Category Archives: Road Trip

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Catching Up on the PNW

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Pulling an all-nighter at SeaTac airport for a 6:45 am flight tomorrow. Perfect time to catch up on blogging!

After a WWOOF stay with the Bobcat Ridge family in Watsonville, I’ve spent the past couple weeks exploring the Pacific Northwest. Got to see some awesome places, experience great outdoor activities, and visit wonderful friends I rarely get to see. I also tried out CouchSurf for the first time, once in Seattle and again in Vancouver. I was wary at first but it’s quickly becoming my favorite way to travel. So heartwarming to know that there are such generous and cool people out there.

There’s way too much to cover everything, but here’s a little recap.

First Stop: Boise
Visiting Lily and Nick, the sweetest hosts! Boise would never be on my radar if I didn’t know someone there, and it was very different from what I expected. It’s a city without a big city feel and has gorgeous foothills and trails at your fingertips. I got to experience a Boise State football game and whitewater rafting for the first time. Lots of fun!

Lily and I at the Boise State game on the blue turf


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Road Trip Finale

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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.

Downtown Santa Fe

Night at the opera


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We’ve Arrived!

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Greetings from the beautiful (and hot!) Malibu, CA. Road trip was a great success. Possibly the most painful part was the last 2.5 hour drive from LA to Malibu in horrible traffic! Currently running on 3 hours of sleep after a late night in Vegas so I’ll recap the last legs of the trip later. Looking forward to turning in early and NOT having to wake up and get in the car in the morning. 🙂

Trip overview:
Hamden, CT –> Malibu, CA
~3,900 miles (according to a cursory Google map outline)
9 days
16 states (Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California)

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Colorado the Beautiful

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Colorado was at the top of my list for this road trip. I’ve been dying to get out to those mountains for so long, and they did not disappoint! Yesterday I spent the day exploring Rocky Mountain National Park near Denver. Time was limited, but I got to spend a good three hours up in the mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking!

Driving toward the mountain — already gorgeous


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South Dakota: The Underdog State

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Driving cross-country makes the United States feel majestic and small at the same time. It’s so cool how the topography differs from state to state — prairies to mountains to lakes to deserts. Some states required more loud music to keep us awake than others (ahem Wisconsin and Minnesota), but it’s been a blast so far. Since we’re so familiar with the East Coast and Midwest, we logged those miles as quickly as possible.

The first really exciting destination: South Dakota. We were pleasantly surprised. Who knew South Dakota had so much to offer?! First stop was the Corn Palace, the one and only in the world. This place was tacky and great. Corn on the outside walls, fresh popcorn at the “Corn-cessions” stand, huge corn gift shop inside… hilarious.

Entering the crux of the giant Corn Palace

We then traveled to the Badlands National Park. Somehow this place didn’t even cross our radar when planning the trip, which would’ve been a gross oversight because it was awesome! We managed to get a little trail hiking in.
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And I’m Off!

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Lesson learned from constantly moving: Material possessions are a burden. Yet it’s so hard to part with them. Trying to pack everything for an open-ended farming/traveling escapade into a single backpack proved near-impossible. I managed to whittle it down to this, but it still required an extra duffel bag. How do backpackers do it??

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Hitting the road bright and early tomorrow! California, here we come!