Off We Go!

I quit my job, put my packed up apartment in storage and set out on my first, but certainly not last, cross country ROAD TRIP. What followed was three weeks of sunny, smiling, wandering happiness that appeased my adventuring heart. The route - CA, NV, UT, AZ, NM, TX, AR, MS, TN, KY, IL, MO, KS and NE (briefly!) IA, SD, WY, ID, NV, CA. The trip was amazing and I can't wait to share my favorite parts!

I cut Nevada in half, driving straight across on US 50 headed East. The pejorative turned positive slogan, "The Loneliest Road in America" is fitting since there were hardly ever other vehicles - just cows. SO MANY COWS. But I love emptiness, the repeating, hypnotic landscapes all covered by an endless blue sky, just inviting you to get lost in thought. And the stars, oh the stars. Anywhere that you can look up into the night sky and be swallowed up by the sheer number of stars, makes my heart happy. A majority of the road follows the historic Pony Express route, a short lived mail carrying service that, if it were still going today, would warrant its own extreme reality show. Riders galloped day and night from Missouri to California across plains, deserts, and mountains, through thunderstorms and blazing heat, risking life and limb, all in the name of mail! While driving I imagine the type of men that rode the Pony Express, like William Cody, who rode ridge over plain over ridge over plain and what it would be like riding along with them.

The desert is filled with such desolate beauty - dry plains, grassy fields, delicate wildflowers mixed with bushy sage bushes, ridges of dramatic rockscapes mixed with colorful plants and layers of sands - they are all so hardy, these plants and animals that survive out in the desert. I love that after each mountain pass is a new landscape of life, adapting to the varying terrain. A flat road that seems to go on straight forever, mountains that never seem to get closer, thunderstorms and rain off in the distance. It doesn't feel like anything special but I know theres all sorts of hidden gems in these mountains. The desert isn't necessarily breathtaking or exciting at first, but the longer I stared out the window the more the desert seemed to reveal itself. Hot and dry in the daytime, so harsh and unapologetic, until evening sets in and the animals start to come out, basking in the glow of a gorgeous sunset. Does the sun set this beautifully every night?



The mountains are waiting for you.