Wow, thanks for that amazing reply! It's very reassuring to know that Sam rides the trails to keep them up to date and I can certainly appreciate the amount of work that goes into this kind of thing having done the donkeywork for my two HISS off road event locations - and now doing the same for the 2016 HUMM! (thumbs)
One reason I was asking is that I've often thought about doing something similar here in Spain - or rather in Iberia as I would include Portugal too - but as my accountant says, 'At the end of the day you have to make a profit' - actually what he really says is "At the end of the year I have to take my fees!" :whistle: - but there is also the time aspect, I only have certain 'windows' of time to do reconnaissance trips and a Trans-Iberian would have to be done in one go!
Anyway, that's my stuff. Back on topic:
I'm de Rodriguez at the moment and watching far too much daytime TV (work avoidance tactic of choice), which means the Energy and Discovery chanels, so I see an awful lot of 'awesome' food!!! But I'm 99.999999% sure* that I've never had a McDonalds :whistle:JMoandpiglet wrote:Food wise, there are any number of cafes and diners en route to set you up for the day with a decent breakfast for around $10-12 USD (remember in the US you typically tip 15-20% for food service), and you can always save a bit if you've strayed off the main route to a larger town that has a McDonalds or similar - although you'll soon get sick of that, and I'd say it's not really in the spirt of things... certainly one of the best places to people-watch and get a real insight into local life is a breakfast diner in small-town USA.
But I like the idea of eating in small town diners; one of my favourite books, actually a series of books, is Lake Wobegone Days by Garrison Kiellor and in fact one of my objectives for doing the trip is to try to capture the 'dream' of America that I suppose a lot of kids in my generation, i.e. 'seventies teenagers and young adults, had back then ...
Since then my views about the USA have changed considerably - but then so have my views about just about everything! - but I always like to challenge my views, that's what keeps you young! Your amazing trip report has played a significant part in my starting this process. (thumbs)
Regs
Simon
* well there was a night in Amsterdam in about 1982/3 when I vaguely remember eating something horrible and burger shaped from a dispensing machine at about three or four in the morning. But that memory was vague for fairly obvious reasons and I suppose I could plea temporary insanity ...
** OK yes, Vietnam, but the US withdrawal had begun by the time I turned 15 and my world view began to broaden to include Rock music, motorcycles, Levi's - especially if someone pretty was inside! and film, obviously including Apocalypse Now ...