USA (the lower 48) – A Summary

Alex White / United States of America / August 5, 2024 / 0 Comments / Like this

This is a summary of our road trip stints in the Lower 48, covering LA -> San Fran + Blaine -> Seattle, excluding the cruise which has its own post and summary. The lower 48 was a while ago now, but I loved it, at least parts of it. Waking up in the woods in the thick of nature, my soul felt full. It no doubt helped that I slept the best I have in a long time. Down with the sun, up with the sun, pure silence in between (until the ravens woke up of course). Living out of the back of the jeep stripped back our travels to another level in a beautiful way.

I had high expectations for the USA, at first it lacked hugely. In response to my dismay, brother Ben was spot on, “give it time”. The vast, expansive, varied, and naturally beautiful land is hard to not fall in love with. The individualistic culture, the homelessness, the lack of support for the most vulnerable, the terrible food, the fake American dream, is all hard to ignore. It’s helped me understand the country a bit more. A nation of people being setup to fail. Seeing people struggling with physical and mental health, victims to a system prioritising financial gain, inflicting the causes of these struggles onto them, and then washing its hands of the fallout. In the name of money, of ‘freedom’. The ‘freedom’ line seemed mostly to be used to defend being selfish at the expense of others. The freedom for companies to make money at the expense of society. It’s a country built on people who wanted the freedom to live how they wanted, and so it should be no surprise this continues on as the core of its culture, but it still does when you see it up close. More than anything, it showed me how different we are (or were) in the UK from the USA, and how sad it is that we are seemingly diverging from our more similar European neighbours following this broken giant… in pursuit of what? This isn’t a dream I want to fall for anymore, and I hope I can continue to fight its trappings when home.

Thankfully, out in the parks, you can get away from all of that. So, I don’t know where I stand on it, other than I would happily spend longer road-tripping the parks and the gorgeous scenery, living a whole different kind of American dream.

Rule of Three

Highlights (Alex): Being in Yosemite Valley. That thrill of the casino win. The amazing scenery out on the road, so different and breath-taking, all from the ease of our own vehicle, I would go back in a heartbeat.

Highlights (James): The incredible nature of the national parks, all of them were amazing but Bryce Canyon really stood out for me. Getting caught up in the craziness of Vegas. Hiking in Yosemite.

Lowlights (Alex): Stan, the RV Park attendant, who I had to bite my tongue with as he talked to us in a way that we should be grateful he was overcharging us and then being berated for not wanting to pay an extra surprise $10 to be able to use the toilet. The journey out of LA. Trying to get a car rental in Vegas.

Lowlights (James): The bugs and beasties relentlessly hounding us at the campsites. Trying to sleep in a tent when it’s 40 degrees plus. Car hire debacle.

Takeaways (Alex): The people out here are trying really, really hard to be healthier, to be better, to earn more, to be more comfortable, but they live in a system designed to profit, and it’s those same people that pay the price in more ways than one, I’d be angry and frustrated too. Don’t let the principle to be ‘free’ blind you to the needs and freedom of others, there needs to be some empathy and open ears alongside the debates of what we can be ‘free’ to do in a society, our ‘freedom’ should be a compromise with the community, not an individualistic right to do what we want. This country is great, it is beautiful, but the American Dream isn’t real, it was once upon a time, but not anymore, you’ve more chance in Latam of social mobility than in the USA or UK. (Bonus 4th: I think I might want to live in the woods, away from it all)

Takeaways (James): America is a country (system) designed for the middle class and above. If you find yourself below the poverty line you’re going to have a bad time as there is little to no support. Public transport is an obvious example, infrequent and scary at best, non-existent at worst. Basically you NEED a car to exist here. On another note, everyone knows the food is bad here but my god… Everything is either covered in sugar, cheese, salt, sauce or all of the above. Very little of the food is natural, let alone organic. As advertised in a San Fran supermarket “why not cover this gala apple in peanut butter?”. Says it all. Final point, how do you govern a country this large? We spent over four weeks here, saw a handful of states but we’ve barely scratched the surface. Considering how you could begin to address the needs of so many different people with various beliefs, backgrounds and ambitions is mind boggling.

Description (Alex): A country of two halves (in more ways than one) – beautiful and ugly, natural and sterile, selfless and selfish, rich and poor, real and fake…, absolutely massive, challenging

Description (James): Unbelievably huge, incredible geography for miles and miles and miles. Vast areas completely untouched by civilization. The towns and cities are hard to love, fast food joints and Starbucks on every corner and a lot of issues with poverty.

Entertainment

TV: The Simpsons, The Boys (that only James is allowed to watch), The Great British ~~Bake Off~~ Baking Show

Books: The Wastelands (Dark Tower Series)

Podcasts: [the usual], Off-Menu

Where We Stayed

Katie and Pete’s: 5 ⭐️ like home, beautiful, cosy, dogs!, great company

Plaza (Las Vegas): 3.5 ⭐️ meh, good location but otherwise a bit tired and general annoyance with Vegas approach to lack of kettles or fridges

Ramada by Wyndham (Cedar City): 4 ⭐️ surprisingly good breakfast, fine room.

Comfort Inn Hotel & Suites (Page): 4 ⭐️ Good indoor pool and jacuzzi, breakfast lacking compared to Ramada

Gouldings Lodge (Monument Valley): 5 ⭐️ spectacular views.

Ramada by Wyndham (Flagstaff): 3 ⭐️

Luxor (Las Vegas): 4 ⭐️ brilliant hotel, but again with no fridge or kettle.

Lodgepole Campground 1 (SEKI): 4 ⭐️

Lodgepole Campground 2 (SEKI): 4.5 ⭐️ lovely spot, creek for paddling, good facilities and location for hikes

Stony Creek Campground (SEKI): 3 ⭐️ so many flies, big flies, little flies, then mosquitoes. Plus vault toilets. Lovely hosts though.

Codorniz Campground (Eastman Lake): 3 ⭐️ unbearably hot, raccoons instead of bears, free showers, flat pitch-ground with brilliant view over the lake and decent privacy

Upper Pines Campground (Yosemite Valley): 4.5 ⭐️ staying in the valley can’t be beaten. Showers would have been nice.

Hodgdon Campground (Yosemite National Park): 3.5 ⭐️ bit far, tiny pitch at an angle, no flies though!

Crane Flat Campground (Yosemite National Park): 4.5 ⭐️ big pitch, well laid out, more flies

Fallen Leaf Campground (South Lake Tahoe): 5 ⭐️ huge pitch, good facilities including showers, nothing to complain about!

RV Park (San Jose): 1 ⭐️ safer than Walmart I suppose

San Remo Hotel (San Francisco): 4.5 ⭐️ weird but cute hotel retaining its original style

The Bunker Airbnb (Blaine): 5 ⭐️ massive and beautifully put together, could have spent a lot more time here enjoying the place

Auld Holland Inn (Oak Harbor): 4 ⭐️ fun and odd designs, overly strong cleaning smell, bathroom vent sounding like a jet engine, standard brekkie

Waterfront at Potlatch: 5 ⭐️ beautiful views, beautiful room, fun times with everyone, another solid find by Ben

SeaTac Inn (Seattle): 1 ⭐️ rude staff, poor management, smelt bad, overpriced for a crap motel

Cutting Room Floor

Thunder on a blazing sunny hike
James getting so excited by the mpg
Weird idealised perception of the past, the good ol’ days of the wild west. Really…?
“Happy to be here” parking attendant at Horseshoe Bend
Being too short to take a good photo for the tall family who took a good photo for us
Speeding Bears (or rather, Speeding Kills Bears, when you can see the whole sign)
“Happy trails”
The swifts living up to their name on clouds rest
“come on SAKA!!!” from the old geezer standing next to us watching the finals of the Euros
On our walk to the viewpoint with BenJen, BenEmma et al, leaving a human behind at each crossroads like breadcrumbs after we realised only one of us knew the route