There's something magic about the American road trip experience - it's just great. But I'm really unable to put my finger on precisely why this is.. On the face of it, barring some very notable exceptions, the country is mostly uninteresting plains, and culturally it is absolutely homogeneous - compared to Europe, say, where there are new countries, languages and cultures pretty much every half hour until you reach the ferry to Africa. So why doesn't Europe have the same culture of taking road-trips? I just don't know.
Maybe it's partially because America is less densely populated, so people there are more accustomed to travelling a long way, for jobs, or to visit relatives, or even just to buy milk.
Perhaps the fact that American's are generally wealthier than most European countries has some empowering effect. But then again, as you note, Americans get bugger-all holiday (about 2 weeks a year) whereas everyone here gets 5 or so, so you'd think we'd have time to burn on a lazy drive across the continent.
Maybe it is that very spread-out nature of the experience which leads to a sense of anticipation - days of driving across the great plains to reach some imagined destination - the eventual discovery of a mountain chain, rising gently from the simmering horizon like a freshly-forged miracle.
Or maybe Europe doesn't have the road-trip tradition simply because we didn't really see the movie Road Trip.
Maybe.
Jonathan, check out Google Earth and you'll see that the Western US is very mountainous. California itself has the highest peak in the Continental US (Mt Whitney, > 15000 feet) and the lowest spot (Death Valley).
The East coast also has plenty of mountains, although they're not very tall.
Although my family didn't do it often, I think there's a traditional of taking family vacations and going on the road in the summer.
I believe three weeks of vacation (plus paid holidays such as Christmas) is more typical (that's about what I've always had).
Commenting by HaloScan
