America: Part 5

After such a rainy day the day before we were utterly delighted to see that the sky had cleared slightly when we woke up.

Our clothes however, had not done the same. So after we’d had some nice warming porridge for breakfast and packed up, our first stop would have to be a laundromat.

We had donned our awkward outfits of “whatever dry clothes we had” and squelched into a laundromat in a nearby town. It was actually a fairly pleasant experience and we particularly enjoyed having dry clothes once again!

James enjoyed the experience so much he even put together a little video about it.

Kitted out with more weather appropriate outfits we headed off to our next and final campsite only an hours drive away. It didn’t take us long even with stopping for photo-ops every now and then.

The campsite we would be staying in for the next 2 nights was quiet when we arrived. So we parked up and had lunch in the sun before heading out for a walk.

A quick perusal of the local map showed there were a number of walks to choose from, we decided to head to Bash Bish Falls (real name) and loop round.

It turns out the falls are actually in Massachusetts and so ensued the dad-jokes and puns (mostly on my part) about how far we’d had to travel to see the falls.

We climbed up the rest of the hill with the sound of roaring water getting ever louder, when we rounded the corner and the falls were presented, we certainly weren’t dissappointed.

Not quite ready to head back and settle down for the day, we decided to walk the long way back to camp via an old ironworks.

There’s remnants of  the old works allover the area, with ruins of bridges peaking through the foliage, to pieces of slag (not the insult often thrown on Eastenders; the other kind) often being discovered around the park. But the real clue that there was once an ironworks in the area, is the ruins of the old ironworks.

It was actually really interesting reading about how it was smelted and cast, and how bustling it once was. Just as impressive was how quickly nature had taken it back after it was abandoned in the late 19th Century.

The sun dipping low and our walk finished we decided to find our camping spot and enjoy dinner.

The next morning was Halloween! We had another night in the campsite lined up so we decided to take a trip into a nearby town to look at Halloween decorations and get some compulsory Halloween treats.

The town we visited was in Connecticut (that’s another state ticked off the list then) and I have to say they were letting everyone down on the Halloween decorations. Everywhere else had truly gotten into the spirit, some places in California and New York had gone overboard, with one even displaying a lifesize plastic horse skeleton! However in my time of need and a Halloween fix, Connecticut was letting me down.

After our wander around the town we stopped by a shop to get some Halloween treats (just for us) and lunch before heading back to the campsite.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing around the campground as once again, we had it all to ourselves and exploring the immediate area. One find on a walk was a pile of firewood which had been left by a fire pit in the campsite and so with temperatures threatening to drop to 1 degree we put them to good use.

Our last night camping for this trip we made an evening of it, with a couple of beers, the fire, some chocolate, and later once enveloped in sleeping bags, a mandatory watching of Hocus Pocus.

The next morning it was still a bit nippy but we were off to civilisation. Not just anywhere, New York City! As much as we’d enjoyed our time camping and having the freedom to explore areas of the country we otherwise would not have been able to, we were looking forward to arriving in NYC.

We (well James) managed to navigate New York traffic and get us to the car rental drop off in good time, so we waved goodbye to our faithful steed and hopped on the train back to Manhattan.

We managed to find our hotel easily and so we checked in, dropped our bags and headed straight back out to make the most of the day.

We were keen to explore the local area and get our bearings which we find is always a good step in a new city.

We found ourselves down at the waterfront gazing at one of New York’s famous views so we continued to walk along the boulevard for a while before turning back inland.

Our hotel is in the Lower East Side/ East Village area, and its a cool place bustling with bars, shops and restaurants so we had plenty to explore.

With the day wearing on and knowing we have an awful lot more on foot exploring ahead of us in the next few days, we headed back to the hotel (via a 99c slice pizza joint) and settled in for the night.

We look forward to seeing more of NYC!

Hatti x