It's goodnight from me...

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  Liverpool, England, United Kingdom
Thursday, August 12, 2010

I need only to look at my most recent Facebook wall-post to be reminded of the Family I am leaving behind. My sister, a wild and vivacious Miss Bennet of her day, has posted a link to (in her words) ‘an awesome toilet themed restaurant’. My brother is semi-consciously processing a video game in front of me, and while I can not see the screen he is glaring into, the rapid fire of a Kalashnikov and the shudder of a long distance grenade gives it all away. My brother, at age 14 is out ‘hanging’ in a park, with one of his new girl friends (he did NOT learn this from me, I assure you). My mother is still filling buckets after the emotional roller coaster ride that was Toy Story 3 (I know, we all shed a tear), but thank goodness she has a regular release. What would the English middle age female population do without Weight Watchers. And dad… well he’s just dad. But woe on you if you just so happen to swear in his company. Take the language on the TV for example. Cue ‘a slip of the tongue’ and he comes alive with passion. So before you can say… well stop…. the screens blank and he’s huffing and puffing about the quality of Television these days. I’m not even gone yet but already I know I will miss them.

But not as much as how much I am looking forward to my itinerary! Yes, you have asked and I have provided- I am about to reveal my itinerary, or as much as I have planned so far. So hold on to your seats, as I whisk you away to…

Well, firstly to Vancouver. Vancouver, famous for… the Winter Olympics? Surely it’s got more going for it than just that? Well the New York Times gives the impression that … I’m not sure really? Maybe you can help me work out what they were trying to say:

"You’re gorgeous, baby, you’re sophisticated, you live well...Vancouver is Manhattan with mountains. It’s a liquid city, a tomorrow city, equal parts India, China, England, France and the Pacific Northwest. It’s the cool North American sibling."



But I digress; if I don’t speed up I’ll start to make this itinerary seem boring even to myself. So I fly into Vancouver and, with the help of Jess (and Joel Grates, cheers mate), I will find somewhere to stay until Sunday morning. Then I make my first hitch to Seattle, which is pretty simple because it’s like an hour down the road. If I do get problems at this point I will, officially, be a very unlucky person. Once in Seattle I head to Church- Mars hill (Mark Driscoll- hopefully to give me ammunition for either a very positive or a very negative blog post), and then to a guy called Spencer for one night with his parents. Then its downtown living for the next couple of nights, with Ryan (thanks to couch surfing), until the 18th when I’ll head to my friend Andy’s house before his wedding on the 20th. Rather excited for that one.

On the 22-23rd ish I will make my way down the west side of North America to Portland (thank you, Sean), until the end of august (spending a night or so with

Roybin, a very interesting sounding lady, on the 29th in Eugine and with Megan, a reader of this blog, on the 30th in Medford). Both Eugine and Medford are almost lost on the map amidst big cities and so I am excited about stopping off in them. They do sound quite ‘happening and edgy’ (thanks again NYT for that one as well). Then in one giant leap of faith I will land in Redding, go to church (Bethel, Jesus Culture etc) and find somewhere to stay in one quick swoop. Churches have a good record of hospitality, hopefully (Luke 6.29!). Following this I will get to San Francisco, don’t know how, but it will be a fun adventure- no roads lead directly to it from Redding!

So this is where the challenge hits- getting into Mexico, but from the east side, and which will involve the crossing of continent- from San Francisco to Austin Texas. I ask you at this point to go on Google maps and investigate the roads from said two cities (insert time to look). Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking.

But from Austin its all back on track. Of course, closer to the time I will give a more detailed route plan but in short it goes Austin, Monterrey, Real De Catorce, San Luis Potosi, Queretaro and Mexico City. I think I will stay a week in Mexico city, and as of yesterday, this is the part I am MOST excited about so far. I have met a wonderful lady called Natalia who will show me the sites, and already I can sense her passion (for pretty much everything) in her emails.

From this point the trip basically runs free-flow. Maybe a few tricks here and there, may be a white beach coming and going. Anyway, I hope you have got the gist.

I completely empathize with those who are somewhat jealous of the thought of me unfolding my towel on a white beach, sipping some kind of tropical alcoholic mix and wearing nothing but a sarong. Please remember, however, you are welcome to join me for any period of my trip and I would gladly lend you any one of my many Lycra swim shorts… ladies, I’m not sure if I have enough bra’s for you all.



Now apologies about the late blog post. I thought I had every angle covered. My plan: to email a friend, Femi, all rough entries and then allow the magic of friendship and his passion for journalism to do the rest. Alas, it wasn’t to be, but we’ll see what happens over the next few posts. SMS contact with my alias tells me his computer was too slow this time, so I can hope the next post will end up being a prolific masterpiece! But because of this delay this also is the last post I will release from the shores of the English empire. Yes, tomorrow morning announces my departure. The interesting thing is I leave at 10am...ish and arrive in to Vancouver international airport (after a 12 hour ish flight) at 12.30ish. I have already been warned that its illegal to Hitch-hike in Canada so I risk life and limb to report my adventures back to you! I hope you realise I am a living revolutionary. Hitch-hiking will soon be as fashionable as using the toilet, in Canada. Well, lets’ not lower the tone and be revolting (pun intended).

So I’ve packed up, and filled my bag with at least 3 pairs of shoes. I tried to re-activate my American phone but (and this is serious, weirdly) it’s a Virgin Mobile disposable phone (with no simcard), and so when I stopped using it for year they assumed it was… thrown away. I mean, only in the USA would they produce a non-recyclable disposable phone. But the worst part of packing was realising I had forgotten to buy a book to read on the plane, AND I don’t have my IPhone to listen to any music! Oh goodness, they better have some good movies playing on the plane. Either that or I give myself a quick jab of Rhypnol before passport control.

I think its probably time to chill out in front of the TV, before having a wonderful restless night’s sleep. So here come those fateful words it’s took me a week’s worth of blogging to say: It’s goodnight from me, and Good Morning America.

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