Coming on this road trip of the USA we always knew we had the middle to get through and we seemingly put it off for as long as possible. (7 weeks in out of 12 weeks we were still on the eastern side of the US). We decided to get a driveaway which is where you drive somebody eles's car from one place to another. You pay the gas but nothing else and they pay a company a minimal amount. Everybody wins.

Our dreams of being given a Mustang or BMW were soon crushed. We were given a 1989 Honda Accord. With no CD player. Fortunately we have one of those Itrip FM radio transmitters so we can use our own CD Player. Clearly this was a godsend...a man could go insane if left solely with country music and 'classic' rock.

Our task was to take the car from Chicago to San Diego (2,200 miles) in eight days and not go over 2,600 miles. This route actually mirrors the famous Route 66 (Chicago to LA) unfortunately for the most part that road has been paved over and replaced by somewhat characterless interstates.

To start off with we drove through Illinois, then Missouri and then Oklahoma. Uneventful is probably the best word to describe these few days. We drove about 500 miles a day which according to some Texans we met in Amarillo is 'not that far at all, you want to try 800 a day'. If you decide to spend eight or nine hours plus a day in a car with another person you start to go a little bit insane. It's natural I think. It's a form of cabin fever I think. It culminated when we arrived in Amarillo, Texas. We'd driven all day and thought we'll get a nice meal and a beer downtown before retiring to our inevitably identical motel room. Well here's a tip if you ever find yourself in Amarillo on a night time. There is no downtown. None. We drove miles that we shouldn't be driving to get to 'the lively street' according to the guidebook. We pulled up outside the one bar/restaurant that was open and half ventured in. The smell of fried food stopped us in our tracks. We looked at each other and knew that we couldn't take anymore of this food so we turned and left. A man emerged from the doorway as we sped away.

If you want fast food you've got an easy time of it. To get to a McDonalds just get on any road, anywhere and sure enough the Golden Arches will soon appear. So this night we were trying to find anywhere half decent. It's not easy. McDonald's, Wendy's, KFC, McDonald's again, Taco Bell, Arby's, Burger King, Subway, Waffle House, Wendy's again, McDonald's again, IHOP - that's the International House of Pancakes if you don't know and then finally we saw it a Lobster; a massive neon Red Lobster hovering in the distance and if you don't know your American food chains then it's a half decent one. We circled and boxed until we got closer to the great red Lobster in the sky. We couldn't get near it and all the time we were spending those precious miles. Eventually I realised we were right near our motel so I suggested we park and walk. Red Lobster had closed 20 minutes before. We spied a Bennigan's though (a mock Irish pub/restaurant) and we knew we were alright. If you found that tedious - well then I have evoked the scenario well. We ended up having a good time drinking shots in Bennigan's with the locals and getting told off by the motel manager but that's a different story.

Once we got through Texas into New Mexico the scenery started to change dramatically. We pulled off a quiet road and climbed over a barbed wire fence before climbing a hill which provided us with great views of the surrounds. I pricked myself on a cactus, yes they are sharp. We also went to Santa Fe which is a great town, it's very arty and very picturesque. It looked like a movie set of a wild west / desert town.

We also went to the Grand Canyon which is an amazing experience. It's difficult to take in because your perception struggles with the scale of it. We climbed down into the canyon a bit but we only had the day there so we could only go so far but it was superb. I'd love to do a hike and camp at the bottom and the good thing about the canyon is that even though it's fairly touristy you don't have to walk a long way to get away from the crowds.

We handed the car back ten minutes late and 100 miles over our limit but the lady didn't seem to notice and my first job since university (sad but true) was done.

Richard, 23rd May, San Francisco