Day Twenty Eight

In FAO Schwarz they have a Muppet Workshop, where they make REAL MUPPETS. Not the characters, but the extras. These are called Whatnots - technical term. You can design your own muppet, and they will make it for you, for a very very REASONABLE FEE.

So, because we're big fans, we decide that we both need muppets. Thus we head down to FAO to buy muppets. The whole process is brilliant - you get to design your muppet, and they have all the different elements as sticker, so you can build up the muppet, trying different looks. You then have to fill out an order form with a big feathery pen.

30 minutes later - MUPPET.

We went to a diner for these 30 mins, and when we came back our muppets were waiting for us.

Kenny and Griff.

In all honesty the majority of today was spent with the muppets. They are brilliant. Especially when you make them sing, we've discovered.

Left the Muppets for a bit, and did some SHOPPING. One of the items we bought was a suitcase, to hold (among other things) the muppets.

Packing took up quite a bit of the evening. 4 suitcases, lots of new clothes, loads of books, 1 tent, 2 sleeping bags, 1 bobble head, 2 muppets, 5 NYC posters....it was a challenge.

But when this was finished we headed back to the lovely Italian from our first night, and toasted the holiday with that glorious red wine.

Day Twenty Seven

Taxi rides in New York are hair-raising, to say the least. They drive at about 60mph, swerving past each other, slamming on the brakes, dodging pedestrians and tooting their horns at each other. They are, in a word, mental. At times you're cahooning along at 50, and you're an inch away from other cars. It's hectic. We saw one cabby nearly get in a big fight with some guy on the road. They literally got out their cars and where yelling at each other. The roads are mad.

So getting a cab to schlep us all the way from 32nd to 112th is mildly exhilarating. But we arrive, surprisingly unscathed, at the corner of 112th and 7th. And here is situated the SEINFELD RESTAURANT. This is exciting for us, it's in every episode! Especially for Timbo Big Fan. It's also the Diner Obama used to hang out at, when he was at Columbia. So it's all-round fun. We have some lovely breakfast, take some pics, and then have a little wander through the Upper West Side.

Then we headed down a bit further, to Central Park, and got coffees and walked through the park. It was sunny and warm, and busy. We sat on a bench, walked, looked at the horses. Pretty sure we saw Agyness Deyn too.

After this lost its novelty we decided to head over to the famous FAO Schwarz, to see the Big Tom Hanks Piano. FAO Schwarz is super dooper. It has so much cool stuff, and TOYS, and just loads of things to play with.

That evening we got dressed up, and headed up to 42nd Street, where we took our seats at the New Amsterdam theatre, for Mary Poppins.

Such a magical show, in a very literal sense. There were so many surprises and delights and tricks. The objects kept coming out the bag, people flew and disappeared, Mary even flew into the AUDIENCE! It was such a delight - very 'broadway'.

Still think the West End is the Champagne to Broadway's Cava, though.

But it WAS a great show. We cooed and ahhed and cheered. Afterwards we went for a steak, and more rooftop drinks.

Love that rooftop bar.




-- Post From My iPhone

Day Twenty Six

Since LA we've been watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - it's on after Jay Leno, and is a very popular US show. Also, very very funny. We've become quite big fans, and over the 4 weeks developed a big love for the Jimmy Fallon show - many of the jokes have crept into our daily chatter. So, we discover that Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (from henceforth LNJF) is filmed in NYC - at the NBC studios. To get tickets you need to book a month in advance, OR you can rock up on the day, early morning, and get a standby ticket, and with that there is a slim chance of getting in later on in the day.

So, because we LOVE Jimmy, and we've watched it all the way along, and because we reckon being in the audience for a TV show is prettay prettay cool, we decide to try for standby tickets.

So we got up super early and hot footed it down to 30 Rock, and the NBC Studios. We stood in a queue for a bit, and we were given standby tickets 67 and 68. Now, there are only about 140 seats, including all of the pre-booked + VIPs. So at this point we're thinking the chances of them letting in 69 standbys (thus including us) are VERY SLIM. Anyway, they tell us to come back at 4.15, and they'll be able to tell us then.

So we went about our day. Went to a really cool diner, sat in a booth, drank some coffee, pottered around, looked at the beautiful buildings, chilled out. Then, at 4ish, we meandered back to NBC.

We have to go upstairs to the cafe. They check us in, and tell us to meet downstairs outside a luggage shop.

We trek back downstairs, find the luggage shop, and lurk outside. There are masses of other people. A very small woman (literally 4ft) who works for NBC starts yelling at everyone to line up against the wall, in order of ticket number. She's not mean, but she's surprisingly loud for such a tiny person.

We stand in this line for ages, and then eventually another NBC man comes along. He's the same man who gave us our standby tickets. He explains he's going to take some of us, but not the rest.

Even the ones he takes will NOT all get through.

We are VERY TENSE.

He calls out

"Numbers 1 through 86, come with me"

AARRRGGHHHH. THERE ARE CHEERS. WE ARE INCLUDED, and thus a step closer.

He leads us up into the realms of the studios, where the employees work. We are lined up again, this time in strict numerical order. And we are very very close to the back. We stand, and wait. And wait. And wait.

He eventually returns, and calls out

"Ok, those of you definitely seeing Jimmy Fallon today are, numbers 1 through 59"

The front half of the line are cheering. We are dejected. He tells us that the front half will get their tickets and wristbands.

We think that's it, and prepare to leave. But he then turns to OUR half of the queue, and tells us that all is not lost. Once they've seated everyone they might have a few more seats, so if we stick around we might still be able to get in.

Ok, so Tim and I are now planning on coming back on Monday and trying to get in to the filming before our flight. Until they tell us that this is Jimmy's last show for TWO WEEKS, as he is preparing to host the Emmy's. It's literally now or never. So we stick it out.

We wait for what seems like forever, until someone comes back and leads us back down to another corridor. We wait.

There are six people in front of us now, but it seems completely unlikely that we will get in. A man comes back, he's holding wristbands, looks like FOUR wristbands, he starts counting people, he counts past us, the first twelve, WE ARE IN, THE FIRST TWELVE IN THE LINE ARE IN. YES. AAAAHHHAGSGAGSHFFHAGA.

Tim and I, inexplicably, are the last ones in to take our seats - some hold up at the metal detector. We take the lift with the production team. And we take our seats. The show is BRILLIANT, and includes all our favourite bits. We were both shown on NBC
and Tim even got to HIGH FIVE Jimmy at the end.

Completely awesome, and literally could NOT believe our luck!

We left the studio buzzing, went to the NBC shop and bought ourselves some celebratory T Shirts, and then had a little quick supper.

We then went to a brilliant bar, just down from our hotel, and drank red wine and cocktails late into the night, and finished up with more cocktails at our rooftop bar. Night ended about 3am.

Good Times! Whhoooo hoo!




-- Post From My iPhone

Day Twenty Five

We awoke. It was a pleasant day, so we drove to NEW YORK CITY. YES.

It was a very nice drive. The scenery was very pretty. Pennsylvania is a lovely state. We also, unexpectedly, drove through New Jersey, which cranked our state tally up to 16. This pleased us.

Here's the list:

California
Nevada
Arizona
Utah
Idaho
Wyoming
Montana
South Dakota
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois
Indiana
Ohio
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
New York

What a drive! New York Skyline looming into sight, and we drove straight into the Lincoln Tunnel, and out the other side to be met by skyscrapers and honking taxi cabs.

One terrifying drive later and we're unloading our car and checking into our 32nd Street hotel. Another near fatal drive and we return our car, our faithful wonderful car, to Dollar. Final mileage 4,500. We leave him with a mixture of relief and sadness. Sad that the big drive is over, but pleased we completed everything we'd set out to do. A mixed bag of emotion, you could say.

We took a stroll down to Times Square, and around and about. I'd forgotten how amazing NYC is - everything is so tall and fast. Not tall AND fast. But things are tall, and there are other separate things that are fast.

We stopped at a little Italian restaurant, which was awesomely good. Had, like, the best Red Wine of our LIVES and whatnot. It was very very nice. Nice tablecloths and candles and good service. And brilliant brilliant food.

After a walk back down to our hotel, in the warm summer rain, we went to the rooftop bar. 5 floors above our room, bedecked in fairy lights and loomed over by the Empire State Building - it's a pretty cool place to hang out. You're literally looking right up at the Empire State. It was pretty wicked.

A great start to our last weekend.




-- Post From My iPhone

Day Twenty Four

For breakfast today I had an 'Everything Bagel'. Tim had Donuts. Very American start to the day.

We then hit the road, driving 250 miles through Pennsylvania. It was really quite pretty. Very green and lush. Lots of trees. The odd barn. We didn't see any Amish folk, which was a little disappointing. But they are probably all busy quilting.

We decided to stop at Danville, which is about 150 miles from Manhattan. We stayed at a Super 8, which was lovely (not a criminal in sight). We went for a little trip out to get Ice Cream. You know, everything is Drive Thru in America - food, liquor, pharmacies, we've seen it all. The other day we went to a drive-in fast food joint - you drive up and park, place your order at the menu-computer thing (like drive thru MacDonalds) and then they bring it out to your car. How lazy is that!

Anyway, we had a laid back evening in the room - trash American TV, reading, relaxing, preparing for NYC. Can't wait for New York now. Whhoo HOOO.




-- Post From My iPhone

Day Twenty Three

Today we fled South Bend. The hooker turned out to be hookerS. So we left the filthy pit and started the drive onwards.

There isn't too much to report today. Just driving. We are on the big drive to NYC, and we were really set back by yesterdays traffic, so we're just trying to push on as much as possible. So we drove.

Um, we stopped for ice cream, at one point. That was cool! And we wore our hats all day. That was also cool.

We're now in Ohio, at a REALLY NICE HOTEL! No dirt, no smell, no hookers.

After dinner we went out for coffee and doughnuts, which was really fun.

Tomorrow we are heading into Pennsylvania. And then on Thursday we get to MANHATTAN.







-- Post From My iPhone

Day Twenty Two

Our Chicago hotel was a little teeny tiny bit more than we had been planning to spend. We try to stick to a daily budget, you see, and the Chicago hotel may have pushed this a little bit. We decided to absorb this cost, because it meant we weren't getting shot.

So, when we checked out today, and they told us they had refunded us a whole night's rate (because of broken tv) we were PRETTY PLEASED.

WHHOOOOHOOOO.

This meant that our BRILLIANT hotel room was but $55 dollars a night!

This kicked the day off well. Then we went to the mall and bought hats! Brilliant.

Sadly the day then descended into a nightmare of standstill traffic. First getting through Chicago, then some inexplicable standstill traffic along the I-80. First traffic we have come across in 3,500 miles. I mean, neither of us have ever seen anything like it - it was just NOT MOVING. AT ALL. FOR AGES.

So a paltry 100 miles on from Chicago we decide to stop for the day. It is about 6pm by this point.

So, we stop at a place called South Bend, in Indiana. As we drive into South Bend, Indiana we see a man drinking from the sprinkler on the lawn behind MacDonald's.

This should have perhaps put us off.

But we forged on and decided to stay at Motel 6, for a cheap $42 a night. The room smelt quite bad. But we thought, HEY IT'S SO CHEAP, and so we stayed. We went down to look at the pool. Despite the water's opaque quality, and murky colour, we chose to swim regardless. When we got in we found a clump of human hair floating around, so we got out.

A few hours later, we discover that the lady staying two doors down is a prostitute. Her pimp came to visit - a lovely man called "daddy". So did a chap who had "just got out tonight" - presumably from Prison. And then quite a few more men. A stream of men, you could describe it as.

So...quite a step down from the Bellagio, you could say.

Spent the entire night in fear of stray bullets, rampaging drug addled hookers and the ubiquitous scabies mite. We vow to stay somewhere nicer tomorrow.




-- Post From My iPhone