Final Post: Reflections on the trip
Here are some reflections on the trip written two days after the road-trip finished at Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles.
24th November 1994, Thanksgiving Day USA
I won’t really know for some time to come whether the trip was “worth it”, and my view may well change over time. I do know that if I hadn’t done the trip now then I don’t think I would have contemplated doing it in the future and that would have been a disappointment to me.
I really felt a sense of achievement, although I know that many other people must have done the same thing or more, but this is my achievement and no-one else’s. Also, to be able to do it approximately middle-age (I’m 40 at the end of November 1994) rather than as a student or a twenty-something is more unique and gives a different life perspective.
I have also experienced parts of America that most American’s won’t experience because they don’t routinely visit other parts of the USA — at least not the vast centre of the country. That makes my appreciation of the USA, its geography, its landscapes, ways of life and attitudes that much more valuable — at least to me.
I don’t know whether it’s changed me — that’s probably for others to judge. I don’t feel that it has too much except in the experience of travelling alone and dealing with people and situations outside of a comfort zone. I feel that I’ve got more confident as a traveller over the two weeks or so of the trip and that’s a nice feeling.
Although my opinions of the USA and its people haven’t changed that much, they have however been clarified. For instance, the isolation from the rest of the world that I had previously found even in California is accentuated in other parts of the USA. Given the geography and media in the USA this is not as surprising as I first thought. Local news in the USA can still cover an area the size of the UK and there’s plenty of it! The rest of the world is seen by most Americans as a confusing and dangerous place — a feeling only confirmed by the confusion and danger that the news outlets perpetuate about their own country — “if the USA is like this — how much worst must the World be?”
Also, the TV channels are in such competition that they can’t afford to pay or risk having foreign base correspondents. Therefore they concentrate on local or networked news and don’t have access to international news — so they don’t cover it.
Whereas, en masse, Americans have a reputation for being brash and loud, individually they are, without fail, much more friendly, interested and concerned that the average British person. This is something that I observed everywhere I went — something quite remarkable in itself.
It is a cliché, I know, but America is a country of contrasts! It is nearly always physically beautiful but it also has some of the ugliest development imaginable. It has areas of great wealth — next to areas of great poverty and even more noticeably, the rich and poor tend to live side-by-side in many cities, or at least, they exist in the same areas.
Americans seem to be obsessed by violent crime and fear of personal danger. In this they are encouraged by the news media which covers crimes as if they were happening to everybody, everywhere, every day. They even, in LA at least, cover crime as it is happening including from a police helicopter joining in a police chase along a Freeway (Note from 2014 : This was a few years before the OJ Simpson chase on LAs freeways). No wonder most Americans fear personal and property crime to such a dramatic extent.
From what I have observed, the USA is still a land of opportunity — but with some caveats. You need talent, energy and initiative to succeed and you will get these things much more easily in the USA than in Europe — its big, more flexible and richer, — to name just three reasons.
You also need to be the right colour and have some basic capital — although even without these, you would probably still have better life chances than in Europe.
I return to Wales tomorrow and I will take with me great memories, vibrant images and a sense of great gratitude that I have had been able to have this experience.
Since getting to LA I have spent time with my sister-in-law and nephew and been able to see a little more of the Santa Monica and Malibu areas of LA.
Today is Thanksgiving, my first in the USA, and its great to spend it with family and friends.
Goodbye, USA — look forward to seeing you all again soon.
(Note from 2014: Actually, I did a different route coast-to-coast trip with two of my sons 5 years later in 1999 and then another 5 years later in 2004, I did a train trip coast-to-coast with Catherine and my third son, Marc)
Here are some final statistics from the trip:
I travelled 3,800 miles and I didn’t fall asleep in the car when David was driving (or when I was) — so I saw all 3,800 miles of road (or roadside)
I took 15 days and I travelled through or visited 16 States
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Delaware
Maryland
Washington DC
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Arkansas
Texas
Oklahoma
New Mexico
Arizona
California — in that order!
I visited or passed through 12 cities
New York
Philadelphia
Wilmington
Washington DC
Charlotte
Nashville
Memphis
Little Rock
Dallas
Albuquerque
Phoenix
Los Angeles
I ate food from a range of cultures:-
Italian
Southern
Mexican
South Western
Thai
Chinese
Indian
American (whatever that is given the range of influences)
Cajun
British
I spent 12 nights in hotels
8 Best Western St Michaels, Delaware Mount Jackson, Virginia Cedars of Lebanon, Tennessee Garland, Dallas Vernon, Texas Albuquerque, New Mexico Flagstaff, Arizona Sedona, Arizona
3 Day’s Inn Newark, New Jersey (2 nights) Memphis, Tennessee
1 Independent Arlington Hotel, Hot Springs, Arkansas
I was stopped by the police only once — outside Texarkana, Arkansas — almost exactly half way through the trip. No tickets for speeding or anything!
