From Sea to Shining Sea

Four months ago we were swimming with the turtles and dolphins of the Bay Islands, in the improbably warm, luminescent turquoise waters of the Caribbean, trying with little success to escape the scorching heat and stifling humidity of Honduras. A month later it was cold and rain that we wanted to escape, with even less success, as we watched the thunderous surf of the Pacific Ocean crashing into the Western coast of Vancouver Island. In Cape Cod we'd found a pleasant balance in the elements, dipping our feet in the chilly waters of the Atlantic and soaking up the moderate warmth of a New England Summer. It made a fine place for the climax of our Great Escape, putting us perfectly in tune with the national anthem of this nation, which we've now explored from sea to shining sea.

The road trip itself started 88 days ago, in a rainy, dreary, but ever so cool Seattle. Since that day in May we've travelled a little over 10,000 miles, or 181 km per day, crossing mountain ranges and deep canyons, deserts and swamps, forests and praries. At the moment I'm left reflecting on the great contradiction of time - that it flies when you are having fun, so the more you do, the shorter the time seems to get. On the one hand, waking up in the snow in Jasper seems like a distant memory, so entirely removed from the groan of a humid New York City as to feel like another life. On the other hand I can barely believe that a trip that was even longer in the planning than the execution is already over. But over it is - continuing the theme of writing in travel time, I'm writing this one from a rather cramped and turbulent plane over the Atlantic ocean, en route to a reunion with my parents and wider family, and to a life in Paris that allows me to draw on more than the contents of a single backpack. For the final map of our journey click here

It is a much recited, though I suspect not entirely accurate, statistic that only five percent of Americans own a passport; something invariably voiced as a criticism. I would be the first person to extol the delights and virtues of international travel, but I find it easy to understand why Americans don't travel the world in the same numbers that Australians, Brits or Germans do - there is just so much to see in this country. In the aforementioned 10,000 miles we've covered only 27 of 50 states (plus two Canadian provinces). Even with the luxury of a three month trip we have had to bypass huge swathes of land and some very famous attractions - there is surely no other country where, after a three month journey, a visitor can still look forward to places like the Californian coast, Florida, Alaska and Colorado for future visits. There is so much to visit in this country, if you are American, why fly to Europe or Australia when for the cost of a flight you can hire a camper van that is a palace on wheels and explore your own backyard.

Despite the vast territory that we haven't reached, I think we've come to understand Americans a little better than when we started - to the extent that it is even possible to 'understand' a country and its people. I mentioned in a recent post how walking around New York feels familiar even to a first timer because of its dominant position in pop culture. The same, in fact, can be said of the entire country. There are so many prejudices and stereotypes associated with America that we inevitably, and almost involuntarily, spent a significant amount of our time looking to either confirm of dispel our own preconceived images of the 'Land of the Free.'

There are too many of these images to mention them all, but I've been meaning to record at least of few of those that have surprised me the most, either by the confirmation or the evidence of their errors. I'll start with an easy one - American's have crap beer. It tastes like water, it's weak, it's all mass produced by Budweiser, Miller and Coors. Interestingly, this one seems to be true for just a few parts of the country - and not those parts I would have expected. If you limit a trip to the USA to New York, Chicago and other big North Eastern cities, then you will indeed find that American beer is pretty poor - you get the choice between the big brands, and the world's standard import beers - Heineken, Corona, Stella etc. But get outside these cities, and the picture changes dramatically, as each region, and even individual towns, proudly serve their own local brews. From Seattle to Mississippi, I rarely ordered a particular type of beer. In every restaurant I would simply ask for a local beer, and the response would almost always be the same. After asking for i.d. (which they never fail to do here) the waiter would ask whether you prefer light or dark beers, and then promise to bring you his or her favorite. And it was almost always very good. In Utah, home of the teetotaling Mormons, every town and every national park had a different drop to offer.

So the beer is not as bad as we thought, but what about the food? Well, if you had a mind to, you certainly could travel through the whole country and subsist on fast food, not only from McDonalds and Burger King, but from quite a few local competitors, such as Arby's, Sonic, A&W Burger and IHOP. They all have their own variations on the theme, but fries, burgers and buns made more of sugar than flour are de riguer at all - even IHOP, which stands for International House of Pancakes - which I love for the irony of the fact that no other country in the world actually thinks of pancakes as a meal. But that would be pointless, and probably deadly. Behind the junk food each region offers its own food, and some of it is really very good. From Texas all the way to Ohio BBQ is the name of the game, with each state offering its own variations on cooking style, sauce and even the kind of meats to be used, from ribs and beef briquet in Texas to pulled pork loin in Memphis. The South does indeed enjoy a good serving of fried chicken, but we ate escargot and drank fine wine in a restaurant owned by Morgan Freeman in rural Mississippi. In Chicago the hotdog may be heart attack inducing, but it has been refined to an art form. Not to be forgotten is that classic American dish - warm apple pie, which, when made by sleepy road side diners in rural Utah or Texas, is one of the best things you'll ever eat. And this is all before you get to New York, where you could eat well for a month and never eat the same cuisine, let alone at the same restaurant. The serving sizes are indeed very generous, and the evidence of the obesity problem is very much there to see. I'll be happy not to see a french fry for a while, but overall we ate pretty well - and we capped it off in Cape Cod with some amazing New England lobster.

Given that the beer and the food are ok, why are they a bunch of gun toting, angry, religious nuts? This is the one where the public image of Americans diverges furthest from my experience of them. Unfortunately, I think the rest of the world sees a great deal of Fox News, and judges America accordingly. But outside of the idiots that pass for conservatives on that channel, and the well funded interest groups that pay for billboards deriding Darwinism on the highways, very few Americans seem to actually stay up at night worrying that their guns might be taken away from them, or that homosexuals might be allowed to marry in a state on the other side of the country. Not one person we met could have been put in that bracket, and we spent quite a lot of time talking to strangers. Most of them are far more concerned to hear your thoughts on America, and share their own stories of friends and family that have visited Australia (just about everyone seems to have a niece or daughter studying in Australia).

Having said that, American's are vastly patriotic, or at least great fans of the outward signs of patriotism. The American flag is everywhere. It is not unusual for a small town to have adorned every lamp post on main street with a flag, while any house with a front lawn generally flies the flag with pride. Car dealers in particular seem to compete to hoist the largest possible flag in their yards, and retailers are not far behind - it seems the flag is thought to help get people to open their wallets in tough times. One reason I suspect the World Cup is not as popular here as in Europe is that in Europe the success of the national side kicks off a patriotic fervor - in America that fervor is a state of being.

When we first arrived in the USA, the only thing that actually did seemed to concern Americans was the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. For the first half or so of our trip oil was gushing into the Gulf, and it seemed that no news bulletin could start with anything else. I was actually impressed to see a country's national attention span focused on one thing for so long, given that very little was actually happening. Once the oil was stopped though, America was free to turn to lighter entertainment - the greatest sporting story of the past five years. There may have been a bunch of socialists kicking a ball around in South Africa, but the real story in America was LeBron's decision day. For those who don't know, LeBron James is generally considered the best basketballer on the planet; he is one of those sports stars that is so famous over here he only needs a first name, like Tiger or Venus and Serena (though apparently he does need two capital letters). Last season his contract with Cleveland expired, leaving him free to choose a new team. Like most American sports, basketball parades itself as a team sport when in fact one outstanding individual can deliver entire championships - so fans everywhere thought LeBron would be the answer to their prayers. A national bidding war ensued as every city in the country chased LeBron. Cleveland begged him to stay, talk show hosts implored him to pick their town and just about everywhere we stayed, the local news would run an analysis of that city's chances of landing LeBron. The farce culminated in an hour long, live ESPN event, billed Decision Day, where LeBron announced he was going to Miami, for the princely sum of $130 million over 5 years. I'm not sure to what the other 59 minutes of the broadcast were devoted.

The other ever present in the USA right now is the recession. To the traveler the signs are everywhere. In small towns boarded up shop fronts are a regular sight. There are stories in the news of towns switching off their street lights because they cannot pay the electricity bills, or cutting the school week to 4 days because they can't pay the teachers. In many cases its obvious that road maintenance and simple tasks like clearing stormwater drains have been abandoned, as short rain showers leave knee deep puddles beside even deeper pot holes. Where federal money is available the opposite is the case, with many of the interstates and major highways being currently or recently resurfaced, adorned with signs advertising the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" which is the name for Obama's controversial stimulus package. There are signs in mid sized cities offering off the plan three bedroom apartments for 80 or 90 thousand dollars, while last minute hotel websites allowed us to stay in business oriented 4 star hotels for as little as a third of their frontline price. Unquestionably, the recession is causing a national sense of gloom - mainly because, despite the hoarse screaming of both sides of politics, its pretty clear that nobody really knows what to do next. Everyone knows the deficit is out of control and needs to be cut, but they don't dare cut spending or raise taxes until the economy recovers, which it flatly refuses to do, in part because everyone is so worried about the deficit that consumer spending won't rebound. There are elections coming up in November, and, while the Democrats look like they are in for a bad day, the general feeling seems to be that any incumbent, regardless of party, is in danger of losing his/her seat in Congress - it's a reflection of the level of anger that currently pervades the American mood.

Much as I might try, I can't record everything we saw and did (in fact, only a small proportion of it), and while I'm agonizing over the appropriate way to finish this blog, it seems it might just be time to let it go and move on. I have to save a few stories to tell at the pub too, after all. So to the next steps. We are in Germany now (I couldn't finish on the plane) and in a few days Kate and I will go our separate ways (for now). I'll be off to INSEAD, just outside Paris, while Kate heads to Oxford to do her MBA as well - after a pleasant week of sailing around Croatia, of course. I suspect the adventures of an MBA student might be of slightly less interest to a lot of people than our holiday was, but I will try to keep this blog going once I get to INSEAD. INSEAD have also asked me to keep an official blog (chosen out of a huge pool of applicants, no doubt!), so if you really want to keep up with what I'm doing, or you prefer to read the sanitized, official version of my year, you can always check out www.insead.edu.

In the meantime, I am interested to know who has been reading the blog. I know some people have because I spam their email with it, but beyond that I don't really know - and if only for the sake of avoiding repeating too many of my stories when I get home, I'm interested. So if you have been reading and enjoying this blog, please, leave a comment below or drop me an email. Also - check out the latest and final photos of our trip on facebook.