We started planning a trip around the USA back in October 2005. All trips need to have a purpose or they just turn into "a nice drive around a foreign country". Unfortunately for us the purpose of this trip was a bit lame... we wanted to collect a sticker of each States flag. So our plan was to visit each of the mainland states. However, as time has passed our plans have changed and now we just want to have "a nice drive around a foreign country"!!

It has always been Jens dream to visit Canada, and so as well as visiting the USA we plan to spend quite a bit of time checking out the interesting and not-so-interesting places north of the border.

The Route
Our first planned route was from Anchorage to Florida, then we changed our minds and decided to visit all 49 mainland states and as much of Canada as possible... for a laugh! Our intended start point was due to be New York, but having sought the advice and experience of many other travellers, Baltimore will be the start point. Apparently New York customs can be a bit awkward. More on this once we have actually got Charlie into America.

Once we get there we intend to travel anticlockwise. The route shown here does actually take us into each state. However, we won't be sticking strictly to this idea, as I'm sure we will want to spend longer in some places than we do in others. But most of all we want to enjoy ourselves.