Hiraeth

Preface:  While I told most people I was going to the US to drive Route 66 there isn't actually a single road running from Chicago to Los Angeles labelled as such. Route 66 is the equivalent to English B roads that run through small towns and was largely supplanted by the interstate system in the 1960s and 70s. I chose to take several detours to go to several places off the official route and then as you will probably notice Google maps does not have a pre-programmed Route 66 option.  I am not *that* bad at geography.  State sum ups: Illinois: "Remember to drive on the right side, remember to drive on the right"  Indiana: Terrible roads, truly just awful.  Ohio: Amish country is kinda cool Kentucky: Bluegrass country is surprisingly pretty ¹ Tennessee: Apparently produces wine as well as whiskey  Arkansas: I too would become a child murdering satanist to get out of Arkansas ² .  Oklahoma: The horizon is the major geological feature  Texas: Why do ...

I am becoming increasingly convinced that all American drivers should have their licences revoked.  Not you.  If you are an American driver reading this I'm sure you're a wonderful driver.  It's all the others on the road that are psychotic or drunk…….or possibly both. I am not willing to rule that option out. Especially since many Americans seem to view speed limits as a challenge and don't even get me started on box junctions or stop signs ¹ .  Now I know you are all waiting to hear about what I've been doing on my road trip and not just my gripes but I've been spending most of my time in the car so haven't done that many interesting things in the last week. I'm writing this update from California and have slowed down now so you can look forward to a big sum up next week. But it's taking me a little while to edit it so please bear with me.  If you've never been to North America it's very easy to ridicule Americans for their car dependency. ...

My family received a message from me last Monday informing them that I was in Kentucky, that I was OK, oh and by the way there had been a mass shooting about an hour away from where I was in Louisville, Kentucky.  I was in Kentucky because I was on my way to Nashville which had had a school shooting the day after I arrived barely two weeks prior. And those are just the mass shootings that make the news.  A mass shooting is defined as any shooting where 3 or more people are injured. There had been another fifteen mass shootings in the two weeks between the Nashville schools shooting and Louisville shooting.  On my little detour from Route 66 to Ohio and Nashville I have had a lot of time to think about this.  Since leaving Chicago I have driven 1500 miles, mostly in the right direction. And as I've driven those 1500 miles bugs have splatted against my windscreen. That insect, a unique life that was extinguished in a second by something natural selection had absolutely...

It finally happened in the train station in Charlottesville, Virginia. My accent broke.  My accent has been erring more on the British side this whole trip until I was in Cville on my way to New Orleans chatting to a "N'awlins" native and his family about what to do while I was in town. And my crisp vowels and sharp consents went *poof* and disappeared into the ether. ¹ As you might have imagined from my previous update I was quite pleased to leave Richmond so the news that I would need to take a rail replacement to Charlottesville, Virginia then had a 7 hour layover before getting on a 24 hour train did not dampen my enthusiasm one bit.  The afternoon I spent a lovely day in Cville (as it is colloquially known). It's a very quaint little town that oddly enough kind of reminded me of reading high street layouts with brick buildings and pavements. It differed from Reading by, not only being sunnier, but also having a much more bohemian feeling. I spent my time there mo...

I've often been informed since moving to the UK that Americans are crazy and I think I've worked out what the so called selfish gene is that passes on the crazy. More than than the heat, more then the snow, more than the gators or tornadoes or guns. The one unifying thing across the United States of America that unifies the crazy is the highway code. Washington, DC After leaving Philadelphia I headed down the East Coast to Washington DC and boy does DC know how to make an entantrance. With crystal blue skies offering incredible views of the Capitol dome as I stepped out of Union Station and I began my hour long sprint from the station to my hostel, practically throwing my bag at the staff and back to the Capitol in time for the tour.  Now having grown up in Europe in the post 9/11 and 7/7 era I am the security guards favourite person, not only because I break out the crisp English public school "sirs" and "ma'ams". But mostly because when the instruction...

I've been thinking alot about liberty since arriving in Philadelphia.  For those of you who don't know Philadelphia will be taking Botson outside to contest who is the real birthplace of American democracy. Now Philadelphia is better known for being a somewhat run down port city as described in Rocky ¹ and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air ² . "Really?" Was the response from the lady at passport control when I told her with a straight face that I was in Philly to backpack. She seemed so sceptical that I began to worry that she'd begin to question my shiny, new, blue American passport with a picture so awful in it no spy would allow it to be used. But she seemed mollified when I mentioned I would be moving on to DC in a few days time and I escaped with no further questioning of my holiday destinations.  The historic centre of Philadelphia is a beautiful part of the city. It's got a lovely mix of Art Deco architecture from the city's hey days ...

People have been asking me this for what feels like my whole life and most of the time I struggle to answer. It's where this blog derives its name from, hireath is probably the best word to describe what America means to me. It's a Welsh word that has no direct translation to English but roughly means "A blend of homesickness, nostalgia and longing" ( BBC, 2021 ). My family left America when I was very young and with two British parents to raise me most of my experience of America as a teen and adult has been from a book or through second hand stories. It's a strange way to cobble together an identity.  Some of my earliest memories are of the first few months after we moved to the UK when I was learning to be English. That first summer when my parents were so busy trying to establish a new life in a country that they hadn't lived in for over a decade and I was handed some box sets of kids show and left to my own devices. I guess this is where the other half of...