DATELINE: Chicago, Illinois
After three relaxing days exploring, imbibing and dreaming at waterfalls in Portland, we parted ways with Rachael, our native guide and superstar driver, to catch the ‘Empire Builder’ train back to Chicago. It’s been emotional. And tiring. Mostly tiring. 50 hours in transit does funny things to your brain.
Our cab to Portland’s train […]

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DATELINE: Portland, Oregon
In downstate Oregon the other day, I had been talking to Mr and Mrs Comfort-Inn about their disappointment over Mitt Romney’s exit from the race. They didn’t think much of the Republican frontrunner John McCain. Would they be voting for Mike Huckabee then, the more conservative alternative to McCain?
“Well, he did do well […]

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DATELINE: Portland, Oregon
On Friday morning, while we checked out of the Comfort Inn in Medford, Oregon, I mentioned our purpose to the smiley, raven-haired women behind the desk. As we discuss McCain’s coronation as the Republican candidate, her husband, Mr Comfort-Inn, looks up from his desk chair, swivelling around to reveal a dark-haired, stout 35 […]

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DATELINE: Medford, Oregon
After 24 leg-weary, election-less hours hanging out in San Francisco, barking at the sunset with Pier 39’s sea-lions and shopping with the Haight’s hippies, today it was time to move on again. Driving north from Oakland we stopped at a cheapo roadside place called Straw Hat Pizza in Williams, California. They have little […]

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DATELINE: Oakland, California
When we planned this trip, it always had definite bookends: the Iowa Caucus, at the start, and then Super Tuesday as the grand finale, the closest America has ever got to having a nationwide primary. With so many states voting on one day, it seemed like when the dust settled on 6 February […]

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