The Last Post: An Epilogue
We left the USA on the 5th of October, exactly 180 days after we arrived, having used the full allowance of days that we were allowed to stay in the country. We had left no provision for delays or last minute travel changes so were glad to take off from Boston airport as planned, with no hitches and no special attention from immigration. We should be allowed back.
We spent 10 days at the start of the trip sorting stuff out and 2 days at the end in a hotel in Boston, so in the end we had 168 days on the road. This sounds like an incredible amount of time and at the beginning of the trip it stretched in front of us like a Montanan highway, endless. We set off with no real plans except an entry into a half marathon in Connecticut on the 30th Sept (more about that later), our departure date from Boston on 5th Oct and a resolve not to go further south than the halfway fold on our fold-out map of the USA. We made up our route en route and meandered across the northern part of the country in a fairly leisurely and random way. The closer to summer holidays we got, the busier it was and the more forward planning we had to do. Somehow it wasn’t quite as much fun to be more organised. As for life in general, the closer to the end we got, the faster it went and all of a sudden it was all over.
The USA is the king of all road-trip countries. It is the land of the combustion engine with long wide straight roads, space to park and manoeuvre, places to easily stop and get a drink, a meal and have a pee, and there are fuel stops aplenty, even for our thirsty beast. Distances between towns are large enough to feel like an achievement without feeling like a wilderness expedition and the landscape is epic and ever changing. Our first day we drove about 250 miles and quickly realised that this was too many. After this we resolved to do 150 miles maximum per day, and not every day. We had the luxury of time.
For a good part of our travels, save for a few Canadians, we were the only non-Americans to be seen or heard. Many people were astounded that we had ended up in their little corner of the world, most were confused by the combination of Washington State licence plates, English accents and a New Zealand home and we were picked as being Australian more than once. We took it well. We met countless amazingly friendly and interesting people, we never felt out of our depth or in any danger at all and the only non-policeman that we saw with a firearm was a parking warden. (Bizarrely, this was in the most gentile and civilised of small affluent towns on the shore of Lake Superior in Michigan. He was carrying a taser too. Just how bad do the parking disputes get in Harbor Springs????) We were slightly different from the two main groups of people on the road in an RV. The largest group are the retirees. Many live in their rigs full time and drift north in the summer and south in the winter. The other group are the summer vacationers. The ‘recreators’. We were happy to be living like the retirees with the energy of the vacationers and knew that made us very, very lucky.
America is also the land of ‘Eating Out’. It took some self discipline not to succumb to the temptations of frequent meals in restaurants, diners and bars. The ‘but-we’re-on-holiday’ mentality had to be curbed, lest we ended up the size of houses. We tried to offset the burgers and beer with biking and hiking, but alas, the plan of training for a half marathon did not come to fruition. Nick (not a runner, at all, ever before) did make a really good effort to start training, but developed a hurty knee. And I, well I developed a lack of moral fibre. The thought was admirable, but the execution was harder than imagined. Difficult to plan running routes in constantly unknown places. That’s my excuse anyway. Some weight has been gained, but nothing that a New Zealand summer of sport, salads and sobriety can’t cure. (Yeah, right…)
Living together 24/7, in a tiny space for an extended period of time was surprisingly easy. No space for sulking. Nowhere to storm off to. We had occasional niggles, usually when hungry and looking for somewhere to get lunch, but our marriage weathered those teacup storms and I think we should be all good for another few years.
Here are some of our road-trip statistics:
States visited: 20 (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut)
Miles travelled: 8530
Gallons of fuel used: 974
Dollars spent on fuel: $2477
Nights spent in camper: 156
Number of different campsites: 55
Cumulative scrabble scores: Nick 4300, Sara 3943
Cans of IPA drunk: close to 46700
Packets of crisps eaten: 6743 probably
Number of quarters fed into laundrette machines: nigh on 25433
Number of Walmart stores visited: 20 at least
Corners negotiated in North Dakota: nearly 7
Car museums/collections viewed: 5
Garrulous Trump supporting nuns met: 1 (You were a highlight, Sister Maria!)
So what next?
We are now in the UK, catching up with our families before we head back to New Zealand via a few nights in Hong Kong. We will move back into our beautiful home, reclaim our cars from their guardians and enjoy another summer. I will do some locum GP work and either love or loathe it. Time will tell. We will catch up with friends and find it hard to live the abstemious healthy lifestyle that we have promised ourselves. But most of all, we will dream of our return to the USA and our next adventure.
Big Dave and Tin Can will rest until next September when we will liberate them and plan to follow the Appalachian Mountains down to the Deep South, hopefully arriving as the heat wanes and the hurricane have passed through. I suspect that the Washington licence plates may be even more out of place down there.
The blog will be put on hold until we set off again. Thank you all for following and commenting, and I hope that you have enjoyed reading it. If you would like me to let you know when I start posting again next year then please send me a comment or an email to sarahampson72@icloud.com
Bye Y’All!