I had a fairly leisurely morning, mostly packing, working out in John and Al's living room, trying to find a hotel in Manhattan, and chatting with John and Al. Oh, yeah, and the tractor work. That was a laugh. It was, of course, all for the fun of it, but it wouldn't have been fun if the tractor had reared up and fallen back on me, like it almost did as I slammed on the breaks while rolling backwards down the hill. So no more tractor work. I don't think I'm meant for country life after all. Too many bugs. Even the humming birds that cluster around the feeder next to the day room gave me the creeps when their buzzing wings got too close. But what a wonderful two days it had been. I can't speak highly enough of the respect I've developed for John and Al.

At ten-thirty, Dave arrived, who was driving back through New York City to Jersey. He'd been kind enough to offer to get me and my baggage to what I though would be my next destination, in Brooklyn Heights. But last night, just before going to sleep, I'd received two unpleasant phone messages - the first being from a friend in tears as he'd been dumped by his boyfriend, and the second from Paul saying that something had come up and I couldn't stay with him. Which meant I was going to be homeless in New York - hence the time this morning trying to find a hotel room. Fortunately, I'd lucked out. Despite early discouragement when ten hotels in a row had zero vacancies, John pulled something up on the web. So around eleven, Dave and I set off for Manhattan.

Keith and Dave en route to the big city

By two or so, we pulled up at my hotel, near Lincoln Center. It was perfectly located for me really - close to Central Park, so I can easily go running, and walking distance to many of the museums I want to go to. I was beginning to think it was a good thing that I couldn't stay with Paul in Brooklyn Heights. I don't want to explain here what happened with Paul, but it's really been a bit of a blow and caused me to think about a lot of things.

After saying goodbye to Dave, and checking in, I got a big surprise when I was let into my room. Despite the relatively reasonable price, the room was very comfortable and stylish. It was a brand new renovation of an older hotel. In fact, they are rebuilding the hotel around you as you're staying there, and the coridoors were stacked with unopened television sets. I think the rates were low because of the inconvenience - there is only one elevator in use, for example.

Seeing as I'm going to be hear for five nights, I completely unpacked, and tried to make the place feel like home. I even put out my Hungarian bus model for a while, before deciding there was too great a danger of it going for a ride by itself.

By this time, it was pretty warm and humid outside again, so, after a brief trip out for coffee and a salad, I lay down a while to plan my New York campaign. So much to do in just a few days.

For one reason or another, I haven't been running in days and was feeling guilty. So I made myself get my butt out there on the streets, and ran over to Central Park. It's a great place to run, although some of the other runners seem a little preoccupied with keeping people out of "their space". Death by trampling. In the humidity, it was a tough run, so I felt pretty destroyed at the end, although happy I'd gone.

After a shower, and some faffing around, I headed out to the nearby Planet Susthi for a light meal, and to get caught up with this journal and that's where I am as I speak. Heading home to bed - see ya!