The USA – First Impressions

The USA – First Impressions

We always knew the USA was going to be easy; we just didn’t realise how easy.

Getting in was a breeze – no Spanish Inquisition and we quickly has a six month stamp in our passport. We chose a quiet border crossing at Tecate and they clearly weren’t used to expedition trucks coming through. It was quite disorganised – we entered the border through the vehicular channel and we were told to proceed through the border, park (in the USA), walk back into Mexico and renter via the pedestrian channel to get our passports stamped. Very strange.

The current news would have you believe that the USA is not a very nice place to be at the moment. We are sure this is true in some places, but what we have experienced in our first months is a very warm welcome, friendly people and the sheer beauty of the American Southwest (Nevada, Utah and Arizona). Our photos do not do it justice.

Boy is it expensive! The supermarkets are dear, but the choice and quality are excellent. Eating out is almost prohibitive, especially when taxes are added to the menu price and then a 20% tip is expected on top of that. But again, the quality is good. Road insurance was crippling, but it will cover us for a year and includes Canada. Fuel is cheap in some states, by UK standards, we filled both our tanks at 60p/litre of diesel in Utah.

And of course English is spoken everywhere – so Dave can chat with people easily again.

The USA is very well organised for Recreational Vehicles (RVs) – potable water is widely available (normally at no cost), gas bottles are easily purchased and exchanged (we gave away our Mexican bottle to a very grateful Mexican before crossing) and there are black water dump points at a lot of fuel stations. We have never seen so many campervans before in our travels – it is such a big thing here. Consequently there many places to camp, whether it be high end campsites or free camping on Bureau of Management Land.

The USA is a paradise for hikers. The trails are well advertised, well marked and well maintained. There is almost always a pit toilet at the trail head and parking is usually quite adequate for Big Bertha. In fact, BB is dwarfed by some of the RVs here!

Weather wise, we have had unseasonal sunshine for 90% of the time we have been here, but it has been cold – sometimes minus 12⁰c overnight.