December 5, 2016
You’ll find new ways to entertain yourself, express yourself, what makes you happy, reduce your stress. Eat pastries by the ocean, read a book on top of a mountain, drink wine by the campfire.You do you boo.
Boost your problem-solving and decision-making skills
You booked the wrong date for the campsite, now what? You’re lost on the trail, now what? Two different sandwiches look equally as tasty, now what? Before I left on my trip, I had the hardest time making decisions, big to small. And while deciding where I want to go for dinner will always be a hard decision, now I’m a bit better at making a choice I believe in without second-guessing myself constantly.
Maybe you’ll you find the answer to all life’s questions. Maybe you’ll find out what you’re really looking for. Maybe you’ll find out who you really want to spend your time with. Get to know yourself.
When you’re traveling alone, it’s easier to connect with other people. I found...
November 21, 2016
If you don’t already know, our food preferences may differ. I won’t go into it, this is not that kind of article, I just keep daydreaming/drooling about some of the fantastic food I had along my trip across the states. I could probably write an article about the top 10 pizzas I ate around the country but I settled with only adding two to this list. Bon appetit. Bone apple tea.
1. Nutella twist (Farmers Market, San Fran)
2. Morning bun (Tartine, San Fran) - not my photo as I obviously inhaled mine immediately.
3. Croque monsieur (Tartine, San Fran)
4. Pizza, yes it’s from a bowling alley but you can’t beat 2 slices create-your-own pizza and a beer for $6!! Blind Onion, Elko, NV
5. Pimento Cheese Sammie (Jim Beam American Stillhouse, KY)
6. Bourbon: Four Roses, Small Batch (Kentucky)
7. Pimento cheese sammies (yes I went more than once), eventually eaten covered in a variety of barbeque sauces (Jim & Nick’s, Charleston, SC)
8. Veggie Sandwich (Regina’s Kitchen, Mobile AL)
9. Still the best pizza...
August 24, 2016
Of course there's a few obvious things to bring. Peanut butter. Jammies. Fix-a-Flat. But this is a list of things that came in handy for me that could be easily overlooked in the packing process. First, arrange what you think you’ll need, cut it in half. Then bring only a portion of the half. I brought so many extra things that I didn’t need and took up room in my car unnecessarily.
Except water, bring double.
Bring reusable bottles. Gallon sized bottles. Refill them everywhere.
Wet wipes and dry shampoo.
These are pretty self explanatory but it’s a nice reminder.
Microfiber towels.
Cuts down on space and dries 10 times faster than regular towels. A gift from the gods. Or science.
Podcasts.
All the podcasts. Music will become repetitive. Audio books will get old. You’ll feel trapped in silence. A menagerie of podcasts will set you free.
Extra charging pack for your phone.
This will come in handy so often. Your phone will likely be trying to find signal or internet or taking photos. it dies much...
August 12, 2016
Every city has the worst drivers.
Everybody thinks their own city has the worst drivers, but the truth is there’s terrible drivers everywhere. You have to be aware of how terrible they are, cause they’re probably not aware of you.
Strangers can be good.
But you also need to know when to trust your gut. And also have some pepper spray just in case.
There’s nothing wrong with sleeping in your car.
It also best to find which sleeping position is best before you’re waking up unable to move your legs.
Don't plan too much.
I don’t mean just drive away with nowhere to go and nothing with you. But sometimes you’re going to want to stay longer in one place, and a lot less longer in another. Don’t get tied down, it makes it less freeing and fun.
If you’re not scared, be worried.
Fear and anxiety are normal, a by product of challenging yourself. It takes strength, courage and a bit of pride to be afraid and still do it anyways.
Things are going to go wrong.
Falling in a stream. Getting rained out every n...
July 20, 2016
If you know much about me, you know that I hate feet. But I have a great appreciation for them. They’ll take you a lot of places. Places you never thought you’d get a chance to go. Walking over mountains. Balancing on little rocks. Squishing your toes in the sand. Here’s a silly little thing I did about my feet and some of the places we went.
July 15, 2016
These are nearly all the stops I made on my solo road trip! This is nearly 12,700 miles and over 250 hours of driving total!
1. Richardson TX
2. Big Bend National Park
3. Las Cruces, NM
4. White Sands, NM
5. Tucson, AZ
6. Scottsdale, AZ
7. Sedona, AZ
8. Grand Canyon National Park
9. Hoover Dam
10. Las Vegas
11. Joshua Tree National Park
12. Los Angeles, CA
13. Sequoia National Park
14. Yosemite National Park
15. San Francisco, CA
16. Sycamore Grove Campground, CA
17. Lassen Volcanic National Park
18. Elko, NV
19. Canyonlands National Park
20. Arches National Park
21. Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
22. Lawrence, KS
23. Kansas City, MO
24. St. Louis, MO
25. Lexington, KY
26. Louisville, KY
27. Cleveland, OH
28. Lumberton, NJ
29. Boston, MA
30. Arlington, VA
31. Washington DC
32. Charlotte, NC
33. Blue Ridge Parkway
34. Great Smoky Mountain National Park
35. Myrtle Beach, SC
36. Charleston, SC
37. Savannah, GA
38. Atlanta, GA
39. Fort Pickens National Park
40. Mobile, AL
41. B...
June 17, 2016
I've never considered myself to be overly enthusiastic about Texas or expressed Texas pride at all. But crossing over the state line and back into my home state, my heart swelled. Maybe it was being that much closer to home. Maybe it was finally being in places I knew. I spent the last few days of my trip in Houston and Austin, my favorite place in Texas (possibly the country, that's to be determined). It was a nice way to ease myself back into real life and finally coming home. Plus, I got to spend some good time with some more friends and my sister.
(L) Beer at this amazing pizza place we went to, Star Pizza before heading back home to watch Game of Thrones #sundayfunday
(C) Some fun little painting on the way into Saint Arnold Brewery, one of my top 5 favorite breweries
(R) Karbach Brewery
After some delicious breakfast tacos, I left my wonderful host to her law school lectures and headed out to Austin to meet my sister. We had a delicious open-faced sandwich. We went shopping. We ma...
June 14, 2016
I decided I wanted to sleep on a beach a long time ago. But being more realistic, I decided to camp at Fort Pickens on Pensacola Beach, FL. Camping in Florida in late May in 90+ degree heat may not seem like a good idea.... and you're right,it wasn't. It was sweaty and sandy and sticky and moist. But it was beautiful. It was squishy sand between my toes, historic forts with an air conditioned museum andall of the shorebirds soaring and dive-bombing that I could dream of.
Most of the west part of the island was the national park and fort, batteries and other fort related things that I don't know the name of.Plus, bonus shorebird nesting land! Osprey, snowy plovers, least terns, sanderlings, black skimmers all the weird named birds! And of course, the usual gulls and pelicans for normalcy.
(L) The grumpiest shark to ever grump "Get off my ocean-lawn ya dang kids!"
(C) Sharklaughing at my fear
(R) A wonderful little storm that blew in while I was trying to play with some birds.
After a quick s...
June 6, 2016
I had no plan after dropping off my mom in Atlanta for her flight back. No campsites around, no couch surfers and not quite in the budget for a hotel or AirBnb. At last resort I always had my car of course. Luckily I have an amazing friend with a huge family who take in vagrants and treats them like family. This also happened over Memorial Day weekend when they were also hosting two other friends. It was a full house, I had an amazing time. We ended up hitting up 3 breweries, a jazz festival and the worst bar/restaurant all in one day!
(L) Creepy/awesome sculpture/head thing in the park on our walk to the jazz festival
(C) SweetWater Brewing Company, I've been here before, their Blue is the cat's pajamas
(R) Fun art installation in the park
(L) Monday Night Brewing: Weekends are overrated... only a little hypocritical as we were there on a Saturday
(C) SweetWater Brewing Company
(R) In the thick of it for the Atlanta Jazz Festival
I had an amazing time with these girls and with...
June 3, 2016
Bonus preface of Myrtle Beach!
After the mountains, I wasted a little more time on a beach before scooping my mom from the airport. Again the rain followed me unfortunately. I did make it out for a walk along the boardwalk, a (free!) long island iced tea, bang bang shrimp tacos and then ran back to the hotel in the rain. The next morning, I took a run along the boardwalk (for fun not cause of rain!) and then set out on my way to Charleston.
Dallas has been having this issue. Maybe you've heard of it, rain? My mom's flight got delayed, missed her connection and got in later than expected... so I went shopping! And another pimento cheese sammie :D When she finally got in we headed to the downtown area for some wine and ended up at the Art Hotel of Charleston. We played around with some fun art installations and checked out the beautiful view of the sunset from the rooftop bar.
Over the next couple of days we probably walked 20+ miles around Charleston and Savannah. We started a...