Nicholas Quirke was anticipating a difficult day as he transitioned from tourist to traveller. He had lived it up on the Upper West Side and now it was time to get authentic. He was due to pick up the car at 9am from JFK. This required getting the Airbus from Grand Central Station but he just missed one and had to wait 30 minutes which meant he would be late. Once at the Airport he needed to take the AirTrain and he then missed his stop and ended up in a town called Jamaica. On finally reaching the Car hire he was encouraged to part with even more money but remained resolute on not getting a SatNav. The car was extremely nice but complicated and he spent another 45 minutes acquainting himself with the dashboard. None of his technology was working so he couldn’t follow Google Maps, but had written down the road numbers to get him to his first destination where he hoped he would be able to move on and sort out accommodation for the night. he was extremely pleased with his navigation and he got himself on the right road and through New York despite driving in the passenger seat. After couple of hours driving he came off the freeway and almost immediately Nicholas got lost! He missed a turning and found himself in Connecticut which was his first sign that he had gone wrong. Nicholas stopped at Highway ‘Subway’ to collect himself and sort it out and enjoyed a flatbread Veggie Pasty. He retraced his steps to get back on the right road but was now more than 4 hours behind his schedule and it was starting to get dark. He decided to call it a night at his first destination, but it was in woods and it was starting to look a lot like Twin Peaks. With no internet connection he stopped at a brightly lit bar called Hectors and asked if they knew of anywhere he could stay in the area. The locals engaged him in friendly chat including the offer of going out to shoot deer in the morning and Melissa the bar maid offered to call a motel to see if they had a room. Nicholas found himself at the Fosterdale Motor Lodge an authentically sleazy motel location. The road trip had begun!