Back in the Big Apple

Landing in New York

The Ford Test track in Detroit

New York Island

Number 35 for takeoff!

Our Deluxe accommodations next to the Prison.

Today we flew from Minneapolis to Washington DC and then to Detroit and on to New York.  A very long day although it was a beautiful day to fly.  The weather was great.  New York is such a neat place and frustrating place all rolled up into one.  It is so over crowded that the flights are always delayed and the traffic is terrible.  It is like flying into a hornets nest just after it has been disturbed.  It is a common sight to see 30 or 40 airplanes lined up for takeoff like today.  One airplane takes off every 2 minutes so you do the math.  You taxi out and the controller tells you to get in line you are number 40.  Thats the frustrating side, but when you look at the beautiful skyline it is so cool.  You are so close to the city and there is so much water around the city.  It looks like it is a island.  All along the river and coastal water ways there are huge ports that the ships unload their goods for delivery to our homes.  Some ships carry oil that is sent to the refinery to be made into gasoline and some items like cars come in huge boxes that are unloaded and put on trains to be shipped to other states.  Very cool.

I thought Austin you would like the Ford auto test track.  This is in Detroit and is where they test the new cars and reliability of some recent models.  They test handling and set up rain simulators to test the cars handling in rain.  In the large building next to the track they crash some of the cars to get the crash safety rating.  If you look closely you can see the FORD on the top of the main building.  It is neat to see.

Oh, the last picture is of our deluxe accommodations in New York.  If you look out my hotel window you can see the prison.  It was getting dark so the picture is a little blurry but if you look closely you can see the inmates in white clothing in the outside area.  Kind of creepy.

Well tomorrow off to Minneapolis, Detroit and Charlotte.  Talk to ya soon.