That evening I also try to arrange a host for the next day, but the person in Mystic I had in mind appears to be on holiday, which makes me decide to cycle to Hartford (capital of Connecticut), where the youth-hostel is easily found. It is managed by an elderly Asian couple, who are both very interested in my travel-experiences. Hartford is not very touristic, which also prove the other hostel-guests. In my room sleeps e.g. an Irish guy who is working in Hartford already for several months. He worked also in New York City for a few years, but is now thinking on returning to Ireland. I also speak to a Ghanees who has studied already for 6 months at the university of Hartford. He is orientating now on a MBA-study and tells me he has heard there would be a good private school in the Netherlands for this. I think he is referring to Nijenrode, but I am not sure!

The next day a Servas-host in Milford is on the program. The ride to Milford is very pleasant and goes as planned. Arrived in Milford I eat first my best donut until then, although it is just bought normally at one of the many Dunkin' Donuts coffee- & donutbars. Unfortunately I haven't seen this, with chocolate creme filled donut, at any other Dunkin' Donuts-bar so far; apparently every bar takes care of his own donuts! Lois Guthridge, my Servas-host in Milford, is a recently retired teacher who has plenty of time for me, and who lives in a nice condominium. She shows me the Milford-area, provides me with free maps and travel guides (via AAA, the american ANWB, of which she is a member) and can cook very well. The first evening we watch together the movie-classic "At the Waterfront", one of Marlon Brando's early movies, and realy worth seeing.

The next day I take a day off to send my first travel-report (dutch version) by e-mail. For the evening I am invited for dinner at Lois' friends place. She shows great interest in my travel stories and I show similar interest in her art-collection in her large house. So it becomes an interesting and enjoyable evening, and because of her great cooking, also my best dinner so far!

The next morning I leave quite late in the direction of New York City. I have decided to ride via Long Island, to avoid the big and crowded cities in Connecticut. Besides I have to be in Brooklyn, which part of New York City is easiest to access from Long Island. It is quite warm that day , but luckily Long Island is rich on trees and also pretty flat. It is only more crowded than I expected, which might be due to the summer-holiday in combination with the excellent beach-weather.

Arrived in Brooklyn I take a short break, in which I get in touch with Ms. Jones, english teacher and also representative of one of the many American churches. When telling her about my travels until now and my plans for the rest of the trip she shows a lot of interest, especially in the Servas-concept, which I am able to explain quite detailed to her with the introduction-paragraph in my American Servas-host-list. She hopes her son will be as sportive as me some day and gives me spontaniously a Thank-You-card for sharing the Servas-concept with her.

After this nice interruption I start searching for my Servas-host in Brooklyn, Gary White. His address is quickly found but nobody seems home. Two houses further, there are people sitting in their front-garden, who appear to be relatives and who know where Gary might be. They contact him and soon a friend and Gary's mother show up to bring me to one of the houses of the White-family. They are in the real-estate business and lend houses and rooms. The house I am staying is not in a real good condition and is inhabited by several people. On ground level, the level where my room is, however lives only one other person, a girl from British Guyana that a few days earlier came over from there in search for a better way of living (British Guyana is situated in the north-east of South-America and has a poorly developed economy, just like it's neigbour country Surinam).

The house is situated in a part of Brooklyn where preponderating colored people live, mainly from British Guyana. It looks just like the Schilderswijk in The Hague (in the Netherlands). The mainstreet is filled with many small restaurants, supermarkets, laundries, etc., which is very convenient. A remarkable thing are the many Dutch streetnames: I stay on the Van Wyck-street and one street further is called the Van Linden-street. It is not until next evening, when I meet Gary for the first time in person. This is at the graduate-party of a cousin, which is held in the garden of the house where I am staying too, wherefor they invite me too. Gary, a few years younger than me, works for his fathers' business, and is a busy and often occupied person. But he still finds some time for me, although it comes in the form of a personal letter, written after he went by the house to see me while I was out.

Sunday I spent, after an orientation-ride to the J.F.K.-airport, on translating my first travelreport in English, which keeps me busy the whole afternoon. In the evening I pick up friend and cycle-partner Erik van Nostrum at J.F.K.-airport, which is only 5 km away from the Van Wyck-street. By bicycle however it takes 10 km to get there a little bit safely. As Erik was, just like me a month ago, never in New York City, we first spend two days on visiting this metropolis. The sightseeing-ferry along and the bus tour through Manhattan, specially saved by me for now, are both worth the money, very impressive and interesting, and gives the opportunity to take some breath taking pictures of e.g. the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. At wednesday we leave Brooklyn and cycle towards South-Orange (in New Jersey), where we gonna spend the night at the Solow-family.

We cycle on the Brooklyn Bridge, which gives us a spectacular view, through down-town Manhattan, and on Staten Island, where I pick up my cotton (outer)tent at Scott Buttwills mother-in-laws' place (see also travelreport 1). By the way: the word 'Staten' in Staten island is pronounced as in Dutch, and had two aa's in its' name in earlier days. Daughter Rose is the first to notice us when arriving and reacts enthusiastic on seeing me again. We stay only one night at the Solow-family as Erik has just three weeks holiday and Niagara Falls is still far away. The second night however still is a sort of stay at the Solow-family, as we are allowed to spend a night in their holiday-/weekend-house near Lake Owassa (near the border with Pennsylvania, 90 km northwest of South-Orange). Their house over there is fantastic and situated very beautiful along this lake. At night the garden is lightened fairy-tale-like by hunderds of fire-flies. Erik is also very pleased with the T.V., which gives him the opportunity to see the Dutch team in the world-soccer-competition in France.

The next day we have a little delay, because of my first puncture (not bad after already 2400 km, but always unexpected and unwanted). It is very warm and humid that day and some thunderstorms are expected that evening. So, sweaty as we are, we decide to search for a motel in Scranton. Motels are typical American and not tried out by me yet as they are quite expensive for a solo-traveller (as you pay per room and not per person!). It turns out to be a good choice, although the expected thunderstorms don't show up, and the prices of motels are quite reasonable. So in the next three weeks we shall spend four other times in a motel. From Scranton we follow the Susquehannah-river north towards New York (state). In Towanda we camp on a picnic-site along this river. We have to set up our tent very quickly as it starts to glimmer already, but mainly because we are eaten alive by mosquitoes. I wonder if I will get immune for mosquito-bites after several of such experiences, but the next morning I realise this is not the case (yet?).

With several mosquito-bites we continue our journey and cycle towards Wellsboro, where we should spend the night at a Servas-hosts' place. His address however seems unfindable, and at 9 o'clock, when the twilight starts and we have been cycling already around Wellsboro for over 3 hours (which is a quite hilly area), we decide to set up our tent. A suitable place to camp however is not found that easy, and when we ring the bell of James Wests' house to ask for a campspot and tell our story, James and his wife try to figure out where we were searching for. A few telephone-calls later he knows, and it seems we are pretty close to it as well (and we were even closer to it!). So in his pick-up-truck James bring us to the address, but nobody seems home (but is already 10 o'clock!), wherupon he takes us back to his home. He has no spare (bed)room available, but we can camp at his place or sleep on strechers on his portch, which last we prefer. He let us use the bathroom and his wife prepares something to eat for us. Meanwhile their daughter and boyfriend have come home, and all are highly interested in our background and travelstories. As well Erik as me are the West-family very grateful for the excellent welcome and overhearance, which turned our, in the beginning, worst experience into one of our best experiences.

After a day with unexpected turns follows a quiet day of cycling, although it ends less quiet with a thunderstorm. At that moment we are lucky enough to be in a laundry, and with clean clothes one hour later, we can reach a motel just between two showers. There we meet a sales-representative in special cycles on which you don't sit but lie. I haven't seen such in the Netherlands called 'ligfiets' yet, but they are sold in the U.S.A. as well! The next day we have several km's tailwind and many of these km's are flat too! Unfortunately a thunderstorm makes us stop at 5 o'clock with just 60 km to go to Buffalo (where a youth-hostel is, which was our goal of that day). After spending an hour in a supermarket (which was no problem because of it's huge size!) we realise we won't make it to Buffalo today, and we start informing for a motel (in the neighborhood, as it is still raining). It seems there is one next to the supermarket, which turns out to be a very nice, small and also cheap motel (perfect price/quality-ratio)... and we can reach it dry (even without wearing a rainsuit). As it is only one day cycling to Niagara Falls from here, I make that day also a reservation for two nights at the hostel in Niagara Falls, which we indeed reach the next day. We had a lunch-break in Buffalo, but this city turned out to be less appealing to us as expected. The hostel in Niagara Falls is very international orientated and very convivial.

After some shopping at the american Albert Heijn (famous Dutch supermarket-chain, with also many shops in the U.S.A., although under other names) we go that same evening with a British couple and July Patat, a teacher from Jacksonville (Florida), to the Canadian side of the waterfalls to see the fireworks because of a Canadian memorial day. The Canadian side of the waterfalls is the best side to watch the falls, but it is also ten times as busy and ten times more commercial. As we have some problems finding a parking place we miss the fireworks, but nobody misses it when we see the beautiful lighted waterfalls at night. So we all can look back on an enjoyable and pleasant evening. As July leaves the next day we first say goodbye to her, before we gonna arrange some thing which have to be done. First we go to the cycle-shop to buy Erik a new rear-outer-tire. His current one was almost torn apart two days ago because of the warm weather, sticky asphalt.

After that we visit the library to print out my first travelreport (english version), so I can copy and mail it the next day. Unfortunately I am not able to e-mail it too, as the internet computers are all Apple-computers which don't like DOS-formatted disks. U.S. Postal Service wins this time from e-mail!.

In the afternoon and early evening we still have plenty of time left to visit the waterfalls (American and Canadian side) and its' best attractions: Caves of the Wind and Maid of Mist. So the next day we can start cycling to our next destination, Washington DC, which we hope to reach in a week or so. Near Buffalo, in Orchard Park, is a cycle-museum, which we cyclists cannot skip of course! It is really worth a visit and has a reasonable collection of old cycles, good information and many memorables on cycling, such as stamps, cigar-bands and cigarrette-cards with cycles on it. In its' shop is even cycle-pasta (macaroni in the shape of cycles!) for sale. We see many Dutch objects, which appears not to be so strange, as the owner tells us he has a friend who has a similar museum in The Netherlands ('Velorama' in Nijmegen). That I have to find out in the U.S.A., there is a cycle-museum in the Netherlands!

After the museum-visit we decide to do some more cycling as the weather is perfect for it. Between 7 and 8 o'clock we start looking for a camp-site/-spot, which we finally find in Warsaw in the garden of Laurence Appleby. At first he is quite preservative, but after we have introduced ourselves a little more, and I have given him a copy of my Servas 'Letter of Introduction' (an 'official' document with photo, signatures an security-hologram-sticker) and explained him the Servas-thought and -organisation, he becomes less preservative. He is even so kind to let us use the bathroom.

From Warsaw we cycle south to Hornell, where we arrive soak-wet. The weather forcast is also in the U.S.A. not always that reliable! But we can dry up in a motel, although my cycle-computer (speedometer/altimeter) needs more days for this. It does a great achievment that night, and cycles 600 km in one night, without being attached to a cycle, on the top of my pedestal! I won't try to beat this record!. The next day the sun is shining again and we establish a personal record of 153 km of cycling on one day.

This brings us to a campsite near Williamsport (Pennsylvania). The friendly Irish campsiteowner is very interested in his guests and gives us a tip for a good dinner in the neighborhood, but forgets we are cyclists. Although 3 km from the campsite the ride to the restaurant is not without risks. The road to it looks like a racing-track and in the evening, when we have to cycle in the dark, like a ghost-house. I am very glad when entering the campsite alive again. After e-mailing in Williamsport my first travelreport (english and dutch version), also Eriks' cycle-computer stops too. Two days later, arrived in York (Pennsylvania), he buys a new one, but I decide to wait with buying a new one as my cycle-computer shows live-signs again now and then.

In York we stay in an excellent motel, close to the Harley-Davidson-museum and -factories. We already saw a Harley-cycle in the cycle-museum, and now we gonna see what Davidson has added to it, and how this has developed. The museum is very nice, but the factories-tour is the most interesting. e.g. you can see how a computer-operated machine makes a shield within a minute. The best thing of the visit however comes unexpected in the form of a golden hint! One of the tour-guides sees we are cyclists and suggest us, if cycling southwards, to take us to a cycle-path transformed former rail-track ('rails-to-trails'-program!) to Baltimore. As we had in mind to spend the night in the youth-hostel in Baltimore this is an excellent idea, and the cycle-path, which starts 20 km south of York, is easy to find. It is really an excellent cycle-path, where you don't have to watch other traffic, which leads you in 60 km through beautiful scenery to the edge of Baltimore. From there we only have to follow the signs for centre to find the youth-hostel. The hostel is of poor quality, but is close to the library, where I the next morning first catch up with my e-mail, before leaving for Washington DC. Unfortunately we don't have time to see much of Baltimore as Erik has only three days left and Washington DC is also one day cycling away. This leaves just 2 days for sight-seeing, which he prefers to spend in Washington DC.

When arrived in Washington DC we think to have found the youth-hostel, but it seems we are on the wrong 11th-street. Later it becomes clear to me how the street-system works. Washington DC is devided into four sections (NortWest, SouthWest, NorthEast, SouthEast). The capital is the centre from the city, which was developped 200 years ago by a French architect and arose out of (almost) nothing (only Georgetown was an existing village). From the capital run four streets in the four wind-directions, each with the name capital street, but with four different wind-direction-supplements. These four streets divide Washington DC into the four sections. Each section has is own numbered and lettered streets. So there are four 11th-streets in Washington DC, which makes the wind-directions-supplement very important! By the way: there are also diagonal streets which run through the complete city and have the names of different American states. When the system is clear to me the youth-hostel is very easily found. The hostel is huge, has many facilities, is international orientated and... has the slowest elevator I ever saw (and this while we sleep on the seventh floor!). But the excellent kitchen and day-and-night donut-sale compensates this more than enough, although I don't sleep much in the hostel as we have a 'sawing-machine' on our room.

In the first two days of visiting Washington DC we visit those things Erik likes to see first, as he has to leave next Sunday toward the Netherlands. One day is spend on a citywalk through the center of Washington and through Georgetown, while we can admire the many beautiful buildings and monuments, often build in old Greece style. The other day we visit the capital an two Smithsonian-museums: the Air and Space-museum and the Museum of Natural History. On sunday-monring Erik leaves Washington DC by train towards New York City, where he shall take his flight to Amsterdam later that day.

Including this Sunday I will stay another 11 days in Washington DC (and close area). During this period I visit almost every Smithsonian-museum and the Museum of Modern Art (all together I visit 12 museums, among them some very huge ones!). I also visit several public buildings (like Supreme Court, National Archives, Library of Congress) and the most important monuments (especially the new Franklin Roosevelt-monument is realy beautiful and very meaningful, but also the other ones are very impressive).

During my visit, after the three already mentioned nights in the youth-hostel, I stay with several hosts. My first host lives in Rockville (20 km north of Washington DC). As well the ride to this town, through Rock Creek Park, as the ride back, along the C&O-canal, appear to be the most beautiful cycle-tracks (yes, again!) of the east-coast of the U.S.A.. I am therefore very pleased with my stay with Victor Stekoll and Susan Levi, although it is just for one day, and although it brings me a second puncture on Rock Creek Trail. This puncture was by the way easy to repair (as the nail was easy to see in the tire) and the repair was quite funny too: during it I was watched carefully by some children on advise of the mothers. So they would be able to repair a tire later too. Regarding the mothers' questions they could use the class however as well!

From my hosts in Rockville, with whom I make a nice ride in the morning, I get a lot of tips on Central- and South-America (tested by themselves during travels and Victors' labortime in Central America). As I am busy with visiting museums, e-mailing and personal administration (km's/financial position/etc.) the contact with my next hosts, Paul Cooper and Mark Arnold, is a little minimal and more on a distance. Although I realise this on the second day, there is no real opportunity to change this at that moment, as I have to leave that day for my next host, Artin Tillett in Alexandria (10 km south of Washington DC). I trade stamps with Martin and it is nice to meet him and his family now in person. Of course the stamps show up as well!. From Alexandria I cycle towards Arlington (5 km west of Washington DC) to my next host, Siri, a young and enthousiastic lady. The stay however will not be for long, as unexpected 2 foreign friends show up earlier than planned. Luckily I am able to arrange another host on short notice and for the weekend I stay now with an American/Indian couple: Doris C. Ross and Gopal Rajan, who live in a beautiful house with beautiful art (it looks like a small museum) and an equal beautiful garden. It is in this garden where I have dinner with some of their friends. The two men who have most to tell appear to work, just like Doris, for the I.M.F. (International Monetary Fund) and have travelled a lot on behalf of their work. They have lots of stories to tell, but are also interested in my travel-experiences. Because of my economical background I am able to see the I.M.F.-stories quite well in the proper context, which allows me to take part in the conversations quite well. It becomes a successful and enjoyable evening, with excellent Indian cooking by Doris and Gopal.

After the weekend I leave for my last host in Washington, the Bechtel-family, where I will stay for three days. Carol and David are very friendly, quiet people, with whom I feel at home very quickly. They both show a lot of interest in me and can cook (vegetarian!) very well; I really didn't miss the meat! On tuesday-evening we visit together the Washington-monument, after a walking-tour on monday-evening which didn't gave us entrance to the monument. Unfortunately it is not possible to take pictures of the beautiful view of Washington DC by night, as we have to admire this view from behind glass. So I just buy some postcards of it on the day I leave Carol and David and Washington DC, for my ride towards Miami. More on this part of my cycle-adventure in the next travel-report.