Wilson's final thoughts

I've made it back to Denver. 8,700 miles, 280 hours of driving, 14,000 feet in elevation change from the Pacific to Pikes Peak. Burned some gas, ate some burgers, got wet, got hot. Took a few pictures along the way.

Time to take stock of the last 50 days.

Get off the map and stay off it

Spent 4 days touring round the depths of the National Forests of Klamath, Shasta, Trinity and Lassen, a huge area of mountains and forest taking up most of Northern California. In the process, I have become adept at snaking out awesome spots to overnight at, preferably with a river close by for morning dips. Had some epic drives, which completely blew Sat Nav Lady's mind (or maybe it was the canyons, fog, switchback roads, deep forests). I lost count of the number of legal U-turns she was desperate for me to make to force me back onto main roads. The more she does it the more I relish ignoring her..

A Michael Jackson tribute, fireworks with naff narration, the scent of Mary J...

..it must be July 4th in San Francisco.

14 (mostly) white guys called Foreverland pulling off the best of Michael Jackson. Several thousand people on the grass of Aquatic Park, some smoking meat based items on BBQs, others smoking matter more vegetable in nature, both combined scents permeating the atmosphere. Nicely bombastic fireworks display, but diminished by overly naff intro speech and over-loud backing Americheese music. Still, crowd seemed to enjoy it. Good times.

Pause for thought - lessons learned and tunes rocked

I've made it 'Frisco. Took a few pictures along the way.

A useful time to pause and take stock on the last 2000 miles or so.

Soundtrack suggestions please

There are times in your life when your context suddenly and perfectly meshes with a tune that's playing. Might be in the car, in your earphones whilst at the supermarket (You know who you Mr Miles Davis does Tesco) or setting your generic mp3 player or online streaming music service to shuffle and getting blown out of your socks when an awesome intro kicks in.

Roadtrips are built for tunes to mark the miles and as my steed for the trip comes ready and willing with a USB input, it would be rude not to stuff it to within an inch of it's life with choonage.

Now I know there are several driving songs compilations out there, but that would be too easy, so I'm looking for suggestions for tracks or albums that fit my theme or route.

There's at least 100 hours of driving to do so, at 4 mins a song, that's 1500 tracks to get through. Post your comments and suggestions below...