Finished my travels in New York which is like entering a different country.

The city is mad and chaotic, but lovable all the same. It has an energy that you don't find anywhere else. I think it's because Manhattan is a island, there is nowhere for the energy to escape to so it all pushes up.

Walked down to Brooklyn, crossing the famous bridge for a wonderful view of the end of the island. The topped off the new World Trade Center building today, it is now officially the highest building in the country at 1778 feet.

Summer is finally coming and it was a beautiful day in Central Park today. Many people of many bizarre shapes and sizes, out enjoying the sunshine. I walked my feet off.

Took the long drive up from Annapolis back to New York City. Cut across the Bay Bridge to avoid the morning rush hour in Baltimore and thus entered another state, Delaware.

Delaware always makes me feel at home, with the counties of Kent and Sussex and the town of Lewes and capital of Dover. It was the first state to ratify the constitution, something they are so proud of they put it on all the car number plates.

Visited Longwood Gardens where they are some magnificent displays and some rather over the top fountains. Americans don't do things by halves.

Entered the state of Maryland via its western end, following the old National Road. Maryland is a strange shape out there, sandwiched between the river and the mountain it's only just under 2km across at it's narrowest point.

Stopped off at Harpers Ferry on the way. I last visited in 1995, on my first trip to the states, and nothing has changed very much. It is still an amazing view from the top of the Maryland Heights where you can look down on the rivers marking the boundaries between the three states Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

Now in Annapolis, the capital of Maryland and once, for a few short months, the capital of the whole Union. On the docks is a tribute to Alex Haley marking the spot where his Great Great Great Great Grandfather, Kunta Kinte, was brought into the country in chains.

Visited it a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright homes in the hills south west of Pittsburgh. Both unique in their own ways one is built into waterfall and one into the top of the hill, All as they call it around here and Knob. Amazing places to live in but I'm not sure how practical they would be.

Also visited Fort necessity scene of George Washington's first battle. He was working for the British then, against the French, and he lost, Setting back the push into the wilderness by a few years. Back on the old National Road now and some very mountainous scenery

At the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, where they merge to form the Ohio, the British built a fort and named it after the prime minister of the time, William Pitt.

Things have changed a bit since then, and the City of Pittsburg stands high and proud over he point where the three rivers meet, and the location George Washington picked to defend the British Empire.

One room of the fort still stands, opposite he heights of Mount Washington, where you can clime for a fantastic vista of the whole city.

Took a trip up to Dayton, Where they claim to invented almost everything from crash registers to car ignition systems. But the biggest plaudits in the town go to brothers Wilbur and Orville Wight, who in the farms around Dayton developed powered flight.

It may have been at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina that they achieved the first flight in 1903, but in was around Dayton, over the next four years, that they developed their machine and produced a controllable steerable flying machine. No mean achievement for a couple of bicycle mechanics.

The field where they finessed their invention is now home to the American Airforce, but a memorial stands on the hill from where you can watch giant troop carriers descend from the skies. They had no idea what they had started.
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Drove down to Cincinnati, which lies on the Ohio River.

The river marks the boundary between the states of Kentucky and Ohio, and therefore was the marker between the South and the North in the days of the civil war. South of the River were Slave States, while north of the River was freedom.

Cincinnati's place on this crossroads of culture ensured it had a prominent role in the Underground Railway, the name given to the chain of people who aided runaway slaves to escape to the north and freedom Today the riverbank is host to the Museum of Freedom which pays tribute to all the incredibly brave individuals who risked their life and liberty to bring freedom to others. It's an amazing place well worth a visit.

Slaves escaping had to swim the River or cross by rowboat. Today it is easier by crossing the Purple People Bridge which is one of many bridges that links the two states