the 2008 International Wayfarer Rally * Hermit Island, Maine
Getting There Was Half The Fun - 1
by Ton & Connie Jaspers
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Dŭsseldorf Airport, The Northwest plane waiting to take us across the big pond.
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To save a few bucks and add some six hours travel time, we went to Detroit first. Wow, great! Hanging around in a terminal building ... But next time, I'll pay the extra 200 for a direct flight! We have already been traveling about eleven hours and we are tired - for us Europeans it is well past midnight.
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Here is our next plane that will take us (back) to Boston.
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Finally, after 14 hours, we arrived at a motel that I had carefully planned through Google earth to be near Natick Mall, Wal-Mart and a few other stores. While I was hoping for a real American muscle car like a Dodge Charger, the lady at Alamo strongly advised us against unreliable American gas guzzlers and let us have a Japanese Mitsubishi. There is nothing wrong with that, but it takes the adventure out of traveling. I think she has a point when she mentioned car safety. In the movies, have you ever seen a European or Japanese car explode in a big ball of fire, even before it hit something?
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Shopping time! First a camera.  We came with virtually empty suitcases due to the low dollar. All we brought were some bare essentials: sailing gear and four deck chairs. The latter in a big empty suitcase that would later hold all our purchases.
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Natick Mall: doing what woman love best
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Heaven!
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A Peterbilt truck is always impressive (and it has a DAF engine). I just missed a black Peterbilt tractor trailer like this one and exactly like our Lego model Peterbilt. During our time in the US, we met very few trucks both on the Interstates and on the local roads we travelled. It made us wonder how all the products come to the stores. Or were all the drivers in holiday while we were there? Explanation: DAF engines and trucks come from Eindhoven where I was born. DAF has the same stature in Europe as Peterbilt has in the US.
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Aren't the Peterbilts impressive? True Wayfarers. And look at the size of the sleeper!
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We missed the Hartford turnpike and didn't dare to make a U-turn on the Boston turnpike. Instead, we decided on
a triple right and a left turn instead. Look where it took us. Hmmm, this isn't a bad place to live. Typical architecture?
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A typical roadside Motel in the middle of nowhere. Cheap, clean and most important a clean shower and A/C!
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Conny likes to drive but this may be a bit more then she bargained for. New York isn't a difficult city to navigate
but it seems as if some of these Americans got their driver's license as a gift with a package of soap!
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I know, we should not go there. It is like I told Dick not to go to Amsterdam, and what did he do?  
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Guess where we ended up. The Big Apple: tourist trap.
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A city build on solid bedrock more of which we were to meet in the days following.
An unusual site for us Dutch, from a country made of clay and mud dikes to keep a vast amount of more clay and mud dry.
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Central Park on a Sunday afternoon. YES! We are in America! It feels like it, it looks like it, and it even smells like it.
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Enjoying the afternoon with some New Yorkers
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The most expensive penthouse in the world
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"Daddy, where is the soap for the washing machine?" What does a daughter do in such a case?
Call New York, of course! A question and an answer half-way across the world. Amazing technology!
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Urban canyon
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And then it was sold to the English. We got Surinam in return. What a bargain!
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No words can describe what went through me here. Here, only silence is appropriate...
An impressive yet simple monument for so many. It says it all.
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