It’s 2020 ! …
It’s Election year ! …
And we always go to the USA in Election year ! ! 🗽😂 Well, it’s really coincidence however we have managed to be there in the last 3 election years on our various USA tours – 2008, 2012 and 2016 – and we’ll keep that theme going for our 2020 tour !
HOLD EVERYTHING ! – THAT WAS THE PLAN BEFORE CORONAVIRUS !!
So, sadly, safe to say none of that is going to be happening in 2020 – and who knows when for now ! Oh well, had this post drafted a while ago – may as well put it out there, it will be something to (hopefully) look back on and laugh about in the future !
Realistically, the excitement for us is the prospect of visiting the final 7 states we have yet to get to in the USA “Lower 48”. And overall it will be quite a number of states on our list this visit – 17 altogether ! One big advantage of the North East region – little States !
It was probably our travels to this region as part of our 2008 Tour which started the seed growing for our “50 States” project. As we hurtled across states – Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York etc – on the first part of that tour, at one stage we laughed about “having visited one fifth of the Union” in a very short space of time ! Well, the rest of that tour and our subsequent 2009 tour sealed the deal for us and our quest began !
With not much time on that tour though, we did leave quite a few gaps on that side of the country. So here we come !
Adrienne had scoured the Frequent Flyer options once again and this year we fly to New York ….. via Tokyo ! Our flight leaves SYD at about 8.15 in the morning and with a very quick Tokyo layover (there certainly won’t be any lounge hopping !) we arive at New York’s JFK at 6.20pm – the same day !!
We’ll have a couple of days in New York to start, then we’ll head south through the eastern tip of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, before reaching the wider spaces of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Really looking forward to some good southern cookin’ in these parts !
From there it’s north west, through South Carolina, back into North Carolina and even the eastern tip of Tennessee briefly. We will drive part of the famous Blue Ridge Parkway along the ridge of the Appalachian Mountains then back into western Virginia and then into the state of West Virginia itself. Further north, we reach Ohio and then turn east through western Pennsylvania, New York state and then the “New England Region” – Vermont, New Hampshire and, our final “Lower 48” state, Maine – for lots of “Chowdah” and “Lobstah” 😂😂😂.
We’ll then finally head back to New York – through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Long Island (Adrienne’s previous “US residence”) – and home.
Our expectations are high for these states – beautiful scenery will be abundant for sure – but we’ll be doing our best to come up with a few “quirky” gems as well, don’t you worry !
No time to rest – lots of planning to do ! – That bit will still happen 😁
It will happen … one day ❤️
I hope we can all look back on this time and laugh but alas it’s all a bit too current isn’t it. Your trip sounds amazing and when it happens I’m going to be very excited to follow along.
Ha, ha – yes it is Lisa. In the meantime we’re planning our socially distanced “NSW Adventures” 😁