Finally, a quiet day. Up early to get to La Guardia, once I’d flown in there wasn’t going to be much in Livonia, a western suburb of Detroit-that is, it is situated in the west, not full of saloons and people with itchy trigger fingers. Though some probably are carrying guns. That makes for a great day, one where I can catch up with photos, blog, laundry, tv, laziness.

La Guardia is only 9 miles or so from Manhattan, but has no subway station. The cheapest way to travel is by subway to Harlem then get a bus. I considered a taxi, seeing as my flight was at 9.40am and needed an early start even without a broken journey, but then found a happy medium.

She looked into her crystal ball and told me the NYC airporter bus ran from Grand Central station, six blocks away, every half an hour. Perfect.

I was early, getting the 7.30 bus, but so were most of the others on the plane and we all sat I the waiting area at the airport together. The chief flight attendant was Scottish, it took me a mo to identify the accent. Once we landed I was lucky in getting my bag but not in getting past people on the escalator so missed the first bus. I killed an hour and caught the next-which was delayed the four minutes I had needed the other to wait. After a change of bus I was through some of the suburbs and left with a 2.5 mile walk to the motel, passing wide empty parking lots but mostly operating businesses. Not quite the Detroit badlands, but not a thriving metropolis either.

I was there bang on the 3.00 check in time and lounged, before wandering back whence I came for some shopping and dinner. Glorious empty day.