So the long awaited, much postponed trip to America is finally here. we’re off in just a couple of days’ time. I’ve never been “across the pond” before and I’m really looking forward to seeing if the USA that I’ve spent years watching on the TV will match up to real life.
Our first port of call will be Denver, home of the Broncos who even made the British sports news recently for their record breaking run of winning games. I’m looking forward to going to the Capitol building and standing on the mile high step. Living in England, there are not many places much above sea level, so when we land in Denver we’ll already be nearly twice as high as Ben Nevis. Denver is also famous for having 300 days of sunshine a year – wonderful after the joys of the British weather.
After a couple of days acclimatisation (apparently altitude sickness could be a problem unless we rest and drink lots of water), we’ll be climbing even higher and going for a few days sightseeing in Colorado Springs. We hope to take in the Garden of the Gods and maybe even the cog railway up Pikes Peak, the highest mountain in the Rocky Mountain Range. If we’re lucky there might be some spectacular autumn colour for us to enjoy.
And then we have 5 days which are as yet unplanned. We might take in some of the Grand Canyon, or I’m told Bryce Canyon is a “must see”. Another option would be to drive across to Las Vegas and see some of the strip and see if we can win the cost of our trip :-). When we planned the itinerary it looked like car hire was much more expensive if we picked up from one airport and dropped it off at another, so we’ve opted to fly back from Denver. It’ll be interesting to see if that’s the right choice, or if we could have done more if we’d chosen to depart from Las Vegas.
Having driven in continental Europe, I’m used to driving on the right. So much so that even in England now I have to chant to myself “drive on the left” every time I turn out of a T-junction. I have, however, never driven a left hand drive car – and an automatic at that. My sister who drives a lot in Germany says that it’s much easier in a left hand drive car as everything is in the right place on the road. I imagine she’s right, as a driver sitting in the centre of the road is more normal than driving along in the gutter as I do in France – which makes Alpine hairpin bends extremely scary!
I’m fascinated to see how much bigger everything is. By reputation, the portions are bigger, the shops are bigger, the roads and the trucks are bigger, everything is bigger, so will we find that everything is super-sized?
Speaking of super-sized, I personally will be avoiding McDonalds because we have that over here but one of the main things I’m looking forward to is trying different food. Instead of going out on a Sunday morning to our local greasy spoon (Kiki’s in Newbury, excellent value and very tasty) for “Full English” we’ll be going out for pancakes and bacon with maple syrup. I might try grits as well as I have no idea what they are. I would think steak restaurants might be similar to the Beefeater style we get here, but I’m sure there are a multitude of different cuisines to enjoy. I realize that I’ll probably have to spend the next couple of months dieting, but I expect it to be worth it for the experience of trying new things.
Flying has never been my favourite activity, so that’s the part of the trip that I’m least looking forward to. Even Paul McKenna’s hypnosis for enjoyable flying didn’t really do it for me, so these days I’m fortunate in having an understanding doctor who prescribes diazepam to keep me relaxed enough not to worry my travelling companions too much on the flight.
So ESTAs have been sorted out – a much quicker job than I though it would be. Dollars have been bought (moneysavingexpert has a really useful and comprehensive travel money checker which gave us Thomas Cook as the best local bureau de change). There’s just the packing to go before we’re up, up and away for my first taste of the land of the free.