My thoughts on Trek America

So, now that I have come to the end of the Trek America part of my trip report, I thought I'd write a little bit about what it was like vs. my preconceptions and also just to sum up what an amazing time I had.

My first thing that I have to say is that anyone who is thinking about doing a tour with Trek America, do it! When we first started thinking about our trip, me and Gary were always planning to do it alone and not joining a tour group, because we wanted to do it 'properly' and not rely on other people. I am so glad we changed our minds and did Trek America instead. It was so easy and so well organized, and of course the people that we met made it an unforgettable experience.

The biggest concern I had before we went was the whole camping/group participation side of it which included cooking and cleaning for the group.
As for camping, I adjusted really well to it, just about every person I know laughed at the thought of me camping for 9 weeks, I hadn't even camped for one night before. I definitely overcame a lot of fears (I didn't get murdered, so it must have gone well) and I would actually say at this point in my life now, I miss camping and really want to go again. I loved spending so much time outdoors and sitting around the campfire, the only times that I hated camping is when it was raining or cold. Having to cook or do washing up for the group was shit, there is no denying it, but it was only a small part of what we had to do. I totally hated doing it when I wanted to be having fun instead, but I managed to get over it.

One thing that I wasn't expecting was how much money we would spend. The trip itself cost I think about £3500 per person, plus we had a $10 a day food kitty on top of that, plus of course we had to pay for all the activities we wanted to do, plus going out for meals on nights we weren't cooking, and of course we spent a lot of money on alcohol, which I do not regret at all because we had so many fun times. Gary and I are not really party people or drinkers, but we were on this trip. I think it was due to 2 reasons, one was of course the fun people we were with who drank a lot, and the second was the fact that we had spent so much time in our lives being hard, organized workers, that it was just so nice to not care about being hungover in the morning. We had the craziest nights of our lives and they are some of the best memories I have.

Of course I had mixed views on the tour leaders. Our first one Art, was great, and the 2nd one, Mark, was not so great. I wish we could have had a more consistent experience with the tour leaders because it definitely did make the second half of the trip not as good as it could have been, but then again, it could have been worse.

The places we got to visit were amazing, so many big famous cities and places mixed with random small towns and places we had never heard of. The only thing that could have made it better was to go to even more places, I'd have loved to go to Tennessee, and seen more of Texas and Arizona. I also would have loved to go further north than New York and go to Maine or one of the other states up there that look really nice, but there will always be a next time. Of course I would have also liked to stay in each place longer, but it was really impressive the amount of places we got to visit in 9 weeks. I got to see places I'd always dreamed of seeing and more.

Trek America definitely made me enjoy more activities that I never thought I would. All the hiking and the beautiful scenery we saw, has given me a thirst for adventure and makes me want to spend more time in natural places like that. I really want to visit more of the American National Parks because I found all the ones we went to really enjoyable. It's so cool how in one country there can be so many different landscapes, I just can't wait to go back and see more.

Finally, the thing that made our Trek America experience most enjoyable, was the people that we got to share it with. I feel so lucky to have met them all, and know that we really will be friends forever. Before we went on the trip I was anxious about making friends with the people we would meet, but they were all so amazing and friendly that I forgot about those fears on day 1. A lot of people say that you make really good friends with people when you travel and then as soon as you get home you kind of lose touch. Our experience has been the opposite, we are still the best of friends and plan to be for the rest of our lives. I can't wait to go to Australia and see all my lovely friends that live over there again, because I miss them so much.
Definitely the hardest part of it was saying goodbye to them all and it sucks to not see them every day when you are used to spending every minute with them, but I am just to happy that I got the chance to meet them and got to make friends that I will have forever that I would not have met otherwise.

So that's it really, just to finish, I will say Trek America was the best experience of my life, and of course getting married on the trip made it extra special. I will always remember it and look back on those 9 weeks as the happiest memories of my life. TRAILBLAZERS FOREVER!