The last few days of the trip took us through some interesting places. First, Santa Fe where we visited the historic downtown as well as the beautiful opera house. I got the unique opportunity to glimpse into life as an opera singer — a very interesting but demanding lifestyle! Becky and I attended a performance of Tosca, which was actually really enjoyable once I figured out how to turn on the subtitles. The next morning I took a nice and hot run through the Santa Fe desert.

Following Santa Fe, we had an epic 23-hour day of traversing through five states. For full disclosure, four of those states were checked off simultaneously at (wait for it…) the Four Corners. We were really excited to see this landmark, but it was not at all what we expected. The location is indeed in the middle of nowhere, but the corner itself is built into this touristy site with some flags and a giant circle of Native American vendors selling souvenirs and junk food. They also charge $3 per person to enter!

One of the Native American vendors recommended that we take a northern route out of the Four Corners instead of going straight back down through Arizona. We were a bit suspicious that he was just directing us through the Navajo territory, where we’d have to pay a bunch of tolls, but we took his advice and boy was that a great decision. The route he suggested took us onto Route 163 and through Monument Valley in Utah. Many famous TV and movie scenes have been shot there, including the opening scene of MI:2 and a scene in Forrest Gump. It’s easy to see why: The scenery was absolutely AMAZING.

Along the route we stopped by a quaint cafe and made friends with a guy behind the counter who was also looking into WWOOFing. I mentioned to our new friend Brandon that we were planning on visiting Zion next but didn’t want to pay the steep $25 park entrance fee. Brandon suggested we tell the park ranger we were going to apply for a job at the park lodge. After a quick Google search of the lodge website and its job openings, we bravely approached the park entrance and delivered our lines. It worked like a charm! We were in and with $25 to spare! (For anyone who might be offended by our attempt to “cheat the system,” I must say that as beautiful as Zion was, the price did feel a little too steep. For comparison, the Badlands charged $15 and Rocky Mountain was $20.)

At a little shop in the park, we chatted with a lovely 87-year-old Mormon lady who had 8 sons and 8 daughters. This woman nestled in the gorgeously isolated Utah mountains contrasted starkly with our final destination that day: Las Vegas. Sin City was quite a shock to the system after days of driving through deserts and mountains. Though it was our first time there, I really don’t have much to say except that I wouldn’t care to go back. We arrived around 10 pm and left at 8 am the following morning on three hours of sleep. Parts of the night were fun, but Vegas is far from my cup of tea.

The next day we arrived in California! It was a dream come true to do this road trip and see so many awesome parts of the country. The cherry on top was that we got to end the trip at the ocean!