Today I am leaving the United States of America and thus the North American continent, heading back for the old world. And as I am about to leave, I reflect on what I will miss.

Most obvious of all, I will miss the people I have had the great fortunate to meet throughout my trip forth and back the continent. It is hard for me to appropriately express my appreciation towards this quite large group of people. I hope that these people enjoyed my company as much as I enjoyed theirs.

I feel fortunate and priviledged to meet so many initial strangers, who were willing to let me into their homes and even at times let me stay in their homes. Them I will miss most of all. And I hope to have the fortune to meet them all again.

My last view my car, as it waits for the ship Themis to arrive in Port Newark, New Jersey. In late September, I shall be reunited with my car, as I see in more familiar surroundings, in Bremerhaven, Germany.

I will also miss Five Guys, a burger and fries chain in the US, that serves consistently excellent burgers and fries. It is not as if you cannot get good burgers in Europe, but when you are travelling, you really need to know a place, because otherwise there is a high chance of disappointment.

While some will point out that Five Guys operate in the UK, France and Spain, [1] they do not operate in most of Europe, and particularly not in my home country of Denmark.

Most of the food itself, I will perhaps not miss, with a few exceptions, such as the great barbeque I got at Hutchins BBQ in McKinney, Texas, just north of Dallas. Indeed, local food tend to be of a far greater quality than the food we normally associate Americans with. Perhaps unfairly, but mainly their fast-food chains are to blame.

I will miss their cheap petrol prices, but not their lower quality petrol. That being said, their cheap prices (between half or a third of the prices I am used to) does make up for their lesser quality in petrol. Good luck finding octane 98 in the US!

As I am writing this, in my last hotel in New York City, there may be things I do not yet realise I will miss, but will first become obvious once I am back home. So do not consider this an exhausted list of things I will miss. Indeed, it is difficult to miss something, when it is not gone yet.

Footnotes