Having had a three week holiday in the UK for my mothers birthday, it’s back to the ‘day job’ of riding my BMW F650GS towards Canada. Life is tough at times!

East Fortune, Scotland

Town Moor, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England

I took the train from Newcastle to Heathrow for my Delta flight to JFK, New York. The plane was delayed three hours for some technical repairs which meant it would arrive at JFK too late for me to get to the Manhattan hostel I had booked into. The reception desk closed at midnight. The plane made up some of the lost time during the flight but it was 23:30 by the time I cleared immigration and customs. Considering the options of paying $150 for an airport hotel, wandering the streets of New York well after midnight looking for a hostel or spending the night at the airport I opted to ‘rough it’ at the airport. For the first couple of hours it was a bit of an adventure crashing out with the gap year students. However my body soon let me know it wasn’t keen on being treated like an 18 year old and started to protest at trying to get comfortable on a four and a half foot bench. Then for some bizarre reason all the mothers in Queens and Brooklyn brought their crying babies to my area of the arrivals hall. 7am slowly arrived and I headed for Princeton by train, subway and another train to collect the bike. Ben met me at the station and gave me a lift to his father, Hanks house where the bike had been stored.

The bike started without any problems and I set off for the sixty odd mile ride to Delaware Water Gap, a park on the Delaware river in New Jersey in bright sunshine. Unfortunately there was a thunderstorm and heavy rain just before I arrived at the campsite. The tent was erected while still wearing my waterproof motorcycle over-suit. Once I had dried my clothing I got into the tent to escape the rain and read. Catching up from a restless night at JFK I must have fallen asleep by 6pm and slept solidly until 4am and dozed thereafter until I got up to retrieve some food from the bear proof pannier.

Delaware Water Gap

The next day was spent getting groceries, cash from the ATM, sorting gear out and plotting a route to the Catskill Mountains, New York State. I booked into a campsite in the Catskill Mountains for the July 4th weekend before leaving for England after being told that campsites could be full.

Campsite Wildlife Pond, Delaware Water Gap

Another good days riding from Delaware Water Gap to the Catskills with a stop at Liberty, New York State where they were preparing for the 4th July parade.

Liberty, New York State, 3rd July 2009

On the way to the Catskills I saw road signs to Neversink which I thought was an unusual name for a village. Sadly the village failed to live up to its name!

Sadly Neversink Sank!!

I went to the small village of Roxbury, New York State to see their 4th of July parade.

Roxbury, New2 York State, 4th July 2009 Parade

The parade was followed by a 19th century baseball match between the Roxbury Nine and the Bovina Dairymen. I was supporting the Dairymen dressed in long black trousers, braces, white shirt, black tie and flat cap. My support wasn’t enough though, the Roxbury Nine were victorious.

Bovina Dairyman 'bowling' to Roxbury Nine 'Batsman'

The Bovina Dairymen

Roxbury Nine 'Bowling' A 'Wide Ball'

Yet another hot, sunny day as I left the Catskills, heading for the coast and Cape Cod. I passed through Woodstock and realised it was ‘THE’ Woodstock when I saw a hippy, psychedelic memorabilia shop. For the younger generations, Woodstock was the first mammoth outdoor pop festival.

After setting up camp at Mashamoque State Park, Connecticut enroute for Cape Cod I headed for the nearest WiFi café to find the location of BMW dealers. Having done 5100 miles since starting this trip in Miami the 12000 mile service is due in 900 miles.