The Kinks

Crusing through Philadelphia on the first day we discovered in our
collection of vintage music casettes a song by 'The Kinks' that
instantly touched our hearts: 'A Gallon of Gas'. It goes:
'I've been waiting for years to buy a brand new Cadillac/
But now that I've got one I wanna send it right back/
I can't afford the gas for the luxury and the speed'
(Check it out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma7qNf2lz6U)

Another Kinks' song on the same album
says: 'I'm on a looow budget...'
which also refers to us, but we managed this poblem quite well so far.
The idea of couch-surfing in other people's houses
(www.couchsurfing.org) hasn't worked out so good yet, mainly because
we didn't put much effort into it, instead we practiced campground-
crashing and beach-surfing.

The first night we found a campground outside of Philly run by some
religious group with bible quotes in the shower, but we arrived too
late and left to early to pay. The folowing night we tried to sleep on
a beach in Long Island, but after enduring two hours of uniterrupted
and unexpected mosquito attack, we were woken up by the police
patrolling the beach at 2am(!) and had to spend the rest of the night
in the car in a parking lot. Next time we had more luck and slept well
hidden on a beach in Staten Island without being bothered (except for
planes flying overhead). Tonight we left NYC and camp once more, this
time legally in a state park in upstate NY.

In the next post: how NY affected in only two days the shape of our car
- for better and for worse.