On to NEW JERSEY

Having left the back roads of Route 66, we now focussed on keeping on the interstate, and headed in the general direction of New York along I-64. Although much easier driving on the interstate, and you actually seem to be getting somewhere, we missed the charm of the old towns. We drove through Illinois and into Kentucky, reaching a place called Lexington. The combination of cheap accommodation, general weariness and the fact that Karen had to get her hair done persuaded us to tie up the horses (or in this case the truck) for a few days in this anonymous town, which was big enough to provide all the conveniences, and small enough that we wouldn’t be racing around looking at tourist attractions, and believe me, there are no tourist attractions in Lexington, Kentucky.

We did, however, find a piano bar attached to a pretty classy intimate steakhouse (much much smaller than our Texas experience!). Karen started chatting to the guy playing the piano and somehow persuaded him to let her have a tinkle (and play the piano). The manager of the place was cool with the idea, so off she went playing a bit of jazz, blues and of course, Beatles. The piano man was quite happy to sit at the bar and watch and drink his beer. He seemed in no hurry to get back as Karen had quite a captive audience. After all, he was getting paid to sit at the bar and drink!

During the course of the evening we met a couple, Dave and Kellie, local Kentuckians (is that a word?). In the space of about half an hour, we had established that Dave is a civil engineer for the Kentucky equivalent of the Roads & Traffic Authority, and Kellie is a personal trainer and masseur. So in time we’d organised a barbeque (or grill as our American friends call it) at Dave’s place, Karen had organised a massage with Kellie, and she’d offered a free visit to the gym she works at. Having not had a decent work-out since Las Vegas, this was readily accepted. So in the course of the few days we spent at this anonymous town, we became firm friends, so much so that they intend to meet up with us in Paris later this year.

The manager at the bar (dirty young man) asked Karen if she would pose for a couple of pictures draped over the piano in a sexy outfit, on the pretext that he could use it as a promotion! He did actually offer her a gig at the place, but of course, due to our itinerary and the lack of a Green Card this wouldn’t happen. The US is pretty strict about these things, so he offered us the pick of the menu in exchange for the pictures. Never one to turn down a free meal, I readily accepted and told Karen what I had organised on her behalf!! So next day, after a change of clothes and make-up, we returned and Karen had her first-ever Kentucky photo shoot!!

We went to Dave’s place that evening for the ‘grill’. He has a fabulous house just outside Lexington, sitting on about 25 acres. The place is immaculate, and the Kentucky grass was the greenest I’d seen since I was in Ireland about 30 years ago. So a great night with lots of food and of course, way too much drink!

Dave's house in a small picturesque town about 12 miles outside Lexington

Dave did such a great job of the steaks, I am thinking of making him an honorary Aussie

Karen, Kellie and Dave get close

Dave also had a piano at his place. He had learnt a fair bit when he was younger, although he didn’t play much, so was pleased that Karen was on hand to give the piano a workout and clear away the cobwebs. Karen of course, was ecstatic that she got to play some more to keep her fingers also clear of the cobwebs!

A great view of Karen and Kellie on Dave's piano

Following our recuperation in Lexington, we headed north on I-75, merging with I-70 just south of Cincinnati. Now at this point, I will digress.

I have to say that having travelled the 3000+ miles from San Francisco, by and large, US drivers are pretty good. I hadn’t witnessed any road-rage, no tailgating, and generally they are very courteous, always happy to move over to let a faster car go past etc etc.

Approaching Cincinnati, all this changed. It was like going from black to white. The interstate approaching Cincinnati from the south was not unlike the Pacific Motorway between the Gold Coast and Brisbane, except I would have to say, in comparison, the Pacific Motorway is a haven of safe road users! This interstate was bedlam. There were so many cars and all were going well over the speed limit, and if you didn’t keep up, you were continually blasted with horns. There were about 4 or 5 lanes most of the time, but there was no system in place. The general idea is you jump from lane to lane to find the clearest route, and if someone does get in your way, you just give them a continual blast of the horn until they move over.

I thought I would have fun, so I drove along with my hand on the horn button for about a mile, until a severe tongue-lashing from Karen and Chloe persuaded me to relent. Some people are just no fun!

Approaching Cincinnati

Safely around Cincinnati, (and still on speaking terms with the family - that's if you consider grunting to be speaking) and crossed into Ohio, we spent the night at another non-descript town called Youngstown. I went shopping and found this huge electronic store “Best Buys” and noted that lap-tops are about 75% of the price you pay in Aus, so I decided to splash out on a new Dell, as Chloe’s second hand Acer which I’d somehow inherited was showing signs of senility. (i.e it would take anywhere between 10 minutes and 3 hours to boot, and if you were lucky you’d get about an hour’s use before it froze up, and the only way to fix it would be to go through the re-boot process. Having a computer that takes longer to boot than an average Space Shuttle launch, I felt it was time).

Whilst in Youngstown, Ohio, we indulged in a little culture by visiting

an art gallery

Some of the locals (well a painting of them, anyway)

Chloe and Chanelle were quite taken with the US School Buses

So, onward again, this time the destination was the Big Apple. On I-80 we drove through Pennsylvania, which must be said to be up there with the “Top 10 boring drives of the World”. Not much in the way of scenery. It was all ‘nice’ but not in any ‘wow’ sort of fashion. Most road sections were dead straight. We elected to stay one night just outside of NYC, so we would be fresh for the experience that awaited us. A suburb of sorts, called Pine Brook in New Jersey was selected, as a cheap motel, part of the Knights Inn chain was available. Little wonder it was cheap. Possibly, no, definitely the worse accommodation we had on the whole trip, but at $35 for a night, I told the whingers to keep quiet.

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The following is a review (which I read afterwards) on tripadvisor.com by a traveller who also had the misfortune to stay at Knights Inn Pine Brook:

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"horrible management....room service doesn't clean the room...bed sheets are not changed after a border leaves...you will find all sorts of problem dealing if you want to complaint..."

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On that, it was time for bed, a big day ahead of us tomorrow....

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