24 States in 27 Days - Day 14:

Oct. 23rd, 2012, Tuesday: This morning, rain on our canopy roof was the first thing we heard - uh oh… It changed to just a drizzle so Brad went and made coffee at the picnic table outside. I didn’t want to leave the warm, cozy bed and said I’d just stay there and let Brad drive us into NYC. Ha, no chance! 

Once up, we ate our granola in the cab of the truck, and watched the rain stream down the windshield. The rain continued on and off on our drive through Pennsylvania. We went west towards Hanover, then northeast through York, then to Lancaster. Driving south we took a break to wander in the small town of Strasburg where we met a friendly fellow there, walking his antsy dog. He offered to take our photo while we held the dog’s leash. He and Brad talked microbrew beers while I popped into a few shops. It was cool to see so many homes built in the 1700’s, not a common sight on the west coast. 

From there we continued through the countryside and I put the telephoto lens on the camera to see how it would work on drive-by photos as we rolled up and down the hills past many Amish farms. 

A detour took us further south than we’d initially planned but we found our way back north, then onto I-76 and I-95 where we buzzed along, crossing into New Jersey, eventually exiting onto hwy. 1. There were a lot of stop lights, with fast 50+ mph sprints to the next light which didn’t seem very fuel efficient! 

I followed the signs and our map to direct Brad through and over the skybridge to the Holland Tunnel into New York City - right around 5:00 pm. 

We quickly found the street Brad’s cousin Jerry lived on but we weren’t sure which building was his. After a bit of driving around, Brad pulled over and called Jerry. He told us where to go, stop, and double park, then wait for someone to leave - it was 5:30ish by then. Brad did as he suggested and within 2-5 minutes someone drove off and we slipped into their parking spot. Perfect! We gathered up our bags, tucked things away, then went in search of the door. The usual entrance was under construction so we had to find the back door. The condo building took up the whole block with some businesses on the street level but also front doors to what must have been townhouses. Checked in by the doorman we were given a key to the apartment. Upstairs Brad struggled to get the key to work in what we thought was the correct home when the door swung open! Jerry was at work, so our first thought was we were at the wrong apartment! Nope, it was his house cleaner. She let us in and we relaxed as she finished up. Jerry arrived home a bit after she left. For dinner we went to Tavern on Jane, a nice walk several blocks away. Over burgers we talked and enjoyed the stories Jerry had to tell. It was raining pretty steadily on our walk back, so we were pretty damp once we arrived. Time for jammies! We visited and I uploaded our latest batch of photos while thinking: “Woo hoo - we’re in Manhattan!!”