Without America's obsession with sports this trip most probably would not have happened, I'll be honest. The lineup of events we have to attend and so far attended is a long one and any sports nut's dream come true, like ours. From college football to the NBA to the ice we've got covered all an American Winter can throw, spear, slap and kick at us.

The highlight for me came last Sunday, the day my second favourite sports team the New England Patriots came down to New York to take on their most hated division rivals the New York Jets. Maddi and I had tickets to this game for months. For memory I purchased them back in April when we were finalising flights, that's how enthused I was. So when December 21st finally came around and the weather decided to be colder than any other I have had so far I was not taking a backward step. It was the type of day where sitting up in the stands of an open stadium and taking your hands out of your pockets to clap and cheer was a painful task, but also an essential one. The atmosphere at the NFL was like no other and you could not help but be hooked. It also helps when the first touchdown pass is thrown by one Tom Brady to one Rob Gronkowski. I stood and screamed and punched the air with the light sprinkling of Patriot fans around me before not so kindly being asked to take my seat by the Jets fans in the nose bleeds behind us. It was a rush and a half.

The game itself was fascinating if not full of highlights. I'm used to watching Brady dominate offensively for New England but this time he was targeted and at times sacked by a defensive line and a Jets team that seem to always lift for their much superior rivals, no matter how disappointing a season they have. This was an unusual offensive struggle for Brady and his team who are priming themselves for the playoffs. It was close all day, low scoring and a grind and the sixty odd thousand New Yorkers sensed a rare chance at blood and got vocal. They even took the lead in the third quarter and it looked as if an upset was on the cards. But then a turnover at the right time followed by a trademark Brady no-huddle offensive rush run down the field ensured the Pats took a slender one point lead into the dying stages. It was enough to get the win and clench the AFC and home field throughout playoffs. I was one happy boy.

Another fascinating thing about football in this country is tailgating. We arrived in East Rutherford some three hours before kickoff and saw the parking lot already heavily populated with barbequers and beer drinkers around their vehicles. Think old school AFL days at Waverley Park where you could arrive early and have a couple of your own drinks and a sausage by your parking space, only twenty times bigger. It was like the entire Metlife Stadium parking lot had a liquor licence. The atmosphere was unreal and carnival like. The stadium itself, as opposed to basketball, opens three hours early but with good reason. They have a virtual food mall in the stadium and many bar options. Alcohol is so easily accessible at these sporting events it's scary. But just make sure you have your ID on you. Every event we've been to we've been asked, no matter how old you look it's a pretty strict policy.

I've attended four NBA games so far on this trip and two college basketball games but without a doubt the pick of the bunch was the game we just got back from, Chicago Bulls v Washington Wizards. This was another late decision made to attend and again a right one. Two of the best point guards in the business going head to head in the second half had about twenty thousand rocking the Verizon Center. In the end Chicago's Derrick Rose had the winning punch over Washington's John Wall. Wall went on a run that saw his Washington team overcome a double digits deficit to take the lead with a couple of minutes remaining, the home town fans were going nuts. But Rose countered and raised the bar with his own scoring run as well as a couple of neat assists to get the Bulls back on top, where they would stay as the buzzer sounded.

We've seen Duke, UConn, Kansas and Temple (located in the city of Philadelphia) play division one college basketball so far. All of these teams have played in the NCAA tournament in March in recent years and although the highly ranked Kansas JayHawks had an off night in their game the standard of college basketball here is so incredibly high. Also not to mention the standard of college team bands and cheerleaders as well.

The Ohio State Buckeyes football team, who showed me the most comprehensive and complete team performance of this trip with their 59-0 drubbing of the Wisconsin Badgers, earned themselves a spot in the first ever and highly publicized College football playoff starting next week but the next biggest game to these playoffs is the Orange Bowl in Miami. Maddi and I are heading up to Sunlife Stadium to check this one out on New Years' between two rich in sporting history schools, Georgia Tech and Mississippi State.

The NHL was a good experience, we went to Madison Square Garden to see the city's beloved New York Rangers take on and defeat the Carolina Hurricanes. However like soccer, which for both of us we find challenging to get into, scoring is as rare as hens teeth and can catch the casual fan napping. New York scored within the first five minutes and the place was rocking louder than it ever got during the Knicks game we attended but that was it. There was no more pucks hitting the back of the net for the rest of the evening and at the odd time booing was heard. Still, it's another one off the bucket list and we were glad we went.

The Orange Bowl, an on college campus basketball game in Las Vegas and Maddi's ground floor seats to see his Mavericks in Sacramento await us as we reach the second half of our tour so the vast majority of our sports are over. But the experience continues. I'll be making sure we hit up some heavily populated sport bars to see the NFL playoffs in New Orleans and San Francisco as this is where you get a real sense of just how much sports means to this nation, in particular football which is no doubt the overall favourite. This is even if Maddi complained about the lack of NBA on cable on Sunday and likened it to turning on your television set in Melbourne and seeing nothing but NRL.

Number of protests seen on the U.S. streets in my twenty five days of being here so far: zero.