In April of 2025, I found out that I’d have about a month-long gap between leaving school and starting work.
This would be the first, and possibly last, time I’d had this much time to myself. So, I decided to make the most of it.
I took a road trip. 7,000 miles. 300 hours of driving over 43 days. Passing through 17 states, and staying in 13.
I had a preference for camping and hiking, but my goal was to get a sample platter of what my country has to offer. I hope you’ll join me on this journey, as we explore America, meet interesting people, and overcome several unexpected challenges along the way.
There are a few chapters to this story:
- Introduction (You are here!)
- Yellowstone / Grand Teton
- The Pacific Northwest
- California
- The American Southwest / Heading Home
Want a TL;DR? Check out the top 5 prettiest photos!
Prologue
Meet the car
Let me introduce you to the car that will be taking me on this grand adventure.
She’s a 2007 Hyundai Sonata. I call her “Sunny”.
For years, her only purpose in life has been to get me to work and back again — about a 20-minute drive. However, for the next month, she will be driving thousands of miles on long interstates, treacherous mountain passes, and terrifying dirt and gravel roads. I’ve come to really appreciate what she’s capable of, to the extent that just puttering around town now feels like a waste of potential.
However, I didn’t start the trip with any confidence.
Before my trip, I got my car inspected, and the mechanic said that it was ready for the trip!
Three days later, my car broke down and I got stranded in a Walmart parking lot.
Over the course of 6 hours, I had my car towed to a AAA shop, who kept my car for two days. They found nothing wrong with it.
I got a second opinion, who confirmed that my car seems fine. The official prognosis: must’ve been a fluke.
While the initial problems certainly made me nervous, I had already booked all my lodgings, and the two independent inspections convinced me to just hope nothing bad happens.
I believe this is what we call “foreshadowing”.
Packing
Let’s take a look at what we’re working with to start the trip:
I planned to camp for most of the time I was traveling, which both helped to make the experience more affordable and was a ton of fun. To that end, I brought a tent, a cook stove, cooking supplies, and everything I’d need to live out of my car. Notably, my suitcase full of clothes isn’t pictured here, which got shoved on top of everything else. Also, in the cabin of my car, I brought a 10-gallon jug to fill with water, which was the only way I stayed hydrated during the times when potable water wasn’t available. Overall, I was able to fit everything I needed, but just barely.
So, in my spare time in the week before I left, I packed up and got ready to go.
The Adventure Begins
May 10th, 2025
I spent the first morning of my trip attending my friends’ graduation. NKU’s morning graduation ceremony ran from 10am to 12:30pm, where I got to see many of my closest friends officially finish their time in college and begin the next stage in their lives. I deeply appreciated the opportunity to share this time with them.
One hour later, at 1:30pm, I left and began a 9 hour drive west towards Waterloo, Iowa.
If you just thought “Waterloo, Iowa? Where’s that?”, that’s a good question!
You see, it turns out that when you make a map of all the places you want to go, there’s a lot of in-between spaces you just have to get through. Places that a few will call home, but more would call pit stops. Waterloo is the first one of these places I visited, but it for sure wouldn’t be my last.
Y’know, I remember thinking “Hey, if I spent a little more time here, maybe I could get some photos that aren’t awful!“. But, looking at my camera roll, it seems that wasn’t a price I was willing to pay.
To Head West
And with that, I was heading west again.
During this time, I had a quote bumbling around in my head, from “All The King’s Men” by Robert Penn Warren. Now, I’ve never read the book, but I had recently revisited John Green’s dramatic reading, which inspired in me a sense of awe for the gravity of westward travel:
“For West is where we all plan to go some day.
It is where you go when the land gives out and the old-field pines encroach.
It is where you go when you get the letter saying: Flee, all is discovered.
It is where you go when you look down at the blade in your hand and the blood on it.
It is where you go when you are told that you are a bubble on the tide of empire.
It is where you go when you hear that thar’s gold in them-thar hills.
It is where you go to grow up with the country.
It is where you go to spend your old age.
Or it is just where you go.”
— Robert Penn Warren, All The King's Men
Now, I’ve been fortunate enough that only the last line applies to me, but the variety of perspectives presented underscores the amount of history encompassed by a westward road trip. Indeed, across my thousands of miles driving and hundreds of miles hiking, I don’t believe I visited one square inch that had not been visited by someone else before.
Wall Drug
I can’t remember when I saw my first sign for Wall Drug, but this might’ve been it.
I remember being confused by the name. A whole wall full of drugs? Why would I want that?
So, I chalked it up to being just another local tourist attraction, and figured I’d never find out.
However, what this sign doesn’t mention is that Wall Drug is still about 200 miles away, and there are signs for it the entire time.
Seeing a sign for Wall Drug is like seeing a bird on a branch above your car. Spotting just one is unremarkable. But, if you see more and more for several hours straight, you just know there will be a whole lotta shit to see.
By the end, I knew I simply must go see Wall Drug.
Wall Drug is a tourist trap in the best way. Its primary draw is that there isn’t much else to do in the area. But when you get there, everywhere you look is filled with eclectic artwork and statues, punctuated with quaint doorways leading to other rooms of artful chaos.
Now, you’ll need to go in person to see the artwork, as they had a bunch of signs politely asking visitors to not take photos. However, I hope the following gives you a feel for the maximalist wonderland that is Wall Drug.
I got to chat with a few delightful folks who work at Wall Drug:
- A young woman who recently immigrated from South America, and who really wanted to go see Yellowstone.
- A lady who has spent the past 15 years travelling the country, who is just working at Wall Drug until she saves up enough money to make it to her next stop.
I really liked the pleasant and hopeful energy of Wall Drug; It felt like everyone was on a mission, either passing through on one or working to make it happen.
I’m generally a fan of Bill Bryson, and I enjoyed his quote from Wall Drug’s Wikipedia page:
“It’s an awful place, one of the world’s worst tourist traps, but I loved it and I won’t have a word said against it.”
— Bill Bryson, The Lost Continent
If you feel inclined to further reading on Wall Drug, I’d recommend checking out this blog post’s review of the architecture, the Wall Drug signs in Antarctica and Afghanistan, this documentary on how the signs are made, and this 1989 trip that cites a buffalo burger as being $1.50 (I got one with sides for $18.74).
Rapid City
But with that pit stop finished, I continued on to my hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota, finishing my second day of driving.
Leaving Rapid City, I visited both Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, spending no more than like half an hour at each. I enjoyed both attractions, but if you’ve seen a photo of either, you pretty much get the idea.
Mount Rushmore
While the majesty of Mount Rushmore may seem fully captured in a postcard, the Avenue of Flags is well designed to add gravity to the viewing experience. Still, I’ve chosen not to include my photos, as it was crowded with other tourists, and if you’ve seen a picture of it, you’ll get the gist.
I was really surprised by the surrounding landscape. Being from the Appalachian area, I’m used to deciduous forests, so seeing the prominent pine forests and frequent exposed rock challenged my expectations of what to expect from the natural landscape. It was the first of many stops in which I came to appreciate the amount of biome diversity in America.
Crazy Horse
Now, I’m aware that there’s a great deal of controversy surrounding the Crazy Horse monument. My understanding is that there’s two strong arguments against the monument’s existence, in that Crazy Horse was (1) a private person who was never photographed that (2) worked for the preservation of Native American lands. As such, building a monument out of a mountain can be interpreted as anywhere from foolish to downright insulting.
I’m no authority on the subject, so you may consider reading official publications, blog posts, or social media comments expanding on the subject.
However, I don’t believe there are any active boycotts, and it’s right next to Mount Rushmore, so I decided to swing by. I’m not convinced it’ll be finished in my lifetime, but it’s still pretty neat!
Conclusion
And so, we’re now two days into my trip. I’m alone in new and unfamiliar lands, dependent on a car that I don’t fully trust. This first 5% has brought me much I didn’t expect, like being tourist trapped by a drug store and facing the terrible smell of cow and pig poop across much of Iowa. I’m a little scared, but overall excited by expanding my mental map of the world.
My third stop will be to visit Grand Teton National Park, and it will be the first of many campsites. I’ll be astonished by the jaw-dropping natural spectacles and my first close-up encounters with the wildlife, all while fighting the freezing nights and my first experiences with high altitude.
See you then!
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