Why the USA?

Hello, my name is Lilian Sugarhood and I'm starting this blog to help me prepare for my road trip to the USA in 2014.

The idea of driving across the USA started 4 years ago when my husband Paul started a PhD in Occupational Therapy. It was a part time course that would take 5 years to complete. It's a very time consuming project involving hours of study, research, reading and writing. It meant that we had to sacrifice our time off together so he could work and study. Many times he had doubts if he was ever going to finish it but I didn't want him to give up as it was an opportunity of a lifetime. His boss was willing to give him time off work to attend classes and even gave him some study days so he could prepare his thesis.

One evening we decided that if he finished his doctorate in five years we would take a couple of months off to drive across the USA as a reward for both of us! Of course that was something that we both wanted to do for a long time but always thought it would never happen.

Last year Paul got a job as a senior researcher with a 2 year contract expiring at the end of 2013. I lost my job last June when the design agency I worked for decided to close shop.  It seemed the right moment to rekindle that idea. With a lot of time on my hands I decided to start planning our trip to the USA and see if we could make it happen.

I have been doing a lot of research and can tell you that planning a trip to a vast and diverse country like the USA is not an easy task. I wish we had at least 6 months to travel as there are so many places to visit that 2 or 3 months won't be enough to do everything we would like to but I will try to plan as much as possible leaving some time to improvise as we go along. I will try to use this blog to get tips from friends and people who have done this before. We would like to do it on a budget and try to go to places that are off the beaten track as much as possible.

I will be sharing my plans and preparations with you and would love your input. See you soon.