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1988
USA from coast to coast
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June 27th - July 17th 1988
States visited: New York, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Colorado, California
Miles on the road:
Gallons used:
Rental cars: Chrysler New Yorker on the East coast & a Chevrolet Caprice Stationwagon in California. Both from Avis
Airlines: Braathens, KLM & NorthWest
Traveling mates: Geir Anton, Bjoern Gunnar and Randi
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3 weeks. Starting in New York City and staying a few days on Long Island, a weekend in Washington DC, make a jump to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado where we visited relatives in Boulder and Colorado Springs.
The next flight took us to the Bay Area where we drove across the Golden Gate and ended up in the San Joaquin Valley.
Everything was new and exciting! I will always remember this trip: From the top of the World in World Trade Center to the Golden Gate almost lost in the fog.
It was unbelieveable for a newbie in America!
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Monday June 27th
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We flew from Trondheim in the morning and spent a few hours in a very hot
Oslo before departing for New York on SK901. We where a bit late for the
check-in at Gardermoen so they didn't have any non-smoking seats left and then Geir
Anton managed to get us seated in the EuroClass section. That was a nice
start on the journey. Since this was my first trip across the Atlantic it
was very exciting and went pretty quickly compared to some of the later trips.
At JFK airport we where met by Linda and Leif Ola. Linda was an au-pair
on Long Island and Leif Ola, her brother, was visiting. We soon picked up
our rental car - a Chrysler New Yorker with every facility you could ask
for. Then Linda says: "Just follow us out to the freeway and make a
right at LIE (Long Island Expressway)". |
Bjoern, Randi, Geir Anton, Linda & Leif
Ola at JFK,
June 27th 1988 |
Geir Anton is VERY satisfied with the
"New Yorker" |
So off we go and Linda and
her brother rush out of the parking lot and Geir Anton has to make some quick
moves to follow her. After an exciting drive through Queens, we finally
arrive at Greenlawn in Suffolk county where Linda is staying. We relax
for awhile at the pool, but we have to find a place to stay, so we start looking
for motels on Jericho Turnpike and soon decide to stay at Ramada Inn in
Woodbury.
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Tuesday June 28th - Thursday June 30th
Since this is my first time in the US, everything is new and exciting.
So the next days is spent getting familiar with how everything works. We
eat burgers and drink coke... and more than a few "Buds"! We spend a couple of very enjoyable evenings
at TGI Fridays in Huntingdon and soak up on some of the local places
around.
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Breakfast at Ramada
Inn...
Who's the Boss???
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On Wednesday June 29th we decide to take a closer look at Manhattan and are
advised to take "the train" to Penn station. This is the Long
Island Railroad and for me the ride is very exciting. When we get up from
the dungeons of Penn station we can hardly see the sky. It's tall
buildings everywhere. Our first stop is Empire State Building and after a
visit to the "Guinness World of Records" on the ground floor we soon
stand in a long line waiting for the first of several elevators that will take
us to the top. The view is of course fantastic and I take several
pictures.
On top of the world... Chrysler and PanAm
buildings in the center
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| When we reach the streets again, we start walking towards the southern tip of
Manhattan. It's a long and hot walk, but no problem for 5 norwegians... We
stop and shop at several stores on 5th avenue and walk by the
"Flatiron building" which was the first skyscraper. But soon the
twin towers of World Trade Center looms in front of us and then we have to stand
in another line to take a very fast elevator up to the 107th floor. |
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Hey dudes...
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After we had admired the view, we walked down to Battery Park where we
boarded the boat for Governors Island and the Statue of Liberty. The lines
where longer than we wanted to wait so we only managed to get up to the first
level of the statue. Back on Manhattan we ate pizza at "Da Vinci" on
Beaver street before we took the subway from Wall street back to Penn station.
Then The Long Island Railroad brought us back to Huntingdon and a day full of memories
was over. |
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Friday July 1st
After a relaxing day by "Linda's pool" we started on the journey
down to Washington DC for the weekend. Perhaps we couldn't have found a
worse weekend because this was the "fourth of July weekend" and
everybody was off to celebrate. We drove straight through Manhattan and
through the tunnels and into New Jersey. Freeways everywhere... but soon
it was traffic everywhere also and we found ourselves in a massive traffic jam
even though it were two parallel freeways each with 3 lanes almost all the way
through New Jersey.
Even though we "knew" that Washington DC were south of NYC, we didn't really
know if this was the right freeway. The map we got from Avis didn't help either
so on of the rest areas we bought a new map. While eating burgers at "Roy
Rogers"
we soon discovered that we should follow I-95 south. We arrived at the
hotel at around 01:30 and discovered that the place wasn't exactly what we had
in mind so we found another hotel called "the Inn at Foggy
Bottom".
Saturday July 2nd
| A very hot day in DC and we spent most of the day around the Mall looking at
some of the museums, the White House, the Congress and all the other federal
buildings.
I managed to convince the others to follow me up to Union
Station which apart from the trains is a beautiful building in itself. On
the way back to the hotel we saw the building where Abraham Lincoln had been
shot. |
The Capitol
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The White House
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After a shower we all went up to a part of the city called Georgetown where
there are lots of restaurants and clubs. We enjoyed a delicious meal and
danced and had a great time at a placed called "Paper Moon". |
Sunday July 3rd
After a slow morning its time to start on the way back. We decide to go east
across the Chesapeake Bay and since we are driving in two cars we must try to
stay together, but just before the bridge across the bay we lose the others and
we don't see them again until we're back on Long Island. So we had a
lesson - always have a place where you can wait and catch up.
On the other side of the bridge we found a nice place along the bay to relax
in the sun. We followed US301 northwest to Middletown and into Delaware.
We had a couple of people we should visit in Philadelphia, the first one was a
girl that had gone to school in Norway together with a friend of my sister (!)
and the other was some Norwegians that lived in Philly that we met on the plane
to New York. We spent several hours searching for their houses and finally
we found them and spent some enjoyable moments at each place.
Very late we left Philadelphia and took I-95/New Jersey Turnpike straight up
to NYC, crossed Staten Island and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and into
Brooklyn. When we got back to Greenlawn it was the middle of the
night and we decided to spend the rest of the night in the car... We didn't
sleep much that night!
This travelogue is continued in Part II
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