Pre-match nerves?

The World Cup has officially started! But what on earth has this got to do with travelling to America later in the year? You’d be surprised how many similarities I’ve been able to draw between the World Cup and our travel plans.

Firstly, I had been offered a position in South Africa about this time last year by a guy who works with Ambassadors In Sport and was heading to South Africa to help run an evangelistic soccer ministry. He had asked if I was interested in training up young coaches for soccer ministry. Had things worked out differently there would never have been the plans to go to America and join Duncan in his travels.

Second of all, as a guy, you tend to get pretty excited about big things. The World Cup is a big thing: 64 games, 32 teams, the best players in the world, 3 games a day… the list goes on. I have been counting down the days to the World Cup for a couple of months now. Memories of past classic encounters sailed through my mind. I needed to prepare for the World Cup by watching the top goals from previous tournaments; reading the reviews of top matches from previous tournaments and just generally remembering how much fun it was.

Similarly, I am excited about America, and many memories of previous trips there start to pop into my mind when I think about the States. I am a bit worried that I am starting to count the calendar days for America – Duncan leaves in 44 days, and myself in 75 days.

For the big game last night we had prepared the flags in the lounge, bought in the beers and the snacks and invited some friends round. It was a dire game, void of chances and just generally lacklustre. It was quite disappointing after all the excitement – the big occasion had failed to deliver after we had given it so much hype. I will no doubt prepare equally well for America knowing full well how much fun it has been in the past, with previous experiences directing my expectations as the trip gets ever closer and I remember how much fun it has been in the past.

I was going to write all that last night, but as is the case with jet-lag, you tend to feel a lot better after a good nights sleep and a day of acclimatising. As was the case with the World Cup - while the games today weren't amazing, they did at least offer a glimmer of footballing hope for what is to come, and reminded me why I get excited each time it comes round. So should day 1 of America seem like a pale replication of previous adventures, I'll happily head to bed and get some sleep and rest knowing full well that jet-lag tends to pass quickly and what follows tends to be pretty awesome.

It's official!

Today was a very good day - well apart from the fact that I woke up with a headache which felt like it had been attacked by, well, you know the question: which would you rather be attacked by - a horse-sized duck or an army of duck-sized horses? I awoke to feel as though both, throughout the night, had taken it in turns to bang my head against the wall whilst jumping up and down on it. Which meant that I didn't make it in to work til 4pm for an experiment which had just been done for me by supervisor. Anyway, I digress...

Thursday 26th August I fly into Detroit, MI via Amsterdam, from Aberdeen.
Thursday 4th November I fly out of Detroit, MI via Amsterdam, to Aberdeen.

I'm so pant-wettingly excited.

Preliminary plans!

So I've yet to actually buy my tickets, but I have done a lot of investigating on the subject. News to follow in later posts.

However, we have given our journey 3 legs fitting round the main dates of our travel - buying a car (26th/27th August); being in Tampa, Florida for Peter's wedding (18th September); being in Los Angeles for Eilidh arriving (9th October); being in Seattle, Washington for Eilidh flying home (21st October); being out of USA by 24th October. These dates are cast in iron, apart from my arrival date, but in between we are fairly open to changing our route - but these places are where just now we'd like to visit.

Leg 1: 27th August - 18th September (Cleveland, OHIO - Tampa, FLORIDA)
- approximately 4,071 miles.
Stopping off in Detroit, Mackinaw City, Minneapolis, Omaha, Pella, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, Richmond, Lexington, Nashville, Atlanta.


Leg 2: 20th September - 9th October (Tampa, FLORIDA - Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA)
- approximately 3,535 miles.
Stopping off in New Orleans, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Mexican Hat, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Death Valley, Manteca, Yosemite, Bakersfield.


As for the final leg, we've not got round to that yet, but we hope to take Highway One, up the Big Sur through California.

Exciting times!

Getting down to things.

So this evening was the first time I properly sat down and researched flights and associated costs. I know the pound isn't as strong as it used to be, or perhaps the dollar has got stronger, but it's looking like costing a wee bitty more than first expected. A good return from Aberdeen to mid-west sort of area is ranging from about £450-£525. We had Moray round our flat this evening and he has expressed interest at going to the Florida wedding - which would make it more of a Scottish gathering across the pond. Moray in September, and then Eilidh in October.

Is it also rude to ask the groom if we can give a speech at his wedding to plug our trip and to tap into the potential American contacts present?

April update

I'm pretty certain no-one at all reads this blog, so it's not like hundreds of people world-wide have been holding their breath in anticipation for our next move.

Not an awful lot has happened since last blogging - Duncan's girlfriend Eilidh will most likely be joining us for the final leg of our America adventure - somewhere in northern California up to Oregon/Washington.

No news on a car yet either. Car tax is rumoured to be cheapest in the states of Ohio and Wisconsin, so it looks like we'll be buying from there if we get our fingers out. However, having just watched the Top Gear America special, we shall most definitely not be writing any of the following slogans on the side of our car whilst driving through the deep south: "Hilary for President", "Country & Western is rubbish", "Nascar sucks" or "Man love rules OK".

Perhaps slightly un-travel related, was the surprise with which we read a news story that a convicted murderer in Utah had been given the choice of lethal injection or death by firing squad given that the death sentence exists in 35 American states. We shall most definitely be behaving ourselves over the water now.

According to Duncan, if you buy your plane tickets with a credit card, then your flights are insured should the company go bust. However, should the old boy Eyjafjallajokull decide to let rip again around the the start of Autumn, flights to America could be disrupted. But I'd actually need to have some flights booked in the first place to be affected by volcanic ash. So I guess I should go out and buy some flights soon...

Disappointing competition or helpful advice?

Dave Gorman - the writer of many a funny "boy-project" book, along with his then flatmate Danny Wallace, has proved to be our nemesis. Or has he? Well, Duncan was at home last week for a couple of days and his parents gave him a book that they had been told about.

"America Unchained" by Dave Gorman... the back page reads "The plan was simple. Go to America. Buy a second-hand car. Drive coast-to-coast without giving any money to the Man. What can possibly go wrong?"

There goes MY book deal...

Providential clumsiness

While studying away in the lounge yesterday evening, I heard an almighty bang from upstairs. Probably just Duncan standing up too quickly and smacking his head off the roof - not normally something to worry about, but in this instance anything was more interesting than reading up on the ins and outs of dealing with confounding factors in epidiomological study design...

Semi-expecting to be greeted by a bleeding corpse with a massive dent in its head at the top of the stairs, it turns out that in turning round too quickly Duncan had knocked his printer over and as it fell to pieces, out fell his passport. He'd been looking for it for a few weeks now and no stone had been left unturned. But thanks to his oaf-ish clumsiness, he now not only has a broken printer, but a valid passport too!

Another step toward getting us closer to America!