now faced. 1200 miles on I-95, google maps reckoned 17 hours and I was in one of the busiest places for traffic in the world. New Jersey and DC would be horrendous the next day so the obvious option of getting them out the way during the night was a good one. I left around 8pm and ended up on the New Jersey turnpike, which was fine, I guess, but it cost me about $10 in fees. I tried to get off but after paying £2.85 I swung around in a big circle and ended up right back on it. Whatever, I just took it to the end. The roads were pretty quiet though, a few road works but I stuck the cruise on 75 mph, took off my sandals and searched for some good music on the radio. Now I see why Americans are such bad drivers, I was fishing around for stuff in my car, putting things on charge, eating, drinking, all at lethal speeds. The car is king because its so easy to forget you’re driving. No gears or pedals to worry about, just keep it going straight and you’ll be fine. Woe betide anyone who steps out into traffic as the average driver isn’t going to see you, much less stop. I would have to watch myself.

I saw the needle in DC from the interstate, I had seen it before last time we were passing through and I guess I wont be seeing it up close any time soon. About 50 miles from Richmond Virginia I was getting tired, it was about 2am and I had done as much as I could. I pulled off the highway and after cruising for a while up some darkened forest roads came back to where there was a national park near the highway. I took a chance and pulled into an empty car park, climbed into my sleeping bag on the back seat and fell asleep.



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