| So the big adventure finally started. We had rented out our house and
departed a miserable England for a very cold Buffalo in New York state. The
journey from Manchester to New York (JFK) was smooth courtesy of British Airways
and we arrived a little early. This was just as well since we had only allowed
two hours to clear immigration etc before catching a flight to Buffalo with Jet
Blue. We need not have worried as we had plenty of time despite having to change
terminals. |  |
Immigration were as efficient as we have experienced before but they were
more miserable than ever. We elected to convey the minimum information. An
eyebrow was raised at our request for six months but this is the standard
provision and we just said we were travelling. Our bags were through by the time
we arrived at the carousel although you did need $3 for a baggage cart. This
really is a racket since most incoming travellers at that point have no small
cash on them. We ended up using a credit card for $3 which is farcical. (Then
when the bill came it wasn't clear what it was for!)
Baggage checking outgoing at JFK for a domestic flight was far more stringent
than it had been for the trans-Atlantic leg, we even had to remove our shoes. My
rucksack containing the innards of a computer totally threw them! But all was
well and again the flight was smooth and arrived early.
| Our friends met us and drove us to their place where we had planned to spend
a week or two just chilling out after the continuous work we had had preparing
over the past several months. Chilling out was the operative word since the
temperature was 20°F and had been for some while. |
| After a week or so the weather started to improve and we made arrangements to
have the RV dug out of its winter quarters (no small task) and to have it
serviced and checked over by the local Ford dealer. All was well and it passed
with a clean bill of health.
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Just when we thought the weather was getting better we caught the tip of a weather system and got several more inches of snow!
There is a drive out there somewhere.
|
We also bought a number of items over the internet. This is an amazing
process in the US once you have sorted it out. A US credit card is almost a
necessity since they will not ship anything to an address which is not
registered with the credit card company. We had fallen foul of this first time
round since our US credit card was registered to our UK address. This time we
had diverted the bills to our friends' address. I ordered several computer parts
from various companies and they duly arrived a few days later having been
shipped from Arizona, New Jersey, and Georgia. And that was just one order.
I bought a case for the computer parts I had brought with me, pre-configured with all our
films and music and games. I also bought a GPS system. I remain unconvinced by
the benefits but we thought it would be a good toy. We bought a USB Earthmate to
connect to a laptop and it came with DeLorme software. In theory it should work
with the several other mapping programs we have but that eludes me for the
moment.
The major headache I knew we would have was purchasing phone service. This
was such a complex process I have given it a page all of its own (click
here)
| The other major purchase was a small scooter to fit on the back of the camper
to give us extra mobility. The problem for us here was the tongue weight of the
tow hitch. This was limited to 250lb because we already have a significant
overhang on our 32ft RV. We found a cargo carrier/bike rack which only weighed
35lb and a 50cc Chinese made Yamaha engined scooter which weighed in at 180lb.
Most were much heavier and also more expensive (almost twice as much). On the
other hand they were not made of plastic. Time will tell if we made an
appropriate choice. This took longer to arrive than we anticipated and it also
has to be insured and plated in Ohio, like our camper, rather than New York.
|  |
So our sojourn in Northern New York has lasted three weeks and we are more
than ready to move on. |