So, after 10 weeks at camp I was let loose on America and out of my very safe and secure camp bubble. After a quick trip to a friend’s apartment Chicago I was at the airport (by myself) ready to get on a plane to New York City… I was just a wee bit scared… Chicago was such a cool city and is often compared to Melbourne so I felt quite safe and hey, I had people I knew there, now I was heading off to start my Trek America tour in New York Effing City on my own… Agghh. I woke up from my slumber just as we flew over Manhattan; I looked out my window to see a large green statue rising out of the water… who was she? Hint, she had a torch. Oh My God, I thought, I’m in New York! I peered further out my window to see gigantic sky scrapers apparently growing from the water – there is no island to see, just buildings. Needless to say I woke up very quickly.
Upon landing I had to initiate my mission of getting from La Guardia Airport NYC to La Quinta Inn in Secaucus, New Jersey. Yes, that’s right, having been in NYC for 20 mins I now had to change states to where the tricky Trek America team depart their tours – “New York Area” is how they cunningly describe the location. I found myself at the Port Authority Bus Terminal – clutching my passport – staring at list after list of buses, the 520 (mine) nowhere to be seen. I glanced over at the information desk, empty, I trekked up and down the stairs, dragging my too-large-bag, fighting the crowds and the overwhelming urge to cry. I decided to trust my usually awesome sense of direction (for any Americans reading this, that’s sarcasm…) and just guess where to go… I ended up climbing four flights of stairs (avec evil bag), deciding that no, I was in the wrong place, descending said four flights of stairs and then going down four more. Dead end. The tears prickled, the face went red. Then I saw a man in uniform directing fellow lost people. I literally flew at him, and in between haggard breaths asked where the fucking 520 bus left from. Oh sure, he said, right at the end of this hall, he said, indicating a door 10m from my current crying spot. I was on the bus, heading out of this terrifyingly busy and confusing city and off to my hotel, where I would be alone in a room for the first time in 10 weeks! No campers, no co-counselors, just me and my sleep inducing king size bed! Wooo hoooo! I literally lay on this bed for two hours dozing, loving that no one was anywhere near me!
The next morning I made it to the unhelpfully-located departure hotel and met my fellow Trek Americans. Of thirteen passengers, ten of us had been to camp. Now those of you who know me know that I have little difficulty talking, but do on occasion clamp up when faced with lots of unkowns… but these weren’t strangers, they were fellow camp counsellors! You’ve never seen strangers talk so much! I believe we may have even sung a few camp songs (sad I know). Then our leader arrived. Our leader who, after being with us a total of five hours, was christened by me “Captain Charisma” (again, Americans, that’s sarcasm…). Our fearless leader managed to put off side almost the whole bus within an hour of meeting him. I won’t bore you with endless ranting on this pitiful character’s lack of not only charisma, but also a personality… Seriously. And before you feel sorry for the man, remember, he chose this job! He chose to tour 12 young women in a bus and be void of personality, tourist information and the ability to communicate. Needless to say that the group quickly turned on him and bonded closely with each other as a result.
Seven days in a van (no, not a bus, there was very little leg room), 12 girls, 1 boy, 1 leader, 7 tents to be put up each night and taken down in the morning, multiple toilet stops (complete with a pee scale of 1 – 10 of how badly you needed to go – a combined total of 10 meant we stopped), multiple American highways and their delightful pee-smelling rest stops, three great cities, two national parks and some pretty large waterfalls.
New Jersey to Boston in the van.
We stopped for lunch at a leafy park (this was soon to be replaced by the aforementioned pee-smelling rest stops) and Captain Charisma (soon to be shortened to CC) introduced himself. We then moved onto lunch and I realised that Trek America has failed to pass on to the leader the rather important info that I am gluten intolerant. Great. I’m sure you who know me can guess what my face looked like at this point… We then piled back into the van and arrived in Boston after six hours on the road.
Boston. Great City. Laid back, easy to get around, friendly with great shopping and cool markets. We met our fearless leader for dinner at an over priced seafood restaurant. He informed us budgeted travellers that the lobster was their specialty. Great! We did have a nice dinner, all chatting together, and then the non-splittable bill arrived. Great work Captain, take 14 people to an expensive restaurant, most of us with notes only and don’t ask if they split bills. What was even more shocking was that he was totally unable to figure out how to split it! With the help of my new found friend Natalie from Manchester we snatched the bill from his hands and did it ourselves. I was rumoured to appear like the banker in Monopoly (my accountant father should be proud). Eric then further impressed us by walking 30m in front of us all the way back to the hostel, leaving us to guess which way to turn when he was out of sight.
The next morning we drove to Harvard University in Cambridge and witnessed CC’s skill in backing the luggage trailer! The two men running the car park watched perplexed, as out esteemed leader attempted what seemed like a 70 point turn, threatening with each turn on the wheel to jacknife the trailer. Needless to say it didn’t take long ‘til they kicked him out of the driver’s seat.
We had a great tour of Harvard with the most entertaining guide! He was so funny, energetic, charismatic and fun that we politely inquired if this Harvard Math Student would like to be our tour leader. Apparently he had to attend some rather important classes and declined our offer, but we had hope for a while. The uni is really quite impressive and our leader’s entertaining anecdotes made for a very fun morning. However we had to rejoin CC by the end of it and we were back in the van – the parking attendants getting it on the street first!
We drove for a very long time until we reached the Berkshire Mountains and were presented with our campsite (after the Captain practically drove the trailer down a cliff and wondered what the scraping sound was coming from the back… I think he forgot it was there). It was such an impressive place; true to all the American nature documentaries and films set in “the wild” that I’ve seen – towering, pencil-straight pines, tranquil lake lapping at the shore, views for the eyes to stretch to. Ok, ok, enough descriptive writing - it was pretty. We cooked dinner, chatted a bit and were tucked up in our tents quite early.
We were up early as well, keen to “hit the road” and were dressed, breakfasted and ready to take down our tents. CC had given us a very informative demonstration of how to put up a tent, which was essential as several of the girls on the trip had not been camping before, but he had failed to tell us how to “correctly” take it down, which meant that he hovered over us all, giving “helpful” advice on how to take a peg out of the ground. We then got back on the bus and headed for Niagara Falls.
Niagara. Wow. Seriously impressive! We first saw the falls at night with a Vegas-style light show. The normally white and foamy falls became neon pink, purple and orange! We had arrived on a fireworks night and the falls, the fireworks and the hotels perched above the water all made it pretty spectacular. Having broken my camera I was onto disposables (this one embarrassingly had a star-spangled banner on it!) and I am yet to develop them, but I hope I’ve got a good pic of that night, it was pretty special.
We saw the falls again in the daytime when we boarded the Maid of the Mist (Jim Carey is on this in Bruce Almighty when he finds out he doesn’t get his promotion). He bobbed past the American falls first before moving into the spray coming from Horseshoe Falls. It was already raining and when we got to these falls I was very glad I had on not only my raincoat but my awesome oversized blue poncho! After a thorough drenching we returned to the dock and had numerous “all-in-the-same-poncho photos.” After this we changed into equally attractive yellow sheets of plastic to explore “Cave of the Winds” which is a set of staircases under the American Falls. Apart from the impressive thundering water right next to me, the best part of this was the free shoes we scored! We were each given a pair of green, blue and white rubber sandals (you know those velcro ones?) to stop us slipping. Being budget travellers, first thoughts were – they’re free! Then we decided that we looked rather cool all wearing the same multi-coloured shoes and proceeded to wear them not only the rest of the day, but the rest of the week! We thought we were cool anyway. But seriously, Cave of the Winds – impressive. We climbed around the stairs and platforms with the falls literally metres from us. The top platform involved getting pelted by the wind and water and it felt like you were in The Perfect Storm or some such apocalyptic movie! There was a lot of water and given we were a group of twelve girls, a lot of squealing!
Back into the van we piled – none of crossing the border to Canada, I wanted to, but was a wee bit scared of border patrol – and we set off for “Bear Country” in Pennsylvania. More on that in the next entry…
