The Countdown Continues

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At the beginning of June (in The Countdown Begins), I wrote about my nascent plans for my next major overseas trip planned for 2010. Back then I’d been home in Adelaide eight months following my last trip, and I was counting down the ten months before my expected departure.

Now here I am, two months later and find those numbers have been reversed. I’m now ten months back with eight months before I head off again around the end of March.

My plans are still no clearer in my mind, with respect to what I want to do, and where I want to go, other than I want to undertake a major road trip across the United States, and once again end up in Greece for an extended stay. Greece is the ideal place as the final destination of my travels because I have two sisters living there, and the free use of the original family home on the island of Ikaria.

Regular readers of this blog will know I have been conducting lots of research in the form of reading (and reviewing) books – old and new – in preparation for my trip. I’m a great believer in trying to get a broad understanding of the cities and the landscape of countries I am travelling through, so I can better enjoy the experience. Knowing something about the history, culture, and lives of the people I might meet helps build insight and awareness into the overall travel experience. The more I research and learn, the more I am able to see the world through the eyes of the locals and modify or drop my own preconceived ideas of how I think they should or should not be living or behaving.

And so to America. So far my thoughts are thus: I will probably fly into Los Angeles. I will then catch up with various relatives on the west coast (San Diego; Tucson, Arizona, and elsewhere).

I will then embark on my road trip. But for how long and to where exactly? This is currently my great dilemma. The United States is so vast and varied that there is far too much to see and do in one road trip no matter how extended it may be. My plans have ranged from a circumnavigation of the continental United States that would involve driving some ten to twelve thousand kilometres (assuming Google has done the maths correctly), to much shorter drives of four to six thousand kilometres.

I am currently more inclined to aim for a shorter drive where I can spend more time savouring the journey and the destinations along the way, but I’m still a long way from deciding where my road will lead me.

My latest Google mapping exercise has me plotting a route from Los Angeles across the southern states as far east as Alabama, and then up to Nashville before driving back to L.A. along Route 66 (see map illustrating this entry). However, at around 5,300 miles (or 8,500 kilometres), even this road trip looks like hard work, and vacations should not be hard work. They should be relaxing and fun, and stimulating and exciting.

Not that I am baulking at the distances involved – even though I will probably be on my own. One thing Australian drivers learn to do early – whether they like driving or not – is drive long distances. We know that short of flying between major capital cities (or taking a train or coach), the most convenient way to get anywhere is by car. And since we hate to be without a car at our ultimate destination, driving our own vehicles to our final destination is almost always our preferred option.

Anyway, I know I will return to this theme several more times before March, so bear with me, and if you have any ideas or suggestions, please pass on your tips via the Comments box below.

Addendum to 'Road Trip USA' Review

~ Road Trip USA: Route 66, and Road Trip USA: Pacific Coast Highway, Pocket Guides

“These books are perfect for ‘slow travellers’. For those adventurers who are curious to explore the road less travelled; the unusual and the real; the small towns and the back roads that lead to them – and which in turn lead to the heart and soul of America.”

Yesterday I posted a review of Jamie Jensen’s Road Trip USA (In Review: Road Trip USA). This post is an addendum to that review.

The new edition of Road Trip USA is now supplemented with two pocket guides, Road Trip USA Route 66, and Road Trip USA Pacific Coast Highway.

The two pocket guides have been lifted straight out of the main Road Trip USA volume, and apart from a few small but useful additions, contain the same content as that which is included in the Route 66, and Pacific Coast Highway sections of the main text.

Just for the record, my comparison of the pocket guide: Road Trip USA Route 66, with Road Trip USA shows extra pages have been added to the pocket guide providing additional information about Chicago, St Louis, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. While comparing Road Trip USA Pacific Coast Highway

with Road Trip USA shows the pocket guide has extra information covering Seattle and Portland.

I expect that before too long, the other nine routes detailed in Road Trip USA will soon find their way onto the shelves of bookshops as pocket guides in their own right. And why not? It makes perfect sense to take each of the eleven major routes in Jensen’s book and create separate guides for them, since the main tome is large, heavy and not entirely practical if you are only planning one major American road trip. I assume the choice of starting with the Pacific Coast Highway and Route 66 has been governed by research showing these are two of the most popular road trips undertaken in the US.

However, one of the benefits of the one volume Road Trip USA is that if you decide to make a side trip that falls outside the boundaries of say, Route 66, to visit Memphis, Tennessee, (which is not listed in the Route 66 pocket guide), you can simply turn to the section on The Great River Road – which follows the Mississippi River, and which does include Memphis – and continue following directions from there.

The same caveats apply to the pocket guides as those already expressed about the main volume. That is, that neither of the guides include internet addresses for any of the main attractions or destinations listed in the books. And neither of them include information that would be useful to travellers embarking on their first major road trip.

Even more surprising is the fact that the few Road Trip Resources pages at the end of Road Trip USA containing useful information about hotels and motels, car hire companies and other details have been dropped completely from both pocket guides – so you will have to do your research well, before you set off on your adventure of a life time.

Again, I should stress that the lack of web links and additional resources does not detract in any way, shape or form from the excellent and detailed information contained in any of the guides. These books are designed to get you off the interstate freeway system and on to America’s two-lane highways, hence the full title of Jamie Jensen’s book, Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America’s Two-Lane Highways.

These books are perfect for ‘slow travellers’. For those adventurers who are curious to explore the road less travelled; the unusual and the real; the small towns and the back roads that lead to them – and which in turn lead to the heart and soul of America.

Highly recommend.

Click on link to purchase your copy of Road Trip USA Route 66
Or click image to purchase direct from Amazon website…



Click on link to purchase your copy of Road Trip USA Pacific Coast Highway
Or click image to purchase direct from Amazon website…

Publication Details…

Road Trip USA Route 66 First Edition, by Jamie Jensen ISBN 13: 978-1-59880-205-4 April 2009 * 114 pages * US$9.95	Road Trip USA Pacific Coast Highway First Edition, by Jamie Jensen ISBN 13: 978-1-59880-204-7 April 2009 * 146 pages * US$9.95
Published by Avalon Travel A Member of the Perseus Books Group