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Journey Across America.
Welcome to my travels across America - "The Land of the Free"
This is a country I have been obsessed with for as long as can remember. My father hated it. My mother has no preference towards it. Although I did finally convince her to visit it for a holiday in 1998 where we traveled the East Coast. Some states I have been before and some new to me. Here's my journey from when I first set foot on American soil.
Well, where do I begin? Oh I know.....
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
And no, I'm not being funny! In fact I pledged my allegiance every day when on camp and despite being British, I was proud to be able to do this.
It all started way before I can really remember. I guess my quest to visit every state in the United States, and to live and work there for a year, started when we had an American teacher visit our school for a year. She brought a list of names of kids who wanted to write to a Brit and I was lucky enough to write to a girl called Paula. (Unfortunately we no longer write, but we kept in touch for over 10 years). Paula if you ever read this, I would love to hear from you.
Paula Lives in Michigan and I wanted to visit her in her hometown, but I could not afford to just get on a plane. I later found out about an organisation called Camp America, so after much consideration and a little saving and lots of interoperation I was accepted onto a camp in Connecticut. This is my journey -
My first camp was in Connecticut, it was situated in a small town with a good community spirit, and it's just a shame that this community spirit did not extend to the camp in question. However I made some friends both on and off the camp. I spent my day off at a local lake where I met with a group of people who loved to jet ski. At this time I had never been on a jet ski and this group of guys taught me to ski (well, ok, tried to teach me). This group of guys were my first impression of Americans and I'm glad that they were they were friendly and fun loving. I spent all my days off with this small group and they were really fun. One of those days was my Mum's birthday and I wanted to call and say happy birthday. When I asked where the nearest pay phone was, they would not tell me just handed me a cell phone and told me to use that. I told them mum was still in England and it would cost a fortune but they insisted so I called and they all wished my mum a happy birthday. I then left this camp and spent a few days visiting places in Connecticut with a nice lady who let me stay with her, she took me to the American Indian Museum and to my first American shopping Mall experience. Wow! What a place they are! They are amazing! After Connecticut I traveled to New York to get a greyhound bus to go to Virginia and to another camp - "Camp Kittymaquand". This was a girl scout camp in Virginia and a whole different experience from my first camp.
Camp Kittymaquand was a much nicer place and I wish I had been there the whole time. The girls on this camp were more down to earth and friendly, although the kids at my other camp were friendly, these kids were just less spoilt. I spent the last two weeks on this camp looking after the kids and entertaining them with games and activities. We did have one minor incident, which I managed to sort out with the help of two of the girls. They also kept their heads and followed my instructions, which helped the other two girls.
After Camp was over I traveled to Washington D.C for two days seeing the sights. I mean you can't go to D.C without seeing the White House or the Washington monument, and definitely not the Smithsonian group of museums, my personal favourite being the Air and Space Museum. You can spend all day in there and not see half of it. It's also a hands on museum which makes it even more fun and easy to learn from, and the best thing of all is all the museums are FREE, which you don't get here in England which is a shame. I then left D.C and went back to Virginia for a few days.
Back in Virginia I was lucky enough to be taken to see a minor league baseball game the Richmond Braves playing some team from Canada. The one thing I found amazing was that there were no police there, or at least, no visible police there. When I mentioned this to the person who took me, it sparked off an interest as to why I found it amazing. I then explained to them that in England we always have police visible especially at a football (soccer) match. All I can say was I must have been the Braves lucky mascot, as it was one of the few times a Brit. had gone to see them and they won! Yes!
I left Virginia to fly to Michigan to visit my pen pal Paula, and her family for the remainder of my visit. Where they were very welcoming and showed me around some great places like Greenwich Village, one of the Great Lakes and a day trip to Canada across the bridge and back via the tunnel. Paula and myself then went to visit her sister in Kalamazoo in what turned out to be a very interesting train journey! Our train went into a dump truck! Hmm, interesting, you may say, how and why, is more like it... the reason being there was no obvious way onto the line and the dump truck driver was eating his lunch, hmm, and he did not see the Amtrak Train coming!?!.....Yes, I think I know what you are saying, and yes I'd agree! I think he must be blind! I mean how big exactly is a Amtrak train? The answer is large. They say "only in America!" (I'm sorry but in this case it's true). There was major overkill, there was the ambulance, the paramedic ambulance and the life support ambulance there, the fire brigade, the newspapers and the TV crew, but no one was injured, I am happy to say. From Michigan I went back to New York to fly home.
My second visit to America was in 1998 on a two-week vacation with my Mum, traveling the East Coast of America and Canada. We started off with two days in New York where I had a great time seeing the Statue of Liberty and spending two evenings up the empire state building with a pilot I met and am still friends with. From New York we traveled to Boston, home of the tea party and if I've done my homework correctly it was this that started the "War of Independence". From Boston to Maine, how life should be, and on to Quebec and Canada. We then went to Ottawa where we were treated to the Police Parade and Mounties in Red. Montreal was next, where I went white water rapid riding on the Lachine River. That was an amazing experience, which I would do again given the chance. A quick stop at Kingston and onto Toronto, home of the famous CN tower, the tallest free standing tower. This has a revolving restaurant, which is a strange experience, in a nice way, as the view is never the same. The next awesome experience is when Mum and I took a helicopter ride over Niagara Falls. That is a truly amazing feeling and an even more amazing view. Not only did we go over the falls in a helicopter we went under them in the "Maid of the Mist" boat. Back across the boarder into America and to Amish country. Now that is a whole different way of life, and I have to say, it's not for me. How anyone can live like that is beyond me but I guess its what you get used to. Then for me it was back to Washington D.C where this time I saw the Lincoln Memorial and the Hope Diamond, which I have to say I was quite disappointed in. Our final stop was Philadelphia and the Liberty Bell.
My third visit was to Florida to visit a friend and his wife, and to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Tennessee Oilers. It was at this game I met a guy I spent the two weeks with. I hope we will be friends for life no matter where we are in the world or who we are with, and you know who you are if you ever see this! He took me to Disney, which is a day I will never forget as it was a very special for me, and yes, even as a 28-year-old and a 30+year old we had to have our picture taken with both Mickey and Minnie.
And so far that's my trek across America....
page created: 1999-08-01