urbaneer: The big American road trip - Part 1: Long lost friends

On the road - Miami to Tucson: 6 November - 23 November

On 6 November we collected our little blue ‘Flitzer’ hire car (Nissan Versa Note) and started our big American road trip with thousands of miles of open road ahead of us. The plan was to drive from Miami to San Francisco. The first part of the road trip was especially exciting for Astrid as it entailed catching up with a lot of her old US university friends from her time as an exchange student:

New Orleans, Louisiana: We caught up with Christoph, a mutual friend from Munich, who by chance happened to be in town on a stop-over from his trip to Mexico City for the ‘Dia del Muerte’ celebrations. We loved the food in NOLA and the colonial architecture of the French Quarter.

On route to Fort Smith from New Orleans we quickly stopped in St. Francisville and took a peak at one of the old plantation homes.

Fort Smith, Arkansas: We met up with Kate and Mike and their adorable two kids Noah and Abbey. We talked a lot and visited the historic Fort of Fort Smith. Noah let us play on his game consoles and Abby treated us to a 3D performance of Frozen.

On route to Norman we stopped off in Oklahoma City to see Adam over a tasty burger served to us by a server who on hearing our British accents regaled us with her love of Peep Show, which we all agreed was a great TV show.

Norman, Oklahoma: Charlotte welcomed us with a little gift basket and we met her husband Adam. We headed out to enjoy Astrid’s most memorable culinary experience of her university days – the ‘evil jungle chicken’ at the infamous 'Thai Kum Koon' restaurant. We also took the opportunity to meet one of Astrid’s old professors and Ian got to see and sample the delights of Astrid’s student days with a lunch at Pepe Delgardo’s, a stroll around Campus and Campus Corner (which has massively gentrified in the last 15 years), as well as a cruise around the places where Astrid used to live.

On route to Austin we drove through Dallas and passed the 'grassy knoll' and the spot where JFK was shot.

Austin, Texas: We were welcomed by Friday night band practice in Sam’s apartment before heading out into Austin’s hipster locations. For breakfast we enjoyed and experienced our first Taco truck – man it was good!

On route to Las Cruces we happened to chance through Johnson City, the tiny town in west Texas where Lynden Johnson (US president) came from.

Las Cruces, New Mexico: Michaela welcomed us to her new house which boasts amazing views over the NM countryside. We visited White Sands National monument whilst we were in the area – it is the largest gypsum deposit in the world and the dunes looked very pretty. It was only 65 km form the spot where the Americans tested the first atomic bomb. We also enjoy fantastic Mexican food in the little town of Mesilla just opposite the house where Billy the Kid was sentenced.

Tucson, Arizona: We caught up with Curtis and his husband Mike, visited the airplane museum and were treated to a night hike among the giant cacti.

It was fantastic for Astrid to be able to see and catch-up with so many of her friends and it is great to know that even after 15 years the old friendship are still intact and going strong. A big thanks to all of you who made this portion of the trip so special!

The car: