We flew into the JFK airport in New York (flight time of 5 hours) collected our bags and caught the shuttle bus to our hotel where we were greeted by the one of the most delighful receptionists we have ever met. After travelling for some 25 hours to have Darlene greet us the way she did was great, nothing was too much trouble. Bags dropped in the room we headed straight to the bar. (Now isn't that a surprise! ) As tired as we were we just needed to wind down so we had a wine and one of our favourite US foods, buffalo wings with a blue cheese sauce, fantastic! Two hours later we were in bed and slept like the perverbial logs.
We awoke early ready for the next leg of our journey, back to JFK for our 1 hour flight to Buffalo NY. We paid a little bit more for this flight as it was direct , most of the other flights go via what is called a "hub" and can take many hours to travel a short distance. After travelling 25 hours the day before the shorter the better! A quick cabin service, ah yes that all American packet of pretzels and a tin of pop! No cabin baggage on this flight, they take it off you at the gate and stow it seperately, anything bigger than an iphone did not fit on this plane.
We arrived at Buffalo airport greeted by a big smile from Ceil, who was very excited to see us again as we were her. A 40 min trip south and we arrived in Fredonia (home of the Fredonia seed company JB) and were re united with our truck and trailer. Happy days!!!! With a wine in hand we made a bee line down to the barn and removed the cover from the 5th wheeler. It had been in storage for 12 months - it was going to be interesting to see how it survived the New York State winter!
In our absence we had received regular updates from Ceil and Chuck but to actually see it again was fantastic. All the effort we put into winterising it before we left last year was worth it. It was clean , dust and bug free. I put the key into the ignition and my baby kicked into life, ah nothing like a 6 litre turbo diesel idling away, I was in heaven.
Needless to say that night was filled with much laughter and catchup stories. By the time Chuck got home from harvesting grapes we were exhausted but we soldiered on and talked way into the night.
The next morning we moved the trailer from beside the barn up close to the house on the black top so we could start preparing it for the next stage of our journey. We flushed the anti freeze from the pipes, made sure the furnace worked, hot water heater was working etc. We still cannot fathom it sat in minus 20c over winter and it all still worked. Over the next few days we unpacked our stored clothes and bedding, they were all fresh and clean as we had put them in vacumn bags with dryer sheets.
I wont say we had jet lag but we were having trouble waking up most mornings, we had no trouble sleeping until 10am! Coffee and cereal for brunch then back out to the van.
Of course no stay would be complete without a trip to the nearest Camping World, so off to Buffalo we went. I needed to get some rubber roof patching to fix the "wear" marks left by the cover. Sitting high on the hill looking over Lake Eirie the wind has a habit of blowing and this is what has caused the rub makes on the roof. Visiting Camping World is like going to Bunnings in Australia the intention is to buy one thing and you buy several. I had been thinking about getting a flag pole and had done quite a bit of research before we left Australia. Imagine my joy when I spotted the one I had decided I would get, at Camping World, and on sale!! We hung our Aussie flag, attaching it to the awning with a couple of pegs last trip, so I decided to fly our Aussie flag a bit better this trip. Flying the Aussie flag is one thing but as American's are very patriotic, and given that we are visitors in their country we figured it was best that the American flag is positioned above the Australian. I am sure this will be the subject of discussion in the parks we visit.
We knew we were going to have to replace the tyres on the truck so booked that in ready for our shakedown trip to the Finger Lakes region of New York State. Most RV parks in the north of America close down during the winter months due to the sub zero temperatures which causes the water pipes to freeze. We were lucky to find one park that was open until the end of October - extra bonus was that, as members of 'Passprt America' the cost was only going to be $16.50 a night - full hook up. We are hoping to catch up with some friends we met last trip while we are there.
Sunday we head off to Finger Lakes.
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