The NYC Seeger Pilgrimage continues...

...and what an adventure it was.

Why did it take me so long to write about it, you ask? Well, I've been busy. Two years of busy, you say? Yes, damn it. Do you want to know about the trip or not?

So, Peter dropped us at our hotel and we settled in. Small room - pretty much as expected.

First order of business: dinner. All that footling around with the darn trailer had made us late - we were ravenous. We wandered over to 8th Avenue and found ourselves at the Brazil Grill. Within minutes we were enjoying Capirinhas and Picanha Na Chapa. Yum.

After dinner we wandered.

The next day we wandered some more. In fact, we wandered so much that we practically crippled ourselves. But oh, we had fun.

Washington Square Squirrel!

Wisteria!

Battery Park hoarding

That night was the show. People talk about New York City being a village, and I'd always kind of bought into that idea an a hippy-dippy kind of way...but, man. That night, that show - Madison Square Garden was someone's backyard and we were all there sitting around the campfire singing along. I've never felt so welcome and so much a part of a big crowd - like we were all old friends. And I swear, I cried through the entire show (me and everyone else in the room). You can order a gorgeous DVD of the show from the good folks at Clearwater here. It's totally worth the $35. Unforgettable night.

Of course, after the show we were hungry. Footsore, emotionally exhausted and HUNGRY.

Fortunately, there was a Korean Grill House across the street from our hotel.

New York City - without the Guitar!

Pete was turning 90.  As soon as I heard, I knew we had to go to New York.

We bought our tickets, booked a hotel and hitched a ride to NYC with our friend Peter, who was heading down for the 5 Borough Bike T0ur and Central Park Moonlight Ride.

We'd never travelled with Peter, so when he showed up on Friday morning, and buzzed that he was downstairs, we weren't quite sure what to expect in terms of a vehicle.  We trundled downstairs with our luggage (1 suitcase, 1 laptop, 1 camera bag, 1 cooler bag with ice packs in case of emergency artisinal cheese or charcuterie purchases) and found Peter standing in front of an enormous navy blue Dodge Ram pickup truck, to which was attached a two-wheeled trailer - the kind of thing you'd tow a small car with.  In the back of the pickup were two of Peter's bicycles.  We stowed our gear in the back seat, my Man hopped in the front and I hopped in the back - and we were off!

Turns out the trailer was for a car that Peter needed to pick up in Marlboro, NY and transport back to a garage in Niagara Falls, on the US side.  See, Peter's company converts vehicles that run on gasoline to run on propane - and the vehicle we would be transporting was a test vehicle that they didn't have the papers to bring back across the border yet.

In any case, we didn't have to worry about any of this until we were heading home again, so we settled down for the drive.  We'd decided to head out via the Thousand Islands Bridge, circling back through Niagara on the way home.

Crossing through the Thousand Islands meant we'd be passing through Kingston - just in time for a take-out lunch at our favourite Kingston food haunt, Pan Chancho.  We picked up a few sandwiches (chicken-avocado for me, smoked turkey for Peter, roast beef for Jowi) and a little tub of mackerel pate for starters. 

A couple of coffees from Coffee & Company and we were back on the road.

We had a fairly uneventful trip down, but needed to find a place to dump the trailer before hitting the City.  (There was no way Peter would be able to find parking in Manhattan for the enormous truck AND the enormous trailer.)  We pulled off the interstate in Totowa, NY and inquired first at Ronnie's Music City.  Ronnie was worried about the insurance ramifications, so we kept looking.  Just over the bridge, beside the Gold's Gym, we found a little auto body shop, and the extremely amiable gentlemen on duty had none of Ronnie's qualms, so we unhitched our millstone and headed on to New York!  

It had been overcast for much of our drive, and by the time we hit New York it was drizzling.  Traffic was heavy  by the Lincoln Tunnel, but the view of the skyline was magical.