Exit England - Enter USA

Well the volcano erupted again and closed airports in Scotland so we decided to make a quick exit from England while we could rather than being stranded there if the ash from the volcano got worse. David & Joan, Im sure,  were delightedly devastated to see us go after such a short stay. We had such fun with them it was a shame to have to rush off so quickly.  Ah well we'll be back!! We changed our flights and flew out of Heathrow on Thursday 6th and headed off to New Jersey. A quick 7 hour flight. saw 2 more movies.  Arrived in USA at about 6pm and stayed with our good friends Jono & Natasha Meek and their 3 kids Harrison, Eloise & James.
We had a great week there. Went to Princeton Uni - fantastic buildings, saw an exhibition of the early maps of the world which was facinating. Did a trip to New York with the Meeks on Saturday. Went across on the Stanton Island ferry and sailed past the Statue of Liberty. Toured around Wall St, Ground Zero etc etc. it was good. Had a couple of rest days which was nice. Balls & I went back into New York on Wednesday  on the train, in drizzly weather. Went to time square and near central park. got all the required touristy bits. Food shops and restaurants are just amazing in the US. Everything is so BIG. Just walking through a supermarket explains so much!!! and there are so many fast food places. Its tragic really. Everyone has big ovens. maybe to fit the turkey's in...?  There is no water conservation. Even the loo's, as badly as they flush, look like they use about 20 litres of H20 and then the bowl fills up again!!. Heaps of lawn areas around all the houses and streets.  Beautiful area in Jersey though. very green  lots of trees. no one has any fences around their houses which seems a bit odd but all the houses look the same. Cookie cutter stuff really. all the light switches are upside down and its tricky to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road. Other than all that we could be in Oz!!  Sad to be leaving  Jersey but on Friday 14th we headed off to Kansas for the next farming bit of the trip.  Posted by Nikki