Out of contact

Oh well I have just got back from the pre-trip Orientation and I am 9 hours away from leaving on my river trip which is all good. I will be back in the 21st century on 7 October I think it is (that is of course US time so the following day in NZ) So I will catch up with you all then, have fun and keep yourselves well and I will catch up in October.

The road that drives though American culture

I am sitting at my hotel that is on route 66yes the famous road from Chicago to LA, that is a central story in 20th century American culture. Inspiring art and all sorts of songs (some of which aren’t even terrible). In the town of Flagstaff it looks like just another multi-lane road, but get out of town a bit and you see the amazing straight road disappearing out into the future in both directions, with thousands of trucks moving in both directions, it also has a train track alongside it with truly massive trains going pass it 70 times a day. Many people say that the road has lost it’s appeal now that it is just like other inter-state roads, but it still has a whole lot of unique (and usually tacky) road-side attractions and a fell all of it’s own).

On Sunday I went into town a decided to have a beer (or several) and watch the football. Now this is a very different experience from watching sport back home. Mostly there is just so much of it, for two games in a row there is 5-8 games on at the same time. So all of these games are on different TVs, and there is commentary that moves from one game to another when something is happening, lets just say it is takes some thinking to see all of this stuff happening and try and not miss too much (at one point I realized it was about 9am Monday morning back home, at that point I was pretty happy to be where I was )

Yesterday I went on a trip out into the Arizona desert. The first stop was a Meteor Crater (This being America it is not ‘a’ Meteor crater but simply ‘meteor crater’) This is the best preserved impact creator on the planet it is about 1.2km wide and could fit a 70 story building inside it. It is impressive to be inside something like this with the walls completely intact so you have walls around you for 360 degrees. This is so well setup that Apollo astronauts came here to train before going to the moon and it really does have a other worldly fell to it.

We then went off to the painted desert national park, the park has two different attractions. The first5 is the painted desert area, which is a desert area (imagine that) which has quite amazing stator of different colors. It goes out as far as you can see with all of the land at given highest being the same color, which is quite hard to get your heard around but is quite quite impressive. Further into the park there are large deposits of petrified wood, this is where ancient logs have been filled with silica and turned into wood. Now I have seen petrified wood down in the Catlins, but these are really large logs and they have amazing colors in them which makes this very impressive to see. The park also has some 1,000 or so old Native American buildings it is amazing to think that people lived in this very though environments for generations.

Life on the 40th parallel (well the road that marks this is about 100 meters from the hotel)

I went up to the hills, this one wasn’t any little old front range this was the real Rockies. The majority of the track was in a pine forest, it was dusty as there isn’t any real rain during the summer. At one point there was an old rock slide, I say rock as you couldn’t see any soil or dirt or anything like that, not like it would look back home at all. I walked up to a place called royal arch, where there is a natural arch about 30 foot high, that has amazing views over the Colorado plan which is great to see.

I had a bus trip around Boulder, this is a very different town it is officially the best educated town in the US, with the average of those over 25 having 5 years at University (although how many actual courses passed isn’t recorded) Among people from Boulder are JonBenét Ramsey and Jello Biafra which does say something. Someway said to me that this town’s one way system doesn’t allow right turns, just left and far left (although this is by American standards), so it has some nice appealing features. However, it is a little too self-confident for me they fell they have the good life and anyone else needs to come up to their standard.

Today I flew down to Flagstaff Arizona, this meant taking two planes, total flying time of under two hours, but due to times you have to spend in Airports in took around eight hours. The first flight was from Denver to Phoenix over the expanse of the Arizona dessert, which does just seam to go on forever with very little actual to see. I didn’t spend much time outside in Phoenix but oh my god was hot. The next flight was in a little commuter plane up to Flagstaff. It goes up over the grand canyon, I flew over that a few weeks ago in a 747 at almost 40,000 feet but this was different for a stuff it was only about 5000 feet (above the ground as that is already about 7,500 feet above sea level). Strangely it was actually raining and cold when I arrived in Fllagstaff but there you go.

Boulder rocks (and other bad puns)

Boulder is a town on the edge of a massive plan right next to Rocky Mountains (technically it is beside the Colorado front range, but as this is part of the Rockies who’s counting). So it is kinda like Methven back home, if you add a 30,000 person University to it (which currently has about a 55,000 seat stadium for the university sports team, which is a little bit different to winter tournament….)

I went for a walk into hills, and they are quite spectacular, one thing I noticed was the advisory signs at the start of the track (before you read this mum don’t worry I am sure I will be fine) They tell you what to do if you see a rattle snake, a bear or a mountain lion, as I saw plenty of people walking their dogs or playing with their kids I am sure it is simply the authorities being over careful (all the same it does make you a bit more careful when you hear a sound you don’t recognize)

The nature of this town is there is great food, good bear and amazingly for the US even good coffee (only 19 days in I found a good café, that specializes in cupcakes and espresso, and the nice seats and the white stripes on the stereo and I was in haven). I went for dinner at my hotel and the bar here had really good white-man blues being played, I not a major fan of blues but there is something about being here and hearing it in it’s natural environment that makes it really very cool.

Welcome from the flyover states

OK so I have made it 13 and a half hours of travel without even crossing any boarders, now that is just wrong. Firstly I took the Amtrac back down to Boston, which is the usual efficient nature (OK I still haven’t forgotten the trip from NY). Then I got to the joy that is the Boston integrated public transport system. Coming off the long distance train (at the Boston Garden sports stadium) I just walked a few meters to the subway, where the train turns up in a couple of minutes, after a couple of stops get off walk to the next platform onto a train, a few stations on I get to the station by the airport, where there is a free bus that takes you to the terminal, all just too easy. Now Boston airport is really quite big. The terminal I was in was at least double the size of any airport in NZ, as I had plenty of time I went for a walk and saw the four other terminals all of which were even bigger.

The flight itself was pretty impressive, we went west over the great lakes, and really they look more like oceans from the air, then came down over Chicago it is always impressive to see a major city from the air. I then came down the farm belt, just farms for hours on end, the most notable thing is in areas where the irrigation areas cause these massive circles of green in what are obversly only marginal farm land.

Landed in Denver and this airport is truly massive, I mean there is no way to truly give you an idea of how big this place is, lets say it takes about 20 minutes to walk to the end of the terminal and then you have to catch the airports subway the five minute trip to the baggage claim area. Once I got out of this place I got the shuttle out to Boulder. This is about an half hour trip accrues a major plan, it looks a bit like the Canterbury planes back home, it is like the worst drought every, but I don’t think they think it is anything unusual around here. Randomly put over this truly epic landscape are a large number of new housing estates and condos, some of these look fill some much less so. Anyway the mountains here a pretty amazing, even compared to the good old southern alps. I am still on east coast time so I am up before the sun (how many times do I say that) so I will let you know more about this town when I actually get to see it.

Sea to shining…… well I will get there

Today I went out to South Portland. This includes some very fancy suburban areas. Most notably is the Portland heads lighthouse. Regularly when some ad here wants to show they are including all of America they will start with the golden gate bridge then include a corn field then the Portland lighthouse. (currently both the US Army and marines have exactly this ad for their recruitment at the moment). This area of the coast is very attractive. As this is the most northern (mostly) ice free harbor in the eastern USA it has a whole lot of old military bases, basically they went over 150 years assuming that someone was going to sail in hear (it only happened once and for some reason they have issues with their town being burned down by the royal navy at one point). This however adds to the things to see in around the coast. All in all today was the hottest day on my trip to day well into the mid-30’s and humid as hell, so this was more than a little bit draining. I know the issue of complaining about the heat in Maine when I will be in Arizona in a few days, oh well I will have to cope, I see good old Wellington has a high of 17 today, so you all enjoy that…..

In the morning I have my biggest travel day without going from one country to another, I have to take a train to Boston, then two subway rides, then a plan half way across the country and then a shuttle about 30 km into Boulder, bugger of a day but oh well has to happen.

Maine Sound

I was walking around Portland, I noticed the slightly fake tourist town, with a fishing/ industrial section that doesn’t merge at all well with the tourists. I thought about it for a moment and with a shudder I realized this is all eerily recognizable. It is older and less plastic but this really feels like a Picton of the North East (I say ‘a’ because I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there is more than one). Once I got over the shock of this I though what is the best thing to do in Picton, and of course there is only one answer, get out on the sounds, and so that is what I did. So I went on a trip on a really nice 90-odd year old schooner. The Maine sound is quite spectacular, the hills aren’t as high as Marlborough but it is quite impressive.

Yesterday I went out on a canoe trip around the sound and again it is very pretty, and in plenty of places where you get that amazing felling where the sound of your paddle in the water is the loudest noise around. These island of the sounds have a whole lot of holiday homes, which again makes it fell a whole lot like the sounds back home (It even has that familiar black line at high tide that I always associate with Marlborough). I was talking to the guide about the what it is like to live out here and he was explaining about the winters, he told me that it is quite cold in Winter, averaging about 0 degrees in the middle of winter, I thought yip that cold but hay I have played Hockey in that weather so its not all that bad. Then he said ‘sorry I don’t know what that is in Celsius’ so I realized he was talking about 0 Fahrenheit (I have just checked that on line and that is negative 18 Celsius) and this is the average for several months, that is not weather that is a natural disaster and they have this every year.

Hello from Portland (Maine not Minnesota)

Yesterday I went out to the JFK presidential library and museum, these Kennedy’s are kinda a big deal in Massachusetts. They have some pretty impressive artifacts from his life and remakes of the oval office etc, his comments about his trip to Germany in 1939 were very interesting. Overall a little too apotheosis for my taste but it does show what they think of the guy even this number of years latter. I realized this family is a metaphor for this part of the country a mixture of old money mad desire for power and liberal (at least by American standards) all and all I am with Shona Lang on this one

This morning I court the train up the coast to Portland Maine, this is about a two hour trip though some quite spectacular countryside. There is a whole lot of bush around here (maples etc) that are just starting to change colors so this is great to see. Portland itself is an old coastal settlement, my initial look around town it looks a little too much of a tourist trap for me but it is in a pretty impressive part of the country.

What the???!!!!????

With all the issues they have had with Governors it is good to see they are prepared for anything......

Only in America

I have had my first real ‘only in America’ moment. I was going though a mall, as it was the best way to get from one place to another. There right next to the food court (where they are destroying great foods from all over the world) I saw it, there was a chapel of St Frances. There we have it they have been able to mix the two places that Americans hold dear, the male and the church. Brilliant

I looked around old Boston it is an amazing rich and very cool part of town with cobbled streets and the whole bit. All of the houses are red brick and obviously the overall designs haven’t changed in well over a century. Add in actual gas lamps and it fells like going back in time, much better than actually going back in time would.

Yesterday I went to the Boston Museum of science (thanks for the tip Judi) this is one of those places which has some really clever ways of showing some really difficult scientific concept (Judi yip the Riemann function thing is cool, but I have to admit I though the Gaussian probability thing was better, but that might just be me). Then I went to a baseball game at Fenway park, it wasn’t much of a contest 8-0 by the end of the 4th inning. The atmosphere was good, with the game being a sell-out like they are all here (and they have over 80 home games a year) the crowd went home happy (well you would with the home team winning 10-0) and I can add another sport to the games I have seen at the highest level…..

Cradle of the American revaluation

I went on a bus trip around Boston today, firstly we went over to Harvard and walked around that famous university. It must be said it looks a little different from good old VUW, but at over $50k per year you would hope for a nice campus. This city has over 40 universities, ranging from the world famous like Harvard and MIT to Dunkin Donut U (I am not making that up) so you do look different at the socially awkward people walking the streets.

We then went out to Lexicon and Concord (although they really pronounce that so that it wasn’t until I saw a sign I didn’t know which town we were going to). This is where the first couple of battles of the American revolution happened, where some enemy combatants (sorry patriot minutemen) took on the army of the world super-power. While this day they didn’t win this lead to the super-power leaving a few years latter. This created the freedoms that Americans take for granted (I am not sure what problem they have with the current English democracy but they are completely certain that their life is better because of the revolution).. Anyway this is a very nice part of the county and it was good chance to go out and see the nature of this part of the world.

I also had a boat trip around the Boston harbor, it is interesting that with it’s round harbor and the city that is largely reclaimed land at the relatively low intensity it is a lot more like Wellington so yip that is a good thing

Hello from Boston (not the terrible 80’s band)

Today I moved up from New York to Boston. Unluckily my train was well over 2 hours late leaving NY, talking to one of the people at the station and she said that I was one of the few people who didn’t get upset about this, well I have had training by New Zealand rail…..

The trip itself is a little over 4 hours, though some changing country side. There are a number of industrial towns that have clearly fallen on tough times. Then there are number of clearly very well off towns, the sort of places that just look like sets from the Gilmore girls, then there are a whole lot of river mouths with large numbers of boats moored in them. A lot of these river mouths have a large coverage of reads making a wetland area, just like you see in Dawson’s Creak (OMG I am using some bad TV explanations, but I can only blame the countryside)

I got to Boston or more correctly Cambridge as I am staying on the side of the Charles. I had a quick walk around and it such a different felling from the last week, I will let you know what it is actually like once I have got my head around the city

Like a masochist from Newport

Oh well after 8 days in NY tomorrow morning I am like a masochist from Newport (New England bound (© Family guy)) So I guess it is time to think about how things have been here in New York. Firstly have I done as much as you can really do in one week in this town, my favourate song about this town is ‘New York City’ by They Might be Giants. This includes a verse showing the best things as they see it about NYC:

“Statue of Liberty, Staten Island Ferry, Co-op City, Katz's and Tiffany's*
Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, The Empire State where Dylan lived**
Coney Island and Times Square, Rockefeller Center
Wish I was there”

By my count I have 9 from 12, which isn’t bad for one week. So I have done pretty much as I could without being silly for the week. So what do I now think of NYC, this is a real city of contrasts between the haves and have not’s, it is exciting and frustrating, it is exhilarating and exasperating, and many other couplets. Overall I think the most obvious thing is also the most important, I am very pleased I get to come to this city, but I am even more pleased I don’t have to live here

New York days

Yesterday I went out to the US Open tennis in Queen’s. There is an odd felling seeing so many off the best players in the world in any sport (well it could be said that missing the Wellington/ Canterbury game I missed as many of the best people in their sport but this was a new and different sport) anyway I had tickets to see the number 4 & 5 in the women’s game (Elena Dementieva & Jelena Jankovic) against much lower ranked players. Both games went to 3 sets (at about 3 hours each) and the seed lost. Then there was also another very good Men’s game, so there was 3 great games which was defiantly a good day at the tennis.

Today I went out to Connie Island which is out in Brooklyn (and no not on an Island). It is the semi-ledigenary New York beach resort. It has a relatively wide long beach and it seams to have a large retiree population. So basically it is the New York version of Foxton Beach (this would mean that Levin would have a population of 11 Million which is so scary I will stop this metaphor right now). The best and most famous thing at Connie Island is the Cyclone roller-coaster, which is an 80 odd year old wooden coaster, this is often rated in the top 10 coasters by people who rate such thing, It was real bone-retelling and very cool, there are a couple of points where it really fells like there is no way you can be OK but of course for the few millionth time it dies all end well.

Five boroughs of fun

Today I managed to triple the number of boroughs in New York city I have been to (from 1 to 3). Firstly I walked down town and found Washington Square park, and totally against what I have been told my whole life I have to report there wasn’t any improvised singer/ songwriters there (sorry to report mum). I then saw a coffee shop that actually had an espresso machine. I thought that this place has been famous for coffee shops for better part of half a contrary so this should be good. What was I thinking it really seams that no American can make a decent cup of coffee (my theory is the beans where over roistered) I did see a cart today promising ‘the best coffee in town’ which is one of the least impressive boasts I have ever seen in this town.

I then walked over the Brooklyn bridge, this has to be one of the great symphonies of art and engineering in the world. It is quite simply the most stunning built structures I have ever seen. It did lead me an interesting question of all of the truly great buildings I have seen here in NY all of them were built between 1870 and 1940. So why is it that with all of the money and drive in this town has there not been anything great done in the last 70 years, other city around the world still seam able to do it but not this one. I don’t have the answers but I think this is a important question.

Brooklyn has a very different fell to Manhattan. Put simply it seams to be built around the car rather than mixed used, you come in and you have a whole series of 8 lane roads making it hard to get around.

They say (well someone ones said to me so ‘they’ must say) that “there are only two free things in New York, firstly the air you breath and secondly the Staten Island ferry.” (I hope they don’t say this to Donald Trump as I am sure he will try and change both of these things). The ferry is about a 20-30 minute ride south from the bottom of Manhattan out into the bay. It is one of the best rides you will ever see with the statue going past the skyline, but the locals really do seam not to notice. As for Staten Island itself, my lonely planet describes it as “A suburban appendage with an inferiority complex” it is sort of Hamilton on the Hudson (OK so it is not actually on the Hudson but don’t let facts get in the way of my metaphor) Basically it is close to the city with amazing views but really doesn’t look like a rich area, I am still not sure I get this city. Anyway it was a nice change to get out of the hectic hart of the city into something like a human sized area. Off to Queens tomorrow (to watch the tennis) so that will make it 4 from 5 boroughs which I am sure is much more than most people do in this town.

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

Today I went out to liberty and Elise islands. This is truly one of those must do before you die trips. The Americans really do not have any sense of irony here and that is really easy to come over to that way of thinking (although I did could heat the Simpsons going in my brain whenever they mention that famous verse, which was often). Anyway the view of lower Manhattan is truly exceptional and it was such a lovely day it would have been worth it just for the trip on the harbor. But there is such a lot more than that, it is one of those places you go that you know it is actually impossible to take a photo that no one has taken before, but even so you do feel the need to take lots and lots of photos (while I’m on this why do people need to take photos of themselves in front of the great views of the world come on people we know you where hear this is simply the photo equivalent of the ‘ I waz here’ scribbling on the wall)

I got to go up the statue which is a pinch yourselves type moment there are moments when you have seen something literally a million times and then you found yourself there, I must say in this case yes it does actually live up to the hype. The symbolism of the place might not be totally lived up to by America (or France for that matter) but at least it set such a high ideal which is better than not having them. Americans tend to think that they contain the biggest and the best of everything. They call this the most powerful symbol in the world, my first though was ‘come on’ then I thought this though and really not sure I can disagree.

You then take a boat over to Elise island, which is where most American immigrants arrived during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The most sticking thing here is the overriding belief in the American dream, that coming to America made life better for all from the problems from the old world. There was an acknowledgment of the trials of new immigrants including economic issues and the problems from people like the KKK. Even given this you really get the felling that these people were coming to a better life at least for their children. I have seen similar presentations in New Zealand and even Australia but the national confidence here is truly something to behold.

New York, from the ground and the air.

On Sunday I took the subway up to northern Manhattan, for those of you who know you NY geography you will know that is another name for the suburb of Harlem. Interesting this is not as bad a area as you might think, actually there is quite a nice community fell to it, people actually live on the street here which is all very nice, saying that I am not sure I would like to be there after dark, but that might just be me taking the media too seriously. I then went over to a place called Wards island which has a park with great views over Manhattan, it was a lovely Sunday afternoon so I have no idea why the place was almost empty but I wasn’t complaining, although the people I saw fishing in the East river were a little braver than I am. Anyway this was where one of the major American 7s rugby tournaments was being played. So this added two more firsts to my experiences, the first rugby tournament in North America and the first 7s tournament I have been to where they are not serving beer. What are they doing to our great game??? Anyway it was quite interesting to watch and I managed to stop myself correcting every tactical decision they were making, even if I should have……

On Monday I went over to a thing called the ‘high line’. This is an old raised railway though western New York that has been turned into a ‘green area’ they have planted some wild flowers, grasses etc. You realize quite how differently they relate to nature being in such a big city. Anyway it is a pleasant walk and actually quite a good way to get around. I then walked down to the Greenwich village, this is a little area that really doesn’t fell like NY, small winding tree lined streets with some even cobbled stoned. Most of the shops you see are really expensive restaurants, but I saw one book shop. It happened to have an sign for the paper back of one of the Sex and the City books, it really felt like in this exact spot this was gritty realism rather than the exploitive chick lit it would be a few blocks away, but this might just be me. The whole place screams money, it is the place where young upwardly mobile people with money have lived for century’s, today this means it is the only place I’ve been here where the US flag is less common than the rainbow flag. I then walked down though the abbreviation suburbs (SoHo tribeca etc) all of which have slightly different feelings even though only a real New Yorker could ever really tell you where they begin or end.

In the evening I went up to the Rockefeller centre and up to the observation deck. I got up there around 5:00pm and the views around New York are spectacular you can see for miles in all directions, all I can say is wow. Then the sun set and things got even better and then wow really isn’t enogth, this city at night is truly one of the sights you have to see. We have all seen the photos but it is simply impossible to explain what it fells like to see it for yourselves. Therefore I won’t try to explain it. I came back home via the madness that is Times Square which is just well mad I can really see why the New Yorkers all stair clear of this area and are totally dismissive of anyone who goes up there.