Not content with all those, I'm changing again. I'm leaving Maine and heading to the Great White North. No, I'm not going to Newcastle, I'm starting a PhD course in Fairbanks, Alaska, taking Mrs Jon and all associated furniture with me. That means only one thing - ROAD TRIP! I'm lucky(?) enough to have Mrs Jon staying in Maine for a couple more weeks, so I'm joined by my brother on this trip. He's also a jet-setting COYSDCer, having been Hollywood Saint, and now he posts from northern France as Former Hollywood Saint.

The plan is for us to make the trip from southern Maine to mid-Alaska in a 14ft UHaul van. To be honest, I'm not sure if UHaul exists in the UK, but it's basically a van rental company. Seems like a van rental company is a pretty good place to hire a van from... Anyway, we hope to take eleven days to go cross country. Some people say it's a little rushed, and to be honest it probably is. However, as soon as I get to AK, I need to unload the van and head out to sea again. The fun never stops in the world of science. No, honestly.

The first day was pretty simple. Leave Maine, hit upstate New York to top-off the van with some more stuff, and find a rest stop to the west of Buffalo...

Day 1.

As with all good plans, my schedule fell apart before leaving. I hoped to leave around 10am, as the first day was due to have us drive just under 570 miles in about 9 and a half hours. However, we finally got on the road 2 hours late. Still, good driving conditions meant that we could pick up a little time...

We're going to try to get the signs for each state we enter!

Heading south from Maine, we quickly racked up states #2 and 3 - New Hampshire and Massachusetts. A couple of hours later and we were in our fourth state, New York. A quick detour to Albany, and we picked up yet more stuff from the inlaws. The rest of the day was spent on the same road, in fact a road that we will be spending several days on, the I-90. Our late start, and indeed the late night spent packing beforehand, was catching up with us. Deciding that safety was better than distance, we called the end of the first day about an hour before we should have done, and pulled the van over in a service station.

Last state of the day

This is part of the luxury of driving cross country on a tight budget. You think you've been in cheap hotels? Well, the beds there are probably a lot more comfortable than being spread out over the front seats of the van (for me), or on a blow up mattress in the cargo space (for FHS)!

If we survive, there'll be more later...

Distance travelled: 568 miles.

States visited: 4 - Maine (ME), New Hampshire (NH), Massachusetts (MA), New York (NY).

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