The United States of Ameri-car!

It became very apparent as soon as we hit the freeways of Los Angeles, that the car is an integral part of the American dream.

The freeways were packed - a hellish mix of lane changers and breaking space invaders, jostling for pole position on a badly tarmaced surface (imagine the chaos should they ever close the roads to repair them??).

We had just arrived and been given an enormous sailing whale of an RV.  We weren't too sure how wide it was or how good it's brakes were, when suddenly we had to deal with downtown LA on a Friday rush hour.

Thankfully once out of the city the panic subsided and the roads gave way to miles of straight - very straight in some places - peace and quiet.

Some of the towns we stopped in however, reminded me of the car-centric nature of US living. We would drive along long stretches of retail areas at the edges of towns, looking for a McDonalds to use their wifi, or the entry to the Interstate. The number of automobile related outlets was astounding - car hire, car dealerships, exhaust repairs, body-shops and something that did something about the Smog (?).  It gave the impression that cars and their needs were a large part of everyones life.  We had already fallen very much in love with our burbling V8 engined RV, it was easy to become smitten with such shiny freedom finders.

The cost of tarmacing has made me wonder lately just how expensive the roads of the UK are. On Lewis there are just a few roads and the conditions are relatively good. Where my Mum lives in the more densely populated south of England there are miles of small village roads that must be a constant nightmare for local Councils to pay to repair.
In America when it comes to local roads, they have a simple solution: They just don't tarmac local roads and everyone has to buy a truck!

If you have a shiny yellow sports car, don't go rural.  We drove along a dirt road to get to a campsite and had to drive at 5mph to avoid juddering - not that we minded, it was a much more pleasant way to take in the gorgeous scenery.  But finally we realised where the stereotype of a backcountry cowboy in his pick up truck comes from.  Perhaps he has a town car and a truck, just like the people of Lewis - one shiny hoovered car for going to church in and one pick-up for pulling your trailer.  After all,

it helps the economy along and the sense of freedom a vehicle gives you is worth paying over and over for.