Things have been hectic and I’ve made a lot of progress with my plans, but I could totally do with some time to plan my itinerary a little more. You know, in fact, I need a holiday. It’s been so tough… =P

An American friend of mine named Alex who is seldom in the country was fortuitously in London this week and on Monday we met up; I was hoping to pick his brain about where I should spend my time whilst travelling the States. I now have concrete dates for my flights into and out of the country; I’m arriving in Boston on the 27^th October and am leaving Los Angeles two months later on the 29^th of December. So I just need to figure out what to do in the middle…

Two months is a long time. At one point (and in my most recent post) I had decided to spend one month on the East Cost and one month on the West Coast. But Alex persuaded me that I should make the most of the opportunity to go coast to coast and see more places – particularly in the deep south. I’ve played the saxophone for ten years and blown my way through music of many genres; gospel, blues, swing, jazz, classical, rock, big band, salsa… many styles that were more or less invented in the southern states of Tennessee and Louisiana. Notable cities in the region that are all too easy to add to my route are Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans. With cousins of mine living in South Carolina and Texas, it actually forms a fairly cohesive bridge between the East and West Coast… the way I see it is, when will I next be in the US? I should see as many places as I can. It will make for a fairly exhausting whistle stop tour, but I do have a week in Fiji afterwards to relax, detox and catch up on sleep!

Also, the dates of my flights fall either side of Halloween and Christmas, so I’m aiming to get to New York for the famous Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, and potentially spend Christmas in Las Vegas. Absolutely no idea what that might be like but it seems like a pretty cool idea to me. More research required on that.

There are still a few gaps that need filling though. Not that I’ve asked their permission yet, but if I visit my family in Columbia, South Carolina, I have to figure out a way of getting there from DC and then a way from there to Nashville. It’s not a particularly easy route, and I don’t want to break the bank nor spend a miserable night on a long distance coach, so need to give this some thought. Can’t just play it by ear!

Also, after N’awlins, do I go to Texas? I’ve heard good things about the big cities in Texas, as well as Santa Fe and Phoenix… but maybe I should just fly over them. I also would love to visit some of the national parks, but I don’t know how easy this is going to be in December, without a car (I can’t drive let alone rent one – I’m too young). Much more to think about…