Well, right now it is very nice to go shopping in the USA. The Dollar is very weak and or example a 100 USD product only costs me about 68 Euro. Many articles have often the similar price. Something costs 50 USD in the US and 50 Euro in Germany. But with the exchange rate this 50 USD ist only about 34 Euro. So I can save a lot of money. Additionally there is a winter Sale going on for the next weeks. So there are rebates from 30 percent to 90 percent. That is so great. A pair of Goretex Boots that were 129 USD were deducted to 109 USD and then additional 30 percent were taken off. So about 76 USD, a little more than 50 Euro for very good pair of Goretex shoes.. unbelievable. The US is like a huge Shopping Mall..I bought Jeans, Shoes, Sweater…For just a few bucks.
After this I drove down to Montgomery,NY the current home of the OCC – Orange County Choppers Store 
(www.orangecountychoppers.com ) I wanted to see the bikes in the showroom. Additonally I wanted to see the new V-Force Customs (www.vforcecustoms.com ) Store from Vince and Cody. They left the OCC crew and opened their own store. But there was nothing to see. I can’t wait to see the new OCC Head Quarter that is under construction right now in Newburgh.
The funniest today was my trip to the Outback Steakhouse. That is my favorite first Restaurant stop in the US. Since I love steaks there is no other thing to do but eating a 18 ounce ( about 510 gramm) Prime Rib Steak. But before doing that I had a funny experience. I wanted to wear my new clothes, so I did that. While walking by a family from the parking lot to the Restaurant entrance I heard voice behind me. „Sir, is that a new Jeans ?“. I turned around, smiled and felt the left over label that was on the leg. Wow, that was kind of emberassing. Not too bad, but emberassing. The lady said, „Oh i wanted to tell you before you enter the restaurant, then it would be more emberassing“ 🙂 how true. Well, it was ok. After having my Steak I had to refuse the dessert. No more room left in my stomach. The waitress was smiling. She said she wanted to be polite and ask, because I am that tall, but after that huge Steak she knew that I was probably not eating anything more 🙂 So, that was my first full day in Poughkeepsie…
Ok, at hertz I got a Hyundai Sonata. That is really a nice, roomy, comfortable car. Not a small one. But france and USA are very similar when it comes to some things. For example the bad roads. Besides the big Highways many other roads are in really bad shape. The bumps, holes and so on are really bad. So I drove from JFK via I-678N Van Wack Expressway via Whitestone Bridge to Hutchinson River Parkway N, I-684 N to I-84W and some miles on Route 9 to my Hotel in Poughkeepsie. There is still some snow in Poughkeepsie. But the roads are ok. I also did my shopping at Wal Mart. Good idea, because when I unloaded my car it started to rain. Since there were -10C 
yesterday and only 4C today there was a icerain warning. So I did not continue to drive to my Steakhouse. After such a long day I wanted it easy. So I had some food in my room. Oh yeah, I already changed my room in the Hotel. When I wanted to lay in the bed I noticed a sweet smell of a sweet parfume. I also found stains on one pillow and also a sweet smell. So the bed was not clean. Now I the same type of room just on the 4th floor not the third. Now I will live here in Poughkeepsie for the next 4 weeks. Unfortunately again without my lovely family. But soon we will live together in France. Many greetings from upstate NY
more than 2 months. Since I live already in france and I have no gasgrill there or charcoal grill. We managed to have some friends here that we want to meet since almost 3 years now. They live in the next town, just a few miles away and it never worked out. But now we did it. Was a lot of fun. Also with BBQ Ribs (selfmade), Burgers, Steaks and so on. Some beer and Ribs…hmmm
the liver of a duck (see Wikipedia: 
Today after a long sleep and breakfast I went to Maugio. My colleagues told me, that there is a nice little market where you can buy everything (bread, meat, clothing) It was really nice. I only bought some Pain au Chocolat (Pain is french and means bread not pain 🙂 ) I needed nothing else, but I will be back next sunday. My biggest „dream“ was to go to the tallest cable-stayed road-bridge of the world (as of today) in Millau. Named the Millau Viaduct. It is about 120km away from Baillargues and small roads and the A75 Highway brings you to the bridge. It is a very scenic, nice drive. I went from about 20m altitude in Baillargues up to 825m close to the bridge. So the temperatures went down from 16C to 7C and no blue sky was present, but grey clouds. But the Bridge was great. It is a nice view to see this 343m height bridge. See the
wikipedia link: