The USA: Eastern seaboard, solo road trip, 1990

It was 1990; and I was in the US, and alone for six months. I had barely set foot out of Australia before let alone on my own. These days kids have done all of that by Tuesday after their 6th birthday. But I was 3o, on my own, full of fear for fear itself, and all set for the journey of a lifetime. (It has proved to be the biggest journey of my life – this was before Robert and before love everlasting).

I had a hire car (left-hand drive, naturally), a tent, an esky and a gas burner, and an address book full of Aussie names but no local contacts, other than Erik and his Connecticut crew – this is before Facebook, of course (Mark Zuckerburg was 6).

I had an itinerary that I had worked out back in Perth (this is before iPhones and Google Maps, but after travel guides like Lets Go 1990) and printed out (using a dot matrix printer – this was after Gestetners and Roneos but before laser jet printers and tablets). I had an American Express Goldcard and a handful of blank Commonwealth Bank cheques (this was before ATM’s, but after travellers cheques, which were unarguably handy but with decided limitations … I mean, did they really intend me to carry currency giving me access abroad for six months to the $20,000 worth of funds I had saved? No, the Gold Card was a Gods-send), and a gas tank full of fuel, so I waved goodbye to my great mate and a handful of recently acquired Connecticut friends, pointed the bonnet toward the south and the west, and accelerated, very gently (but not with any special grace, as this was after automatics but before I had any sort of facility for driving them).

What followed next was two months of solo circumnavigation of the US seaboard – Connecticut to Florida, across to Louisiana and up to Michigan, through Canadian Ontario and New York, then over to New Hampshire and back to Connecticut (see the full itinerary and map below). I saw so much wonder in some little-known and less-travelled places, that in subsequent blog posts I’ll profile particular regions.

Join me; happy travels y’all!      US 1990 road trip table

(Click on the image to enlarge)

This me; this is Boston; and this is what north-eastern humidity actually looks like.