From Niagara we entered America through Buffalo, this may have been a mistake, we had to queue in the traffic for an hour before we even reached the control point and then the fun began. America, the home of bureaucracy and boxes that we need to fit into, and well, we don't fit the boxes. Who would ride their Australian registered motorcycle around the world, and why would we want to?? That is pretty much what was said to us! So when it comes to filling in the fields on their computer system, it can't handle it, when it asks which state the bike is registered in, there is no field for Western Australia. So now what do we do??!! It took us an hour to get cleared, and then they never asked what we were carrying, or even looked at the bike. We had a long way to go from Buffalo, we were headed to our son-in-laws sisters place in Beaver Creek Ohio, so we got on one of America's mind numbing Interstate Highways and just cruised along. Before the Interstate though we did pass through some lovely countryside and forests, we also passed through some Amish communities, but didn't have the time to stop for a chat, or see an opportunity to do so, maybe later. We also stopped in a lovely campground on a lake, the owner was brilliant and helped us out by allowing us to set up our tent in his pavilion to get out of the rain. We had a wonderful time in Beaver Creek, being shown around and visiting the US Air Force Museum. It was quite an eye opener seeing how American's live and seeing the museum was just amazing, it had everything from the first Wright Brothers plane the Air Force used through to ICBM's, space capsuals, the Black Bird and stealth bombers, through WWII to today's planes. After our Interstate Highway ride, we vowed we would not ride on another one. We were heading to New York to stay with friends in Easton, so we told the GPS to avoid Toll Ways and Interstates, it would take us longer, but be far more interesting. It wasn't that much slower either because the US back roads are still fast and in good condition, and at least you get to see more and we did pass through some very nice areas as we went through the Appalachian Mountains, we also stayed in a very nice campground on the banks of an equally nice river. It was a long way from Beaver Creek to Easton, further than we had realised, so it was late when we arrived at our friends house. It was wonderful to have have a nice comfortable bed and house to stop in. New York is a massive city, so we had planned for two days to be spent looking around it, broken up with a day at a car show with our friends, I was keen to see the American love of cars on display. As you would expect, America is not big on public transport, so we decided to ride the seventy miles to the outskirts of New York and then to catch a train into Manhattan. The first day, Friday, we spent in "Up Town" Manhattan, around Central Park mainly. We paid for a Hop on Hop off bus that took us around Up Town as far as Harlem, we went past all the celebrities apartments and saw the doorway where John Lennon was shot. As we had expected, it was all very interesting, but we were a little over whelmed by how busy everything was. After visiting the foyer of the Empire State Building we called through Time Square, a major icon of New York, and I must say it was everything we expected, the people and the lights were just like the movies and pictures we had seen, it was just unfortunate that they were rebuilding part of the road and had it dug up and fenced off. Saturday was with our friends at the car show, it too was everything we expected, the collection of cars was incredible, but the winner for me was a 1913 Ford Model T that was in original condition, it had never been restored and had driven to the show. The owner's story was as interesting, he was 82 and had first seen the car when he was 16 and at the age of 30 he had bought it. The only work he had done to it other than maintenance was to rebuild the carburetor! Sunday was back into NY to go "Down Town", to see the 9/11 memorial, the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building etc. Well the memorial was brilliant and what we expected, but the building work around it and security to get in just ruined it for us. Then the boat to the Statue of Liberty stopped at 4.30, we got there at 4.45, so we saw it from afar. We did catch the Hop on Hop off bus for a night tour around Manhattan and Brooklyn which was nice, but by the time it had finished we decided to give going up the Empire State Building a miss and even then by the time we had caught the train back to the bike and ridden back to Easton it was 2am. New York had been interesting and a sight to see, probably everything we had expected, but it was a huge city that comes with huge city problems, it (for us) was big on quantity, not so big on quality and there is no doubt that there are people that would absolutely love it and it is undoubtedly a city that you could visit every day and find something new in, but it wasn't for us, we hope Washington DC is better for us.