Week 14, 2025 - America
Song of the week:
Top of mind
One of my favourite places to visit -- and unfortunately I mostly visit for work -- is the US. There's something about it that I can never put my finger on. It's so vast, beautiful, ugly, strange and normal all at the same time. I know you can probably say that about Ireland too, but America does things differently. Scale, value and ballsiness are second to none there.
Your mileage also varies a lot depending on where you go. North East (Boston, NYC, etc.) are so incredibly different to California, which itself is another planet to the South. It's a whole pile of countries and regions smushed together in a way that they probably shouldn't be.
And unfortunately the country has been corrupted by social media, news media and politics. And I genuinely hope it sorts itself. I am horrified by what those in charge are doing, and how the people have been so awfully lead down a poor path. It reminds me of Brexit, but on a ballsiness scale that the Brits could never have achieved.
But I want to be optimistic. It's only April & I've been stateside four times, with another trip in a few weeks locked down. I've probably been to the US multiple times per year every year (bar Covid) for over a decade. Again, mostly with work, with the occasional fun trip thrown in. Kids have gotten in the way of the fun trips, but I'll fix that in the coming years as they get easier to either bring or pawn off on a relative!
One of my favourite trips was with two mates. We rented a Mustang (as one does, when in Rome!) and went from Airbnb to Airbnb booking across Northern California. We absolutely murdered that car on back roads, dirt roads, offroad trails and a bit of highway 1. While also destroying our heads without caps as the roof went down. We saw so much in such a short space of time. I want to do a trip like that again with my wife and kids some time.
I've yet to visit the proper south. I've never done Texas, and have friends and colleagues near Dallas who sing the praises of the food culture down that part of the world. I've also never done Florida, which interests me a lot as a mad rural part of the country.
This year will be my first ever visit to Chicago, which is probably waiting too long for that one given the Irish links the city celebrates.
Everywhere I've been, I've been wowed by the wonderful people. The modern history, the ballsiness of the way they do things and just the vibe in the room has always been good to me. It's a crying shame that today they're in the place they're in. And yes, some of that is their own doing. But I'm a macro optimist here. Let's hope for good times for a great place.
And I hate to quote Bono, but I do like when he said that America isn't a place. It's an idea.
Photo of the week
(via my flickr)