Those are phrases I’ve seen floating about this year’s blogs quite a lot, and it’s all to do with how fantastic the Saltire experience has been because of the sunbathing on a beach, or the crazy people that you’ve met. I did the same. Ok, so there weren’t any beaches in Ohio, but remember that time I nearly died, or that other time I saw a dragon? Yeah – those were fantastic. I was living a dream. …

Since it last occurred to me to muse on my American expedition, an awful lot has happened. It’s been months since I was in Dayton at the Air Force Museum, and that scares me a bit. Life seems to move quickly. So as I sit here with a chilled Chenin Blanc, my favourite music warming my ears, I feel it might be nice for completeness if I continued my self-important ramblings about what I did when I went to America. …

It has to happen at one point in your life. As you spin off an American Interstate, completely helpless in the passenger seat, you get a chance to prioritise some things. Very quickly. Obviously, the first thing that goes through your head is how do I stop this. Once that’s out the way, things become much more organised and calm. Next up, you get a chance to focus on who you love and how you will remember them, and what they’ll think of you. But that bit doesn’t matter - it won’t affect you after all this. …

It’s not often that I get a chance to see things from a different perspective. It’s a funny thing to consider, but I got confronted by this on our trip to the US Air Force museum. That in itself is an amazing place, and in my thoughts about the visit I guess you can see my excitement and enthusiasm for all the planes. There was one thing that struck me. They fought a war out here, known to us as the Second World War. It was a totally different war from the one that we took part in, however. I’ve never been taught, and never had the chance to consider, that other people had different priorities in the war, or the extent of the conflict that occurred beyond European shores, and the fact that it may also have been the result of continued tensions in other regions of the World. …

The business end of a big old jet. Dayton, Ohio, is merely 40 miles up the road (as we say in Scotland), and it is the place credited with the development of the first practical aircraft. That’s a bit of a mouthful. Suffice to say, the Wright brothers Wilbur and Orville lived there and used their bike shop to develop the world’s first heavier than air aircraft that could successfully fly under it’s own power. That’s not any better, I guess. The guys that invented the plane as we knew it came from there, and the city is very proud of that fact. Being geeks and working in aviation, it seemed prudent to have a trip and become immersed in the history of flight. …