Diary 18^th February & Images
from New York.

Sunday 18^th February.
The journey from Chicago to New York has been the most uninteresting so far. The train was two hours late in leaving and it is likely to be three hours late when it arrives. There were not many interesting people on the train and the staff were pretty mediocre in both attitude and service.

During the most of the journey snow was falling everywhere. Even undercover at the stations the wind had Bron the snow all along the corridors.

The inside of the train was no exception. The doors were so badly fitting that the snow blew inside and since these area is between the seating compartments were not heated it just lay there. I'd slept for a few hours and then went wandering through these cold parts to the smoking car.

I met a Turkish/Negro called Sunny Rivera who had been up in Alaska working in the fishing boats. He was a very interesting and friendly character who lives in New York now. I listened to stories of his escapades to while away the hours. Sunny offered to get me some decent smoke after we arrive in New York but I doubted that I would ever see him again when we parted company at the station.

The massive train pulled in to New York at 1810. I unloaded my luggage then took the subway train to Rockaway Avenue. It was only after I got off the train that I realised I should have carried on for one more stop and alighted at Junius station although the difference in distance is not very much I was more familiar with the way out of the latter station.
I was very pleased when I arrived at my cousin Abel's home in Brooklyn. As usual I was given a warm welcome and offered some food and drink. They wanted to know all about my world and I showed them some transparency slides until it was time for Doreen to leave at about 2130. They all went to bed some time after 10 and I stayed up to work on my laptop. I have had a dry throat and cough all day long. It is not so much painful as exceedingly irritable. My right ear is still not completely cured and is giving me a dull pain but I continue the antibiotics in the hope that it will settle down real soon.

Monday 19^th February.
Presidents day.
The house was quite when I rose. In the afternoon my cousin Fabian arrived. We'd had a misunderstanding last time we had been in Belize so I was very pleased to find that we are talking. I was having a problem with my laptop and he suggested that his friend Evan come over to take a look at it.

When he came I realised that he was less knowledgeable than myself about what I wanted do so we went to his apartment and had a smoke while we used his slow pc to chat to some floozy from Carolina. He wasn't very pleased with the background on his web page but wasn't sure how to change it so I did it for him. Evan was delighted. Nice guy.

Tuesday 20^thFebruary.
After smoking last night I was very lethargic this morning when I woke at 1130. In the afternoon I went by train to Chambers Street and walked through Park Row where I found JR stores. I bought a smart-flash adapter to download the pictures and I installed it and tested it making sure it worked before I left the store. I also bought the internal Sony CD-RW as they had them in stock.

Satisfied with my shopping I went to a restaurant where I had bread crumbed fish with melted muenster cheese on top. It came with lettuce, tomato and some waffle potatoes. I thoroughly enjoyed this and asked for butter and jam to put on the delicious bread-roll that had been served alongside it.
Remembering that a CD-RW needs discs I went back to JR stores and bought some re-writable CDs as they had a pack of three for $4 an amazing price at that time. I then went and bought a couple of DVD movies to help while away the time I would be spending on the trains. A set of good quality Sony headphones completed my purchases.

It was early evening and I took the train from Manhattan back to Abel's. Mavis's sister Brenda had arrived from Belize late the previous night and so I now met her and spent a quiet evening. Mostly we watched television as Mavis and Abel are people that go to bed early. Brenda went upstairs to her room early also.

The following pictures were taken in April 2000.       I have no photos from the 2001 visit to show you.
Statten Island ferry	WTC Twin Towers from the Ferry	Central Park
Another view of stack the island ferryCentral Park	Cousin Abel	His wife Mavis
Mavis's sister Doreen	Another sister	Abel and Mavis's son Kurt
My Aunt Rosa and me. She is the sole survivor of her generation. Dad is dead Aunt Hadie died in 2001.	Grand children are usually founds around Mavius and Abel.	Bunda came up from Belize to look after the kids

Wednesday 21^st February.
I rose shortly after 11 and packed my things ready to leave at 1700. I used at couple of the CDs to back up my pictures and diary. These I will leave here with the rest of my stuff that I will not be needing in the south now.

I'll be pleased to get to where the weather will be warm. I am heading for Orlando which I expect to be very different to places I have visited so far. Actually I'm now very tired of travelling altogether and wish it was over. I want to rent a room where I can settle down in comfort and peace. I have done what I wanted to do and I have enjoyed doing it enormously. There is much I have missed but one cannot do everything. I've taken each opportunity that presented itself along the way. I tried to push everything to get the best that I could from it. All in all I'm very satisfied with what I have done just rather exhausted after doing it.

Left my cousins in Brooklyn at 1700 and arrived in Penn Stn an hour later. I ate one of these famous American bagels while waiting for train which left 5 minutes late at 1910.