Washington DC

1. Washington DC


Spend time in Washington and you have the world served to you on a plate, at the Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurants up in Adam's Morgan, in the unassuming Vietnamese diners in Georgetown and the exceptional Lebanese Taverna on Connecticut Avenue. We're going to start our road trip on Capitol Hill, within spitting distance of the site of Obama's inauguration, with a sizzling skillet full of chicken fajitas and a pitcher of frozen margaritas at La Lomita Dos, an unpretentious Mexican restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue. It comes to you with the highest recommendation. (My wife brought me there on our second date.)


2. Asheville, North Carolina


We take route 95 out of Washington, cutting through Virginia into North Carolina, before swinging west for Asheville where we hear the beautiful mixed-up sound of the American soul. Asheville is a liberal outpost of the new south that helped elect Obama, but all around are the conservative traditions of the Smoky Mountains. The last time I was there, men with Armalites strolled past sushi joints and tapas bars on their way to a gun show at the civic centre. This schizophrenia is reflected in the music you hear at the city's best clubs (on my last trip there was gypsy jazz at the Jack of the Wood and Billy Bragg at Orange Peel) and the bluegrass halls down the road in Marshall and Mars Hill.


3. Little Rock, Arkansas


We'll take highway 40 into the mountains, through Tennessee, and on to Little Rock. It's time for barbecued meat at Does Eat Place, made famous as a hangout for the Clinton campaign team during the 1992 presidential election. There's a museum over at Little Rock Central High School, scene of the groundbreaking trauma of racial integration in 1963. Almost a half century later, a black man is president. If you feel like celebrating, take in a Sunday service at St Mark Baptist Church and let the captivating rhythm of African-American worship wash over you.


4. Austin, Texas


We've left Clinton country for Texas where we head for the state capital, Austin. George Bush lived here as governor, but it was never his town. It has a top-class French bistro (Chez Nous) and outdoor indie clubs full of emos and enough bohemian trappings to justify the town's unofficial motto, 'Keep Austin Weird'. As well as the cosmopolitan angst of the Obama generation, Austin also does conventional Americana. Don't miss a chance to see the University of Texas Longhorns play a home game at their mammoth football stadium. And drink Shiner Bock: the official beer of God's country.


5. Tucson, Arizona


We drive west, through New Mexico, bound for Tucson and the authentic southwestern charms of the Arizona Inn. It's a classy base for a tour of the old west. An easy drive south is the old mining town of Bisbee, now an artist's retreat, where the sign behind the barman at St Elmo's bar says 'Impeach Bush'. On the way back to Tucson, we stop off at the Titan missile base at Sahuarita for a public tour. Strangely, it is a source of hope. For all the problems Obama inherits, the imminent threat of nuclear apocalypse is not
among them.


6. Maui, Hawaii


We catch a plane to Honolulu. Obama's childhood hometown doesn't have a tremendous amount to recommend it (bar the sobering tour of Pearl Harbour) so we're on another plane bound for Hawaii's smaller islands. I choose Maui if only for the most majestic drive on US soil. The road to Hana hugs the lush valleys and soaring cliffs of the island's north-eastern coastline. Just 15 minutes past Hana, we stop and swim in the 'seven sacred pools' of the Ohe'o Gulch (pictured). America may be a nation in crisis but this is paradise on earth.


7. Jackson, Wyoming


Flying back to the mainland, we don't stop until we get to the Wyoming resort of Jackson Hole, home to America's longest and steepest ski slope. This is winter sport stripped down to its basics, and the village at the base of the mountain reflects a harsh, beguiling western ethic. You go to the nearby town of Jackson for fancy eating at the Snake River Grill. But stop by the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar and amid the understated wealth of the local blow-ins there is the dog-rough charm of the past.


8. Wounded Knee, South Dakota


Just beyond Wyoming's border with South Dakota is Mount Rushmore, where we'll stop briefly to look at the giants among Obama's predecessors. But our final destination is further into the Black Hills, beyond the lunar landscape of the Badlands. The Pine Ridge reservation is home to the Oglala Lakota Sioux. It's one of the poorest parts of the United States. Just outside town is a monument remembering the killing of almost 300 Native Americans in 1890. They called it the battle of Wounded Knee. It was no battle. It was a massacre.


9. Chicago, Illinois


Along drive across America's midwest will take us to Chicago, a metropolis with the warmth and charm that New York lacks. We'll end our road trip in the multicultural village of Hyde Park, just a few miles out of town. We'll eat at the Blackbird café, where Barack and Michelle used to dine, and stop by the Hyde Park Hair Salon and Barbershop where America's 44th president had his hair trimmed. And we will come to rest at 57th Street Books, the cooperative where Barack Obama launched both of his bestsellers.


It is an apt way to finish – a reminder that America will soon be led by a man who read and writes and who reflects a country of many shades and sky-high expectations.