Potential visit to Canada and the US
Aug. 11th, 2015 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moultery*
My job came to an unacrimonious end last month, so I have time on my hands, and I’m thinking about visiting the US and Canada. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but have repeatedly put out of mind.
I’d like to see places, meet people, understand the culture(s) better (ideally replacing my 15-year-old self’s foggy observations of it), capture ideas and references for my art, and (I hope) break down a little of my own timidity and reclusiveness. (Putting off the inevitable job-hunt is purely incidental.)
The route is currently a bit blurry in my mind, but I’m thinking to start in New York, go around south-eastern Canada through Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, and continue into the Midwest.** Beyond that I don’t know. I would love to make it all the way to the north-west coast, but I don’t know whether the time allotted (90 days without special permission, I believe) or my money will last that long.
To add to the fun, I don’t drive (working on it, but I won’t be a candidate for car hire for at least a year), so I’d be trying to do this by train and bus, staying in hostels and B&Bs.
I’m trying not to leave it too late (as I understand the winters there can be a bit parky). Having got a couple of weddings out of the way, I could be going by late September.
Americans and Canadians among you: does this sound at all feasible? Have you ever done something similar? Is there anything you’d recommend I should see or do (or warn me not to see or do)?
* Gruff Rhys’ American Interior is well worth seeing, BTW: a musical road trip where he follows a distant ancestor. I don’t think I will try to map the Missouri, be jailed as a spy, fail to find a tribe of Welsh-speaking Americans or die of malaria (but I’ll leave my options open).
** If that route holds and the timing's right, there is also the (fun/scary) potentiality that I could attend this year’s Midwest Furfest. My history with furry cons is brief and anxiety-sodden, but it’s so tempting, and I hope I’m more resilient now than I was then.
