Sunday, 29th April

Start spreading the news – we went to The Big Apple today!! :-) And it was a good thing we wore walking shoes!! :-)

We left at 7am for the drive to the City and were on 'high alert' for a glimpse of the famous skyline of New York. Using the Lincoln Tunnel to go under the Hudson River to reach Manhattan, we found parking and caught a typical 'NYC Yellow Cab' to Ground Zero - the site of the tragedy that occurred on 9/11. There was a very somber atmosphere at the memorial to those who died and those who gave their lives on that day. We could not see exactly where the Twin Towers stood as major construction is under way to build 'Freedom Tower' which, once completed, will be the same height as the World Trade Center was and will stand on its foundation. After Ground Zero we walked to Wall Street to see the famous Bull!! There was a crowd of people having their pictures taken, but we managed to squeeze in for a photo or two.

Then it was time to view Lady Liberty herself!! Well, from a distance anyway! We walked to Battery Park and through Castle Clinton to reach the docks where ferries leave to visit the Statue of Liberty. We stood on the docks and took a few team photos to mark the occasion (see photo with the Statue of Liberty in the background)!

From Battery Park we made our way to Chinatown. We went to the Oriental Garden Dim Sum Restaurant – a whole experience in itself! :-) Here follows a list of the food we sampled: spring rolls, shrimp wantons, calamari, dumplings, bok choy, rice noodles with shrimp, Lotus leaf rice, baked roast pork buns and wedges and egg tart for dessert. Oh, and Chinese Green Tea to wash it all down!

We all enjoyed the food a lot (Ferdi and Jaap were so excited they spilt their food all over the tablecloth in a record-breaking 2 minutes!! ;-)) – but nobody enjoyed it as much as Jaap who loved the food so much that he ate the paper that it was wrapped in too (he claims it was by accident - he thought it was meant to be eaten)!!

After lunch, we strolled through the areas of Little Italy and Soho and walked passed New York's City Hall and Supreme Court on the way to the Empire State Building (the one where King Kong fought off the planes! :-)). After standing in line for 40 minutes we made it to the elevator which whisked us up to the open-air 86th floor Observatory in just under a minute!! There air was icy cold on top of the Empire State Building (see team photo) - but that wasn't what took our breath away - the view from the top was spectacular!! Sweeping panoramic vistas showed us a breathtaking and serene side of New York (very different from the hustle and bustle below!). I think its safe to say that in a day full of highlights - the Empire State Building took the cake!

After spending a bit more time 'on top of the world' we made our way to Rockefeller Center to see the famous gold statue of Promethues (Greek legend says he brought fire to mankind - this statue is cited as the 4th most familiar statue in the US (behind the Lincoln Memorial, Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty). We then went to St. Patrick's Cathedral (where, amongst others, the funerals of Babe Ruth and Robert F. Kennedy were held) and then strolled down 5th Avenue and popped into Trump Towers on the way to Central Park. Central Park covers 843 acres (which is 6% of Manhattan) and is a beautiful oasis in the middle of this awesome city!

We went to the Carnegie Deli for dinner - where we had Dr Brown's Creme Soda and sandwiches which were so huge they have to been seen to be believed!! We all arrived hungry (after a really hard day of walking!) and no one could come close to finishing their meals!

After dinner we 'marvelled' through Times Square with all of its flashing lights and its incredible vibe!! If the Empire State Building took the cake - Times Square was the cherry on top!! :-) It was the perfect end to a perfect day!! :-)

Thanks Cindy and Chris - YO!! ;-)

Saturday, 28th April

We were able to sleep in again - except for Kerry-Lynn who played tennis with a few of the Fleetwood locals at 7am (thanks to Jaap and the guys for that one)!! :-) The rest of the morning and early afternoon was downtime for us and it really was great to just chill for a bit!

At 4pm we were on our way to the Peanut Bar, a 4th generation owned bar which was a very unique place with peanut shells covering the floor - which we added to with great zest! Plus there were a few peanut fights involved!! :-) Any guesses for who started them??

7pm was game time!! We attended an American Indoor Football Game at the Sovereign Center between the Reading Express Team and the Montgomery Bears. We all had excellent seats - Jack, Jaap and Kerry were just behind the Express Team area in the 2nd row and Carl and Ferdi were in the front row on the opposite side of the field. Express won 68-53 in a fast-paced, action-packed game. The game went on much longer than we expected though - we thought a period of 15 minutes would take roughly 15 minutes - but the 4th period alone was 45 minutes long!! ;-)

Friday, 27th April

Friday morning was the changeover to our new hosts in Fleetwood. After meeting our hosts and having lunch at an Italian restaurant (Fiore's) we went on a tour of a mushroom factory - Giorgio's, which is a large distributor of mushrooms, not only in Pennsylvania but all over the US.

We had to wear white lab coats and hairnets to go into the factory, and because of the backpack under his white coat, Ferdi looked like (and acted like!) the Hunchback of Notre Dame!! :-)

In the evening, a reception dinner was held in our honour at one of the Rotarian's houses and, once again, we ate too much!!

Hope everyone back home had a good Freedom Day! :-)

Thursday, 26th April

We were all able to sleep in and get some much needed rest!! :-)

We left at lunchtime for the Phillies game in Philadelphia - and from the time the bus left until the bus arrived back in Pottstown we ate and drank - and then ate and drank some more!! We soon found out that it's more about the 'experience' of a baseball game than the game itself! :-)

There were 40 of us that travelled down in the bus and we joined the +/- 36000 people in the stadium for the game. We had great seats and the atmosphere before the game was electric! Not so much after the game, though, as the Phillies lost to the Washington Nationals 4 to 2. After trying some Crabfries at the game (thanks Kirsten - they were good! :-)) we went back to Tony Luke's (the same place we had our Philly Cheesesteaks on Tues - thanks Dave!) but this time tried the Roast Pork Sandwiches - really, really good!! Once back in Pottstown we all went to Len and Kirsten's for more food, drink, pool and darts!

Thanks to Len and the Rotary Club of Pottstown for organising this awesome excursion for us!!

Wednesday, 25th April

Live to Ride, Ride to Live!!

Today we went on 'The Great American Factory Tour' of Harley-Davidson!! We went to the Vehicle Operations Factory in York, Pennsylvania and got an in-depth look at how these amazing machines are made (plus a lot of photos!). We had an 'overly cautious' and sometimes 'distracted' tour guide who showed us around the factory where we viewed the Harley-Davidsons on the assembly line (it takes 2 hours for a Harley to be assembled) and, of course, souvenir shopping was done by all! :-)

Tuesday, 24th April

6:30am and we were on our way to Philly!!! The tour of Philadelphia was one of the many highlight of the trip so far! Carl's host, Dave, was our unofficial tour guide for the day and we started the day at the Italian Market (from the famous scene in the Rocky movie when he is running through Philadelphia). After sampling some very 'interesting' food in the local shops and grabbing some great coffee we were ready for the massive undertaking of eating a Philly Cheesesteak!! A Philly Cheesesteak (although there are many variations) is a huge freshly-baked footlong breadroll with huge helpings of shredded beef steak smothered in cheese, pizza sauce and topped with fried onions! Dave took us to Tony Luke's (apparently the best place in town!) for this gastronomical experience!!

After the very tasty (and messy) Cheesesteak, we met up with Sandy and George and jumped on the 'hop-on-hop-off' tour trolley that took us around Philly. Our first stop was at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where we posed with the Rocky statue and ran the 99 steps to the top and did a victory dance!! :-) Just like in the Rocky movie!!

We then moved on view to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall to experience a bit of American history. After souvenir shopping, we moved on to South Street which is a street filled with very - let's call it 'unusual' - shops!! :-)

In the evening, the Team got together with the Pottstown Rotary Club for a picnic at one of the Rotarians houses. We did a second presentation (much more informal than the first) and were asked many, many questions about South Africa, the economy, education, tourism, healthcare etc. And, once again, we received many compliments about the presentation and the topics covered.

Monday, 23rd April

Monday morning saw us at the Owen J. Roberts High School in Bucktown where we were given a tour of the school by one of the pricipals. The school has amazing facilites, to say the least, and we were all extremely impressed by the quality education the pupils are receiving. In the afternoon, we were taken on a tour of the local hospital.

We all spent the evening with our respective host families.

Sunday, 22nd April

We all met at Ed's house to drive to Pottstown to meet our new host families. After a light lunch (in comparison to everything else we've been eating!) we went to our new families to unpack, relax and get to know our new hosts over dinner.

The time has flown by - we can't believe we've been here a week already!! A big thank you to Ed and the many Rotary Clubs that hosted us for a fantastic week! :-)

Saturday, 21st April

Jaap, Jack and Kerry-Lynn went to Longwood Gardens, a 500 ha in the Brandywine Valley where all the flowers and trees were in bloom - absolutely beautiful! The gardens were owned by Mr Du Pont, chairman of the DuPont and General Motors Companies who started his empire in gunpowder. Dave and Sam were excellent hosts and provided great entertainment!!

Ferdi and Carl spent the day in Ocean City and attended the Doo Da Parade, a parade for the opening of the summer season with an Ice Princess ;-) and 500 basset hounds. Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and George Burns etc also made appearances. They cycled along a 10-mile wooden boardwalk to view the scenery.

In the evening, we all met up at the Huntingdon Valley Library for an Art Auction of 150 items ranging from $55 to $2700.

Friday, 20th April

Our first Vocational Day!

Jaap went to Delaware Valley School a 250 ha agricultural school with 1600 scholars.
Ferdi went to the William Tennant High School Grade 9-12 which has 2200 pupils.
Jack went to Pennsylvania College of Optometry to investigate their curriculum and spent the afternoon with a private optometrist.
Carl went to the Sleep Inn & Suites in Bensalem, the Bucks County Tourism Information Bureau and then on to Atlantic City to the Ballys Casino and Resort Hotel, Harrah's and to the musical 'Shout!'.
Kerry-Lynn went to PennMutual, a large insurance company with branches all over the US but based in Pennsylvania, to meet with the IT department and a tour of the IT infrastructure and to a Cisco Local Academy at the Eastern Arts and Technology Centre.

Friday evening, Kerry-Lynn, Jaap and Jack went to Ed's house for pizza and beer and Ferdi and Carl went to Ocean City to their hosts beach houses.

Thursday, 19th April

Thursday was D-Day - our first presentation!! We all met at the Commonwealth Country Club for a Multi-Rotary Club meeting where 120 Rotarians were in attendance. And from all the feedback we've received so far, everyone enjoyed it and thought it was an excellent presentation!!

After lunch, Gary and Marty, from the Rotary Club of Horsham, took us to the James A. Michener Museum in Doylestown and Peddler's Village, a gorgeous little shopping village. That evening we were taken to a small Italian restaurant owned by one of the Rotarian's family and had a great evening with lots (and lots!) and great food!!

Wednesday, 18th April

Met at 8am to take a trip to Harrisburg, State Capital of Pennsylvania with Ed, Carolyn and Rich. On arrival in Harrisburg, we met the Montgomery County State Representative, Josh Shapiro, and were taken on a brief tour of the building. The State Capital Building was amazing!! The artwork and the architecture was awe-inspiring!! We were given passes to the House Chamber (where Abraham Lincoln laid in state after the assassination) and were meant to stay for the session - but after many, many delays we decided to take a raincheck on the House Chamber session and return to Area 7.

En route back home we passed through Lancaster County and the towns of Paradise, Intercourse, Blue Balls and Bird-in-Hand (which Jaap mistook as Cock-in-Hand which raised a few eyebrows at our dinner that evening!) and stopped in at an Amish Farmers Market and did some shopping.

That evening we were hosted by the Rotary Club of Hatboro for a BBQ. We had a fantastic evening of snooker, foozeball, chatting and drinking and met some really good people.

Tuesday, 17th April

Tuesday 17th April. The team met for a tour of Byer's Choice, maker of collectors dolls who donate 20% of their annual profit to charity. After that we went to the 'New Britain Inn' in Doylestown for lunch. In the afternoon we went to a planetarium at McDonald's Elementary School (not the fast food!) :-)

We were welcomed by a string quartet (all 5th graders) and taken on a short tour by a few 2nd graders (born tour guides!!) :-) We watched a few of the presentations the school gives to the children at the planetarium and we were amazed at the advanced topics covered. After the planetarium we were introduced to a 4th grade class who had been collecting books to donate to children in Africa. We answered a number of questions from the kids and Ferdi (who was in his element!) taught the class about the Big 5!

We made it!!

Sunday evening 15th April (after everyone had arrived) - we met with the District Governor of 7430, Ron Smith and a few Rotarians from the District for a shortened welcome and orientation (due to us being delayed). They took us to a local German pub, Otto's Brau, were we had a delicious buffet with many German specialities (there is a fairly big German influence in Pennsylvania).

Monday morning brought snow to the area of Pennsylvania where we are staying. This is apparently very unusual for this time of the year and the Rotarians are blaming us for the weather! :-) Because of the snow, our plans for the day were delayed. We spent the morning with our hosts and in the afternoon we were taken to the Schofield Ford Bridge, one of the few covered bridges left in the area (see photo). That evening we were taken out for dinner by the Warrington Rotary Club.

Things have definitely improved from the first part of our trip!! :-)

...or maybe not!!

We were supposed to fly out on Friday the 13th - but due to a broken fuel line on a previous flight, all flights that day were delayed. This meant that we only flew out of Joburg at 5am on Saturday morning apparently arriving in Atlanta at 7:30pm US time (2am SA time)! We were not impressed!! But - it gets worse!! After 9 hours of flying we landed in Dakar for a crew change (which they told us wouldn't take more than an hour at most!). But because of mandatory flight crew rest periods we were delayed by 4 hours in Dakar!! This meant we arrived in Atlanta at 10:10pm on Saturday evening and missed our connection to Philadelphia. To say we were frustrated and tired is an understatement! After 3 hours of sleep we went to check in early the next morning to secure our place on the 7:05am flight to Philly, but were told that only Carl, Jack and Kerry-Lynn were on standby for that flight. Jaap and Ferdi were booked on a flight later that day. To cut a long story short though, we all arrived safely (but with very little sleep) in Philadelphia and were taken in by our hosts.

And so it begins!!!

The excitement is building - we fly out tonight!!

We had our final 'dress rehearsal' at the Rotary Club of Viljoenskroon last night! The presentation went great and we managed to field a few tough questions from the audience.

After sleeping late (well most of us - Jaap and Ferdi were up at 5!) and after enjoying a sumptious breakfast we are spending the day relaxing on the farm - it's so peaceful! As Kim says - its the calm before the storm!