From the Atlantic to the Pacific

In March 1963 I sailed for the USA on the Queen Mary, to spend the next few months seeing as much of the country as I could, travelling chiefly by Greyhound bus on a 99 dollar ticket for 99 days. America was so familiar from films and indeed history lessons and my route was influenced by both: Washington DC, the amazing recreation of 18th century Williamsburg and then the Wild West, I am the ultimate film buff, so Tombstone, Arizona, the OK Corral and Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity's Jane's Deadwood were both on my itinerary, but so was the culture of Native Americans especially in New Mexico where I was privileged to watch sacred dances. I hope my photographs do justice to the amazing scenery I experienced. The journey ended among the literary landscapes of New England in the footsteps of Louisa May Alcott and Nathaniel Hawthorne and retracing the farms of the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam, better known of course as New York. The contrast with life in Britain then was much greater than it is now. This account was written at the time for my family and I have left it almost unchanged.