Starting afresh

In the all round gloom of new year 2009, I decided to have a new beginning: to start this blog all over again. I've binned the poems that made up the content of the blog. It's harder than I ever imagined to write a worthwhile poem, and I think the world should be spared my drivel. Thanks to the poet Gill McEvoy and the other members of the wonderful Poem Shed writing group, I am learning slowly. Maybe one day I will have a poem worthy of the name. This blog is going to document a trip to the USA from 31 March - 6 May 2009. My artist son Oksy and I bought our tickets before the UK pound sterling crashed, and so we had a reasonable deal on air fares. The main reason for the trip is to see my son, daughter-in- law and grandchildren, but on the back of that we plan to drive across the USA from Tucson to Chicago. My gap-year nephew is going to join us. So far we have purchased a large road map, and the latest Lonely Planet USA. While we wish to keep our trip loose and flexible, we don't want to fritter away our 2-3 weeks on the road and miss iconic sights. Luckily we are all into scenery, not cities.