She lives to travel, but this adventure would be her
greatest yet. Irish Model Daniella Moyles did the
ultimate American Road Trip. And she took her homebird boyfriend, Dara –
and us – along for the ride.
I love to travel.
There are between 189 and 196 countries on the Earth, depending on which source
you read and, as it stands, I have explored only 30 of those. I have a world
map on my bedroom wall with a pin in every location, and each small pin
represents some very big memories...
That
map excites me every morning, imagining all the places I have yet to see, and
all the people I have yet to meet. Sometimes, I'll wake up daydreaming about
Tokyo, creating what the city feels like or smells like at that exact moment.
Other times, it will be the monks in Nepal or the African plains or the Eskimos
from eastern Siberia to Alaska. I think it is this awareness of the world that
keeps me locked in a perpetual state of wanderlust.
The
travels I've embarked on since I was old enough to explore the world on my own
have been off the beaten track. It all started with a summer spent living in
Sagres, a small surfing village so far to the south-west of Portugal it felt
like you might fall off the continent. Since then, I've seen and learnt some
unforgettable things. I've sat in a volcanic spring in the middle of an
Icelandic lava field, covered head to toe in silica mud; talked to Israelis and
Palestinians on either side of the wall that divides them; whale-watched at
sunset from the easternmost point of Australia; helped local fishermen catch my
dinner in Santorini, Greece; contracted dengue fever at an elephant sanctuary
in Chaing Mai, northern Thailand; felt the haunting air that still hangs over
Auschwitz in Poland; powered a Mustang on the 101 all the way from San Diego to
San Francisco along the Pacific coast, and I can tell you, without any doubt,
that Ethiopian Air has the most comfortable pillows in all of aviation.
My
boyfriend Dara and I have been together for over two years. I fell for his many
charming, kind, funny qualities. It happened easily. We were well suited in so
many ways, excluding our aspirations for travel – the only topic on which we
were polar opposites. Not something that made it onto his priority list, his
tales of roaming extended to a post-Leaving Cert J-1 three years previously,
while, outrageous as this sounds, I climbed Kilimanjaro and visited the Good
Hope orphanage in Tanzania between our first and second dates. We were a
peculiar pairing in that respect. It took two years of weekend city breaks and
a couple of short sun holidays, each time moving a little further away with a
little less planning, to finally pop the big question: can we go on an
adventure?
To
ease him into the idea, I decided against proposing a camping trip in a South American
rainforest or a backpacking holiday through India. I thought a bucket-list
regular might tweak his interest and revive fond J-1 memories to aid my
efforts. This was a trip I had always wanted to take. A road trip across
America, west coast to east coast, with everything the dirty south could offer
in between. I had a list of inspirational travel quotes ready to fire were I to
encounter any resistance on his part, but there was none. He loved the idea. He
loved it, despite the fact that I presented it to him only a couple of weeks
before the suggested departure date. Spontaneity never looked so good. On April
17, we left for California, with one-way tickets and a vague route plan.
We
arrived into Los Angeles late and spent our first night at a Travelodge near
LAX. It was an Eighties time capsule, mahogany everything with a side of neon.
Both of us had spent time in Los Angeles before, so we were keen to move on to
unseen pastures. I woke way too early the next morning with butterflies in my
belly and thoughts of breakfast.
Aside
from the travelling, I'm an avid cafe-hunter, breakfast being the only meal I
really care about. After a catch-up with some friends from LA over an omelette
in Foodlab on Santa Monica Boulevard, we stocked the rental car high with
luggage and junk food, and set out for Palm Springs. First stop, the Coachella
festival.
We
won't talk about the roulette saga that ensued. I'll just say Las Vegas 1:Dara
0. The next day was mostly spent people-watching at Gabi Mon Ami, the best spot
for it on the Strip, before a quick flight to Houston, Texas, skipping a
desolate day-long drive through New Mexico.
Everything
really is bigger in Texas. Houston is enormous, sprawling and impossible to
navigate without a car. The food portions are huge but heavenly, and every dish
is accompanied with biscuit or grits. I was dying to try a bowl of gumbo with a
beer, so that was the first port of call, at The Hay Merchant on Westheimer
Road. We followed this with a casual trip to Nasa!
The
Johnson Space Centre is located in Houston and open to the public. The space
programme was pulled by the Obama administration in 2010, but they are
currently working on the Orion spacecraft, which will send astronauts to Mars
around the year 2020. We got to see the work-in-progress Orion craft and a
real, colossal space shuttle, as well as visiting the disused mission control
centre that manned the 1969 moon landing – too much excitement for both of us.
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