OZONA, TEXAS – I’ve been through six US states so far, driving 3,000 miles. Not everybody cares about the World Cup, but there is a shared fascination with a sporting culture different to their own that I have found incredibly endearing.
Americans largely endure a difficult reputation when it comes to their embrace of anything outside their own sphere. You will have heard the statistic, uttered as a spiteful joke, about the percentage of them that don’t own a passport. The intended slur is: ha, thickos, you don’t even want to leave your own country.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but that joke has it all wrong; Americans don’t need passports. I’ve only travelled through six states so far and I’ve seen ski resorts, beaches, deserts, woods, lakes and mountains. I’ve stayed in a vast sprawl of 13 million people and stayed in a place with a population of 2,000 that calls itself a city.
The National Park Service alone covers 430 separate areas in this country. You can drive a massive motorhome on empty freeways and drag along a jeep just for fun. Of course other countries are fabulous and fascinating, but wanting to visit all of the USA is an ineffective stick to beat anyone with. How could you ever hope to see it all?
