November 10th 2009 There once was a girl from Nantucket... Yes folks, I did it. I made the ferry connection. For those who have forgotten my last blog (many moons ago now) I have repeatedly failed to catch ferries on my trip across the States. Whilst it all made for entertaining reading for you guys, it wasn't much fun for me. So I was utterly thrilled to find myself in Hyannisport two hours before the ferry arrived into the terminal, let alone left for the delightful island of Nantucket, just off the South coast of Cape Cod. I was mightly torn [View Full Entry]

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Painting the town ... orange It's been a varied couple of weeks. Only one constant: the endless stream of bright orange pumpkins found on every street, in every front yard, in every store front. Rather than mourning the end of summer, America appears to be basking in the rich hues of autumn with pumpkins, chrysanthemums and wreaths adorning doorsteps like ornaments on the Christmas tree. Throw in some (okay, a few hundred thousand) trees with their turning leaves, and it's a pretty magical place to be. :-) So, about two weeks ago I found myself sat in a Jersey motel in [View Full Entry]

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October 9th 2009 My final crash... Leaving Washington I was even more concerned about almost crashing the car. Not because of spectacular views but because I was heading to New York where I had been warned of spectacularly bad driving. Oh joy.... After taking a wrong turn out the hotel, Pamela led me on an Easter Egg hunt through the northern suburbs of D.C. Detours are rarely something to frown about; you can end up in the most interesting of places. Or you can end up in Maryland. And then Delaware. And then New Jersey. Now the latter is something to [View Full Entry]

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September 25th 2009 Homesick I was in two minds about leaving North Carolina. Part of me loved the beach, the fresh air, the solitude. The rest of me was eager to be moving on and rejoining society. It didn't take long to make the transition. Just a couple hours after leaving the Outer Banks I had already arrived at my next destination, namely Virginia's Historic Triangle (Yorktown, Jamestown and Williamsburg). When did everything get so close together? I'm used to driving for at least six hours between overnight stops... Montana this ain't! On the advice of a North Carol [View Full Entry]

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September 17th 2009 Let's start at the very beginning Possibly a case of too much information, but it turns out my very beginning occurred not in North Carolina but back in good old Memphis, Tennessee. Thanks Auntie Boobie and Unkin Don for sharing that gem with me! Moving on nine months, we arrive back in Jacksonville, North Carolina, where, indeed, I came into this world. My impressions of North Carolina from my childhood are ... zilch! I was just a few months old when my mom and I left, heading back to Memphis before eventually returning to England. I have visite [View Full Entry]

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September 15th 2009 Hang on a second! Taking you back a couple of weeks, I woke up one Wednesday morning at the glorious Mountain Light Sanctuary. It was my intention to drive back across the Great Smokey Mountains, which I last explored rapidly in the dark on my way to the Sanctuary. Betty Boy packed, I was ready for an adventurous trip down to Atlanta. I worked my way down to Asheville, making a serious of very rapid U-turns trying to follow the confusing road signs. At one point I was driving on the I-40, and highways 19, 23 and 74 [View Full Entry]

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September 1st 2009 Curled up on the porch at the Mountain Light Sanctuary near Asheville, North Carolina and reflecting on the past two weeks since I left Little Rock, Arkansas, I am stunned to realise quite how much has happened. How on earth can I condense it into just a few short paragraphs? Well, here goes… You can kill the dreamer, but you will never kill the dream Arriving in Tennessee from the West, you cross the Mississippi river on the Hernando De Soto Bridge, and are treated to a momentary glimpse of Memphis’s downtown skyline running along the east [View Full Entry]

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August 27th 2009 Dorothy (of The Wizard of Oz fame) once said - well, actually she said it many times - 'there's no place like home'. It was a sentiment at the front of my mind whilst sitting in my lovely hotel room in Amarillo, TX about two weeks ago now. Whilst this trip has been amazing, fascinating, eye-opening, sometimes I would just like to go home. You ever had that feeling? Turns out someone was reading my mind. And so sent me to Oklahoma and Arkansas. My aunt (the one who described Barstow, CA, as the armpit of the world) [View Full Entry]

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It's been a less than thrilling week in Amarillo. The routine: get up, study, spend too much time on Facebook, watch the sunset, go to bed. Seven whole days. The maid has become my best friend. Except she doesn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish, so our relationship centres around her knocking on the door, saying 'cleaning' and me smiling profusely, nodding my head and leaving for the gym. So, despite my deep connections to the place, it's time to leave Amarillo. Nik, sorry to say there hasn't been time to visit the 47ft tin cowboy. But Oklahoma, where the [View Full Entry]

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August 11th 2009 A city different I cruelly laughed at Alex when she asked whether people live in New Mexico. Apparently it was not such a silly question: Americans and foreigners alike often enquire about the existence of New Mexico and are surprised to hear it is actually one of the 'lower 48' (states of America). They even have a column in a state-wide newspaper where New Mexicans can share their stories of encountering ignorance about their state. I am slightly baffled by this. As a child I had fun (obviously I was a hard-done-by youth) in listing all 50 states [View Full Entry]

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