We're now at SeaTac airport waiting for our flight back to the UK. The past few weeks have been an amazing adventure and we have loved every second of it. Most of the cities we have visited have been light years ahead of what we are used to in terms of public transport, public spaces and tourism. Prices were pretty much uniformly reasonable and we never felt unsafe at any time during the entire trip.

If you are interested in statistics, you may like to know that Crossing the States took 25 days and we drove 5,453 miles on the road. We used $910 worth of gas (or petrol) and we wrote 51 blog posts about our travels. We took 3,780 photos and shot 211 videos, of which we posted a small selection here. We ate too many hamburgers!

Dale's top five places were:

1. Seattle
2. Astoria
3. Los Angeles
4. San Francisco
5. Cambridge (MA)

Simon's top five places were:

1. Los Angeles
2. Seattle
3. San Francisco
4. Washington DC
5. Astoria

Loll's top five places were:

1. San Francisco
2. Seattle
3. Los Angeles
4. Memphis
5. Virginia

Sooze's top five places were:

1. Seattle
2. San Francisco
3. Los Angeles
4. Flagstaff
5. Santa Fe

I spent this morning having a wonderful chat over coffee with my friend Dr Jules Bloomenthal, who has been a huge help with research that I have carried out over the past few years. Afterwards, we checked out of our hotel and had a final walk around the Seattle waterfront. It was soon time to get our trusty Ford Explorer back to Hertz - we were sad to see our sundae go!

                           

With a nine hour flight ahead of us and then an eight hour time shift, I'm looking forward to craving steak at 4am and brushing my teeth for bed at 2pm. See you back in the UK and thanks for reading!

Every day's an endless stream 
Of cigarettes and magazines. 
And each town looks the same to me, the movies and the factories 
And every stranger's face I see reminds me that I long to be, 
Homeward bound

We spent Sunday morning walking around the Pike Place Market in Seattle where we enjoyed a good breakfast. It's an incredible cultural experience; there's music, food, art, shopping and every imaginable type of fish. We filmed some of the action in the fish market:

We also happened upon a shop called Golden Age Collectibles which thrilled us geeks no end. Dale bought a McLovin' driving license for a couple of bucks. We also passed the first ever Starbucks, which opened in the Pike Place Market in 1971. Dale was wearing his custom 'Viva VHS' t-shirt that he had made up in Seattle to advertise his awesome Twitter movie quiz.

                                   

While we were in the market, we came across the art of Mr Dan, who specialises in drawing with marker pens on baseball caps and Converse boots. Mr Dan was a very cool and pleasant guy and showed us his collection of custom movie artwork. Dale commissioned him on the spot to draw a one of a kind cap featuring a character from his favourite film, The Warriors. Mr Dan said that he knew the movie well and would have it ready by 2.30pm, so we headed back into town for a drink.

While crossing Virginia and 2nd Ave, we discovered The Whisky Bar. Seemed like the perfect place to stop! Dale ordered a 12 year old Suntory Hibiki and I had the 12 year old Caol Ila. Both were excellent. The bartender was a very knowledgeable guy and hooked us up with some free samples of an American bourbon by the name of Elmer T. Lee.

   

At 2.30pm, we returned to the market to collect Dale's cap. We were all blown away by Dan's detailed work. The cap features gang member Rembrandt writing 'The Warriors' with his grafiti spray can. Rembrandt is wearing his satchel and neck scarf. Below him is a silhouette of the gang's home turf, Coney Island, with the famous Wonder Wheel clearly visible. I was so impressed with his work that I also purchased a custom Bruce Lee painting from Dan which you can see in this post. Special thanks to Dan for his talent and enthusiasm. You can order from him by reading the instructions on his MySpace page.

   

On leaving the market in mid afternoon, we noticed a guy on the street who kept saying the phrase 'everything is always in the paper' to everyone who passed him. It was kind of unusual. I was reminded that when we were in San Francisco, a guy approached us in a coffee shop and asked if the car outside was a government car. We replied to him that we had no idea. He paused, then said: 'only the Sandman knows for sure'. That was kind of trippy too.

This evening, we went to the movies and then to dinner afterwards. It was a nice way to wind down from crossing the states. Despite the impending British Airways strike, it looks like we'll still be flying out from Seattle to London late Monday. We'll post more when we're homeward bound. Thanks to all of you who have followed this wacky adventure online. We have enjoyed blogging it and we hope you've enjoyed reading it.

Today we visited the grave of martial arts legend and superstar Bruce Lee. As someone who practices Bruce Lee's art of Jeet Kune Do, this was something I have always wanted to do. Although Bruce Lee was a charismatic performer and a talented writer and director, many assume that Lee was just an actor who was able to convince the world that he was a prodigious martial talent.

             

In truth, Bruce Lee came from an extraordinary pedigree in the fighting arts. His early years were spent learning Wing Chun Kung Fu under the tutelage of Yip Man. He perfected his skills by practicing with renowned fighters like Wong Shun Leung and William Cheung. Bruce Lee was an incredibly dedicated person who continually stripped away the inessentials in order to refine what he found useful and to challenge the notion of fixed routines (what he called the 'classical mess'). The thousands of hours of training that Bruce Lee carried out included not only the exceptional conditioning of every part of his body, but also a deep philosophical approach to the science of movement, of self expression and life in general.

Bruce Lee opened doors for artists of all kinds both in Asia and in America. He used the medium of film to communicate and to entertain, but it is his indomitable spirit and self actualization that I find truly inspirational. It felt like a significant moment for me to be able to pay respect to a great teacher and practitioner during our American road trip. To remember the occasion, I picked up this hand painted artwork from a talented artist in the Pike Place Market.

After experiencing the magic that Half Price Books had to offer in Dallas, I was wondering if that level of excitement could be eclipsed by any other store in America.

Along the way I was lucky enough to visit such places as Rocket Video (Las Vegas), Amoeba Music (Los Angeles) and Powell's Books (Portland) to name but a few. Unfortunately, Rocket Video was more rental orientated, with only a few VHS actually available for general sale. Amoeba on the other hand was two floors of geeky goodness that I had great pleasure in running around.

Powell's Books was probably the only place that gave Half Price Books a run for its money (see previous blog). If you're ever fortunate enough to visit one, go upstairs to the Pearl Room and find the Film & TV section. There you will see some of the most obscure books on the planet. I've been looking for most of them myself for years. Titles like 'The Art of the Video Nasty' (Got), 'Nightmare USA' (Need), 'Portable Grindhouse' (Got), 'Psychotronic Video Guide' (Need), to name a few. You could spend hours inside.

                 

Along the way on this trip, a few people were telling me about another store: Scarecrow Video in Seattle. And this, my friends, is where my mind was totally unlocked to the idea that anything is possible. It's all out there, all you gotta do is take it!

There is no entrance fee to pass through the pearly gates (Lord knows there should be). The only thing you need to take with you is a smile, Simon and I had that in abundance. In fact, by the end of our shopping spree we looked like Jocelyn Wildenstein impersonators.

As you walk through the doors of Scarecrow Video, it instantly transports you back to the days when video rental was at its glorious peak. Imagine your favourite rental shop from your childhood and then imagine if it was nine times the size; that's the power of Scarecrow Video. Scarecrow has two floors and countless rooms filled with the most obscure video titles, most of which are unavailable on DVD and I hadn't even heard of some of them. It's like an alternative history of cinema.

All of the films are expertly arranged into alphabetical order and separated by their genre. You can look for Zombie films, Vampire films and you can even look for Psychotronic films. There are sections downstairs which are sorted by Directors, and some by language. You have to see it to believe it. They even have binders listing every movie in the store by the entrance to each room.

The guy behind the desk was so helpful, as were all of the staff there. We had a little chat about Viva VHS and I got some great freebies in the process. I purchased a few VHS tapes, a shirt and an amazing poster of Race With the Devil, which will look unbelievable in my movie room. I'm pretty sure it's an original print too, in fact i'm sure of it.

I cannot recommend Scarecrow Video enough to anyone. It blew my mind and I didn't want to leave. From now on, i'll no longer see a Scarecrow as just some weedy little dude from The Wizard Of Oz, or some corn field killer from a classic movie. To me, the Scarecrow is so much more!

Scarecrow Video is located at 5030 Roosevelt Way Northeast, Seattle, WA 98105. You can visit their website at http://www.scarecrow.com and follow them on Twitter.

In early afternoon, we arrived at the Space Needle tower in Seattle. The tower has become symbolic of both the city and the whole Pacific Northwest region. It was built for the 1962 World's Fair and is 605 feet high.

                           

The observation deck, which is 520 feet from the ground, provides awesome views of downtown Seattle, the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Elliott Bay and surrounding islands.

The elevators to the observation deck travel at 10mph. The trip takes about 45 seconds. Dale shot this video as we returned to ground level in order to go and explore the great city of Seattle some more:

We awoke in Tacoma this morning and got ready to drive into Seattle. Now that we're getting to the end of the road trip, we are well practiced in how we roll. We can pack and unpack our 4x4 with such efficiency, it's like a heist.

Speaking of heists, I've secretly been conducting a cross country crime spree by leaving 'Do Not Disturb' signs on every room we've stayed in across America. If my plan works perfectly, those rooms will remain unclean for decades!

Since the age of 14, when I used to listen to Nirvana and Pearl Jam records on the school playground, I have always wanted to visit Seattle and soak up the vibe of its coffee shops and its world famous music scene. My first impressions were incredibly positive. The waterfront is stunning; the city is clean; its well signposted and easy to park. There are plenty of art galleries and museums, so the city is clearly proud of its strong cultural identity. Even the rain held off for the first few hours. We headed straight for the Space Needle tower to start our weekend in the Emerald City.

                           

We awoke in Astoria and headed to breakfast at the motel. There was an Australian bloke there who was being humorous in an ambiguous way about how we were hogging the toaster. We had only entered the breakfast room moments earlier, but he was now in a queue behind all four of us and wasn't happy. I was toasting a bagel and he insisted that the highest setting would accomplish the job more quickly. I told him that the maximum settings would likely burn the bagel. He reached out and changed the settings. I reached out and changed them back, telling him that I was able to handle the toaster technology. He said: 'don't trust me, eh?' I replied thoughtfully and deliberately: 'No, I don't'.

Being huge film fans, during this trip we have frequently written about movies that we love and have made both overt and obscure references to them in our blog posts. We've even taken pictures of locations where our favourite movies were shot. Over the years, the picturesque city of Astoria has played host to Hollywood many times: Overboard, Short Circuit, The Black Stallion, Kindergarten Cop, Free Willy, The Ring and Into the Wild have all been lensed in the vicinity.

However, there is one movie that featured prominently in our respective childhoods that was made largely in Astoria. I am, of course, talking about The Goonies. Directed by Richard Donner and executive produced by Steven Spielberg (during his prolific run during the 80s), The Goonies told the tale of a bunch of Goondock kids set to lose their homes to a real estate development. The Goonies follow a map in search of a treasure that might save their homes and families.

As we were wandering around town, it was not difficult to spot the primary locations from the movie. We located Mikey's Dad's museum almost by accident. Opposite the Flavel House Museum stands the County Jail from which one of the movie's villains, Jake Fratelli, escapes at the beginning of the movie. We found the junction at which Rosalita is disturbed by the Fratelli chase (this is also the Stop N' Snack where the Goonies later go shopping). We were also blown away by Haystack Rock at the beautiful Cannon Beach. These rocks determine the location from which the journey begins for the main characters and the memorable closing scenes.

                                                             

The highlight, though, was probably finding the Goonie house as inhabited by the Walsh family in the movie. The house is on a private drive and so we had pretty much decided not to intrude when we saw this sign at the foot of the drive: 

Thanks to the owners for being cool enough to give movie fans a Goonie adventure of their own. Mikey's house is situated opposite Data's house in the movie and this is the case in reality too. The window from which Data glides on a cord accompanied by the James Bond theme is still adjacent to Mikey's window today. None of us were willing to carry out the Truffle Shuffle on camera, but as Dale happened to be wearing his signature hat, we couldn't resist quoting at least a few lines:

Astoria was really fun and is such a quaint, memorable place. We enjoyed some locally brewed beer at the Wet Dog Café before heading out towards Seattle. The scenery is stunning on the 101. So far, the Pacific Northwest is just breathtaking. At one point, I had to stop for a family of ducks to cross.

           

After a couple of hours, we hit some heavy traffic. Apparently, the Seattle Mariners are playing at home this evening and Tim McGraw is also performing in town. We figured that sitting in traffic for hours was a waste of time, so we have stopped overnight in Tacoma. The good news is that we've officially entered Washington, the Evergreen state. Washington is the final state on the Crossing the States road trip. We'll head in to Seattle on Saturday morning and spend the weekend there before we fly to London on Monday. It's nearly all over, we can't believe it!

We started the day with a shower that had only one setting: 'flay'. By 9am we were on the road. By 11am, the choice of religious radio broadcasting or country music was making us all drowsy, so we stopped for Big Macs. Dale had a peanut butter McFlurry. That stuff is like catnip to this kid.

In early afternoon, we passed Eugene and arrived in Portland. It's a pretty city. Like most places out here, it's pretty sparse in terms of traffic, people and action, but we enjoyed wandering around the city centre and picking up retro memorabilia in the thrift shops. On the way in and out of Portland, the weather was positively biblical. There were hailstones the size of Cadillacs.

The highlight of Portland for us, however, was Powell's Books. A book store rumoured to be the largest in the world. Four floors of books stretching as far as the eye can see. Dale was enchanted by this magic forest of paper and disappeared into it for a long time. When he returned, he looked exactly the same, but we had all aged seven years.

                                             

In late afternoon, we drove another hundred or so miles to Astoria, the beautiful coastal city situated near the mouth of the Columbia River. We had a fabulous meal on the water front and checked into a motel. Before heading to Seattle tomorrow, I imagine we'll indulge our 80's movie nostalgia on these here Goondocks.

We left San Francisco this morning and, having stopped briefly at the Golden Gate Bridge, continued on though Sausalito and Marin on our way to Portland, Oregon. Following signs for Napa, we came upon Vallejo, the old stomping ground of the serial killer known as the Zodiac. Signs for Lake Berryessa gave me a little chill. It was raining, so we didn't stop until Williams, California. For lunch, I indulged in a Triple Whopper Meal at Burger King. As you'll see from the photo, it was quite large. The dime is included for scale.

Soon after Williams, we passed through the City of Shasta Lake. Sounds like one of those 'choose your own adventure' books. We stopped one other time during the day at the Weed Rest Area and were attacked by giant killer seagulls from hell.

   

Before long, we had reached the Pacific Northwest. The views on I-5 are really something. During the day, Dale and I listened to a lot of country music on the radio. Our favourite was a song that features the chorus "Ain't nothin' wrong with a hard hat and a hammer. God bless the working' man." Dale and I like both kinds: country and western. We entered Oregon expecting to stop in Medford. However, after 400 miles, we eventually quit at Grants Pass and found a motel. Here are some scenes from the day:

           

Back on dry ground in Fog City, we went for lunch at a lovely place called Butterfly. Having already explored San Francisco's cable car system, we opted to see a few other sights, including Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge. We decided to walk the five miles to the bridge in order to work off lunch; it was a decision that our legs would soon come to regret.

                                                                         

Fisherman's Wharf was pretty lively and offered some interesting street art as you'll see in the video below. On the way to the bridge, we witnessed a guy come out of a house in a wild rage. He picked up a wheelie bin (not a trash can, but a big plastic bin) and began to smash it against the window of a car that was parked outside. The glass didn't break, so he picked up adjacent bins and emptied those onto the street. The neighbours began to emerge from their houses, unimpressed. A minute or so later, he sped past on a motorbike, driving recklessly and weaving between cars. We amused ourselves on the long walk by coming up with exciting explanations for why he was so angry. It was even stranger to us because the area is so idyllic and so beautiful, it's hard to imagine anyone getting annoyed in this town.

Eventually we reached the Golden Gate Bridge, the famous suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. It is spectacular. We sat for a while, just looking at it and people watching. After a short while, it began to rain, so we headed to an Irish bar in Union Square for drinks. This time, we took a cab. The driver did not attack us with any form of garbage receptacle. Tomorrow morning we'll be back on the road, driving up the coast toward Portland, Oregon. We have adored San Francisco. There's something for everyone here.

Addendum: This morning, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge when leaving San Francisco. We stopped briefly to take in the views.

                   

Now we're headed for Portland. It's a ten hour drive so we'll see how far we get before we fall in love with some small town.