Friday 7th July – The ‘Stang experience!

Relying on the kindness of Tash again, we were dropped off to collect our Mustang hire car at 9am.  Another possible one-time experience…. Of course, we’d like to upgrade to a convertible!  But the most impressive, pointless gadget on the car?  The Mustang stallions projected onto the ground from the wingmirrors! 

  

 

 

It wasn’t great weather as we left Massachusetts, but the sun started to shine the nearer we got to the Big Apple giving us a chance to get the roof down.  Our chosen lunch stop of the day was Orange County Choppers. 

Posing in the 'Stang outside OCC

The NASA chopper

This is where the Discovery series ‘American Chopper’ was filmed.  The show is a behind the scenes documentary about a father and son business making bespoke unique motorcycles for clients. I think the fact that the father and son duo fell out and had numerous arguments only assisted to increase the ratings, but you can’t deny that the artistry and imagination behind some of the bikes they produced is stunning.  The shop is filled with some of the bikes and there was even the opportunity to take a backstage tour (with our ETA in NYC getting later and later!).

Some views in the backstage area.....

Having been warned of the nightmare that is traffic in New York, it did not come as a surprise that we were held up queuing as we got to the City.  Our booking stated that we would be delivering the ‘Stang back to the hire company at 5pm.  As 530pm was approaching, I thought it best to call them to warn that we were running late.  I shouldn’t have bothered.  The idiot on the line told me that the NYC Budget we were heading to shut at 6pm so if we weren’t going to make it before then we would have to extend our hire overnight – costing not only extra pointless hire but a night’s parking fee on top.  This increased both of our heart rates as we fought our way through the traffic, and even a crash almost in front of us, to reach the branch in time.  I jumped out of the car as soon as I saw Budget and ran to speak to someone and apologise for our lateness.  They couldn’t have cared less and thought I was crazy….. Budget was open until 10pm! In our panic we hadn’t bothered filling up the tank in case it made us late.  Rather than face the ridiculous price that Budget would charge us to top off the gas, out we headed again to find a gas station and return the Mustang with its tank brimming.

Our first iconic NYC building - Radio City

We hailed a yellow taxi to our hotel which Simon gets points for finding as it was right by Times Square.  We dumped our bags in the room and had 30 minutes relaxing.  Dangerous at this time of night as we almost felt like we were too exhausted to venture out again.  Whilst in the room I had bought NYC passes online (as recommended by numerous others) which would get us entry into 5 City attractions of our choosing.  Forcing ourselves to go out and take in the night-time vibe of NYC we walked to Times Square and on to the Rockefeller centre to get our first panoramic view of NYC at night.

We took our time so it was midnight by the time we’d walked back to our hotel to collapse.