I've finally managed to get some time to type out a little journal on my USA round-trip.

Let's start off by saying that I've had an absolutely awesome time there, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a lot of the country. Still getting to grips with how insanely huge the US are. Combined, the total distance me and  kadath drove would cover a significant section of Europe (as in, a trip from Utrecht, NL, to Paris, Berlin, Rome AND London, and back to Utrecht again would be less) XD

Spent plenty of time in Boise, spending time with  kadath,  mokuseikaze,  missangelab and  ashadan, and having them show me around. Never really got around to that last year since it was so hot then that even moving a finger would hit you with heat-exhaustion ;P
Lost of fun was had with watching old horror-flicks about, for example, ninja-zombies with bad make-up, and making a Mii for me (who wound up looking distinctly psychotic) on the Wii, or going to the flying M for coffee (or my very first furmeet, which was great, too :D). If not that, lots of chatting and and making merry :)
Angel teaching me how to make proper scrumbled eggs was quite memorable, and I even managed to do it again at home without burning down the neighbourhood, and going to the university with Moku was also an interesting experience - as well as a good opportunity to learn to drive an automatic (used to driving stick, so I kept kicking for a pedal that wasn't there if I had to slow down, resulting in kicking on the brake unintentionally). Seeing Ash prepare for a gig was fun as well, even if my tone-deafness showed really badly :P

After departing from Boise after the first week, I did see a lot; the space needle in Seattle, as well as a Sci-fi museum right next to it with lots of old movie-props, or hanging around with  slash0x (and getting a really good yogurt-based snack at the local mall of which I totally forgot the name).
San Francisco with the piers, street performers, museums, jazz and lots of chocolate (and staying in a hotel that felt distinctly haunted). Las Vegas with all the neon (and totally not lucking out in the casino :P), and even staying at the Luxor which was really neat - and fortunately not much Fear & Loathing. And then there was Phoenix, hanging around with the the  baddragon crew and watching bad movies (troll 2 and lady terminator instantly come to mind) and a few surprisingly good ones (like Hardware, which I hated after seeing it long ago, but was actually really good.) as well as going on scavenger-hunts for more movies and old, forgotten comics.

Met a lot of interesting people during the trip apart from the people I've mentioned, but due to my exceedingly poor memory for names, here's an all-encompassing 'thank you!' to everyone :)

Glad to have had Kad around from the first minute after arrival too - rental company tried to stick me with a much bigger, more expensive car which I wouldn't have picked up on since a car with the same name in europe is just a standard 4-door sedan, not a SUV. And there's ofcourse the driving, and 'keeping me alive and out of the usual tourist traps' ;) The long drives definitely granted the time for lots of discussions on Alien life, music (general or game-music), life as a whole and the American Dream (as it, what is that, anyway?) ;)

Also had my first 'getting in a minor accident' experience after getting in a snowstorm (which was a first in of itself) and flying off the road after hitting an unexpected ice-patch and getting stranded in a town in the middle of nowhere. First hotel was horrid and would have likely caused Shining-like behaviour in us, but the second hotel was a lot better, got to watch quite a bunch of old, classic movies (12 angry men, little ceasar, to kill a mockingbird), and have a good rest.

It was also quite an experience to celebrate Thanksgiving at Angel's family. It's the first non-Dutch holiday I've ever participated in, and it was a very good experience. Wonderful food, great company and just having an awesome time :)

And now I'm back in the Netherlands for a few weeks, struggled through the jetlag, and the trip already seems too long ago. Time really does fly when you're having fun, and even with getting snowed-in it feels like the shortest almost-4 weeks I've ever had. :)