BACK HOME

Got back Saturday morning and found a lovely bunch of flowers that had been left by my friends Janine and Dusan.They’ve kindly been house-sitting for the last four weeks as they did last year. It’s great when this happens for two reasons. (A) You can travel with no worries and (B) you know when you get back the house will be cleaner than it was when you set out.

So now we get to the nerd bit. Janice Long has been teasing me about this fascination with statistics. However if you undertake an epic journey it’s nice to pull a few things together.

I reckon I travelled in total approximately 6294 miles from Los Angeles to New York as opposed 5247 last year. Although if you add in the 30 miles in a cab when I went to see Tom Waits in El Paso, it makes it more than 6300.

I hired a Chrysler Sebring Convertible this time as alas the hire company had run out of Mustangs. Not sure if it was any more economical but, as fuel has increased by 49% since last and I travelled further, my petrol bill was going to be more than last year. It cost me $856.62. So if we reckon the exchange rate was $1.94 to £1. End result -$441.56p.

I visited twenty States this time as opposed to eighteen on my last adventure

They were...in order...(stop sniggering this is important)

California

Arizona

New Mexico

Texas

Oklahoma

Kansas

Missouri

Iowa

Minnesota

Wisconsin

Michigan

Ohio

Pennsylvania

New York

Vermont

New Hampshire

Maine

Massachusetts

Rhode Island

Connecticut

The song title and lyrics that I used for the blog were:

"Leaving on a jet plane" John Denver

"From New York to LA" Patsy Gallant

"When the swallows come back to Capistrano" The Inkspots

3:10 to Yuma" George Duning (Sandy Denny did the most famous version)

"El Paso" Marty Robbins

"My Piano's been drinking" Tom Waits

"In these shoes" Kirsty MacColl

"Catfish Blues" Muddy Waters

"San Antonio Rose" Bob Wills

"Okie from Muskogee" Merle Haggard

"Crossroads" Robert Johnson

"Iowa" Dar Williams

"A Mighty Wind" Mitch & Mickey

"Love City. (Postcards to Duluth)" Peter Paul and Mary

"Cadillac Walk" Moon Martin

"My Michigan" Michigan State Song

"Ohio (Come back to Texas)" Bowling for Soup

"Shuffle off to Buffalo" 42nd Street

"Niagara Falls" Chicago

"Win.Place or Show" The Intruders

"Down Drinking at the Bar" Loudon Wainwright

"Rock Lobster" B52's

"I'm Shipping up to Boston" Dropkick Murpheys

"Summerfling" KD Lang

"Piano Man" Billy Joel

"Jet Airliner" Steve Miller Band