Today we met Mathias and Gabi at 8 am, so they would still be able to go shopping after breakfast. Well, it ended up being 8:45 before we got going, but it was a good plan 😉
We had a nice breakfast while Gabi copied my pictures to her Macbook. We went back to the hotel, Gabi and Mathias said good bye and went to the city for their shopping spree. Meanwhile we ordered a taxi and got a ride to the LaGuardia airport, more specifically, to the Hertz car rental stall. We first got a Toyota Corolla, but the bumper was sagging, so we got another car.  This one was a Chevrolet.

Finally we left for Stephens home. There was a brush fire next to the highway, so it took us about 2 hours to get there (stop and go, stop and go, stop and go…). We  only arrived at Stephens house after the GPS told us to turn right too early, so after some UTurns (which always reminds me of a family holiday in Canberra) we arrived at Stephens house. Katherine opened the door and kept Mr Guinnes – the big black New Foundland dog – in check. We said hello to Colleen, repacked our stuff (we got the GPS and brackets!) and left some stuff in Stephens Van. We were not clear if we could leave the Van as it was or if we should put all of our stuff under the decking. Nobody knew and Sara said they would move it if needed. So we took off.

This is a picture from one of the service areas; they all seem to look the same

Five hours later we checked in into the Red Roof Inn – nice sign 😉

We had booked it in the morning, including free wi-fi and breakfast with waffles, pool and a sauna. We had a swim, sat in the sauna for a bit and, after a short shower, went shopping at 22:00 at night. We got some Australian wine (cheaper than we get it back home!) and some carrots, dolmades and some cheese. We went home, celebrated a successful day, played with the Spot and the Kindle for a bit and went to bed.
Tomorrow we get our bikes, yippee!.

I did notice that the bash plates hadn’t been in Stephens Van. I should really ask Stephen if it might be somewhere else. I’ll just have to wait until we are back, and then check what is there and what is missing…