A Brit in the US

I was awoken by the sound of heavy rain against my window. The more I listened, the less like rain it sounded. It was very peculiar. I stumbled up to investigate and found the sun was shining brightly for it was 7AM. I peered through my bleary eyes and saw Mad Mike standing below gesticulating. I stumbled down the stairs covering my modesty with a hastily dragged-on dressing gown and opened the door. It turned out that Mad Mike wanted to go out for a photo jaunt. He sat himself down in my kitchen and helped himself to some coffee and by the time I'd stayed in the shower long enough to get wet and dragged on some clothes, he'd polished off the content of the cookie jar and was looking around for more. I swear that guy is an urban waste disposal unit! We leapt into my SUV, cameras ready and roared along US1 until we reached I20 and from there thundered toward Winnsboro and the Railway Museum where they were having a steam open day. We drove further and further out into the coun