6 - Rain or Shine...or fog, snow, cold
England is so famous for its bad weather that people we met often asked us
about it. The inclement climate seemed to be one of the few things that
Americans were confident enough in their knowledge to talk about. That and
the Royal family of course.
This obsession with meteorology was evidenced by the campsite
owner in San Francisco who asked us about the London fog – he had
obviously read too much Dickens or Sherlock Holmes. Not that we were
without stereotypes when it came to meeting people, expecting New Yorkers
to tell us to 'forget about it' and people in Key West to be gay. Well, actually
this second prejudice proved fairly accurate. In anticipation of weather-related
queries we thought experience would be better than description so, in the
wise words of Crowded House, 'everywhere we went, we always took the
weather with us'.
We did not notice this phenomenon at first when the rain descended on our
second day in New York, coming down with such ferocity that Central Park
was soon flooded. According to the news large areas of the park were under
several feet of water and several roads were closed. Fortunately we were able
to visit the park on two occasions during the week without having to skirt
submerged regions, or even puddles...unless the lake we walked round is not
actually a permanent feature? It was not long however before we realized that
we were bringing our own personal rain cloud with us, like some kind of real
life cartoon.