Thoughts and stuff

So we're currently 9 weeks into our trip.

Over 5000 miles on the road.

23 States visited. Almost half!

I figured I'd write something different, seeing as the USA
roadtrip will be over before long, just as soon as we can
sell the rust bucket.

Then onto the next adventure!

In the past 12 months Will and I have each visited 10 countries.
15 different countries altogether. That's not bad going!

I'm writing them down because it makes us sound more interesting
than we really are; thailand, malaysia, vietnam, australia, china,
new zealand, mongolia, indonesia, russia, hong kong, germany,
singapore, america, canada, and of course england.

We've seen some pretty wicked things! Will climbed Anak Krakatau
and I climbed the Great Wall of China. He roadtripped through New
Zealand and I Trans-Mongolianed through Russia. Will spent
Chrismastime sunbathing on Australian beaches while I ate
roast chesnuts from Berlin Christmas markets.

And not forgetting Thailand! Thailand started it all, and maybe
Thailand is where we'll end up again. I sure hope so!

So our original plan for America started with the idea of driving
historic Route 66. Problem being, Will landed into LAX airport
and it would mean driving Route 66 the wrong way, ie. the
whole point of it is that it winds from East to West, Chicago
to Los Angeles.

So it was either drive it the wrong way, or do a massive
detour and do it the right way. Obviously, we chose the
most complicated option.

And so our plan became; drive the whole way around America,
via Canada, to Chicago, and drive back to LA the correct way.

This seemed like a super idea until we realised just how much
gas we used up. I mean a lot.

Then we started running out of time. Mainly because driving
across and up the USA is no walk in the park. There's lots to see.
But our paperwork also played a part. A massive part really, in
that it became the main undercurrent to our lives for a while.

We registered our RV in LA without considering that the pink slip,
our proof of ownership, would have to be mailed out to us, taking
somewhere between 2 and 4 weeks.

Now we didn't have 2 to 4 weeks to hang around waiting.

And, more importantly, we didn't have an address.

We knew Dana, Will M and Leon in LA by this point. Dana and
Will were both about to move house and Leon was going away
on his travels the day we moved out of his house. So we ended
up using Dana's friend Huw's address in San Diego as our
permanent address in America. A friend of a friend of a friend.

Great idea.

Huw, Dana later told us, is majorly unreliable. We'd hoped
to get the documents sent to us somewhere in America but
we ran out of time and contacts to get it sent to. So we figured
we'd get it sent to Will's friend Dave in Toronto.

That way, the mail would be waiting for us by the time we got
there and we could get back on our way. We hit Toronto on
bank holiday Friday, a week after Dana had posted our mail
on after receiving it from Huw.

No mail on Friday, Saturday or Monday. Nothing on Tuesday.
We managed to escape Toronto on Wednesday, pink slip in hand.

So now the plan is to sell it as soon as possible. Maybe fly out from
this side, or greyhound it back to the west coast. Hopefully we'll
sell it for a profit. We bought it for $3200. We've listed it for $8000.

This is ambitious at best, but we'll see what happens. We might end
up driving it all the way back to LA yet. God knows.

We need to be out of America by the 13th May. We have flights
back to England. I have no idea if we'll use them. We have a few
alternative plans.

Central America maybe. I fancy Belize. Maybe Panama.
I'd like to go back to Mexico, as long as we stay away from
the bad bits.

Plan B, the most likely, is that we head back to Thailand.
Teaching English remains an option, for me at least.

Going back to Chiang Mai is a possibilty, that way I get to
finish the TEFL I started for free. Plus Chiang Mai is
incredibly beautiful. Mountains and lakes and waterfalls
and you can go rafting and loads of fun stuff like that.
Plus the city is much cleaner, and calmer and safer than
Bangkok. It's probably our best option if we end up teaching.

But really, who knows...