9 Days to Seattle

We've been on the road now for 72 hours now, each day offering its own sights, smells, characters and lessons. 

Having previously done some basic math we realized early on that despite having olympic standard legs, walking coast to coast would not be conducive to a country of this scale. 

We got the bus to Autodriveaway, (a private/commercial vehicle relocation specialist) to take on a car desperately needing delivery to Seattle as a birthday present to some lucky grandma. After some alarmingly simple paperwork, we stepped into the parking lot, our thoughts racing with the sleek powerful lines of the American muscle cars we'd been lusting after. With giddy anticipation we laid eyes for the first time on our steed, poised, like a dead toad!  Not quite the archetypal American dream car we had hoped for, the 2001 Toyota Camry did however boast great fuel efficiency, and with budgetary concerns at the forefront of our minds we loaded the 'trunk' with our gear and promptly christened it the "green machine" (it is green).

The Green Machine

The second important step was striking out onto the highway, the logistical backbone of this gas guzzling nation. A sense of heightened reality washed over us: this was it, it was finally actually happening. Mike managed to successfully navigate his way to the right side of the road, and after a few hesitant miles we were confidently buzzing down the Interstate, dwarfed by hundreds of gargantuan trucks and surrounded on all sides by lush New Jersey forests. As the clouds closed in we raced across state lines into Pennsylvania!

Naturally, with our badass driving (and out of state plates) we had our first brush with the law. Mike spotted the 'blue thunder' bearing down from afar and after a few moments of sheer confusion, it dawned on us that as he wasn't overtaking us he probably wanted us to pull over. We considered flooring it as a night in a cell would take the strain off our hotel budget, but we did the sensible thing and pulled over. The state trooper seemed strangely baffled by our foreign licenses and his reasoning for pulling us over, and just as it looked like he was going to pull his gun out, he suddenly lost interest, handed Mike back his license and disappeared into the night.

Driving towards the sun in Indianna

After our first night in a motel, Tom got his hands on the wheel for the first time for a stint down the i90, heading west through the pastures of Ohio. The procession of corporate fast food outlets went by like a looped background in a cartoon until we decided to break off the interstate and find a small town for lunch. 

It was a pivotal moment as suddenly a whole new world of real human communities seemingly predating the Interstate, opened up. We found a charming diner for lunch, then continuing on through picturesque villages and past old fashioned farms, we vowed to avoid the interstate. Our new philosophy was rewarded when we stopped in Edgerton and in search of a drink, wandered into a dark bar to a frosty reception. By the time we left however, our new friends had insisted on paying for all our drinks and Darl, one of 16 siblings, was visibly upset when we had to turn down his invitation for a bean stew and a bed in Hicksville (No joke).

Darl (left) Paul and the F14 fighter plane electrician from Edgerton, Ohio.