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Leaving aside the political arrogance, the contradictory culture, the rampant Christian fundamentalism, the inequality and hypocrisy and no matter what you think of America and Americans there is is still one huge, mouth-watering, gut-wrenching, mind-blowing thing that, as an Englishman, I envy and want. And that is space.
I have spent the last two days driving from Nashville, Tennessee to the eastern coast of Delaware – a trip of just over 800 miles that has taken me over the north-eastern Tennessee border into Virginia, over the Appalachians, through the Roanoke and Shenandoah valley’s, into the coastal plain of Maryland and Washington, across the Chesapeake Bay to finally end up at the very shores of the Atlantic Ocean.
This is a trip that really needed two or more weeks for proper exploration but even stuck on freeways it was not possible for this great country to hide it’s beauty and, in just a thin 800 mile long line, I have hardly scratched the surface. This land is staggeringly immense and whenever I come here I want to lose myself in it for I know that unlike people-packed England, the next town is not just a couple of miles away.
What, no corner shops for miles?
Nice one! Yes. No corner shops, pubs, petrol stations… Of course when you DO find them then they are on a horrendously ugly strip mall but at least it gets it over with quickly