This blog is a record of hopefully what is going to be an epic journey taking 3 friends across the USA for the summer, New York to Los Angles, with a little bit of work on farms and ranches. 2500 miles of open road. So hopefully the adventures we find ourselves on will make for for an interesting read. Enjoy !!


DAY 1 - Are we there yet?
So here we are. We have finally made it to New York to begin this journey west. After setting of yesterday from York, England we have barely slept and are all completely zonked! We took a bus from the centre of York to London which was currently caught up in the diamond jubilee madness. 6 hours on the bleak british motorways we made it to heathrow airport. We had all decided that when we arrived at heathrow to save money we would just crash out in a quiet corner somehwhere and avoid paying for a overpriced hotel room, however once we arrived we quickly decided against that due to the amount of people buzzing around and all feeling quite rubbish from the journey down so we ended up checking into a japanese - spacepod style hotel. Charging £65 for a room we thought we would all just cram ourselves into one room. We were shocked to realise how much of a tight squeeze it was going to be, but saw the funny side!

Looking like complete sweaty scruffs we headed into the airport to get some food and ended up paying £12!! for a sandwhich. Madness. The veggies had some pasta. We went for a few pints in a pub near the hotel and headed back for an early night. George and Sam M spooned in the bed, i took the floor with a broken, useless roll mat. I would say we all had around 2 hours sleep that night if we were lucky. Was soo tight.

We finally lifted off from bristish soil at 10 am and were treated to so pretty sweet meals and choice of movies to keep us occupied on the flight. We landed at around 12.30pm NY time. With smiles on our faces we headed to customs to get our bags. This smiles were wiped away when the annoying chap behind the passport checking kiosk would not believe that we were coming to the USA to do volunteer work and not recieve payment. We were sent downstairs where we were told we were to be questioned further. I've never felt so sick in my life. George and Sams faces said the same. After around 40 minutes we were called one by one to tell our stories, and after explaining over and over what we were doing they finally let us go. Such relieve ! We gladly collected our bags and made our way to the mono rail. After riding the mono rail for a short trip and swapping onto the subway we made it into Manhattan. Sadly we had to swap onto another subway train so didnt get to see any of the NY world above us. We got onto the next train and quickly ended up in coversation with two locals who were interested in us. They were very friendly and helped us relax a little more. After they departed we got into conversation with a really nice chick called Jacquline. She was 21 and studying fashion in NY. After chatting all the way to our stop she decided to get off and show us the way, she was a massive help. We shook hands and she wished us luck. It was a really good start. But once good old Jacquline left us we were utterly hopeless. We ended up getting off a few stops to early and wandering around in what looked like the wrong part of town. Not wanting to look like a tourist wasnt an option really, with huge backpacks, tents and rucksacks we all felt quite vunerable. We asked a few NY cabbies for a lift to the hotel but not one of them knew where to go. It started to get bloody worrying. We realised we had got off to early and eventually made it to the right part of town after taking yet another tube ride. It was then a short walk to the hotel which at this point seemed like the greatest place in the world. We checked in and and all got a well needed wash. Sam M was starting to scare children with his stench.

We then went in search of food! We were all very very pekish. We ended up in "Van Dam Diner" not far from the hotel. It was fucking magnificent (parden the french) !! The perfect way to start the first meal in USA. I ended up with a crazy sized Philly steak sub and fries, the boys got some massive veggie wraps. It was just awesome. The nice spanish owner refilled our cokes and was really friendly. As i keep mentoining, New Yorkers, or atleast everyone we have spoke to are so friendly.

We had a walk back to hotel and sorted out the shuttle to Manhattan in the morning. All gonna get a much needed early night. Tomorrow is when the clichy touristy stuff starts !!