American dream

Mardi 11 décembre 2007 2 11 12 2007 06:27

http://www.wat.tv/video/753458/elefant-seals-at-highway.html

Good-bye central America, hello United States. To be honest, we are happy to travel to a clean and organized country where we don’t have to watch out all the time for our things. The flight runs without problems and the 6 hours pass by very fast. Out of the airplane: Hundreds of km desert (we fly over Mexico). The colors vary from black to dark-brown and gray. It is crushing. A landscape without color, terribly. Tropical climate, where are you? Now it is so far, we begin the approach on Phoenix. I am totally excited and in a good temper despite the monotony of nature. It is an amusing feeling, a mixture of excitement and fascination. Oh my God, I believe, I expect very much from the United States, I hope, I won’t be disappointed. We arrive at the airport, we discover smiling, reserved, courteous people, which are lucky to answer our questions if we need information. After a delicious meal we go to rent the car and we are already on the road northbound, direction Williams, a small city in Arizona, one hour before the Grand Canyon. The landscape is exactly the opposite of Costa Rica: dry, meager and the only visible plants are cactus and stone pines trees. We feel the dryness of the air: our skin and lips irritate. For a long time we did not feel this. We stop in a gas station, one ask us, where we come from, one welcome us in the USA, and everyone gives us its small "Insider tips", which we won’t miss in any case. Really, these Americans are unbelievably friendly. We arrive in the very comfortable and cheap hotel, large luxury in comparison to Central America. We are tired, we already got up at 4.15 am (Arizona time: 2.15). On the next day: Rich breakfast at Safeway’s, an American big and nice supermarket. It is like a large fine food shop. Incredible, how the vegetable and the fruits are cleaned up... Switzerland is a chaos compared to this! At least here there are colors! It seems, as if everything would be tidied up, only in order to it looks beautiful. For sure you want to buy here.
Now we are ready for the day. Grand Canyon, we’re coming! Oops, there is snow. The day before we wore short sleeves and summer clothes. We don’t have even a jacket. Fortunately the sun shines and warms a little the air, and this miracle of nature lets us forget the ice-cold wind. We take pictures of all corners; we don’t want to lose sight of something. The people talk with us, are interested in us, I am impressed by their openness, their modesty and their friendliness. I have always in mind the 3 people from Texas, who had compassion with us, when they saw us walking on the highway. Therefore they suggested us riding along a few miles on the loading area of their giant Pickups. Of course we accepted this suggestion with pleasure.
The 2nd day in Arizona brings us to Sedona, to a small city in the mountains. A native men recommended us a "nice" road. "Nice, nice"?, he calls that "nice"? It is not "nice", it is gorgeous! Really, in this country you can only name everything with superlatives... I am speechless. At noon we are again at the airport in Phoenix, where the airplanes to Los Angeles, and then to San Francisco wait for us. I am excited to say to myself that I fly to Los Angeles, even if we only stay in the airport!! I have the feeling to discover another and at the same time a similar world. It is, as if I would be in the center of the raving world life.

An endless feeling of liberty, without the impression of insecurity, flows through me. It is strong. The arrival in San Francisco is equal, only the weather is much cooler, but not so the people, which continue to inspire us. Third day in the states: Sight seeing in San Francisco and discovery of an American city with has got a completely different flair, than what we in Europe would consider an typical American metropolis: Traffic is limited, it does not stink, the trams are very old, and it is unbelievably calm. The people do not look stressed at all and one hear very little noise, even the engines of the cars are not loud. The sea, the islands of the environment, the hills, the vegetation, all this gives the city an own personality. But once more what interests me most are humans. There would be numerous examples to mention. Genuinly, these Americans are really particularly and I must admit that they affect me. One of the biggest examples is surely this women in the tram. She was eingemummelt in their winter coat and asked suddenly the other passengers whether someone knows a Christmas song. The whole car began at one time to sing "jingle Bell"... Now there is no more doubt, here blows another wind and I understand slowly the differences to us Europeans. For me all these small anecdotes are only details, which hide deeper reasons over "success" of America, and I will follow up this question! We spend 3 days in San Francisco, admire the city and say ourselves that the life is to surely have something special here. From the 3. night on we are not any more in the hotel. The day before we got the camper, which will be our home for the next 2 weeks. Attention, Bonny and Clyde are on their way: we ignored the toll of a bridge, we took at least 10 times a road which was closed for trucks, and 3 times Steve did not respect a red light, whereby he got flashed once. We hope that the far journey becomes somewhat calmer ;-) Now we go southbound California‘s west coast. It is beautiful, we don‘t know where to look. On our left, roundish mountains, as I like it. On our right the sea and a landscape, which alternates between enormous beaches and abrupt cliffs. The waves are enormously, like everything here. We stop, if somewhat pleases us, we sleep in parking lots. The nights are ice cold and 2 covers are not too much. The people are open and warmherzig as before. They recommend places to us, let us use Internet free of charge. Everything seems simple and nothing is a problem. In short, I am still very much impressed. I am strained, what will expect us the following days.