New York City

Here we were in the middle of New York City in Manhattan at the Adventure Loft from David and Francine. Thank you very much for providing us lodging and in fact almost your whole flat! I'd like to mention here that those two returned from their Mobius 13 adventure in the early morning hours, then went to work and in the evening welcomed us. Great spirit!

New York City - what a difference! It really took a moment to adapt to the hectic life in NYC compared to the suburbs in Accra, Ghana. At first we were worried how we will manage with girls, but then we found the parks and green areas in the neighborhood.

The view from the loft.

Girls were soooo tired!

Washington Square Park.

We found a dogrun for small dogs - yeah!

... with a few rules ...

It got quite crowded.

Rules at the kids play ground.

Arch at Washington Square Park by night.

Vegan bakery at Farmers Market at Union Square.

People at Union Square - obviously the guy had an objection... was he a secret agent? I did not noticed it when taking the picture, only afterwards when I looked them at the computer :D

Gone for 5 seconds and my girls found already company.

Film students at their work.

Plenty of signs: Wolfi - no standing... now go away!

Parking in Manhattan - sounded first worse then what it was in reality.

Trees in full blossom.

Our morning walk through this beautiful garden in the nearby neighborhood.

The deli opposite was open 24h and had a good selection of salad, veggies and other warm food. Grocery stores were at the next block. Wholefoods with plenty of organic and vegan choices was just around the corner and another one a little bit further away, yet still in walking distance. OMG I had trouble to behave and not buy like a maniac, stuffing the shopping cart full! That was city life with everything in your neighborhood a minute of walk away. I just got used to this that it takes about 30-60 minutes drive through the chaotic Ghana-style traffic if I wanted to get something else then banana, papaya or pineapple. Talking about pineapple, NY prices were shocking! 4 USD for one is normal compared to half a dollar in Accra (and that was the expensive version!).

What we realized was that the US was and is very expensive and I mean very! Our budget plan just puffed into thin air! Some major re-planning and rethinking needed to be done...

The other day I got Skippy's bike which was waiting at the motorcycle parking at JFK. I even managed to navigate the way back to Manhattan without GPS and without getting lost. Both bikes were parked in the streets of Manhattan and we hoped for mercy from all the thieves and vandals. We also needed to re-assemble the parts of the bikes which we took off in order to reduce volume and save money on shipping costs. Skippy's windscreen was an open issue since we needed to saw away the fixing screws of the windscreen.

Skippy's bike waiting for pick-up at JFK.

Everything went fine. David and Francine got used to our little monsters and they dared to stay also alone with them. We visited the American Museum of Natural History (Skippy wanted to see dinosaurs) and it was pretty cool. Central park was nice but boring with girls, no dog-parks and dogs must be on lead all the time. Anyway the weather was pleasant and we had a good walk.

Skippy & T-Rex.

Wolfi and an ancient amarillo.

The turtles in old times were huge.

And then food ... 3-2-1-GO!

Vegan soy-bacon cheese hamburger - Yummy!

View in Central Park

Beautiful flowering tree

NYPD vehicles in Central Park.

We donated our three transport boxes to Social Tees - an animal rescue organization. They were very happy :)

Time went by very fast. David and Francine told about their travels and gave plenty of great hints on where to go and where not. In one of the last nights we explored the rooftop of their flat and enjoyed the very impressive views of Manhattan by night.

Good selection of dark beers - hard to choose one ;)

Manhattan skyline - (click to enlarge)

David operating the grill, Skippy dreaming and looking at the skyline in Manhattan.

One of the many bridges.

Another view from the rooftop with the One World Trade Center.

Skippy smiling. Lovely air, stomach full and soon we hit the road again.

More views by night.

Back to our budget problem. Basically we need to cut all costs on accommodation to a bare minimum. Lucky for us, some fellow ADV rider mentioned the “tentspace” thread, a very useful link where fellow inmates offer a piece of their lawn to pitch a tent or even provide a room. This would be one source of accommodation for the future. The rest is camping, preferred wild camping and only in some exceptions we will head towards a motel/hotel.

Manhattan in the evening.

Watertanks everywhere - typical for NYC

Our bikes in Manhattan are packed and good to go.

Skippy made another travelogue from our last day in Ghana to the moment we left NYC.

Click here if you have trouble to watch the video in youtube.

~ Wolfi