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New York continued
Hey there and good to see you again. Incidentally, lest you think that we were being self indulgent sitting back in our pedicab, you should understand that we did actually did do some walking. Whenever we came to a hill our guide would suggest we disembark, look at some park attraction, walk around the hill and meet him on the other side. Very cunning of him and an especially good technique on this scorchingly hot day. I dare say we walked at least 300 metres during our tour! Well ok, it's better than nothing!

We saw this little pavilion where a couple of studious looking young ladies were doing a little busking whilst playing some seriously good chamber music pieces. The acoustics were wonderful and the girls were exceptionally talented. We would have loved to stay longer but our pedicab driver was waiting and his meter was ticking so to speak. I dropped a quarter into the violin case and we moved on. Ok, ok, I was only joking. We gave them a dollar and believe me it was the only paper money in there!

Even though it was school vacation time the number of visitors in Central Park was reasonably light on this day. No doubt this helped but the thing is that Central Park is so large it can handle quite a lot of visitors without it actually showing. I love taking candid photos and I took half a dozen shots of the artist above as I moved closer and closer. She was so intent on her task that she never noticed my presence.

After bidding farewell to our cycling friend we did in fact do a fair amount of strolling around before looking for a place to eat. Sadly the only decent park restaurant looked very busy so we gave it  miss. And as we weren't up fast food we left the Park and caught a cab downtown back to East Village. Here we discovered a Sushi restaurant and this was "50% off Thursday" according to the window sign. We ordered a nice spread, sat back in air-conditioned bliss and made pigs of ourselves for a mere $30. Too bad we can't come back again next Thursday

Prior to visiting New York we'd received several recommendations to take the three hour "Circle Manhattan" cruise so this became a "must do" event. We decided the morning cruise would be a better choice than the afternoon cruise in order to beat the heat haze and smog. I wanted clear blue skies so as to hopefully take some really worthwhile photos. And as it wasn't possible to buy numbered seats for the cruise we wanted to be first in line when the ticket office opened at 9.00am. We have to get ourselves to Pier 83 in West 42nd Street and that's a complicated commute from our place. We therefore opt for a cab ride. Our driver is happy and chatty thus time passes quickly. After a 20 minutes journey he deposited us at Pier 83 where we took our position in line as numbers 6 and 7 waiting for the ticket office to open.

Lynn and I were really focussed and actually reached the top deck of the ferry before anyone else. We had already been tipped off about sitting on the port side of the vessel and we quickly grabbed the best pair of seats on the upper deck. The sun was boring down but once we got under weigh a pleasant little breeze kept us reasonably comfortable. I must have taken 200 photos, a small sample of which appear below.

The tour guide and narrator on our cruise was so professional and had a million jokes. I kid you not; he talked non stop for at least 85% of our three hour cruise. And even though he must have performed this "act" a thousand or more times he was full of energy and sounded fresh and dynamic. I don't know what he gets paid but he's worth every cent.

It was about 1.30pm before we got back on land and we were decidedly peckish. We went looking for a restaurant but we seemed to be in an area only offering burgers, pizzas, fries and other fast food delights. Not what we wanted. After walking about 800 metres we discovered a small Chinese cafe and went in. It was full of local residents and blue collar workers. The staff seemed to know all the patrons and treated them like old friends. On the other hand they seemed very cool to us and took our order with a noticeable reluctance. Don't ask me why.

The menu was reasonable for a place of this type but the prices were extremely low with most dishes around $8. I said to Lynn, "Don't get your hopes up because I think this food is going to be pretty ordinary to say the least." In no time at all the ordered dishes hit the formica table.... hard and loud Chinese style with no decorum whatsoever. The first thing we noticed was that each dish was MASSIVE in size. The second thing was that they were pretty damn tasty.

Following lunch we were obliged to get ourselves over to Soho and find a certain menswear shop. Our son Matthew has given us an order for a few specific items of apparel from this shop so we are trying to oblige. Oh dear, what a drama it became. Our cab took us half way there and then got totally gridlocked. Nobody was going anywhere. We moved 200 metres in 15 minutes. Our driver was becoming increasingly agitated and violently drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. "What's it all about?", I ask. "Probably all the early leavers trying to get out of town before the rush", he explains. "Tomorrow is the start of the Independence Day long weekend". This comment fills us with fear because we are already full of apprehension regarding tomorrow morning..... but more on this later.

Finally our driver turns and says, "you guys better get out and walk because it will be far quicker". I guess what he means is that he wants to turn out at the next side street and try to vamoose from the whole area. We pay and leave. We only have a vague idea of where we're going and we just walk and walk and WALK. Finally we reach the particular shop we need which was on Broadway in Soho. It's huge, it's packed with young people and very, very loud music is throbbing through every floor level. We both looked and felt like dinosaurs in this type of environment. Finding everything Matt wanted was impossible because some items has been removed from the range. We did complete 50% of Matt's order however and were pleased to exit the thumping music whilst a few cells of brain matter were still in our heads.

If you can't go over the ground then it's best to go down under. We therefore headed down into the Soho subway and caught a train back to Astor Place. Two very sore and exhausted Aussies then slowly dragged themselves and their parcels along 3 or 4 city blocks until we reached our East Village apartment. "Lets have a snooze" says your correspondent. "No way", says Lynn, "first we have to pack all our bags for tomorrow morning's very early departure. And then SOMEONE has to cook dinner because we've got all that food in the fridge that SOMEONE insisted on buying". Bloody hell, I happen to know that SOMEONE is also absolutely buggered !!

I'm really worried about tomorrow morning. We have three connecting flights, the first of which leaves La Guardia Airport just after 7.00am. If we don't manage to board that flight then the rest of tomorrow's complicated itinerary comes crashing down. I'm worried because we need to leave the apartment in the dark at 4.45am to be safe. I'm worried because we have to leave the apartment keys on the dining table and commit ourselves to a darkened street with no return option. I'm worried in case the booked limo ride may prove as unreliable as the one which brought us into Manhattan some days ago. I'm worried that our mobile phone still doesn't want to work in New York. And I'm worried that we may encounter gridlock again as eight million New Yorkers try to leave town for the long weekend.

I set our little travelling alarm clock and I also set alarms on two different mobile phones as well. Thus protected I settle down to sleep. Well that's the plan but this night will bring precious little sleep. Aint that always the way?

Go to the "Wyoming" webpage to see what transpired. I promise to have that final webpage finished and published no later than 19th September 2011 and will give you a "heads up" when it's available.