J and H flew out to Chicago a week before. Cruise America had a special offer for a one-way rental from Chicago to New York: it was 80% off so a real bargain.
I would meet them for the home stretch but the logistics were tricky. Long distance train travel in the US is difficult because you cannot take dogs on Amtrak (regional transport in NJ and NY is ok though) so we would have to fly. The logical route for him was to take I-80 through Pennsylvania but this bypasses the major cities.
I discovered that I could fly to a town on the route. It was a long route via Cleveland but dog friendly and exciting because I would be traveling on tiny plane and arriving into the middle of nowhere.
Pippin looked surprised when I called her at 6am. She was more bemused when she was dumped in her case for our short trip uptown on the 1 train. Then, normal service was resumed as she walked a few blocks before once again being encased and slung on a bus.
The M60 begins at Columbia, which I had never seen. The bus got very busy through Harlem and in contrast to every other part of the journey no one looked at us or talked to us.
The MTA have got a sensible system in which two buses travel together so it keeps moving and soon we were crossing the bridge to Queens. All views of the city are special but bridge views especially so. The tedious part of the journey is the route it takes when it is in the airport (obviously I am the last stop and at every previous one travelers get on and don't have change/metro cards).
Still it was not so bad for 2.25. We had a toilet stop for Pip and then breezed through security. Having done this before I was much more confident on the process to be followed.
The plane to Cleveland was small by usual standards. Luckily my companion chose to move and Pip got some more room. We needed to exit for the pet relief area and so had to endure a much slower security line. Every person in that slow moving line wanted to talk to me. Over and over I confirmed that yes she was a good traveller, she was a Westie and she was 7 years old.
The next stage in the journey was like no other flight I have ever taken. It was to be a flight of 150 miles south west to Du Bois PA.
The plane had nine rows of seating with one seat on either side. The co-pilot does the meeting and greeting - it was just him and the captain. He was a friendly man and insisted that Pip have her own seat.
There is no door to the cockpit so I could watch everything. They paid a lot of attention to a piece of paper clipped in centre. I have no idea what it was and rather hoped it was something not flight related.
We set off - in such a small plane and so low to the ground the taxiing to the runway felt like we were in a sports car. Once airborne it was smooth enough until we were over Pennsylvania.
The land is green and hilly with minimal signs of human impact. I felt like Attenborough surveying an undiscovered land in that little propellor plane.
We flew into an almighty rain cloud and were buffeted in every possible direction. The plane seemed to drop altitude suddenly every now and then.
The landing was like no other because I sat transfixed on the cockpit. I could at least see the runway lights - but they were by no means staying still and did not seem to be in centre until the last moment.
It was fine of course and conditional on knowing that I had survived it was the best thrill ride ever.
J and H drew up in the RV and the journey was complete.
I would meet them for the home stretch but the logistics were tricky. Long distance train travel in the US is difficult because you cannot take dogs on Amtrak (regional transport in NJ and NY is ok though) so we would have to fly. The logical route for him was to take I-80 through Pennsylvania but this bypasses the major cities.
I discovered that I could fly to a town on the route. It was a long route via Cleveland but dog friendly and exciting because I would be traveling on tiny plane and arriving into the middle of nowhere.
Pippin looked surprised when I called her at 6am. She was more bemused when she was dumped in her case for our short trip uptown on the 1 train. Then, normal service was resumed as she walked a few blocks before once again being encased and slung on a bus.
The M60 begins at Columbia, which I had never seen. The bus got very busy through Harlem and in contrast to every other part of the journey no one looked at us or talked to us.
The MTA have got a sensible system in which two buses travel together so it keeps moving and soon we were crossing the bridge to Queens. All views of the city are special but bridge views especially so. The tedious part of the journey is the route it takes when it is in the airport (obviously I am the last stop and at every previous one travelers get on and don't have change/metro cards).
Still it was not so bad for 2.25. We had a toilet stop for Pip and then breezed through security. Having done this before I was much more confident on the process to be followed.
The plane to Cleveland was small by usual standards. Luckily my companion chose to move and Pip got some more room. We needed to exit for the pet relief area and so had to endure a much slower security line. Every person in that slow moving line wanted to talk to me. Over and over I confirmed that yes she was a good traveller, she was a Westie and she was 7 years old.
The next stage in the journey was like no other flight I have ever taken. It was to be a flight of 150 miles south west to Du Bois PA.
The plane had nine rows of seating with one seat on either side. The co-pilot does the meeting and greeting - it was just him and the captain. He was a friendly man and insisted that Pip have her own seat.
There is no door to the cockpit so I could watch everything. They paid a lot of attention to a piece of paper clipped in centre. I have no idea what it was and rather hoped it was something not flight related.
We set off - in such a small plane and so low to the ground the taxiing to the runway felt like we were in a sports car. Once airborne it was smooth enough until we were over Pennsylvania.
The land is green and hilly with minimal signs of human impact. I felt like Attenborough surveying an undiscovered land in that little propellor plane.
We flew into an almighty rain cloud and were buffeted in every possible direction. The plane seemed to drop altitude suddenly every now and then.
The landing was like no other because I sat transfixed on the cockpit. I could at least see the runway lights - but they were by no means staying still and did not seem to be in centre until the last moment.
It was fine of course and conditional on knowing that I had survived it was the best thrill ride ever.
J and H drew up in the RV and the journey was complete.
