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Published: July 26th 2012
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Well, time flies......only seems yesterday when Christine & I got married on a beach in Mauritius with some friends & family around us, when suddenly we realised our son was heading towards his GCSE's (aged 16)....and we had never taken him or his sister to the States. Not even Disney. Disneyland Paris doesn't count !
Despite me having worked for US companies for almost 2 decades.
Shocking really......bad parents! Anyway, the realisation hit us before Christmas, and we figured it was time to give them a taster of the USofA. Only we weren't too sure where to take them. I've seen 30+ States through work and student holiday jobs (travelling fun fair & tobacco picking !), and really wanted them to get the feel for how diverse the Country is.
So we decided. Start on east coast (New York, DC), then fly to west and drive around a bit. Ok, a lot.
The planning began. It started with the simple purchase of a New York City Pass (
http://www.newyorkpass.com) - I wanted to kick off with an intense run around the City. Of course back in December, this all seemed reasonable. Now we have soaring heat and
West Coast
first draft! high humidity, I suspect this was a mistake, but hey, what the heck....should cure jet-lag !
So we got packs that proved to the children that we really were committed. Look kids, some real paperwork: we *are* going !
The small matter of London 2012 impinged on our thinking - we did want to get a flavour of The Games. So we applied for a few things, and got football (soccer for my American friends) in Coventry (well, that was never going to sell out, eh!), and a bit of real indoor volleyball in London. We could fly out the next morning and avoid the rest of the manic traffic hell back in good old Blighty - fab !
Flights. It looked so easy, we were planning to organise the whole lot. Then it occurred to me that if we were to suffer another "Ash Cloud", I would rather have someone to call for the big things. Like getting us out or home. So we searched and talked to a few agents....and our local Coop were very close to prices we thought we could get on our own.....and when we found them using telephones to speak to actual people to get anything sorted, that was it: they would book our flights and a couple of hotel rooms.
That done, the next piece was how to travel about the west coast. I have always fancied a Winnebago trip, and indeed I spent far too long reading
http://www.cross-country-trips.com/ and wishing I had taken the time earlier to do all this for our family......it seemed the way to go!
Then I investigated a little more. Hmmm....one-way RV rentals sound tricky to book....and expensive ! & then there are the RV Parks. I am sure many would be fabulous....but I bet a few are more trailer-park-trash than RV-Relaxation-Heaven ! The final nail was reading a travel book (name escapes me) and seeing that none of them would insure the roof.
The roof ?
Yup, you hit some trees on that and you're on your own.
So how about we take a big wagon and just stay in hotels, motels, whatever we find. Hell, we can wing it & find somewhere when we are out there.
& then I started thinking.....do we really want the hassle of finding places late in the evening ?
Plus, I knew I wanted us to stay on the rim at Bryce & Grand Canyons.....which meant booking well ahead. Which meant we had to work out what nights we would want to be there.....which means we could easily work out roughly where we might want to be in between.
Thus began The Spreadsheet.
THEN a friend at work mentioned
https://www.airbnb.com/ - what a great site !
Those nights "in between" suddenly filled up, & in one sunny Sunday afternoon we found a dozen nights filled up with places ranging from staying with families in LA & Monterray, to a plush MGM Suite in Vegas, to a log cabin on a hippy place in Utaaaah - yes, this was shaping up nicely.
Next we needed the more detailed route.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/ helped provide weird & wonderful sights to spy along our route.....how could we not take a 5 mile detour out of Salt Lake City to see the
Biggest Pit in the World ?
The Spreadsheet from Hell was busy filling up with ideas.....and so the planning continued !
More later....the departure date looms large !
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