Green Belt

Owensboro, Kentucky and onto Lawrenceville, Georgia

The next stop was supposed to be Louisville, Kentucky to see Stacy’s brother Scott, who we haven’t seen in too many years. Unfortunately, scheduling and weather made us push on early. Getting to Owensboro mid-day, we popped in to see Ben’s uncle and aunt at their obgyn practice and then hung out with them and Ben’s cousins overnight at their home. I walked the 'Green Belt' with the girls. We loved being with Ron, Vicky, Mary, David & Elizabeth. Again a short visit, but wonderful to see these guys; they all have such bright spirits. Leaving Owensboro quickly the next morning, we hoped to beat the large rain into Lawrenceville, Georgia, near Atlanta, and back to Ben’s dad’s house. It would have been great to stop overnight in Nashville, Tennessee area, but it was supposed to downpour all through the night and the next day, so we rode on. Fortunately, we picked beautiful roads near to the highways and spent the day on a gorgeous ride through the countryside and through small towns established in the early 1800’s.

Family

Shelbyville, Indiana

One of the highlights of this trip is all the family we’ve gotten to see along the way. We’ve been looking forward to seeing this branch of Ben’s family for a few years now. Ben used to spend summers as a kid with Linda’s parents in Indiana. Luckily, Lisa got to meet his grandparents while they were still alive. They were both hard-working, open-minded, and lovely and will always be fondly thought of and missed. Riding through Indiana to get to their house we were reminded that these areas are all surrounded by corn… corn, flatlands, and tornados. We rode through little towns that Ben recognized as ones he used to visit when he was a kid with his grandfather while he worked. Although Bill and Mazelle have both recently passed on, the rest of the family is alive and well. Ben’s aunts and uncle and their kids and ten grandkids are all the sweetest and we had a most relaxing and entertaining time with them. The oneness and community of family is strongly felt here. It reminds us a lot of families in the South Pacific and the intimacy they feel with each other. It was such a blessing to spend time with these guys, although not nearly enough. Alan and Mary, if you read this, we love and miss you and hope to see you very very soon. Good luck with ‘the Woods’.

Time Flew!

Powell, Ohio
Leaving Titusville, we headed for a little town in Ohio just outside of Columbus where we stayed with long time friends we’ve not seen since our wedding in 2002, Stacy and Vince and their kids Max and Maddy. The kids are teenagers now and we had a great time catching up. These guys have 3 dogs, one of them is so absolutely ugly that he’s got to be the cutest dog we’ve ever seen. Another long time friend, Tina, came to hang out with her kids Samantha and Zac who have grown up too and are in college and driving cars and stuff! (whoa, time flies!) The next morning I got up early with them and put on a bright florescent green vest and gloves and grabbed a bright orange trash bag and went along with them to pick up rubbish along a two mile span of freeway for their ‘Adopt A Highway’ program. I may have looked like a convict, but I had a great feeling after picking up a bunch of trash. We didn’t find anything spectacular this time (they do this 8 times a year), but we kept our eyes out for cash tucked into old cigarette boxes, random porno and the like. Time was short seeing these guys, but after an hour of our Tongan holiday propaganda, we hope we might see them again soon.

Water & Oil

Niagara Falls, New York
Titusville, Pennsylvania

So after all that, with Lisa white-knuckling Ben’s sides, we rode out of New York City and headed toward Niagara Falls. Arriving there in extremely cold conditions, we viewed the falls and took a boat trip into the mist. The falls are beautiful and lie right on the American/Canadian border. From the falls we rode along Lake Erie and after about 10 hours of riding, Ben was really feeling the road. So we pulled over in a little town named Titusville, Pennsylvania. Titusville just happens to be where the first successful oil production well was ever discovered and exploited in 1849. There are a lot of attractions there, which was really interesting considering the recent influx of prices around oil. (Since arriving to the States we’ve seen the price of a barrel of oil raise from $105 to $127 with no hope in sight for any decrease.) One of the attractions in Titusville was all the rail systems that were used to transport the ‘black gold’ in and out of Pennsylvania. Because of these rails, this is how we found a unique place to stay for the night: a small hotel made up of 20 or so train cabooses (caboosi?)

New York City

New York City, New York

Much to my (Lisa) dismay, Ben decided to ride the bike through the Lincoln Tunnel and into the center of Time Square where we planned to connect with Ben’s mom. The parking garage was at 48th Street and Broadway (7th Avenue). Although they do have lane lines painted on the streets, we’re not sure they’re used as no one pays any attention to them. Riding there is less like driving on a road and more like a scene from Road Warrior! But all went according to plan and by 8 o’clock that evening we connected with Ben’s mom that flew in to spend the next few days with us. We stayed in two beautiful rooms. One was the famous Monticello and the other was the Renaissance International, overlooking Time Square and all of its shenanigans.

While waiting to meet up with Ben’s mom, we met up with a good friend of ours, Jochen. He took us up into the D.E.Shaw building where he is working. David Shaw is a multi-millionaire, one of Forbes Top-100, who has taken it upon himself to privately fund building the world’s fastest computer with the sole purpose of simulating how proteins attach themselves to the cellular wall. Jochen says that this will work and the applications of this technology could revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry. It’s really good to see private enterprise taking on huge humanitarian efforts without the bottom line being profit.

So after drinks and dinner and clubs with Ben’s mom that night, and to the dismay of ‘Big Al’ we retired to our awesome suite overlooking Time Square and crashed out.
Hung over, we got up anyway, and with Mom being a bit of a New York expert she made we had an amazing couple of days seeing all the sights we could: Trump Tower, Tiffany’s, the Plaza, Central Park, Tavern on the Green, Strawberry Fields and the Imagine Circle in honor of John Lennon, Ground Zero, the Hudson River, Tribeca, Soho, where we had fantastic cheese cake, the subways, Guitar Center, NYU, Rockefeller Center, Wall Street, the NYC Public Library, Grand Central Station, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building. We ate hot dogs and pretzels, watched street acts, drank cosmos, and basically partied! We had a lovely dinner at Tao Restaurant as well. We enjoyed celebrating Lisa's 33rd birthday and had the awesome treat of going to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, it was spectacular! Overall New York City was incredible, one of the highlights of our trip. We’ve been focused on the beauty of the outdoors for so long and it’s easy to forget the grandiose achievements man can make when unified in a common purpose.

Sadly, mom left us on Tuesday. We reconnected with Jochen and his beautiful girlfriend Elena and stayed with them in their gorgeous apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey. Jochen treated us to an absolutely incredible flight in his Cessna152(?). We circled the Statue of Liberty twice, flew up the Hudson River along the city line and Central Park. Jochen gave us a zero gravity and a +2 G maneuver. What fun!

All in all, our New York trip was absolutely great and we’d never have gotten these perspectives without Mom, thanks Mom!! And Jochen, thanks for spending time with us. Come visit Vava’u again!