The state of waterfalls, a diverse city and an Amish community. The state actually had a lot more to offer than we would've imagined with nice forests as well. Again the accent in this state was very coarse and typically New Yorken. At some point on our way to this state Kat almost managed to have us chased down by 5-0 (police, policia) because she was speeding. Needless to say I never almost got caught once across the whole of america, but in the small parts where Kat drove she almost got us two tickets. Of course had we been chased down the police would've undoubtedly used spike strips followed by smashing the window with a gun and then proceeding to (a) taser us, or (b) shot us. As is the american way for a routine stop. At some point after returning the car we did however end up being invoiced for a ticket of some form. I blame Kat for this.......
We have seen many waterfalls in our time from pathetic ones which were not even worth the hike in Japan to the magnificent ones such as the highest waterfall in
West Africa. Even this year we had witnessed many great waterfalls in the Philippines and New Zealand. Anyway, what can I say, Niagara trumps them all. During
our time here we had great weather and got to see the falls from atop, beneath and from the Maid of the Mist boat in the river. We got soaked by getting close to
the bottom of the falls, twice in fact once by walking up and the other by being driven in on the boat.
As if the above just wasn't enough for us we also decided to cross the bridge into Ontario, Canada just so we could see the falls again from another perspective.
The cost of doing so just 50 US cent. There were no park entrance fees on the Canadian side either. On top of that as soon as we got across the border we had that
Canadian feel immediately. It's hard to describe but it's just a feeling which is so much nicer than America's.
The next morning we headed on towards are end goal for our USA road trip, New York City. On the drive we travelled through Pennsylvania,
Amish country where there were warning signs for horses and carts and we saw many Amish women trying to cross the road. This was shortly
followed by beautiful red early autumn forest.
The actual drive into New York City, while manic was far less stressful than the one into Chicago. I would however recommend against it
at all costs. In downtown Manhattan delivery and rubbish trucks do drop offs and pickups from the pavement side lane while taxi's swerve
in and out of lanes randomly and break the speed limits excessively. I was genuinely terrified for the first time while driving here.
Thankfully it was here were we dropped off our rental car after 24 days. We had covered 4,390 miles across 19 US states. The car had been
driven through mud in Yellowstone, desert in the Mojave and over mountains in South Dakota. We had driven it in temperatures ranging from
47.1 celsius in the Valley of Fire State park to 10 celsius in the morning in northern New York State. We had driven in floods, hit many
a discarded truck tyre. All this in a car only 3 months old. The car had been effectively trashed. Even after washing it 3 times there was
no way in which we could get the desert dust and northern mud off.
During out time in New York city we went to visit the Bodyworks museum, took the free ferry to Staten island in order to see the statue of
liberty, walked back across the Brooklyn bridge into downtown Manhattan and spent an evening atop of the Rockefeller tower overlooking central
park and the empire state building before heading over to check out times square. All in all we had a great time here, even if it was expensive.
Having finished our great USA road trip we headed on a flight to Miami where we had several days before reaching Mexico for our Central American Adventure.
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