Hi again!
We are on the road now for quite some time, so we thought it would be time to tell you guys our first impressions so far of the whole adventure.
Ofcourse the whole trip is beautiful and gorgeous to do! We visited some places that were dreams of us and there will only come more! We both agree on the fact that this was one hell of a good decision we took. As much money, time and effort it is costing, WE ARE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
But it’s not all fun and games… A real reality shock kicked in with us a few days ago. Britt was first. We had our van for a couple of days and then she suddenly knew like: ‘damn, we are away from home for 3 months, 90 days… That’s pretty long. We have to shower on campgrounds, eat in our tiny camper and we have no storage place.” After some emo-time and a lot of comforting from Ief (thanks for that, my love), It was all fine!
The next day it was Ief’s time. He suddenly became a real (excuse me for the language) pain in the ass. The difficulty for him was that his planning that he made before, wasn’t entirely what we thought, because next to traveling, we also have a household to run (washing our clothes, cooking, supermarket stops, cleaning the camper, …). After some comforting of my side (I’ll take my own credits for that J), it was all fine as well!
Sometimes we have some moments that are difficult, because the whole roadtrip sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime moment (which it is), but it’s also a money-eating-monster that take all your budget in big chunks. I’m sorry America, but you are very expensive and we should really we careful with the choices we make on how to spend our money. No worries, we are still on a budget, but we’re not buying extra things, more food… as we thought we could buy.
Everything is also so different in the USA. Ofcourse we also had that when we were in Asia, but we thought America was very similar to Europe. In some ways it is, but not entirely. The food at first, is SO SO SO sugary. You can taste the sugar in the bread! THE BREAD! Milk is sweet, some meals are very salty so now we know how (some) American people get so fat! In the supermarket ‘Walmart’ there are even little automatic carts, so fat people can drive through the store and wauw, a lot of people are using them!
Besides that, people here are friendly, some times. Like in Europe, there are always some people who are not that friendly. BUT on the campground in Phoenix, there was Adam! A friendly, typical American who gave us this:
A homemade BBQ steak, some rice and vegetables and beer! He also helped us out with fixing something in Tucky, our truckie. He was a real American man: owned a gun, Trump-supporter, fan of the Giants and he is a believer. A great person that helped us out! THANKS AGAIN ADAM!
We also noticed that the American citizens don’t know much about Belgium. If they hear that we’re not speaking English, a lot of people on the streets, in the supermarket or elsewhere are asking where we are from. They always say: ‘Ooooh, Belgium! Where is that?’ We know our country is small, but please…. WE ARE NOT THAT SMALL. Some people do know the country and where it is located, but they don’t know the currency, the language… It’s nice to explain it to them!
While walking in America, we really feel like European Citizens, and we’re actually kind of proud of that. The United States of America sound so cool and big and futuristic, but the culture, people, streets, food… everything is different. We haven’t had a place where we were like: yeah, we could totally live here. No. Passing through the USA is enough, living here is not required. At least not yet. Who knows what will come.
So far, so good folks. We are still alive, maybe a bit cold in the van and craving for our mommy’s food, but all in all we’re good here. Having the views of our lives, the sugar bomb of a lifetime and each other.
Life is up to the adventurous, and I’m proud of us that we are doing this.
It’s just the two of us. The road. And the United States of America.
Bring it on.
GLOBE WATCHERS
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