Shir, I hope you can spend some time in LA

Come to LA! We have a guest room!

Hope you can spend some time in Seattle. I can sort of justify a train journey from LA to Seattle. Buffistas in San Francisco, Portland Oregon, me in Olympia. So you'd have lots of Buffistas along the way. Of course then you'd have to fly from SeaTac to your next leg, and SeaTac is not the world's most convenient or least expensive airport. (USAians are laughing at the understatement on the latter.

Insent!

Awww, you guys. Thank you so much. I sent invitations to the spreadsheet for all the emails I received (I truly had the bestest email box this morning), so if I missed you, do tell!

My very general scheme, with cities and places being added to it as I discover where my friends are, and only to get you a general idea of the plot and directions, goes as following: New York > (possibly another place on the East Coast) > Chicago > (two or three places in the South and middle) > LA > SF > Seattle area (most possible more than one place) > back home.

I also said I'll visit Erin in Kansas, and I'm quite looking forward to see a bit of the South (my vacation in 2007 included 3 extended weeks on the West Coast and a bit of the East coast. I totally missed all the stuff the South and the middle states have to offer, and I'm quite looking forward for that).

Also, a small request: do remind me, as often as possible, just how big your country is. I am from a country you can cross in 6 hours in a car and that's considered a long drive, so I got a very poor idea, just looking at the map, when it's gonna take 10 hours by a bus and when I'll be better with a flight.

Also II, and that's for later, but most chances I'll need your addresses and phone numbers - when I visited in 2007, apart of asking me to answer some questions in each and every airport and triple-checking my passport, security showed interest in making sure I'm travelling around visiting real existing people. I don't know how airport security is 7 years later, but be prepared to get a call from them.

I am from a country you can cross in 6 hours in a car and that's considered a long drive

You can't even cross Texas in 6 hours unless it's the Panhandle.

I'd say if you wanted to mix it up, a bus would get you around the general regions okay (East Coast, Midwest, South, West Coast), but you'd want flights between them.

Hah, yes, shir, good to have--I still remember the time I showed up in Korea and didn't know where I was staying or my friend's phone number or where she lived, and they were very skeptical.

Also, Typo, I literally have no idea what you're talking about with the Seattle airport. What makes it inconvenient?? There's light rail straight to the airport. Better than many, trust me.

Yes our country is freaking huge. Probably the least convenient place you're going to visit is Kansas. Everything else is in bunches like New York-Boston-Philadelphia, Portland-Seattle, Chicago-Madison-Detroit-Minneapolis, San Diego-LA-San Francisco If you're visiting San Diego I highly recommend taking the light rail from San Diego to LA. Then maybe you can hook up with some LA peeps who are keen to visit 'ffistas in Frisco (btw they hate it when you call it that) because the drive from LA to San Francisco is one of the most beautiful we can offer.

The content of my email box and your answers to the spreadsheet make me tear sometimes. You guys are really the bestest, nicest people, and I'm lucky to know you.

Also, thanks for the travelling tips.