Six months ago on April 1st 2008 I embarked on a voyage of discovery - both American discovery and self-discovery. What I have experienced has been undoubtedly the best six months of my entire life. I can't believe that on April 1st I was just landing at Boston's Logan airport high on adrenaline and thinking "this is amazing!", only to lay in bed that night feeling totally overwhelmed and filled with doubt. But I couldn't give up because I'd given up ev...

I left my hotel in Santa Rosa and drove my hire car back to Sacramento to catch my flight down to Long Beach, California. I had chosen once more to spend the extra money on a one hour flight rather than suffer the nine hour bus ride. The lady who checked me in spotted I was from England and told me she was going to London soon and asked my advice. There was no-one behind me in the queue so I stood there for several minutes trying to recommend places to go. When I...

I have such good cousins. On the final weekend of my trip they offered to take me to Mexico. I had been intending to at least take a day trip to Tijuana from San Diego so the offer of a proper weekend away was great. I didn't bother with Tijuana when I was in San Diego, and two days after I got back to Long Beach from San Diego I was off to Rosarito, Mexico. I saw 7am for the first time in a really long time. It was actually a nice crisp morning with a slight ch...

Before I came to San Diego I had been staying in Long Beach but since I'm going back there I haven't posted details for that yet. So chronologically this one is slightly out of order, but you'll just have to deal with it. After several days of mostly lazing around in Long Beach I managed to find some energy to get out and see somewhere that had been on my original list of places to visit: San Diego, California. I had been told by several people that it is very b...

I left Portland on a fairly overcast day and flew into Sacramento, California. I treated myself to a flight for this journey. I could have taken the bus for 14 hours but I chose the 1.5 hour flight instead because I'm coming to the end of my trip and I'm treating myself now. When I arrived in Sacramento it was 100 degrees, which is the first time I've had hot heat since South Dakota so many weeks ago. But I picked up a car from the airport and drove out to Santa...