road trip USA

The end of the tour

All Things Must Pass

Unfortunately, I've reached my final destination on this journey, and there a few bits still to cover - such as what has worked well (and what hasn't) but more of that in a moment.

A Man's Gotta Do What A Man's Gotta Do...

This was one of my KEY goals. I'd always wanted to see Monument Valley, which was the backdrop to so many legendary western movies directed by John Ford ("Stagecoach", "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", etc), and frequently starring John Wayne. It's a relatively compact area, and spreads across the borders of Arizona and Utah. Contained within the vast Navajo Indian reservation, the administration of the Park itself is delegated to the Navajo Nation, who control access, manage the concessions, sell jewellery on a suspiciously standard pricing basis, and run guided tours of the valley floor. We embarked (briefly) on the valley drive before thinking better of the extremely rough road and returning to the park HQ. Didn't want the hassle of a breakdown to add to our already complex relationship with Budget Car Rental, of which more in a moment. Dinner at Mexican Hat Lodge was just awesome, our steaks swinging on a cast iron griddle over an open flame with live Country and Western and cold beer.

One of the most interesting encounters was with a group of four lady bikers - the Wind Dancers from Grand Junction Colorado, who are a chapter of the Women In The Wind.

I complimented them on the presentation of their gleaming machines, observing that they were as clean as their kitchens. (Remember, this is the Wild West, and I can get away with such sexism!) Oh, much cleaner than that! was the response. One of these gals appears to be 80, very slight of build, and it's a mystery to me how she keeps her heavy bike upright when stationery. Much respect! (And another crack in the wall of Tripper's Theory of Evolution.)

One more big character worthy of mention. Our host Tom Wells at the Rio Grande Motel in Monte Vista was a native of Alabama with the most - well, Alabaman - accent imaginable. His brother was born in England whilst father was a serving US Air Force man, and we spent some time chatting. His motel evidences a keen hunter, with horns, heads and skins all over the place (the shower curtain was THE most impressive I've seen). Although I have little time for those who go hunting with high-powered rifles and telescopic sights - it seems terribly one sided to me - I had to give this guy utmost respect for hunting only with a bow and arrow. His wife only uses an old powder and ball muzzle-loader. A nice little stopover that proved much better than first impressions suggested: especially as his referral to Alibi's Sports Bar meant we could watch the decisive final game of the NBA play-offs (Boston Celtics raced past the LA Lakers) with some food and cold beers - and a generous free T-shirt from the proprietor. Many thanks, Tom.

Rocky Mountain High

Having driven north through Colorado, stopping briefly near Monte Vista to see the Great Sand Dunes National Park, and two nights in Leadville, we have reached our final stopping point.

Rocky Mountain National Park is another beautiful wilderness, much of it above the treeline (11,000 feet) and the main road across the park tops out at 12,200 feet, the highest "proper" road in N America.

The car is gasping a bit at this point, as am I when I go to scale a modest peak a few hundred feet above the car park. Several of the peaks exceed 14,000 feet, and the Never Summer Range will remain snow capped all through the summer.

Grand Theft Auto?

It's nearly time to pack up, and I am STILL waiting for Budget Car Rental to correct a manifest error in the way they have booked our car rental. Briefly, I noticed an extra charge of $671to our account in late May. This rang warning bells, as the hire had been entirely prepaid before leaving England. Many many hours of phone calls later, and some big hotel phone bills incurred when we were out of range of wifi, and still Budget hasn't resolved the problem. When I collected the car in Washington, they only booked it (unbeknown to me) on their system for 4 weeks (instead of 9) and now have me booked on their defaulters' rate, which means their computer system is expecting me to pay anything from $4000-$7000 (depending upon whom I believe) when we arrive in Denver on Tuesday. I've spoken to 8 different members of their staff, and have got hold of a supervisor (Josh Lucas in Budget Customer Service) but despite talking to him at least 7 times, he still hasn't sent me an email confirmation, or arranged a refund. So I'm holding my breath: will I be arrested for Grand Theft Auto on Tuesday 24th June? Having worked for a large organisation, I know that mistakes happen, and am always prepared to be tolerant and forgiving if the organisational response is to remedy the problem reasonably quickly and humanely.

For the past 4 weeks, this has been a big distraction. Budget in Washington DC rarely picks up its phone, and the manager there lost my details, and failed to take any action. I reckon I've dialled Budget approaching 100 times, had at least 20 conversations, spoken to 8 different people: and still I'm waiting.

SO: a big BLACK MARK to Budget Car Rental for failing properly to rectify a simple error.

What has worked well? or not so well...

Here is my kit. Compared with 25 years ago, the internet has made information much more accessible. It has also made keeping in touch easier: the skype phone and email both worked well in most places.

Skype phone - brilliant. Using the pc via a Bluetooth dongle and earpiece, this has worked everywhere that I've had internet access - usually wifi. Free calls direct to Mrs Tripper's pc at her office desk, and calls to landlines in the UK only cost 1.2p per minute.

TomTom 920 - the Satnav, or GPS in American parlance. This was £300 well spent (on the top of the range model containing both American and European maps). I haven't needed it for the big picture driving (eg westbound R50 in Nevada for nearly 400 miles) but it's been helpful for the detail of getting around bigger towns, and invaluable in cities. See my tribute on page 18 of the blog for more details.

Mobile phone: a big flop - I bought a US sim card from Jolt via 0044 in the UK, the idea being that I'd make calls within the US and to the UK from a US account, rather than trying to do the same with my UK card. Calling the UK only worked once, and I spent much of my prepaid budget on the phone to Jolt Telecom helpline in the USA, who belatedly realised that some "module" of theirs was inoperative. Fortunately, the Skype facility worked well enough to plug this gap.

My camera kit 25 years ago consisted of camera body, 3 separate lenses, filters, flash, & films, all in a small briefcase. Today, my £230 Canon Powershot S5 iS (image stabilisation) has been brilliant: compact, versatile, with 12x zoom, much sharper images than the professional critics give credit for, and the 4gb SD card has accommodated my 3000+ pictures. This is a new problem in itself, as I am still trying to discipline myself to take fewer photos - it's so easy to take 100 in a day, then face the difficult challenge of what to delete. The pc is useful to backup the pictures in case the camera fails or is lost.

Internet and email access via my old-ish laptop has worked well most of the time. Occasionally, the wifi signal has been too weak to be useable, and of course there are areas (especially in the National Parks) where one has to fall back on good old fashioned land line phones (at exorbitant rates, hence my $70 bill in Death Valley for unsuccessfully trying to phone Budget Car Rental). Most motels now have wifi, although some of them block outward email using SMTP as an anti-spam measure, which makes emailing cumbersome.

Regular internet access also enables the odd work commitment to be maintained, and enables the traveller to manage issues like bank and credit card accounts whilst on the move (I would have been blissfully unaware of the looming Budget Car disaster had I been unable to log into my credit card account).

Motels - away from the parks, travelling in hope and just turning up on the doorstep works well, especially if you get an early start, and plan to stop for the day between 5-6pm. Many motels only fill up quite late in the day. All of my motel/hotel stops have been written up on TripAdvisor.com, which has been a terrific source of information. To see the detailed map, motel reports and photos of the trip, click on this link to my profile in TripAdvisor. The free breakfasts offered by some motels are generally a bit thin, but are useful both in getting you underway promptly, and if you can then last until evening, help the travel budget.

Credit cards and cash cards work well. One difference in the US is that invariably you pay a fee to withdraw cash from an ATM, and this has ranged from $1.50 to $4 + 2% in Las Vegas. This is generally a flat fee, so it penalises those who can only afford to draw small amounts - obviously it pays to draw a big wodge all at once (although many machines limit you to $200). I haven't had to resort to the US$ travellers cheques that I've been carrying in reserve. It has saved me a bundle to use a Nationwide Gold Credit Card, which is one of the few that doesn't add an exchange rate surcharge on converting from $ to £ (most cards charge 2.75%). Nationwide's Cash Card gives a similar benefit in only charging the market exchange rate for the cash withdrawal. So sadly, here I am giving a plug to my opposition... At a guess, using the right cards has saved me over £200.

Observations

In no particular order, and with a variable blend of evidence and opinion, here are the thoughts of Mr T after 10 weeks on the road.

The people of the US are overwhemingly polite, warm and welcoming, and we British could learn something from them in this respect. They are less cynical, more openly patrotic than us, and they seem to have a more cohesive social identity.

Travelling alone, I have found it very easy to talk to people and gather interesting snippets for the blog. (Well, I think they are interesting...!)

The US is ill-prepared for an era of high and increasing oil prices. There are still far too many huge pickups and gas guzzling SUVs, very few small cars, too much dependence on extravagant usage of air-con and heating of huge spaces to defeat the more extreme weather conditions than we are used to. Much discussion over whether Alaska and Colorado's vast oil shales should be opened up for development, ignoring the fact that adding these extra reserves to the world supply will make no appreciable difference to the world price, and they are probably only economically viable at a high oil price anyway.

I've seen hardly any graffiti: some of the rail wagons in remote goods yards in the midwest bore the trademark artistic graffiti paintings. Mrs T found some on the back of a toilet door: but these were exceptions.

Connected with the above, exceptionally good public conveniences (restrooms, bathrooms, comfort stations). They are invariably (a) open (b) well cared for (c) unvandalised (d) free.

Every motel has a different shower, so one spends a few minutes each morning working out whether to push, pull, twist, lift, and/or any combination thereof. Many are now using a bow-shaped shower curtain rod, which must make showering more comfortable for guests of a larger waistband.

There must be a Nobel Peace Prize (sic) waiting for someone who can design a quiet air conditioning unit for motel rooms.

Moving every day or two has meant that I've never once got bored: it also means that I tend not to get settled on any one bed, and have got used to sleeping with eye shades to deal with intrusive security lighting, bright early sun and very variable curtaining.

Moving on briskly to a timetable has also had one other unforeseen consequence: as I travelled, I looked for some of those local events that give colour, such as rodeos, carnivals, political meetings, stock car and demolition derby events, etc. Invariably, they were last week, or next week, or even last night... Not until we reached Aztec in week 8 did our timing coincide with the stock car races. In future, I'll have to allow more unplanned time, and also do a bit of prior research. At least we did get to see the NBA playoffs live on TV, so blessed relief there.

Time changes: I had a vague idea that, as in the best sci-fi movies, on crossing into a fresh time zone, the bonnet of the car would shimmer then disappear through a liquid mirror surface in front of me. Or at the very least, I'd pass a big road sign saying "Put your Clock back one hour/crossing into Mountain Time" but there was nothing, and the first I knew of the change in time was a chance comment from a motel receptionist, or on one occasion, from breakfast TV the following morning.

What new things have I experienced / tried / learned?

Talking to strangers every day. Its' really easy in the US!

Biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

Bison steak (they are culled to manage the herd). After going back 2ce (swimming in blood, which shouldn't be the case for "medium/well") it proved to be very tough meat.

Making waffles (see waffle maker photo).

Skyline Catapult over the Royal Gorge.

Skype phoning - generally very good and very cheap.

Country and Western - I always liked, but I never knew quite how much, or quite how much good C&W there is: or indeed, how dominant it is across the midwest.

Blogging (more time consuming than I had expected, but you know, when you have a tiger by the tail, and all that... you have to keep your public satisfied...)

Travelling solo: I'm at ease with my own company, albeit it's also been fun to join up again with the family. It's easy to travel the USA informally and inexpensively, particularly if you avoid the key tourist spots at peak season. If you find it easy to stoke up on a free breakfast and travel until evening whilst only grazing on nibbles, the food bill can be quite small.

Statistics

Number of States visited: 16
Miles driven: 7960
Motels, hotels, B&Bs and accommodations used: 33
Number of photos a) taken b) retained (so far!) a) 3950 b) 2700
Number of National Parks & monuments visited: 24 (that I can remember)
Number of interesting people talked to: Too many to count them all.
   

Costs - for 6 weeks travel from Washington DC - San Francisco

Total spend for 6 weeks, excl flight and car hire $4257, = £2200
Flight: BA to Washington DC, back from Denver £136 + tax £207 = £343
Car hire (6 weeks out of 10) Budget Car Rental £705 + $300 one way rental fee
Annual extended trip travel insurance (Insure and Go) £95 for 2 of us
TomTom 920 with USA & Europe maps & long mount £300
Camera - Canon Powershot S5is + bag, & 4gb SD card £230
Other, eg Bluetooth, earpiece, batteries, Skype credit £100
   

Final words...

Final words? For 30 years, I've dreamed of taking time out to drive right across the USA, and now I've done it. And yes, it lived up to expectations.

This is a Great Country...

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