Travelfood

Many dream of a car trip from the US coast to coast through the huge continent. I did it as a Greyhound bus roundtrip by buying an affordable one-month-ticket with unlimited travel option. From New York I travelled to San Francisco via Boston, Chicago, St Louis, Denver and Salt Lake City. There were lots of long legs with whole travel days and/or nights through areas so vast that when I woke up in the morning the scenery through the bus window looked the same as when I fell asleep the previous night. From this route I was especially impressed by the Rocky Mountains and by the architectural wonder of St Louis’ Gateway Arch, designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen.

On my return trip from Los Angeles to New York, I stopped in Las Vegas, Flagstaff, Santa Fe, Dallas, New Orleans, Miami, Washington DC and Philadelphia. Flagstaff works as a gateway to Grand Canyon and the natural wonder is truly impressive. Also the humid heat of New Orleans as well as the special culture of Louisiana was memorable. At the end of my journey I was very tired after many hours of sitting awake and sitting asleep. But the situation would have been the same also if the journey had been made by car.

The Greyhound buses are clearly for those Americans who do not own a car of their own and there are not many of those, I guess. The passengers are mostly people of lesser wealth and that is apparent also from the fact that the Greyhound bus terminals are usually situated far from the city centers, in poorer city parts. The travelers are often interesting personalities. The buses are usually full and you need to adjust to the fact that there is not much room for sleeping and sometimes you sit by talkative fellow passengers. It is clear that the US bus network is more comprehensive than its railway network.

The only way to get food on long legs are on reststop areas for buses and everyone queues for the fast food chain products that are available on that stop. I had some corn dogs (hotdog made of corn flour), pancakes with maple syrup, pecan pies, chicken wings, sweet potato pies, hamburgers, burritos and tacos. But in New Orleans I had proper Cajun food, or specifically spicy gumbo soup with shrimps, Cajun rice, red beans and gator sausage!

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The sales of Greyhound one-month-passes ceased to exist in 2012, but you can still travel from coast to coast by buying tickets from one city to the next. Some of the legs might be nicer to travel by Amtrak train or alternatively you may want to rent a car for some legs.

food, travel, travel experiences, USA