The road home.

After being gone for over four months and driving in the lower forty-eight a total distance of 14, 231 miles, spending six weeks in Hawaii and driving some more on the Hawaiian islands, I was ready to have a bit of a break from the road. I was a bit antsy to get home and to have a home cooked meal and enjoying not being in my car. As I pulled into my driveway in September, where I left the very beginning of May, I felt a surge of emotions. I was overcome with gratitude for being able to embark on something so adventurous for me. I was so thankful for the opportunity to quit my job, leave my apartment and just GO. I was beyond happy to have the trip of a lifetime and to get to know myself and my stunning country in a new way. I was forever grateful for my 2003 Toyota Corolla not giving up on me during my trip and for the special time I had with my incredible friends and family along the way. I think all travel changes you and my four months had changed me in ways I didn't realize just yet. One of my favorite travel adventurers/writers, Jedidiah Jenkins, penned this recently and like many of his writings, speaks to my wanderlust spirit:

"I still don't know what it taught me in full, because travel doesn't teach like that. It isn't a list or a script to memorize. It isn't some test you pass. The experiences themselves are like picking up keys on a path, shoving them in your pockets, and continuing on. You don't know what doors will show up, what key you grabbed a thousand miles back will fit into a door you never knew existed. But you'll know it when you see it.

I think people bump into locked doors their whole lives, maybe they jiggle the handle, shrug, and turn around. Maybe they never leave their room. This is why I peek behind every corner and lift up all the rugs... I'm looking for keys."

My four months will stay with me for the rest of my life.  I can't wait to see what keys I picked up on the road that I never imagined, the keys that find themselves opening certain doors. I'd like to think that my memories from all my travels, but especially this trip, will live on in my kids and my travel stories will be their stories. I'm so touched that many of my friends, family and people whom I've never met, kept up with my little blog. It was like each of you were there with me in the passenger seat and I was never really alone. My blogging has been such a highlight and something I will continue to do in the future. I wonder if that's unconsciously why it took me this long to finish up my remaining blog posts, because I didn't want the fresh memory of my journey to end. But it's comforting to know that our travel adventures never really end, it will continue to live on in me. I'll be leaving this up so I can re-live my trip and hope if you're reading, you enjoy it too.

My four months traveling around the US was one of the best teachers of my life. I learned to take risks and to embrace doing things that scare me. I hope fellow readers, that you'll take that step closer to doing things that scare you too. You owe it to yourself to chase after what you want, surprise yourself. I know I did.

 

Midwest & Philly

I win the award for taking the longest amount of time between blog posts! My blogging is near its end my friends and fellow blog readers, thanks for staying with me through it all. Let's get to it. After I left Badlands I was on my way to Iowa City and after spending the last few weeks in tiny western towns, I was ready to stay in a place that had "city" in its title. Driving from South Dakota to Iowa City was mostly hours and hours and hundreds of miles through flat corn field terrain. I did pass by the exit for Corn Palace which is apparently quite the attraction and one that was advertised throughout most of my morning on the road. Sad to say, I didn't stop because I wasn't sure how far away the Corn Palace actually was from the highway. Knowing that I had many more hours to go and corn to see through my car window, I decided against it, but I still slightly regret that decision. Driving through this part of the country you can see the sky for miles, without too many unobtrusive views. There are the occasional spam of religious billboards but that just makes it more interesting. Iowa City is a quaint mid-Western college town that is home to the University of Iowa and was awarded by UNESCO as being named the only City of Literature. Being an avid reader myself, I thought this was quite cool. I had some great and cheap (love those mid-Western prices!) food while I visited and got a feel for what college life must be like here.

After my time in Iowa City I wanted to continue my grand tour of mid-Western college towns and stayed in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a day. Ann Arbor is home to the University of Michigan and is double the size of Iowa City. Ann Arbor has a lively and fun downtown which reminded me of some smaller New England cities. I enjoyed going to the farmers market, walking around University of Michigan's campus and exploring their city. I also had some delicious food while I was visiting, I especially enjoyed Hut K Chaats which serves health conscience Indian street food. The chef and owner, Dr. Mahaveer Swaroop Bhojani was a researcher of radiation oncology at U of Michigan but decided to leave to embark on creating healthier Indian food for Ann Arbor. Pretty awesome! After I left Ann Arbor I drove to Columbus, Ohio to stay with a close friend Abby from grad school. Abby gave me a great walking tour of the city, which is the largest in Ohio and is home to Ohio State University. Columbus is super friendly, has delicious food with young and hip neighborhoods. In a artsy locally made store, I found a Breaking Bad Heisenberg bowtie that I got for my brother and that definitely raised the Columbus bar!

After I left my friend and ate my weight in all kinds of delicious food, I was on my way to my last stop on my trip: Philadelphia. Philly is a city I've been wanting to visit forever. I was able to stay in a beautiful part of the city, with a good friend's sister and her boyfriend. I had one full day to explore and boy, did I. The humidity seemed to follow me from the west coast and it was a pretty sticky day but I didn't let that deter me.  I went to see all the historical highlights like the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall (where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed), and ate the most delicious steak and cheese of my life at Jim's Steaks. I loved walking along the old Georgian style homes in downtown, exploring and getting lost in artist Isaiah Zagar's Magic Gardens, finding the LOVE statue,  and the highlight was going to The Barnes Foundation which is an impressionist art lovers dream. It was so nice to finally meet you Philly and I can't wait to go back!

Magic Gardens 

Badlands National Park

My drive to Badlands National Park in South Dakota was mostly through corn fields, hours and hours and hours and hours through corn. Not the most beautiful or exciting of days in my car but I did get to pass by a few towns in Wyoming that had 10 people and 4 people. WHAT?!?! I know, I am as perplexed as you. I didn't even know that a "town" would consist of that tiny a population. I mean, REALLY Wyoming?! I was awe struck by this and it helped make my drive more lively, thinking of what it would be like to live in a town this small. I mean, what does one do? There is hardly any sign of civilization for hours in any direction, which is staggering. I would have loved to stop in these blink-and-you'll-miss-it places and knock on someone's door and just ask them so many questions, it's still fascinating to me. I also wish I had stopped on the highway and reversed back to take a photo of the town sign and population. But I swear, these towns exist, I saw them with my own eyes.

Badlands National Park is outside a small town of Interior, which has a population of about 48 people. I stayed at a ranch I found on airbandb, which was beautiful and sat atop a stunning hill where you could see for miles. It definitely felt like the wild west out here. The sunsets were absolutely stunning, especially having the setting sun peering over the Badlands landscape, something I'll never forget. Since there aren't many restaurants around and their grocery store consists of a tiny room with lackluster food choices, I ate most of my meals at Cedar Pass Lounge, a restaurant that was in the park. I had a traditional South Dakota Indian taco which was quite interesting and pretty delicious. During my one full day in the park, I decided to drive around from one end to the other, which doesn't take all that long. The landscape is so different from anywhere I've been. It was named the "Badlands" because nothing could really grow or survive on these prairie lands. What was fascinating to learn was during the dinosaur period there was a shallow sea that covered the Badlands. There are many fossils that are still being discovered today from that period and Badlands is considered to be one of the world's richest fossil areas. Badlands National Park was beautiful but I don't think I appreciated it as much as I could have. At this point in my trip I was just... tired and a bit lonely and it's hard to compete with having been to Glacier and Yellowstone in the previous weeks. And knowing that I had to get in my car the next day and drive through more barren landscape for 10+ hours wasn't the most appealing of thoughts. I know I must sound like a total travel douche for saying that but after you've been on the road for so long, it can start to get to you. I swear Badlands, it wasn't you, it was me. But now looking back, I can appreciate the vastness and the stunning and incredible National Park that was around me and feel grateful for having seen this part of the country.

Yellowstone & Grand Teton

Fellow readers, I'm so sorry to be extremely delayed with these last blog posts! It's hard to believe it's been a month since I've been back. I'll try to finish up these last remaining posts soon, thanks for sticking with me!

On my way from Kalispell, Montana to Driggs, Idaho I was mostly driving through wildfires. Being an east coaster, I've never experienced anything like this before. It was quite eerie driving for hundreds of miles and seeing vague outlines of mountains that I'm sure were beautiful, but all I could really make out was smoke. Driggs is a little town of about 1,200 people which at the time I thought was tiny but didn't realize how large it would be compared to where I drove through and stayed next. Driggs is surrounded by mountains which I unfortunately wasn't able to see do to the bad air quality. The sun and sky had a light pink look to it, which isn't normal. The only real positive from these wildfires was the spectacularly neon pink sunsets, have never seen anything quite like it before. Driggs is about 2 hours outside of Yellowstone and an hour outside of Grand Teton National Park. I wish I had cut my stay in Driggs short and stayed closer to Yellowstone because after driving as long as I had, being in the car for 2+ hours before I actually got to the park, was longer than I wanted. But all that aside, Yellowstone was stunning and I'm so glad I adventured for the day. Yellowstone reminded me a lot of Iceland and I loved seeing all the geysers, geothermal pools, hot springs, Old Faithful, bubbling mud/clay pits and all doing this while walking over the largest super-volcano on the continent, was really cool. The wildfire smoke just added to the other worldliness of this special place.

I went to Grand Teton two days, my first day was pretty smoky but quite atmospheric, which stopped me in my tracks. I enjoyed a nice and easy hike around one of the lakes which was beautiful and I can only imagine the greater beauty on clearer days. My second day in the park was slightly clearer and the highlight was getting to see many wild creatures, lots of bears and bison and the antler of a moose! Grand Teton is magnificent and it wasn't until I was driving out of Wyoming the following day when it was the most clear, where I was able to see the sprawling grandeur of these Rockies. I can't wait to come back to Wyoming and experience it all again!

Yellowstone National Park 

Grand Teton National Park