Author: kaybrownsite

Good news, the tooth fairy found us. This resulted in a very happy Wesley, who finally lost his very wobbly tooth last night.

The early morning was spent washing, packing up the RV and trying to pass last items to a good home.

In the end, Noah’s bike was put out with the rubbish bins when it was too small for the last interested party.

One last RV dump and then on the road for the last time.

A stop for one last gas fill.

We swung by our intended hotel for tonight, the Best Western Hazlet. Our room was available and ready and we were able to drop off all our luggage.

Onto Road Bear RV. We did not have too much damage, a shattered stove cover and bent wheel rim (the result of hitting a large red cone. Either hit the cone or drive off the road).

The damaged was covered with a refund of tonight’s rental.

It was a bittersweet farewell. The RV had been very good to us. I am actually going to miss her…

Into an Uber and back to the hotel. A quick lunch at Tim Hortons and then I made the most of the small hotel gym while the boys relaxed in the room.

Dinner at Fuji Japanese Restaurant next to the hotel.

It is going to be nice to have a warm long shower and comfy bed tonight.

Good Morning New Jersey

The Statue of Liberty

View from the campground

Ferry to Manhattan

Nobody wants the bike?

One Last Photo

Lost Tooth

Dropping off the Luggage

Goodbye Motorhome

Another easy New Jersey beginning to the morning. A wonderful view sitting in my PJ’s looking across at the World Trade Center.

Another RV site move, this time the view is not as good, however, the location… still amazing.

More wheeling and dealing with the selling of bikes and then eventually, the free to a good home for bikes.

We spent most of the day catching up on emails and odds and sods, ready for an action-packed couple of NYC weeks.

And then mid-afternoon, we decided to pack up the van and have a campground sale (all items are free) as we made the decision to take the motorhome back tomorrow, a day early, and spend the night in a hotel close to the rental location.

This means that tonight is our last night in the motorhome 😦 but also 🙂

Wow, what a wonderful trip we have had crossing the USA (with bits of Canada) in our RV. We have seen breathtaking scenery, amazing cities, gorgeous small towns, beautiful beaches, lots of lakes, winding roads, stunning mountains, unbelievable national parks, wonderful friends and family and we have stayed in many a campground.

Bike rides, campfires, BBQ’s, mosquitos, flies, the odd deer, washing, broken arms and 22,000 kms…

A big shout out to our brilliant tour leader and driver, Pete!

A short walk to Taqueria Viva, a Mexican restaurant for dinner.

Only a week and a bit left of our wonderful Brown Family USA Adventure.

Our RV View

New Jersey City

Out for dinner

Back to the RV

Wow, 22,000 Km’s

All Items FREE

The weather today is lovely and sunny, there is a chance of rain in the afternoon.

After a relaxed morning, we departed the RV Park just after 9 am and walked to the Path station to take the rail to the World Trade Center and then the subway to 59th Street.

A lovely walk along the sidewalk until we reached the American Museum of Natural History, our second visit for the trip.

The boys have watched the Night at the Museum many times since we have been away and were very excited to return.

We even managed to save a dollar when the museum attendant advised us that if we go to the customer service lane the entry fee is a donation. We wish we had known that previously.

The next few hours were spent exploring the museum and trying to find some of the Night at the Museum exhibits. We managed the Moai figure, Capuchin Monkey and other animals, however, we probably should have downloaded the self-guided tour before we went.

Also, trying to explain that some of the exhibits were made up for the movie was not an easy task.

They particularly love Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States…

Lunch at the museum food hall, full of screaming kids and then back along Central Park, through Times Square and downtown before getting on the subways back to New Jersey.

A return to the hairdressers for me to get a hair treatment and an evening in for the boys.

A lovely day at the museum and walking the NYC streets.

Walking to the Subway

Hello NYC

WTC Subway

American Museum of Natural History

Ready to explore

Moai Figure

Brown Bears

Grizzly Bears

Theodore Roosevelt

Whale of a good time

NYC Streets

Along Central Park

New York Public Library

Grand Central

Back to New Jersey

Memorial to Madison

A little sleep in till almost 7 am.

Two loads of washing, breakfast, relaxing and a change to another site in the RV Park.

There are supposed to be scattered showers during the morning, however, the weather looks fine at the moment.

Just after 9 am, we decided to get moving before the skies decided to open.

First, a haircut for Pete.

Pete’s haircut was so good that Noah whispered in my ear that he might be thinking about getting one too. What the??? Our Noah the “I’m not getting another haircut until we get back to Australia” Noah?

We jumped on his haircut confidence and both Noah and Wes had an American haircut they were very happy with.

Three happy hair Browns.

Just as we left the barbers the skies did decide to open up. We took shelter under a tree with our wet weather defence, one umbrella and Peter in a raincoat and stayed put until there was a gap in the heavy rain for us to make a dash to the supermarket.

It continued to pour.

We wandered the supermarket, unable to even make a purchase as it was one of the members-only types until the rain eased.

A lovely walk along the Hudson River admiring the Manhattan skyline until the skies opened up again.

We retreated for lunch into a small marketplace until it was only drizzling and we could make the walk back to the motorhome.

On our return I stopped at the hair salon down from the RV Park to check if they had any free appointments and success, they had one available straight away.

Today’s result, 4 out 4 happy hair Browns and New York ready.

A short walk Jersey City and an Australian owned restaurant, Frankie for dinner.

Liberty Harbor RV

The City in Style

Jersey City

Exploring

Haircuts

Wow, Noah!

Handsome!

Walking the Hudson

Manhattan Skyline

Seats to Chill

Beer Gardens

9/11 Memorial

Rain, rain, rain

USA

Dinner

Rain, go away

The Browns are very excited. Not only do we get to go back to Manhattan today, but we are also catching up with friends from home, some I have not seen for many years.

Bugsy, Pasie and Pasies’s partner Jackie (and a few of their friends) are longtime friends of my brothers (some from school) and are on a round-the-world trip in celebration of their 40th Birthday year.

We left our RV by 7.30 am, caught the PATH to 33 Street and then the subway to their hotel.

It was wonderful to see friendly faces and to be able to spend the day with them.

After meeting them at their central hotel we walked to Central Park and hopped on the red double-decker tour bus.

We journeyed the uptown route and the downtown route, stopping at Chinatown and Little Italy for a walk and delicious lunch, followed by a short shop to view the Statue of Liberty.

The tour filled the whole day.

By 4.30 pm it was starting to sprinkle and it was time for us to return to New Jersey before the work crew.

We said our goodbyes and returned to the RV.

Although tomorrow is going to be wet we have decided to try and spend a couple more days here. We would much prefer to be stuck in a museum out of the rain than stuck in our motorhome.

Luckily they had a spare spot available for us.

Hopefully, the weather will still allow some exploring tomorrow.

Browns do the tour bus

Delicious Lunch

Schools

New Jersey Marina

Central Park Bikes

Sightseeing

Exploring

Getting our tickets

NYC Streets

Seat Buddies

Aussie Gang

Little Italy

Lower Manhattan

Where to eat?

Terry Tourists

NYC

Its been a…

Long Day

A very quiet night.

A top-up of the RV water and another RV Dump, just in case we do not want to return to the campsite. As friendly and happy as the campground workers are (NOT) we may decide to camp elsewhere tonight.

Gorgeous little deer on the side of the road as we left. Noah and Wes thought something was wrong when I shouted, Oh, deer…

Time to explore the Hamptons.

Ferraris, Porche, Mercedes, BMW, Audi and ACE Motorhomes, all the most popular vehicles to be seen in the Hamptons.

Our first stop was Southampton. We are taking our tour stops based on recommendations from cousin Shelley (thank you!).

Luckily it was a Sunday and traffic was light and parking was plentiful.

We parked the motorhome at an empty bank’s carpark and walked the Southampton village. Lovely, quiet, cute village.

Back in the motorhome and along the coast, passing huge houses bordered by huge hedges. A photo stop at one of the beaches, where people sit but nobody swims.

There were some surfers…

Past lots of nurseries selling gardening goods and ginormous pumpkins.

Next stop, Sag Harbor. Another lovely walk around the village and marina.

I am sad to say this but, enough of the Hamptons. It is hard to explore in a motorhome and I think we have just had enough of exploring…

We have friends that are in New York at the moment and we have decided that we are going to take the opportunity to visit them. We will bypass last night’s campsite and forgo the additional paid night (shame, not).

It is worth missing out on the $41 to stay somewhere with a tad of atmosphere.

Unfortunately, we did not factor in the drive which involved numerous detours due to the height of the RV and a route right through busy, busy, busy Manhatten. Yes, directly through the Bronx.

To say Peter did an amazing job at driving is an understatement. Although I did say to him “what is a lap around the USA without a drive through Manhattan?”.

Finally, after a very long and tiring drive, we arrived at the Liberty Harbor RV Park, New Jersey. Right in downtown New Jersey and right across the Hudson from Manhattan.

It was wonderful seeing Manhattan from the other side of the river

We set up camp and then went across the marina to Surf City, an outdoor beach-themed bar/restaurant for dinner. It was just lovely. It felt like we were at a tropical resort, perfect weather, relaxed, stunning scenery, great atmosphere.

Back to the campground and then, fireworks. Wow, what an amazing end to an unexpectedly wonderful day.

Looking forward to catching up with friends tomorrow.

Onto the Hamptons

Southampton

Where are the houses?

Exploring RV Style

Beaches

Swim?

Beach Clubs

It’s the Hamptons

Rivers

Browns do the Hamptons

Onto Sag Harbor

Sag Harbor

Sag Harbor Marina

A Beautiful Day

Exploring

Gorgeous Houses

Pretty Homes

Time for a play

Onto Bridges

Crossing Manhattan

Into Tunnels

The Statue of Liberty

Dinner

Surf City

Welcome to New Jersey

This place is OK

Pancakes, sleep-ins, waiting to sell a bike trailer (that did not happen), empty RV, fill RV and still ready to leave at 9.45 am.

A nice semi-sunny day.

A quick stop at a campground set amongst the forest to fill the propane (gas).

Back on the road and across the border into Connecticut.

Onto New London and just in time to catch the 11.45 am Long Island Ferry (Cross Sound Ferry) to Long Island.

A lovely one hour and twenty-minute journey across the Long Island Sound to Orient Point, Long Island, New York.

Back into the motorhome and on the Long Island roads to our destination tonight, Indian Island County Park.  Now we just need to find a way to explore the Hamptons tomorrow (The Hamptons, on eastern Long Island’s South Fork, is a string of seaside communities known as a summer destination for affluent New York City residents).

Tomorrow is Sunday, the closest car rental companies don’t open until Monday. Other campsites do not have power and water. Looks like we might be taking the RV for a spin.

A short ride to the beach for Noah and myself and then and then dinner and an early night in.

Look out Hamptons the Brown Family are on their way…

Meadowlark RV Park

Crossing Bridges

Beautiful Waters

Refill Gas

Onto the Ferry

New London

Leaving Connecticut

Real Bread!

Calm Waters

Having Ferry Fun?

Enjoying the Day

Long Island Beaches

Riding to the Beach

Campground Beach

No Swimming Allowed?

We don’t have to be anywhere at the crack of dawn this morning, which allowed for a nice little sleep in.

The sun is out, I think it may be a beautiful sunny day.

As we have really enjoyed Newport we have decided to stay another day, however, we will change campsites to one a little closer to downtown.

After breakfast, packing up and a load of washing we were on the road by 9.45 am, ready for the 15-minute drive to our new location, Paradise Park, Newport.

A very small RV park with not an owner in sight. Apparently, you just put your money in the box, on a first come first basis.

We parked, locked the RV and hoped for the best. Today we are going to walk the scenic Cliff Walk.

After a slight detour to beautiful Sachuest Beach (Second Beach) when we walked in the wrong direction and then after an Uber ride, we were at the North End of the Cliff Walk.

The Cliff Walk is a 3.5-mile public access walkway that borders the shoreline and combines the natural beauty of the Newport shoreline with the architectural history of Newport’s Historic District. Wildflowers, birds, cliffs, rocks, mansions…

And today, surfers, which only happens on those rare occasions when hurricanes are passing offshore.

Back onto Bellevue Avenue and then into an Uber when we discovered how far we were from our lunch spot.

Lunch at Annies, Newport, delicious.

Another Uber to the campsite and then a relaxing afternoon in the motorhome.

Nope, hang on, we are on the move. After finally contacting the owner of the Paradise Park they advised that there is a two-night minimum that they refused to bend. Time to pack up and move down the road (literally) to the Meadowlark RV Park.

The new park is nicer and we saved ourselves USD35. Hope this is our last move for the day.

Melville Ponds Campground

Second Beach

Surfs Up

Brothers

Starting the walk

Newport Beaches

Stairway to heaven? No just the carpark

Historic Buildings

Grand Homes

Beach Houses

Tunnels

Walking the Trail

Newport’s Coast

Rock Cairns

Annies for Lunch

Up extra early (4 am, not really necessary) this morning to get ourselves organised for the day.

We need to be ready for an Uber and at the Newport Hospital for 7.30 am to hopefully, this time, get Wesley’s cast removed.

I know I have said it before, a broken record, but this kid has been amazing. Still not one single complaint about his arm. It was a bonus that the second cast was waterproof and he has been able to swim, shower, wash his hands…

Fingers crossed all goes well for him today.

At 7 am, just as we were about to leave and catch an Uber to the hospital, heavy rain sets in.

We are limited in our wet weather protection, one umbrella…

Waiting, waiting. waiting…

While waiting we saw a skunk running back and forth across the campsite. Our first skunk sighting.

By 8 am the rain had lightened and we braved the weather. Into an Uber and into the emergency department of the Newport Hospital.

Good news, a few hours later Wes was given the all clear and the cast was removed. Great professional service again, although not cheap. Thank goodness for travel insurance.

By now all our tummies were rumbling. A celebration breakfast at Hungry Monkey Newport for Wes’ special day. The food and service were very average.

A lovely walk into downtown Newport.

It was time to go our separate ways, Pete and Noah to the Boat Show and Wes and I to explore the gorgeous streets of Newport.

My first stop was to try another running shop for barbie doll size running shoes. I could not believe it, success, they had a pair my size and although they are not my perfect running shoe, they will suffice until a better pair is found (and my fitness improves).

The old sneakers were ditched and the lovely comfortable new pair were wonderful. My feet and body were thanking me.

Up the hill to a visitors centre. Not the one we needed, however, the lady was very helpful and pointed us in the direction of Bellevue Avenue and the magnificent mansion and houses.

We walked and walked and walked and the scenery was amazing. Cafes, International Tennis Hall of Fame, the ocean, gorgeous homes and of course, the mansions.

The mansion we were hoping to visit was, ‘The Breakers’, the grand opulent summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and the Vanderbilt family, located on Ochre Point Avenue, Newport.

The home was spectacular and stunning outside, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean with the grandest and most beautiful interior. Unfortunately, I could not get my message to Pete to let him know we needed an additional hour and we had to whizz through the home.

Back walking, walking, walking to get to our meeting point outside the boat show.

Pete needed a little bit more time so I took Noah and Wes across the road to the arcade. It made for a very happy couple of boys.

Back to meet Pete and a walk to Newport Tokyo House for Teppanyaki, another request for Wes and his special Day. It was delicious.

Time to return to the RV, it was wonderful to be finally away from it for the day.

What a fabulous day in Newport, Rhode Island. Plus we sold the BBQ.

Wes’ Big Day

Go Away Rain..

A Skunk

Newport Hospital

It’s coming off, Yay!

Free as a bird

Walking to breakfast

Wessy

Nonno

City Hall

Bellevue Avenue

International Tennis Hall of Fame

Mansions

Whats behind the gate?

‘The Breakers’

Grand Rooms

Dinning Rooms

Sitting Rooms

Bedrooms

The View

What a Gorgeous Grand Mansion

This place is alright

Not a bad backyard

Walking to the Boat Show

Relaxing

After looking into couriers to ship Pete’s electronic bike back to Australia we discovered that it was not going to be an easy process. Due to the risk of the lithium battery catching fire, both ships and airlines longer accept them as cargo.

The alternative was to sell the bike. Which we did and a very sad Pete handed it over to its new owner this morning.

A short run around the campground with Noah on his bike before leaving the RV park just before 11 am.

The drizzling rain has also returned.

Onto the busy interstate, past large river and lakes until we arrived at our destination, Melville Ponds Campground, Portsmouth and a new state, Rhode Island.

A settle into our campsite waiting to see if the rain gets any lighter.

By mid-afternoon, we decided to brave the rain and caught an Uber into Newport, a beautiful seaside town in Rhode Island and home of the Ameria’s Cup Yacht Race.

This is where Australia robbed them of the trophy after 132 years on 26 September 1983.

There is also a boat show on tomorrow, which Pete is very happy about.

A lovely walked around the town and harbour while the rain eased and then a delicious Japanese meal at Sumo Sushi.

Looking forward to exploring more of Newport tomorrow.

The Browns have got their mojo back!

Good Morning Noah

Bye, Bye Bike

Workouts

Driving, driving, driving

Waiting for an Uber

Marina

Boat Show

Street Art

Little Bays

Exploring Newport

Gorgeous Streets

Newport

It’s Good

This comes off tomorrow