Day 8...NYC & Philly

Today was not going to be a lot of miles, but a lot of sightseeing, so we decided to get an early start. We left our room at 6:15 to do down for a quick breakfast. Once there we ran into some Harley riders that we had run on the Interstate with yesterday for quite a ways, then low and behold we stayed at the same hotel last night and ended up meeting them and having a great time talking. They were from Boston and were headed for the Dragon in Tennessee. We had fun discussing that as they had never been there before and didn’t know what to expect. They were excited to be going, and we told them we were going in a couple weeks and all this talk about it got us anxious too! By the way…for any "Survivor" fans out there,none of them knew "Boston Rob," but a couple of the guys did know Rocky from the last season of Survivor. He was the bar tender from Boston. These guys go in the bar where Rocky works (which is owned by Rocky's father) so they kenew all about Rocky. Small world!
By 6:30 we were on the road headed for Central Park in New York City. Once we made our way there, another disappointment….the Park was closed. We drove all the way around the park and finally saw a policeman and stopped and asked him how long the park would be closed. He told us that the park would be closed most of the day for a bicycle race. Can’t wait around all day, so it’s time to move on.
From Central Park we headed for Times Square. We arrived at Times Square early and couldn’t believe how busy it was already. There were lights and flashing billboards EVERYWHERE! Took some more pictures and moved on.

Next we drove by the Empire State Building. It still has claim to fame…classy old building. No time to stop though, so this was just a drive by.

Our next stop was the main reason I wanted to go into New York City...The World Trade Center Site. We parked our bike where there were security Officers at every corner, so it felt safe to leave it. We walked up to the Site and I can’t even describe how it made me feel. The area was so huge! My mind immediately went back to September 11, 2001. One can't help but stand there and imagine what it was like that day. Today the sound of construction equipment still fills the air all around the Site almost 6 years later as work is still in progress. As we continued our walk we rounded a corner and saw NYFD Ladder No. 10….the first responders on 9-11. We took a look at all of the names of those that lost their lives that day, and one last look at the World Trade Center Site, stood in silence for a moment, then quietly walked away.

Now it's on to the Statue of Liberty. We really wanted to view the Statue, but had difficulty finding parking. We spotted "Park Personnel Only" parking and guess who pulled into that lot to park….you guessed it, the Cape Girardeau County Park Superintendent! As we got off the bike, a Park worker approached us and said, "Do you work for the Park System?" Bruce answered, "Yes" and handed him a business card. The young man took a look at it and said, "OK, just leave this on the bike so that we will know." Bruce sure was able to charm those New York City Park Personnel. After viewing the Statue and snapping a few more pictures, we were off again. This time heading out of New York toward Philadelphia.Our main agenda in Philadelphia was to visit the King Tut exhibit, and have a Philly Cheesesteak. We met a couple in Bar Harbor from Philly that told us about a popular place that the locals go to have Cheesesteak. First it was off to see the King Tut exhibit. This was a very interesting and awesome display of actual artifacts that were found in King Tut’s tomb. The items were very beautiful, and some of them looked as good as new even though they were 3500 years old!!! A person’s mind in just in awe at the craftsmanship that the people possessed during that time period. Well, after all that walking, we had worked up an appetite, so it was off to Pat’s Steaks for that Philly Cheesesteak that was MMMM MMMM GOOD!!!!!!! It hit the spot!
Our day ended in Newark, Delaware with 3 new states, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware…and 180 miles.