The land of Uncle Sam

It is time to leave Canada. We catch the ferry across the river ( ‘Tis Diana who payeth the ferryman!) and we head to the US border. This border crossing is at a place called Thousand Islands and at the border they do apparently check your dressing! Anyway we get thru the border crossing OK - thank goodness- the next one will be Auckland 

South of the border the trees are still in glorious colour 

We get to the small town of Watertown. There on a corner of the Main Street was the very first Woolworths store 

That night we have dinner in a diner complete with chrome trimmed bar stools and it looked as if it had come straight from the sixties. The waitress greeted us with 

“ Howdy folks. Ya’all just holler when youse are ready to order”. 

Must be in America. Then the gentleman behind us really clinched it. He proclaimed in a voice that would penetrate armour, that “ he loved his country , his president loved his country and his president loved him”. My soup suddenly curdled on me ! We are in Appalachian country and he could have been a displaced coal miner ! 

   
Next day we track south again and we are not too far ( close  enough thanks ! ) to New York 

Then we stop at Hershey - home of Hershey chocolates. I look at the weather forecast for the next day. It is sunny.  I find a town called Bedford about 600 km away - a long days ride but easily doable on the dual  carriageways  I find a nice hotel on Booking.com. A bit up market and a bit higher priced than normal. However it was an independently owned hotel - not part of a chain

It had a lovely “mock Tudor” frontage and was in the centre of a historic part of town. There was a nice touch - in view of the English theme there was even a cooked English Breakfast included in the free breakfast arrangements. I booked it and paid for it taking the cheaper non refundable option. 

Next morning arrives. I can’t find the hotel in the accomodation section  of the GPS. I try to enter the street address. The GPS won’t take it. I go to put the co - ordinates of the hotel in. Something wrong here. The blasted longitude figure is incorrect. I check the confirmation email from Booking .com. The hotel does exist - it is just happens to be in Bedford in Bedfordshire in the UK !!!The Tudor frontage to the hotel is not mock Tudor. As for the included cooked English breakfast...

Then to rub it in I get an email today asking how I enjoyed our stay in Bedford. The joys of travel!

We track further south to Parkersburg  in West Virginia. We are still in the Appalachians - I had not realised how extensive they are. We are literally staying  “On the banks of the old Ohio” 

Today we hit fog for the first time.  Very cold fog. It was 3 degreesC this morning according to the bike temperature gauge. All the layers go on. Diana’s heated jacket works a treat. It is lunchtime when we break out of the fog  as we cross the border from West Virginia into Kentucky. 

Oh and we also visited Ohio state  today! Then through Lexington in Kentucky where there are beautiful horse paddocks everywhere.  But I bet they don’t have horsemeat on the restaurant menus in Kentucky like they do in Central Asia! Here they are into high stakes, not low steaks! 

   We are now in Bardstown, Kentucky which is the home of the Bourbon industry and also apparently not far from the birthplace of Kentucky Fried  Chicken. 

Tonight something symbolic happens. I contact the Mainfreight people in NZ the start to make arrangements to ship the bike home. It is a funny feeling 

Tomorrow we continue to head West. We are making very good progress and we are promised another sunny day tomorrow. We are making the most of the weather but there will be a rest day or days coming up soon. Only  3700 km to go to West Coast USA !