Drove my Chevy to the levee . . .

Well - not a levee really, if I'm to be totally honest with you. It was a lake. A big lake. In fact a mahassive lake.

Lake Erie.

Remember we had a spare day in Pittsburgh. You see, there's nothing bad about Pittsburgh. It's just not the kind of city you would spend any time in. So we hired ourselves a car. A Chevy.

I knew a levee involved water of some kind and figured Lake Erie would have enough of it to fill our needs for the title of this nonsense.

We bought a map of Pennsylvania especially for the trip, opened it up and realised it was gonna be useful for knowing which way was north but not much else. Sat-nav saved the day.

Just meandered off in the direction of the town called Erie - didn't know there was one - and then tried to find a road that ran alongside the lake itself. I think we tried every single road heading east before we eventually found the right one but - my, oh my - was it worth it! Absolutely gorgeous houses in stunning countryside with the lake appearing in the background from time to time.

Given enough time we stumbled upon a little side road that ran down to the shore. Tania was in seventh heaven and came over all David Bailey. I don't want to spoil you all so one will have to do y'all!

Lake Erie

We may as well have been at the seaside for all we knew - just a massive expanse of water led to the horizon. But - I knew that, most unexpectedly, I had seen one of the Great Lakes. Never in my plans for life, never gave it one second's thought to be honest, but to be that close. It just had to be done.

Having said that, Pennsylvania was never top of my list of places to go and see. Glad we did, though. Beautiful rolling countryside and, as it's fall here - autumn to those of us who speak proper English - the scenery was greatly enhanced with the golden hues of the trees.

We flew in a prop plane back to Newark. Tania hated it. 'Nuff said.

For reasons I now don't understand I booked us into a hotel in Brooklyn for our return to Noo Yoik. For sure Brooklyn ain't Manhattan. Manhattan is really lacking in ever-present grafitti, seediness and menace to compete with Brooklyn.

Arrived at our hotel after a Yellow Cab ride from Penn Station. And - at this point I owe an apology to the guy I accused of giving us a terror ride from JFK that first night. They all drive like that here. A tight grip and tight buttocks are essential for being driven around New York, believe me.

Receptionist at hotel had worrying frown on her face as she tried to check us in. Turns out our booking had been cancelled. Not by us it hadn't. And the hotel was fully booked without us. First hiccup of the whole trip but not what you need when stood there with four suitcases and not much in the way of alternatives.

A phone call to Germany, an apology jointly from the hotel and the booking agents that there had been an admin error and then - guess what? The fully booked hotel had a room for us for three nights. How fully booked was that??

Today - Sunday - Tania achieved one of her dreams she never thought might come true. We made it to Coney Island. She was so taken with it she came over all American and had over-easy eggs and corned beef hash for breakfast when we got there.

The fairground at Coney has appeared in a few films and it felt cool to walk around a film set. We spotted one ride that we just had to go on. The Soarin' Eagle. So on it we went. And ended up screaming like a pair of girls. And both timidly suggesting one ride was enough. A couple of Margheritas settled the frayed nerves, no problem.

On the pier - or boardwalk - I spotted a bicycle the likes of which I have never seen before. It looked very old. And very rusty. Anyone seen one of these before??

I asked the old, black guy sat on the bench if it was his and if he knew about it. It wasn't and he didn't. But he did offer to sell it to me!!

A weird bike