UCL to UCLA: Road trip around the South

One of the best things about living in the United States is the enormous potential for domestic travel. In true American style the best way to do this is by car. This is not just because of the incredibly low fuel prices of $1.439/gallon, which equates to £0.23/litre in the UK! While writing a post last term, I realised how much I preferred the journey to places than the destinations themselves. While on the road, whether as the driver or a passenger, you are exposed to a far more authentic side of the country through the lives of ordinary Americans. Indeed Tim Edensor (2003: 151) argues that roads 'are enmeshed within unpredictable, multiple flows of ideas, sensations, other spaces and times, narratives, and socialites'. Though this may seem mundane to some, it has been one of my greatest joys while travelling on my year abroad.

It was in this light that, following a brief visit to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, I joined some friends on a five day road trip of the Deep South. Driving a total of 2,060 miles, we visited a total of eight states (Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee). Along the way we crossed the historical Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, stopped at Panama Beach, drove over the Great Smokey and Blue Ridge Mountains, and visited the disturbingly pristine Parthenon in Nashville. However the best part of the journey was taking in America on the open road.