Kangaroo petrol

We walked along 57th street then down Broadway until we found Times Sq, took some photos and that was about it. I imagine it is much more impressive all lit up by neon at night but at 9.30 in the morning it seemed well, ordinary. The real binding memory of Times Sq was Piper getting her ears pierced at Claires Accessories which we do not seem to be able to pass anywhere in the world without having to enter and buy some jewelry rubbish. The joy of daughters I suppose.

It didn't take Claire much to persuade Piper to have them done as she had mentioned it previously, so she sat on the stool clutching a cushion as the assistant went to work. She winced big style as the first ear was pierced and looked at us as if being tortured, Claire said 'cry if you want to, I'm sure I did when mine where done', just the cue for floods of tears.

We continued on our way to the Empire State Building to do some proper sight seeing. We joined the queue which didn't appear to bad, just around the corner and halfway up the block. It didn't take to long to get inside and join the queue proper, it was like being at Alton Towers, back and forth, back and forth. At the top the view of Manhatten Island was really impressive with the grid layout of all the blocks, interesting fact the block layout of New York is actually based on the city of Mannheim in Germany. Its not until you get to the top that you really appreiciate the scale of New York, downtown where the next group of large skyscrapers are look a considerable distance away.

It was finally time to go and pick up our car in which we will be living in in close proximity for the next three weeks. It caught my notice how many 4x4s or SUVs there were in New York, in the country perhaps but not in New York and they all seemed much bigger than the cars especially our medium sedan that we had booked. I never said anything to Claire but I think I wanted a SUV rather than a car. You cannot imagine my pleasure when Claire came back from the office and said that she had changed the car to a SUV. Yes!.

Hmm, it hadn't crossed my mind that the car was going to be an automatic, can't remember the last time I drove one, well why not refresh my memory in the centre of New York full of speeding taxi drivers and one way streets. Therefore out of the garage and faces against the window as I used my left foot for breaking. We continued kangarooing down the street much to the amusement of the kids and the consternation of Claire. 'Do you know where you are going' she said 'Yes' I replied 'Straight on'. Straight on, staright on, straight on until we hit a dual carriageway that would take us out of the city.

Eventually we stopped outside the town of Mystic made famous recently by the Julia Roberts film Mystic Pizza which was set in the town. Although it turns out Mystic is more famous for the Mystic Seaport which is a 19th century maritime museum with a collection tall ships.

Anyway before we found somewhere to stay the night I took a couple of wrong turns after we left the interstate, missed some perfectly good motels and was generally pissing Claire right off, I could feel Claire's rising anger in the seat next to me. I feel three weeks of arguing intermingled with periods of the silent treatment. By the time we got back to the 'Econolodge' (sounds like my kind of place) which was the first motel we passed 'Don't come back without a room' was the command, so I was well pleased when the rate included breakfast. I dragged the required bags up the stairs and into the room, by the time I finished Claire and the kids where asleep.

I was looking forward to getting into bed but I was thirsty, then it went dark, not just any old dark but absolutely pitch black. Shit what now, I didn't know these rooms had a electric meter. Looking outside it was also completely dark with a faint glow in the distance, remembering I had packed a torch even after being ridiculed at home by Claire for wanting to bring it. Now I just had to find it.

Outside people were turning on car headlights pointed at the motel to lighten things up, other people were lounging around on the balcony drinking beer, couldn't really tell if they where unsavoury characters or not, I wondered off in the direction of the light. The light was coming from a garage which turned out to have its own power supply, it also seemed to be the main attraction at the moment and was pretty busy. Apparently there had been some accident somewhere and it would be a while before the power would be back on. I bought a load of junk food and returned to the motel.