Goal setting, I decided on this topic because my wonderful son asked me what had I wanted to do when I was a child. I remember vividly that I wanted to be American. I expect I was swayed by the wonderful lives I saw that American kids had via our TV. Huge, plush bedrooms with walk-in closets, school with no uniform you could chew gum and play baseball. It was a magical place, and it wasn’t that I was growing up in poverty or destitution or in a developing country. I lived in the UK.
Now of course I see that it was idealistic but when my son asked me and after thinking for a while I responded. “As a kid I wanted to be American”, it is probably no wonder that the states feels like my spiritual home. I’ve been lucky enough to spend extended visits in Florida, and I never want to come home. When I do get back to the UK I yearn to be back in the states. When I visit, my homecoming starts when I step off the plane, that first interaction with the burly security guards, who call me “ma’am” how nice is that, how polite it sounds. Obviously I didn’t know what to expect on my first visit, but it surpassed my imagination. The vastness of it, no wonder there are walk in closets there is so much room everywhere. This is particularly noticeable on the roads, they are so big, the difference was highlighted on the movie “The Holiday” although not all of our roads are as tight as the one Cameron Diaz was filmed in, they are not unusual either. I love to drive in America. I drive an automatic at home, so I’m comfortable with that, but the idea that I could get on a road and drive for 10 hours and not see the sea, that I could drive for 20 hours and still be in the same country, that is spectacular to me.
My ambition as I got older (and still) is to do a road trip in the states, to spend 6 months driving around and meeting people in the different states, finding out about their lives. When this dream first started it was going to be motel to motel, then I thought I’d rent a motor home, but now I know I’d do it by couchsurfing and visit with people on my way, because for me, it’s much more about the people than the place.
