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It's been two months since I've left and in this time period I've gain some new experience about life, I think this is the right time to tell you all about what I've learned…

To start with the American people, they aren't as fat as I've imagined on the contrary most Americans I've encountered were fit and health seems to be a top priority to them, Also I was delight to find out that most American (Again the ones I got the chance to talk with) are strong supporters of Israel. Those who are not and did find out I'm Israeli didn't show their hatred towards me.

As you may already know I've got pulled over twice by the cops and to break the strong stigma about how tough and serious US policemen are the ones who stopped me were really nice and curious.

Riding 11,000 km you get to have a lot of me time, some times I've listen to the local radio hearing the current news and commercials I got sick of it I wanted something to remind me of home and so I've came to appreciate Israeli music Artists like Izhar Ashdot and Doctor Casper helped me to enjoy many miles, also my top favorite Israeli radio show HOTRIM LE MAGA kept me laughing inside my helmet. I want to believe I'll be listening to more Israeli music from now on.

Spending about a month with the same person from the moment you open your eyes to the second you close them isn't easy, this trip taught me an important lesson in human communication, understanding and compromise, I can honestly say me and Lior managed to survived each other in some difficult situations.

I've learned to receive it might sound strange reading this but I'm used to deepened on my own, I'm not comfortable in situation where only one side gives, staying with Jackie (Buffalo Grove Illinois), Steven (Chicago Illinois), Natali (Boston Massachusetts), Tamar (New Haven Connecticut), Saimon (Manhattan NewYork), Noam (Manhattan NewYork) and Dubi (Great Neck Long Island) showed me that there can be another way it's just better to accept and enjoy the warm hospitality all of the above had kindly given me. Thank you all.

Riding around 370km a day gives you a whole new perspective regarding distance I used to think that Be'erSheva is far now it looks like peanuts, I get the feeling I'll be missing these long roads.

This road trip couldn't be made without GPS and the internet especially Google maps, I can honestly say it saved me time after time.

There's no place like home, this whole time I couldn't stop thinking about all the people I care about back home my friends, co-workers and family. Skype, Facebook and Email sure helped but I can't imagine myself moving out of Israel to start a new beginning abroad (if the opportunity ever comes it must be a temporary thing).

That's about it, it's now 11:42 nine more hours before takeoff can't wait to touch ground.

NYC

I've already seen Stanford, MIT and HARVARD I couldn’t pass on YALE. 

Getting to New Hampshire at evening I was glad to meet up with Tamar after years of seeing her in Israel it's finally my turn to be the one visiting, the very next day we grabbed breakfast and head to YALE law school building, Tamar showed us the library and dropped us at the beginning of the YALE tour.

 In YALE unlike all other collages I've visited the social aspect plays a great role in the student life, besides being a prestige institute the student there have a rice social life filled with activities. The following summarize my point VIDEO 

If I had to choose from the above four I would have picked YALE. Oh and it's only 55,000$ a year.

Moving on, saying good bye to Tamar I've headed to my last stop before returning home Great Neck Long Island, I'm currently staying at Tamar's parents Dubi and Nava, I've got the entire top floor to myself, 

Manhattan is one train ride away from Great Neck, in the past few days I boarded the "LIRR" train from Great-Neck to Penn station Manhattan and from there depends on my plan either I start walking or took the subway, I was surprised to see how good public transportation can be. Trains are on time, connections are made quickly and easily, I wouldn't like to think about trying to get around the city by car or even on a motorcycle, this city is made for walking, and I've been walking...

There's just so much to see and do here to name a few

Empire State building

Statue of liberty

after my last incident in Hertzlia I promised myself not to get on a boat, but this seemed much bigger and the distance to the statue wasn't that far, besides I had no choice if I'll like to see it up close.

UN

I've decided to take the tour which I would defiantly recommend, not surprisingly the group was extra interested in the Israeli Palestine conflict and the soon to come Palestine request for the UN to acknowledge them as the 194 member.

Top of the rock

Rockefeller building a great overview of New York City at night,

Metropolitan museum

defiantly the biggest museum I've been to so far, after spending around three hours there seeing the Egyptian and the Asian exhibitions I couldn't continue.

Natural history museum
the dinosaurs display is very unique and the planetarium screening was really good.

Surprisingly I've got a message from Saimon Grinberg (he shoots for Ashkelon) it turns out he's also here in NY doing some work for NBC, we got together for dinner, Simon and other three friends of him, I've got to try Fried Pickles, after dinner we went to his friend's Jan apartment and head to the roof (25^th floor) to see once again the city at night from above

.Saimon Also gave me a private tour to NBC I've got to see the control rooms and sets where they record some of the popular shows such as Saturday night live.

[farewell after 11590 KM]

I'm not sure if I'm lazy, tired or just finding it hard to write down about NY there's just so much going on here and all this walking gets me exhausted by the end of the day also the fact that I'll be back in 3 more days doesn't encourage me to write,

I've just missed five calls from home it's 19:43 in Israel now and I really wish they'll try again once dinner is over.

Shabat Shalom everyone, I'll see you all really soon. 

College

Autumn is supposed to be a beautiful season on the east side, leafs change their colors to yellow, brown and even red, riding the roads of Vermont took me back a month back to California's red woods, a quick thought passed through my mind: if this is the end of summer how come everything is still so green?, trees as far as the eye can see, from time to time a clear lake, rivers and lots of green grass, making my way to the town of Manchester the ride didn't disappointed luckily for me the trees started to give their signs for the soon to come Autumn, red leafs.

Stopping in Manchester to refuel both the motorcycle and ourselves we sat outside a convenient store and a harmless drunk fellow sat right next to us, taking his shirt off and mumbles these are nice bikes you've got a real babe magnets, we node, "Where are you guys heading?" he inquired, Boston I've answered, at this point he started telling us where we can find the finest Jamaican dope in Boston… I should mention the guy was missing most of his front teeth, he treated himself to a cold beer wrapped in a brown paper bag as it's illegal to be seen with alcohol beverages in public, As he continue describing how good this Jamaican stuff is a police car pulls in front of us, it was obvious to all who they are going to hassle, "Is that alcohol in the beg?" the officer asks, "No… it's an energy drink officer!", eventually the officer asks the guy to throw his half full bottle into the garbage. As claver as he is the second the officer turns into the store he reaches into the garbage pulls the bottle out and starts running, the officer catching the act at the glimpse of his eye turns on his steps and starts chasing him to make a long story short he let him go.

Arriving at Boston Massachusetts we were welcome at Lior's Cousin Nataly her husband Shai and their three young children ages 9, 7 and 3. We sat down for a lovely dinner and then I've started noticing how messy and difficult it is to handle three kids, chaos took over the house for the next couple of hours until finally everyone was put to bed, ahhhh peace and quiet, this late evening peace was soon vanished by the youngest of the three who was a bit sick, turns out she kept them up the entire night.

Seeing this gave me some new perspectives on my life, to all my married friends' heads up.

The next morning we join Natali to work in MIT she gave us a quick tour to the laboratories she's working at, the place reminded me of Weizmann institute, but unlike weizmann MIT isn't surrounded by walls it's an integrated part of the city, the streets pass right through it.

Next up was Boston Common Park and from there we took the "T" which is Boston's subway train to Harvard, we've made it right in time for the Harvard tour.

I'll like to thank Natali and her family for their warm hospitality and a precious life lesson!

Next stop New Haven Connecticut.

Up state NY

Just before leaving Chicago we decided to visit the Baha'i temple and gardens right on Lake Michigan, honestly I had my expectations way up after seeing the Baha'i's gardens in Haifa, right from the road you could see a large and impressive white dome, walking down the street to get to the entrance I've passed by the neighbors not only that these folks live across the street from the Baha'i's temple they've also got front row sits to the lake!,

Upon entrance I got a bit disappointed as the gardens were quite small and they are constructed in a repeating pattern, The temple itself is a tall structure as you would expect with an inscribe right at center top.

That’s it so long Chicago but the city wouldn't let us leave so easily we had to make our way through rush hour for about two hours.

In my last post I've told you all that my next stop will be Washington DC, well we eventually decided to skip Washington and instead we'll continue on the north border and visit Niagara Falls, on our way there we passed by Cleveland Ohio, it took us three days but I think it was worth it.

On Sunday morning 11/09 the weather was nice unlike the previous day, I made my way to the observations points surprisingly only a bunch of people were there probably because of nine eleven, seeing these enormous amounts of water drops is quite a scene from where I was standing I could clearly see Canada right on the other side of the river In my opinion the Canadians has a much better view of the falls but because my passport got a bit wet at some point along the way and my visa isn't in its best condition I decided not to risk crossing the border.

[Canada]

From here I'll keep heading east towards Boston, Lior got an aunt working in MIT so we'll be visiting them.

East time

Twelve more days left until I've gota return the motorcycle to Queens NY, I intended to enjoy these days to the fullest 

Lior and I had to decide whether to continue south east to Washington DC or north east to NY.

After speaking to my uncle and aunt I've decided to take their advice and skip Washington, 

we started our morning in Indiana after losing another hour due to the timezone change, it's funny but in the past month I've passed 3 time zones I'm glad to finally arrive at the eastern time zone.

Our goal for the day was to reach Cleveland a 250 miles ride nothing fancy we're used to cover such mileage, but to make things more interesting we've decided to avoid the major highways and keep to the small roads, usually we'll hit the highways, toll roads to simply kill distance, 

it's quite boring riding on these major roads, when you stick to the country roads you get to see all sort of small towns and farms.

The weather was cool with gray skies but luckily no rain, we actually passed by some Amish folks riding they're carriages, after about a hundred miles Lior all of a sudden pulls to the shoulders, after removing his helmet he announce  "I've got another flat tire", I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Not again I was thinking to myself!

At least this time we're well prepared to deal with a flat both of us got a flat kit back in Utah! Looking at the rear tire we spotted the nasty nail right at the center of the tire, pulling it out we couldn't believe how long it was!, Ok time to see what these kits are worth, first up my kit which is simply a sticky string your suppose to fill the hole by sliding the string in, fingers crossed… no good, we could still hear air leaking, so we had to turn to Lior's arrow head kit, we got the hole plug on our third try but still there was a small leak at least we could make it to a bike shop where we could replace the tire, luckily for us there was a Honda dealership right down the road! We got the tire replaced in no time and continued on to Cleveland.

Tomorrow we should be getting to Buffalo NY, I've finally made it.

Wisconsin, illinois, Indiana, Ohio 565 miles

View Larger Map

Shabat Shalom!

Oh one more thing, i got to talk to my family in the past two days, its great hearing you all and to know i'm missed. Love you all,

(Sorry no pictures this time)

Chicago

Friday was coming up and for the past month I've did nothing which resembles Friday dinner with my family, luckily Lior's cousin Jackie was kind enough to invite us for Kidosh, I can't explain it but i was thrilled, Jackie lives with his lovely family at Buffalo-Grove a suburb 40 minutes drive from downtown Chicago after dinner we've been told that we could stay for as long as we like.

On Saturday we went for a long bicycle ride with the entire family in Chicago's downtown shore Lior's other cousin Steven joined us, Steven who's originally from NewYork rents an apartment right in the city in one of those tall fancy building which reminded me of TelAviv Yoo tower,

So after the bicycle ride we decided to stay at Steven's going up to the 15 floor we had a nice view of part of the city and the swimming pool, later on we went out with Steven's to a sports bar to catch a colleague football game from there we continue to a second pub "hub 21".

On our way back I couldn't stop smelling the strong scent of chocolate in the air, as it turns out there's a chocolate factory right across the corner from where Steven lives the strong sweet small could be noticed from quite a distance!, I honestly don't understand how you can live when you small chocolate all the time?!

Waking up at Steven's I decided not to wait for anyone and take along walk in the city, at first I've tried to get a ticket for a boat ride on the Chicago river but thanks to Labor day all tickets were sold,

So I decided to continue on foot to the john hancock tower to see the city from above, the observation deck is on the 96 floor from there you get a 360 view of the city

Continuing I've headed to Millenium park where the Jazz festival was taking place also the famous fountain from the show Married with children is located, after enjoying a jazz performance it was time to head back to Jackie's for barbeque.

On the next day I've visited Chicago's botanic gardens a gorgeous place I wondered through the gardens but I was most impressed by the bonsai trees they had,

From there I've met with Steven, Lior and Scuba (one of Steven's friends) for a cubs baseball game in wrigley field, we've left about half time and continued to some bar where we joined by some of Steven's friends.

Chicago has so much to offer Parks, Museums, Restaurants there's just so much to do.

As recommended I've went to the Shedd Aquarium which is similar to Eilat's underwater observatory and to the science and industry museum which was nice me and Lior spent our entire day there.

During my time here in Chicago I had to service my bike at one of the local BMW dealerships luckily the guys there managed to get the work done in a couple of hours during most of that time i've been in there waiting room which had a full library filled with motorcycle books and magazines, a tv and an open bar!

So after spending six days here I'll like to thank again Steven, Jackie and Gale for their warm hospitality!

As I've got the bike for another eleven days we've decided to visit Washington DC it should take me about three days to get there.

Half way there

Just as I was about to leave Wyoming we had just one more stop to make, "devil's tower"

we've made a 30 miles detour off the 90 highway, and finally this huge rock immerged in the distance. As it turns out "devil's tower" is the first national monument, by the way if you like you can climb this rock as this fellow in the picture below does.

[Map of Jewel cave]
Our last night in Wyoming we've spent in a local motel in the town on Newcastle, the nice lady at the front desk suggested us to visit "Jewel Cave" it's just couple of miles once you enter South Dakota, After two extra large pancakes we said farewell to Wyoming and entered South Dakota.

I've parked the bike at the entrance to Jewel Cave visitors center taking the stairs a sign prompt the visitors to have their jacket with them as the temperature inside the cave are below 10 degrees.

Luckily we got the last two tickets to the 10:40 tour, taking the elevator 22 stories below the surface, we entered one of the largest caves in the world, so far "only" 241 kilometers of underground paths have been mapped, the assumption is that only 3% of the cave had been discovered!

I could feel the temperature drops instantly but the remarkable site reveled made me forget all about it. Our tour took about an hour and a half, where we could see all sorts of stalactite, crystals and other strange looking curved stones.

Next up was Crazy-Horse, this monument to some Native American chief who was murdered, so far only the head of Crazy-Horse was curved.

It took around 60 years to get to this point, the work was done mostly by a single man dedicated his life for the job, this man is no longer with us but his 10 kids have taken the work of completing the statue on themselves.

Besides the statue the visitors center seemed to me like a huge warehouse storing everything made by Native Americans.

Last was Mount Rushmore, the monument is much smaller than CrazyHorse but at least it's completed!

Before we could checked in into our random motel, we had to past through "Bad Land" another national park, speed limit 65 miles, the road was deserted and the bike demanded going faster, at some point I hear Lior's voice over the headset: "Say the police car behind us is singling us to pull over?". Looking at my mirror is see red and blue flashing, so we've slowed down and pulled over to the shoulder. Pulling my helmet off turning the engine off the officer was standing next to me, "Do you have your license on you?", handing him my driving license he asks "Where are you guys from?", Israel I replay, "Where are you two heading?" Honestly I didn't know where are we exactly heading to.. So I said New-York.

Luckily for us we got off with a warning, I guess he didn't want to go through the trouble of giving a ticket to tourists.

Our next destination is Chicago Illinois, but to get there we need to pass through: South Dakota, Minneapolis and Wisconsin. The first two were boring, corn fields for miles and miles, once we entered Wisconsin the weather changed and trees were added to the view, as we got closer to the Mississippi river the humidity was unbridle the river itself is huge, we've finally stopped at the town of Tomah, a small town of about 10,000 people.

The next morning it was raining hard, we rode for about two hours in the rain, during this time I received a phone call from my parents, talking to them over the headset while driving in the rain was nice.

We finally made it to Chicago and we're staying at Lior's family here, it's nice to stay in a house instead of a motel for a change, it's Friday evening and we're about to have dinner and do Kidosh, I really miss Friday dinner with the family.

We're thinking about spending the next two days here, should be fun.