Reflections 2.0

Some things tickled my inner Jeremy Clarkson on our trip.
They have roads and they have "routes" (pronounced "raowtes"). A road is a strip of tarmac or concrete (USA - pavement). A route is a way of going in a particular direction. For example Interstate 40 is East to West, US route 411 is North to South. With me so far? The result of all this is that a particular road can be several routes, not necessarily going in the same direction so... The motorway through Knoxville in one direction is the I40 West and also the I75 South. Sometimes different routes on the same bit of concrete can be going to all directions of the compass at the same time... Which makes for interesting signage and an awful lot of arrows! This takes a bit of getting used to when first encountered. Actually the signs are often ambiguous, mistimed or apparently contradictory - and when traffic is going as fast as it often does, the satnav reminds you of where you should have turned off a few seconds ago. There are few signs reminding you of where you are headed and more rarely are distances given.
Talking of signs,some of them are worth recalling. "Move car to shoulder if not injured". Which probably explains the existence of "Shoulder drop-off". And in road works, a sign proclaims "Men working when flashing". OK, I'll explain; the first means get the vehicle off the road after a minor accident, the second tells you that the hard shoulder is narrow and is flanked by a ditch. The final one has flashing lights to tell you when (rarely) something IS going on the roadworks.
Everyone drives at 10 mph or more above the advertised speed limit (when indeed it IS advertised). Great trucks ("eigthteen-wheelers") can be seen merrily overtaking ordinary cars. Pick-up trucks and SUVs can be gigantic. Which is intimidating... Especially when the big truck radiator has been painted with teeth so that looking in the mirror this great mouth looks back at you. And sometimes you witness one tractor from an eighteen-wheeler towing three other similar tractors.
Screaming bridges: Especially in the West, tarmac roads can be interrupted by bridges made of grooved concrete so that whereas you were pootling along happily in relative quiet, suddenly the bridge generates a loud scream and wakes you up.
Petrol pumps work differently in every garage so that filling up is always an adventure. A good thing is that you can lock the hose handle and pace around meditating while the car gets a drink. (In Oregon, however, you have to leave the garage attendant to fill up.) In one place, the pump had a TV screen so you watch it while the car filled itself! Prices vary enormously for no obvious reason. We did the whole trip at a rate of 7 cents (5p) / mile for petrol  / gas.
Road quality ranges from sublime to catastrophic according to the road's place in the hierarchy and the state or county you're in.The main technique seems to be fill the cracks in the concrete with tar and patch the bigger holes with anything that come to hand. You can even be driving with the left wheels on tarmac and the right ones on cracked concrete. And then you try to keep going straight.
There are rumble strips along both edges of a road and sometimes in the middle so that overtaking becomes a musical experience. (But it does keep you on the straight and narrow.)
Roadworks are advertised everywhere and often there is nothing going on in them. Or they are none. At times, you can see an "end of road work" sign all on its own!
The satnav, known to her friends a "Dashbord Lil" was annoyingly accurate in her prediction of arrival time, including the fact that she was more aware than we were of which time-zone we were in. She had, however, a speech impediment that stopped her correctly saying names with and "a" or "o" in them. She let us down only once badly by landing us in the middle of nowhere and opposite a nodding donkey (oil extractor pumps) sales yard in Texas instead of our motel. Otherwise very good when the traffic wasn't crazy (see above).
But the roads, even if sometimes a bit sub-optimal, enable you to go hundreds of miles with little trouble or tiredness. On one occasion we drove 114 miles after dinner! Of course satnav and cruise control also help...
The scenery is wonderfully varied and often beautiful, almost always interesting. Makes it all worth-while...

Reflections

When Peter started talking seriously about this trip in late spring of 2014 I immediately said I would like to do it as well.  Now only three days away from returning to the UK and I've been thinking about the things and places I've seen, the people I've met and what a totally amazing experience it's all been.

Some places have moved me to tears - Crater Lake, Oregon which has to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet, the Lincoln Memorial with the Gettysburg Address carved into the wall close by, even though it was crowded, was beautiful and to stand where Martin Luther King Junior gave his "I have a dream" speech filled me with awe.  I've loved driving along the endless roads through the mountains, forests, fields, across the rivers and all under the huge skies.  We've been blessed with fabulous weather most of the time too.

The American people have been so friendly and welcoming (provided that they aren't in their cars!!)  Everyone wants to know where we're from, they love our accent and they would love to visit England!

There have been disappointments also:  We couldn't visit The Wave - Arizona because it's protected and therefore a walk of 3 miles out into the desert - walking around it - then 3 miles back again in 100 + Fahrenheit - I know my limitations and it just wasn't possible;  we missed the Minuteman Missile silo because it wasn't signposted and we had a couple of hundred miles still to go that day!  But the joys have outweighed the small inconveniences. 

What I do know is that I won't ever forget it, it's been great, but Fall is here, the weather is changing and it's time to get back to "normal" life. [Shame! Ed.]