Last week I entered a competition with World Nomads to win an all-expenses paid road trip to either America or Europe. The choice is yours, so I went for America as I have never seen anything other than the inside of Miami and Huston Airport. The winner and a second person of their choosing will get return airfare, 4-week campervan rental, travel insurance, some travel gear and $6000 spending money. Thinking about this reminded me of a road trip plan long forgotten.
Nine years ago there was a plan to do an American road trip with a friend from university, Matt, and Henry, a guy we met during our first season in France. The plan was a simple one. We would fly to America, acquire a large-ish white van, which I hoped we would name, that we could sleep in if required as we travelled around stopping off at various points of interest and the major university cities to get “lost” on campus and using our adorable British accents to get us into the parties we imagined they had every night. Just like in the movies! We pictured it to be a combination between American Pie, Road Trip, Super Bad and Old School, without that bit ¾ the way through when stuff hits the fan. There were so many films that portrayed the same sort of thing, surely there couldn’t be smoke without fire. Whether university life in America was as we saw it in the teen films we grew up with or whether it was all a ruse to trick the rest of the world into thinking Americans had a lot of fun it would have been an interesting trip. We selected a white van so that if came across anyone that was particularly helpful, cool or incredibly good looking we would ask them to sign the van. By the end of the trip we wanted Margaret (the van) to be an artwork of signatures, messages and other memories of the trip. Of the three of us only myself and Matt were single at the time. While the Americans looked to be up for some hanky panky in the films I doubt either of us would have managed anything worthy of a tally. Even with our accents. We never talked about what we would do with Agatha (the van) when we finished, probably because we never thought the trip would happen and only focused on the interesting bits. I like to think Gertrude (the van) made it to a good home from us either selling it or donating it to someone worthy for their help during our trip or to improve the life of someone who needed it.
Nearly a decade on it seems unlikely that this particular trip will go ahead, not least of all because three men nearing their 30s loitering in a white van outside university campuses would definitely get arrested. Other great American road trips have since taken its place in my bucket list. I would love to do the Historic Route 66, Colorado and Monument Valley, a blues trip around New Orleans, The Pacific Northwest from the Rocky Mountains to the sea, The Appalachian Trail or various places along the California coast. The USA is such a large country with such a variety of landscapes it’s difficult to just choose one!
So, if you find yourself at a loose end for four weeks feel free to borrow one of my trips or plan your own. Just remember who let you know about it when you go about choosing the Robin to your Batman.
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