This is a personal memorandum about my first ever trip to the United States
in the summer of 2004 at the age of 68, after a life-time of being interested
in, and drawn to, the culture and society of that country, either by cinema or
book; a life-time of day-dreaming about visiting that great and most fabulous
of countries. Another
factor playing no small part in the dream was a life-long interest
in maps and geography. This had started at a very early age, when I used to cycle
round London with my grandfather, getting to learn my way around without fear and
never feeling 'lost' or frightened at being far from places I knew. Later, this
translated itself into a more concrete form when I became - after qualifying and
working as an analytical chemist for some years, a London cab-driver and then - as
a hobby - learning to fly. Map-gazing had been - and still is - a very real part of my life!
Throughout the years the dream of visiting the U.S. returned every so often but for one reason or another
- not least among them, money - the dream never progressed much
beyond being just that - a dream.
Then, when the dream had virtually faded from even the background of my memory,
I met my second wife, Elisabeth. Elisabeth is originally from Morocco but
from the age of about 20, lived in the U.S for 20 years until around 1982,
when she moved back to southern France (Montpellier), with two of her now-growing four children.
Her own family - siblings and parents - had settled there years previously, some of them
in Paris, some - cousins, etc., elsewhere.
The eldest of her children, Randy, had decided in any case to remain in the States and settled in
what had been their home town of Muncie, IN. Later, a daughter - Michelle - decided
to return to the States and, after a spell in Chicago, moved to the west coast, married, settled eventually in Las Vegas
but then moved, with her husband to Phoenix, then to Sierra Vista and latterly to just north of Washington DC.
Also in the States were several cousins and an aunt all of whom had arrived independantly -
either through marriage or other reason and lived variously in Los Angeles and Florida.
There were also other friends scattered throughout the States apart from those made during her 20
years in Muncie. As a senior employee of a major international airline, one of her sons
enjoyed privileges for family members and as a step-father, it soon became clear that these
privileges extended to me also. With that knowledge came the realisation that what had been
once a mere, idle dream became a step nearer reality and in the summer of 2004, as the result of
a special invitation to Berlin to attend certain ceremonies, we decided to continue on to the
States for a visit to get to know Elisabeth's other two children and relatives. The family in
France I had already had the pleasure of meeting on two or three previous visits.
For months previously, as soon as it became clear that this journey had every chance of becoming
a fact I had been studying possible routes, using
Terraserver,
on the internet, evaluating topography and even examining major urban road intersections for entrances and
exits via aerial zoom photos. I was determined to see the United States from zero altitude and
not from 30,000 feet or so. With that in view, I had been in touch with several companies or their
affiliates dealing in car-ferry services and since our journey was programmed to start at San Francisco,
I eventually made a friendly contact with a company office in Hayward, on the east side of the Bay.
So it was, that my passport shows an American stamp for the first time, dated 10 August 2004,
at Dulles International Airport, Washington D.C. We had to wait on stand-by for several hours for
a flight to San Francisco but eventually some time around midnight, we found ourselves
taking-off for the west coast. There is little to see from an aircraft at night so after a while
I found myself dozing off. I awoke to see far off on the horizon, to the northwest, a haze of light - far too large
to be just a small city. I 'guesstimated' it to be Sacramento, and said so to Elisabeth adding, that if so
we should very shortly be making a descent for San Francisco. The words were no sooner out of my mouth
when I felt the change in the power settings and sure enough we began to descend. And so it was that for
the first time in my life, I found myself walking the streets of the United States of America.
My step-son's wife, also an airline employee, was already booked in to an hotel and we took a cab
there from the airport. Later that morning when we all awoke, there was a message for me on the mobile phone
Elisabeth's son had given us for local use: wonder of wonders - not only was there a car available for
us - but it needed to be delivered all the way to Atlanta, Georgia!! Bearing in mind that our eventual
destination was Muncie, IN., this was indeed a godsend. Added to that was the fact that the car could not be delivered
BEFORE the 20th August, so at first glance it seemed we would even have extra time to sight-see - more
than I had hoped for when planning - or so I thought. Treat me not as an innocent with no conception of the
distances involved; I was well aware of the awesome landmass of the U.S. but I felt sure that we had just
enough time to complete the route I had planned, changing only the last section by having to find a
way from Atlanta to Muncie - no big deal!
And so we come to the route................. As originally planned, we had hoped to drive from San Francisco,
to Los Angeles to visit a cousin and then on to Las Vegas to visit Michelle. Then - since we planned to go to
Navarre Beach (Pensacola) to visit another cousin, it was clear that we needed to drive
south, via the Hoover Dam and Phoenix to Tucson and then eastward on the IH 10 all the way to Pensacola. As I studied
the proposed route in greater detail, evaluating the topography for the country we would be traversing, I realised
there were many points of interest known to me along the way - to say nothing of the many of which I knew nothing! Clearly,
even at the outset in San Francisco, there was Wyatt Earp's grave together with that of his wife, Josephine Sarah Marcus,
Alcatraz, the Golden Gate and Fisherman's Wharf. In Los Angeles there was the 'shrine' of Al Jolson and no power on earth
would stop me from paying my respects there! Of course, there were other more mundane and 'secular' places - Universal
Studios; Grauman's Chinese Theatre with Al's hands and knee prints - to say nothing of an entire galactic universe of stars
- and lots more.
And so our route took shape - Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Benson, Tombstone, Las Cruces, El Paso,
San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans - and so on. In fact we would be traversing, one way or the other 13 different states -
California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee,
Kentucky and Indiana.
On the following pages you can read my itinerary as I prepared it and wrote it down in preparation for the journey but
before you do so I should tell you that we were not able to complete the journey precisely as envisaged simply because by
the time we awoke in Tombstone, on the morning of the 18th, it was clear to me that there was no way in which we could visit
San Antonio (The Alamo), continue on to Navarre Beach to visit the cousin and still get up to Atlanta by the 20th. I pleaded
with the ferry service to allow us an extra day or so but for reasons of insurance this was impossible and so from shortly
after El Paso we abandoned the I-10, continuing straight on with the I-20 all the way to Atlanta, Georgia arriving only 3
or 4 hours after the appointed time. Nevetheless, I had a most wonderful and exciting journey across the States, seeing
things I had hardly ever dreamed of seeing and promising myself that - given health and strength and years I shall see yet
more. When you have finished reading the itinerary as planned, you can read the day-by-day diary taken from brief notes written up at the end of each day. There are also a few conventional photographs but unfortunately at the time my video camera
was not digital and neither did I have a digital hand camera, so none of the filmed journey can be put on the site -
next time!!  Here you will find the detailed itinerary as it was
planned.
And
here  all the maps I studied, downloaded and printed out to add to the file I carried
with me.
While this link will take you to the day-by-day journal of
our journey.
This link will take you to my other, main web site
Holy Land Tours