THE LAST DITCH
My US Road Trip began in New Jersey on April 29 2013 and ended back there on Sunday June 23. Clicking this link will show you an online map of my tour and my photos and updates from the road. My planned itinerary is in MapQuest. My temporary US number for the tour ceased working on April 25th.
Tom, where you say “my US Tour”? It makes you sound just a bit like Bon Jovi or something ^_^ Will there be a DVD and merchandising?
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There will be a book, I hope, and T-shirts for the navigators who are planning to fly out to join me for sections of the trip. Maybe I should have some mugs made to hand out to US readers who meet me for coffee en route?
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You might find this app handy-http://gasbuddy.com/
Select location, select grade of gas. Not that I expect that you will drive miles out of your way to save pennies, but it is a good idea to check if the convenience of interstate service stations prices are worthwhile. The other wrinkle you will soon learn is that advertised price is probably a cash transaction-credit card usually a couple cents more.
You seem serious about visiting the contiguous 48 states, should I be buying BP shares?
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Prices of course are US gallon which is 0.833 Imperial gallon or 3.8 litres.
Read it and weep British drivers.
The heat map is useful as well, it will often give you a hint where neighbouring states charge excessive taxes-you would not want to make the mistake of not filling in Arizona or Nevada before you enter California or from Jersey to New York or Connecticut.
Starve the greedy governments!
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Thanks for this. All your advice is most welcome. I am not sure about BP shares. I will have to buy whatever brand of gas is available when Speranza demands to be fed. She is not very patient about it.
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At the risk of seeming rude (sometimes the everyday stuff gets missed)….I suppose you have arranged a good celphone plan that allows roaming all over the states at reasonable cost (including data)? One hears some horror stories about Europeans using their phones in the states only to return to horrendous bills.
BTW what do get in terms of mileage on a tank of gas (driving sedately)?
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Maybe you should think about releasing the book as an epub?
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I shall try the conventional route first. It sets me a standard to shoot for with my photography. If I fail, there's no great loss. I will simply have a better quality personal album, which I can vanity/e-publish if enough friends would like a copy.
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I have this in hand, but thanks for worrying! An American friend has a son in the business and is going to help me sort out an iPhone and iPad sim for the duration of my tour.
Speranza’s onboard computer is over-informative (showing the highest speed achieved on the current trip where a curious policeman might see it, for example) but is strangely silent about fuel consumption. The official combined figure is 21.6 miles per imperial gallon, but such figures often bear little relation to reality. I might do better than that on long, steady US runs.
What’s “sedately” by the way?
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Sedately is a conditional word, depending on road and traffic conditions, and the mood of the driver, it’s clearly for the driver to decide.
Though I do recall mention of “sedately at 150mph” during discussion of the advisability of a coffee-cup holder.
I will m not pretend to understand what an Ipad sim is but glad to hear you are getting expert advice.
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Tom is a retired international lawyer. He was a partner in a City of London law firm and spent almost twenty years abroad serving clients from all over the world.
Returning to London on retirement in 2011, he was dismayed to discover how much liberty had been lost in the UK while he was away.
He’s a classical liberal (libertarian, if you must) who, like his illustrious namesake, considers that
“…government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”
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The Last Ditch by Tom Paine 
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