Another long day of driving. We left Boston early and drove south, ticking off another state in the process as we hit Rhode Island. A brief stop in Providence, where we were happy to find the best coffee of the trip, at a small cafe called The Coffee Exchange. Always a good sign when you see a coffee roaster in the back room. Delicious!

It was then back onto our old friend the I95, cruising back into Connecticut and New Haven. Recalling the vast dimensions of the pizzas here we opted for sushi for lunch – actually it was a random find but quite serendipitous, as the food was cheap and very very good. In particular the fried cricket sushi rolls were unusual, but crunchy and very tasty.

Again, back into the car for the final leg into New York. Fortunately E had been very well behaved for the long journey – perhaps the stream of Peppa Pig on the iPad was keeping him going, and lots of games with Leanne.

We found our hotel in Brooklyn without much drama. It was immediately obvious that we were in a Jewish neighbourhood, almost everyone on the street dressed in orthodox clothing and lots of kosher shops. We unpacked at the hotel then I girded my loins for the final challenge – driving on my own through Manhattan to return the rental car.

This proved to be not as bad as expected – the largely one way streets made it relatively sane, and perhaps the fact that it was Sunday afternoon meant the traffic was just heavy instead of insane. Plenty of very ordinary driving going on – I quickly realised that my strategy of “follow the car in front because they will know what they are doing” was a terrible mistake, so I reverted to plan B – stay in your lane, don’t go through red lights and don’t run over pedestrians. This worked well and I made it to the drop off point without incident. I farewelled our Dodge Journey, trusty chariot of the last week and a half and hopped on the subway back to Brooklyn.

We walked down to a hipster strip of cafes for dinner, so the eclectic costumes, beards and odd hats made way for eclectic costumes, beards and odd hats. There appeared to be some good places for coffee so we made a mental note to return. Yes, this trip has anchored itself on beer and coffee, I know.

A good cheap Thai meal, then we headed back to the hotel. The backstreets of Brooklyn are a little dodgy at night but there were plenty of people walking round and we were soon back safe and sound. One more full day in the USA then we head for home!