We love New York City. We try to travel there for a long weekend every year, usually between Thanksgiving and New Years. That time of the year is so festive with all the hubbub and Christmas decorations. This year we could not find the time so we decided to go after the beginning of the year.

We stayed at Fort Hamilton (http://www.hamilton.army.mil/) in Brooklyn. Fort Hamilton is a small Army post located directly under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge (http://www.mta.info/bandt/html/veraz.htm) on the Brooklyn side. It has easy access to the subway system and is very quiet compared to Manhattan. Plus, the lodging is one-quarter the cost of a hotel in Manhattan. We always like to walk through the city when not taking the subway. It was very cold the entire time and snow still covered the ground and sidewalks from a storm a few days earlier.

We took the subway everywhere we went. At $7.00 a day for unlimited rides, it is a great deal. And the subways are safe, no matter what you might hear. We walked through Central Park, down 5^th Avenue, through Little Italy, went into countless shops and stores, toured the Chelsea Market where the Food Network has its studios, strolled by the United Nations, and wondered at the pandemonium in Times Square.

We ate some street food, had authentic wood stove pizza, had dinner at a corner diner and ate a Nathan’s hot dog at Coney Island. New York City is the greatest city in the world. I know, I’ve seen most of them.

In our blog posting for April 30, 2006, we mentioned that we were looking for a trailer to pull with our pickup truck. This trailer will be where we live while traveling the country and where we will live until the house on Berry Oaks is being built. Last September at the Pennsylvania RV Show we found the model we wanted. The dealer made us a great offer and we asked him if that offer would hold until February. He said yes.

Today we took possession of the trailer and was given a demonstration on its operating characteristics. It is a 33-foot Keystone Copper Canyon Sprinter fifth wheel. It seems it will give us the living space we will need for the six months or so while the house is being built.

The dealer offered to store it for us until April when we could make arrangements to store it locally. They winterized it for us and we took away a huge package of paperwork and manuals to read over the rest of the winter. Hope spring comes early this year.