ONE WEEK!

If you’ve been following me you’ll know I’m on countdown mode till my road trip in America. As of today we’re ONE WEEK out.

Time is flying past now.

This time next week I’ll be at the airport waiting to board my first flight. I’ll be with my 3 best friends both nervous and excited about what our month in America holds.

I can’t wait to go on this adventure with my best friends. I also can’t wait to share my experiences with all of you! Remember if you have instagram and want to see something from our trip (probably 10 posts a day let’s be honest) follow our group instagram.

Did I mention it was one week away?

The next week is going to be pretty full on for me. I’m working everyday, 10-13 hour shifts. Luckily I’ve already packed my case, I just need to double check I do have everything. I’m scared I’m going to forget a lot of things. I’ll need to write a check list for myself, although what do I need to make sure I take? My head is all over the place at the moment so god knows what will end up on my list.

Feel free to leave a comment below. I’ll hopefully be posting as much as I can while I’m away, so I look forward to sharing my adventures with you all.

Oh boy 13 days to go.

Who would have thought 2 years ago when the question was first brought to light of heading to America that we would actually do it?

2 years later, our trip has changed many a time although has had a permanent fixture from the end of 2015. We’re less than 2 weeks out before we get on our first plane and head to Boston to start our trip and I couldn’t be more excited.

We pretty much know every detail of what we want to be doing and have a few things already planned.

One thing I am wanting to add to my ‘to do’ list though is see a new favourite comedian of mine (jiggy; check him out here or follow him on twittee here) when we’re in NYC. Although unfortunately I’m missing out on seeing him I’m NYC by a day (I’ll still be in Boston) he is playing a gig an hour out of NYC in Princeton and I’m very much considering going. My only thing is I don’t think my friends would want to go which then means me taking the car and heading there myself. Doesn’t sound that bad am I right? Well yeah I guess it’s not but considering I’ll probably only have driven the car once for about an hour beforehand a trip myself does seem a little daunting.
I’m considering it though.

Really considering it actually.. it would probably be one of my favourite parts of the whole trip seeing him ngl.
There’s nothing better than a little bit of live comedy and being someone that laughs nonstop comedians are what I’m all about. Plus there’s just something about comedians (😍).

Anyway, my road trip is 13 days away and I’m incredibly excited. I can’t wait to share my experience on here with you all. If you have instagram make sure to follow ours here.

Road trip via Instagam

As most of you will already know, I’m off on a road trip across America with 3 of my best friends in just a few weeks time. (If you don’t know about it basically the 4 of us are heading off to America at the end of May for a month. We’re driving from Boston to San Francisco and we’re all incredibly excited!).

4 travelling Scots take on America. The east coast, the west coast and everything in between.

This post is basically me just letting you all know that if you want to follow our journey, not just through my eyes but through my friends as well then feel free to follow our group instagram here.

If you don’t want to follow along, that’s all fine and dandy but I will have you know you’re going to miss some epic car videos of us pretending we’re various celebrities in music videos, loads of Scottish banter, plus many tourist pictures and some not so tourist pics.. Plus a lot more of course.

Don’t worry though if you decide not to give us a little follow, I will be trying my best to update here with new posts about how our trip is getting on as regularly as I can. Which should be easily enough done as a) I’m a complete night owl and b) when I’m in the car and not driving I won’t have much else to do.

If you’re going to decide to follow us on our instagram (@roadtrippin16x), I guess I better make a quick introduction for the other 3 girls!

From left to right we have; Clare, Shona, myself and Ellé.

You can also follow our personal Instagram accounts if you like.

My Instagram

Ellé’s Instagram

Shona’s Instagram

Clare’s Instagram

Like I said, if you fancy seeing about our American adventure, then give our Instagram a follow.

We leave for our trip in 23 days, so look out for all our posts to come.

Thank you if you follow. Like I said, if you don’t I’ll try update here as much as I can so give me a follow here.

Leave me a comment if you’re going on or have been on a similar trip!

Packing and Panicing.

April is almost over, next comes May; and for me this means my road trip to America with 3 of my best friends is just around the corner.

 

It’s only 31 days until we head off on what will (I’m pretty sure) be one of the most incredible months of my life. This upcoming month leading up to us heading off is mainly consisted of me (like the title says) packing and panicing.

It’s at the stage where it really is just around the corner, and we’re all wondering what exactly do we pack? Are we taking too much? Too little? Am I forgetting something? Not to mention my constant panic and worry about money. It’s something I’m not going to get into too much but let’s just say with it one month until I go I’m only just now starting to panic slightly less, although I’m not completely over the panic just yet.

 

How much is too much when it comes to packing?

One month in America, we’re taking suitcases because we’re driving and they will be in the car most of the time. I feel like we need all different types of clothes, we’re going from city to beach with everything in between. Honestly, I haven’t started packing yet. My suitcase is in another house and I really need to get it so I can actually see what I have room for and what I can take. I feel like I’m either going to take too much or too little, I’m hopeless when it comes to packing.

 

 

Apart from packing and panicing, we have pretty much everything ready. Motels, car, flights and a few other little things are booked. Dollars are being purchased (I have about half of what I want to take). Next on our list is we’re going to be making an Instagram account that we’ll all be uploading to as we roadtrip across America. When we’ve made it I’ll be posting a link so feel free to give us a follow as for a change you won’t just see things from me. You’ll get to see through the eyes of my friends also.

 

I really can’t wait to get going on this trip already. I can’t wait to get loads of amazing things to post about and experiences to share with you all.

 

 

I’ll hopefully have a post or two before I go to America and when I’m there I’m hoping to post as much as I can also. Leave me a comment as always, link me to any of your posts about trips you’ve been on or are currently planning. I love reading about everyone’s travelling adventures.

 

 

49 days from now.

It honestly seems like just yesterday my friends and I walked into STA Travel ready to discuss our trip and book our flights. But it wasn’t yesterday, it was the 27th of July last year. Almost 9 months later, we now have 7 weeks exactly until we board our plane.

I’ve pretty much since then been counting down. Every now and again I would pop onto the STA Travel app and see the days counting their way down.

In 300 days. 300 300 300.
And now, well it’s certainly not 300 days now, in fact no where near

To think how close it has gotten and how quickly. It’s mad. I want to have been on our flights, arrived in America, spent our first few days there and picked up our car ready to hit the open road (albeit nervous as fuck as we’ll be driving on the opposite side of the road, in the opposite side of the car).

I’m not going to lie, my posts from now on will pretty much be similar until I go as I’ll just be counting down the days. But come and join the excitement with me.

Are you planning any trips anytime soon? Has your countdown started? Leave me a comment and let me know, or just message me linking to your blog for me to have a look at.

Roadtrip Countdown.

With just under 9 weeks until we board our plane to Boston it is becoming completely real that this trip IS happening.

With all the important things so far dealt with; i.e flights, car rental and accommodation the conversation has turned to a completely new subject. What clothes are you taking? This has been the topic of our conversation so far today, because it’s never too early to start planning and I mean, just what do you take with you when you’re going to travel America for a month?? If I’m being completely honest though, I haven’t thought about it at all and probably won’t until about a week before we’re due to board our plane from Glasgow.

 

What I have been thinking about is the things that are next on our list. Now although all the main things have been booked there is still a few things we need to book (which we plan on doing in the next week or so) and they are things like, booking Alcatraz, escape games in Nashville etc. The little things we’re adding to our trip that we want to do and experience.

 

I just keep thinking ahead to this trip and what is waiting for us.

 

As some of you may know, it was my birthday about 2 weeks ago now and my best friends (that are coming on this trip) got me America related things. Dollars for a start and also a journal for our trip.

 

 

I’m so excited to get over there and start using it. It’s filled with pages full to record your trip details.

Things like:

• Who is travelling.
• What vehicle are you travelling in.
• Starting and ending points for that day.
• Your mileage start/finish.
• How many miles you’ve travelled that day and throughout the whole trip.
• Your stops. (Which city. Whether it is for food, gas or a sight).
• Any souvenirs bought or any other costs.
• Amount spent that day and throughout the whole trip.
• Which states have been visited that day and throughout whole trip.
• Licence plates seen that day.
• Best part of the day.
• Daily notes or pictures.

The thought of being in America, driving through the states with my best friends making some incredible memories. It makes me want this trip to hurry up something awful, but at the same time I’m seeing how quickly it is coming around and I know it’s going to have been and gone in no time at all.

 

 

For me, this trip is going to be one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Shared with some of the most amazing people in my life.

Have you been on an epic road trip or adventure with your friends? Leave me a comment and tell me all about your experiences.

They say when you road trip

They say when you road trip that there are certain things you should or should not do. 90% of the time we have listened maybe just the first one we haven’t, that’s what happens when you’re friend is slightly obsessed with knowing every detail of everything though.

Do plan, but don’t over plan.

Well.. I’m not particularly one to over plan I’m more of a ‘I’ll see what happens when I get there’ type of person. One of my best friends however, weeeellllllllll she’s very much a plan every small detail type of person. She’s in her final year at uni and had finished her dissertation for the first week in January. She’s very much a think ahead kind of person. Needless to say every small detail of our trip has been pretty much planned out but that’s who she is. We’re all used to it and for us it will work.

Don’t choose driving partners on a whim.

Even choosing on a whim to go with these 3 gals on a road trip it definitely wouldn’t be a poor choice. For the past 18 years we’ve been friends and I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of lads. The longest we’ve been around each other before is 2 weeks and now we’re doubling that time which shouldn’t be a problem. Although every holiday we usually seem to lose a friend and not in the they’ll find they’re way back more of a, “they done my head in why was I friends with them?” kind of thing.

Don’t wait until the last minute to do research.

Well if you’ve paid any attention you’ll have realised my friend would not let that happen. This road trip has been in the planning for 2+ years, we have well and truly researched the shit out of it.

Do decide beforehand how you will divide costs.

This has well and truly been discussed and we have already divided some costs. All motels have been split 4 ways and we will be doing the same with gas etc.

Do consider alternatives to pricey hotels.

Well we’re definitely not staying in pricey hotels (apart from in Las Vegas), it will be all motels along the way apart from that so we’ve definitely saved a whole bunch of money doing that.

Do take a cooler.

Top of the list of what to buy when we get to America. I’m part of the walmart family (asda) so as sad as it is I’m really excited to use my discount card in America.

Do relax and have fun.

This, I believe we can follow this one.

Our road trip is fast approaching and we are all more than excited. I just keep reading posts from people’s experiences and get so excited when they are about somewhere we are going check my previous post on where we plan or road tripping and leave me a comment and link me to your road trip posts.

Yasmin x

Double digits

The countdown is on.

With 99 days to go we’ve raced through the trebles and have hit the doubles.

Some of you may be sat there thinking, “what is she talking about?” Well, if you’ve read just a few of my previous posts you’ll have realised that I’m going on a road trip across America this coming May and well, there’s only 99 days until I go.

Our route: Boston to San Francisco

That ⬆ is our route (roughly).
Picking our car up in Boston and driving to San Francisco via:
• New York
• Philadelphia
• Washington D.C
• Abingdon
• Nashville
• New Orleans
• Ennis
• Amarillo
• Grand Canyon
• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles
• San Simeon

4 Glaswegians spending a month travelling America, it’s sure to be a fun-filled trip.

Flights are booked.
Car is booked.
Hotels are booked.
Excursions are getting booked in the next coming weeks.

It’s mainly just a waiting game now. Counting down the days until it’s time to get on our first plane to Amsterdam for our stopover before we finally land in Boston.

I shall be making sure to keep this up to date and post regular posts while I’m in America (when I’m not behind the wheel and it’s one of my friends there’s no reason not to).

Feel free to leave me a comment whether you’ve been on a similar trip, currently on yours or are in the planning process. Let me know! Or just drop by and say hello.

Yasmin x

Monthly road trip meetings

For the past 2 years we’ve had this American road trip in the pipe line, since it became the four of us going we’ve had monthly road trips just to discuss everything and start to plan our trip out properly.

Planning our trip

Firstly we had to decide on when we were going, and we realised the best time to suit everyone was from mid May onwards. Our trip originally started as a two and a half week trip and we were visiting Boston, New York, Washington D.C, Chicago, Nashville, Miami, New Orleans, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco.. We quickly realised this was pretty unrealistic for what we were wanting to achieve on this trip. We changed our route and slowly started adding days on. We got to 29 days and I was the one who piped up saying, “you know, I’m really not a fan of odd numbers.. I think we should just make it 30” we then ended up adding another on for my friend as she wanted an extra day in San Francisco. So really I lost out with that odd number appearing again with 31 days but we couldn’t add any more as my friend has a dog and couldn’t keep asking people to watch her.

 

Our monthly road trip meetings soon started to draw out a route for our trip and then it was time to decide on what we wanted to do in each place.

If I’m completely honest we’ve probably known exactly what we were wanting to be doing for a long time now and we just have our monthly meetings still to say, “Wow! America is getting so close now.” Although we do have a few things still to do and they’ll be completed at a road trip meeting later this month; we have to book our car and start booking a few excursions.

 

Our past few road trip meetings have resulted in us making up brief daily itineraries so we can get a rough idea of what we are able to do in each place and just how to spend our time. 

We have so much we all want to do it would be a struggle to decide when we’re over there what we do have time for without a little bit of forward planning. We’ve been on one trip where we had no planning involved beforehand, no planning at all. And it was a nightmare! We’re definitely the planning type, don’t get me wrong it’s not as if we won’t be spontaneous and just go with the flow and do whatever we feel like at the time, but sometimes it’s just nice to have a plan in place of what we are going to do.

 

We’ll be booking our car that we’ll be driving across America in, did someone say exciting??! Until our next road trip meeting..

 

 

Leave me a comment on how you plan your trips.

Yasmin x

 

Travelling Tattoos

Something you all may not know about me is that I absolutely love tattoos, and I mean love them. There’s just something about tattoos..

 

As Kat Von D said, “I am a canvas of my experiences, my story is etched in lines and shading, and you can read it on my arms, my legs, my shoulders, and my stomach.”

 

I mention tattoos because I myself have a few already, one of which is travel related. It’s my wanderlust tattoo, and it’s as simple as it sounds, written across my foot. It does mean an awful lot to me.

Wanderlust to me is a word that describes how I feel so prefectly; the desire to wander or travel the world. The positioning of it was completely meant too. Tattooed on my foot, as it’s your feet that you use to walk or wander around. As simple as the tattoo is, I did put a lot of thought into why and where I wanted it. It was a tattoo that I had wanted for a few years before I finally got it and what makes it mean more to me is the fact that I did in fact get it when on a holiday.

But, this isn’t what this post is all about, oh no. As some of you may know in a few months time I will be going on a road trip across America with 3 of my best friends and we actually plan on getting a matching tattoo to commemorate our trip together. I plan on getting mine towards the end of our trip in San Francisco, although my friends plan on waiting until we get back home, I personally think it will mean even more to me getting it done there and then in America rather than waiting until we get back. I’m not going to let you all in on the secret of what our tattoo is going to be so you will all need to keep an eye out until June/July when I update you all with a post showing our tattoos, until then it’s a guessing game!

 

 

What about yourselves, do you have any tattoos to remember a trip or place by? Or maybe you’ve just gotten one when you were in a foreign country, comment and let me know!

Yasmin x