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Day 23: The End.

Here are a few of the things I noticed across our great nation.

There is an unbelievable number of both Jimmy John’s and Subway. Jimmy John’s doesn’t exist in NYC (right?) and Subway is probably the most-maligned of all fast food options here, but apparently the midwest fucking LOVES sandwiches. I ate at neither. I actually avoided most fast food except one Wendy’s and two Sonics late at night, plus two McDonald’s breakfasts. I tried to eat at small town spots when driving and pile on the breakfast on long drive days, and that worked out way better for about the same price.

Jesus advertises a LOT. Almost as much as the famous Wall Drug. Most Jesus ads are very vague, like, “You Will Meet Jesus” or “Jesus Introduces You To God” (that second one may be a little off, but that was definitely the gist). There were Jesus and God billboards telling me I was on my way to Hell on every highway, but the exit for Hell never did show up on Google Maps. Weird. I spent a lot of time wondering why Jesus needs so much advertising. I feel like his brand is pretty well-known and that billboard money could go toward, I don’t know, helping people in need? Like Jesus wanted? No other religion had billboards. Actually, that’s wrong. There was ONE very strange atheism billboard in Denver. Pothead heathens.

There is so much open space. And so much flat land. And so much farm land. One family can easily occupy the same amount of land as all of Queens, and that’s wild to me. I wouldn’t know what to do with all that land. I’d never want the task of farming it.

Extremely small towns make me extremely sad. I couldn’t tell if it was my city liberal elitism or just that it’s generally sad to see a place that doesn’t know what to do with itself. There were a lot of boarded-up and decaying buildings everywhere. It made me feel like I had a better understanding of Trump voters, and I’m not saying that in a negative way. I mean that I can understand the appeal to some degree. At least, back then.

And on a personal level, I was mostly amazed by how fine I was the whole trip. I went in telling people to prepare for an inevitable meltdown, for a moment when I couldn’t handle it at all and I was in over my head and convinced everything was terrible and spiraled out into a lonely pit of despair. People were on standby. But that moment didn’t come. I had one cry after Yellowstone when my camping plans went awry and I thought I wouldn’t make it to my hotel in time to check in. That’s it.

I think if I’d done the whole trip without seeing any friends the whole time, it would’ve been different. I’m not sure I could’ve lasted three weeks on only texting friends and small talk with strangers. Yellowstone might have been the full breaking point in that case. Who knows.

But a year ago, I know I couldn’t have done this trip. I was fine in a way that I 100% know I would not have been without meds. My brain has spent a lot of my life making me feel awful about myself. It’s gotten really good at making sure I feel I’m a person no one likes or cares about and I’m a completely failure. But lamotrigine has shut it the fuck up for once. Those thoughts are extremely rare, and they happen the same way anyone else’s bad thoughts happen. Not at random. Sparked by something a normal amount of bad.

I had some people ask if I was afraid to be alone with my thoughts for so many hours on the road, and I totally was, especially because I’ve had that time in the past and it didn’t go well. I certainly had moments of reflection and introspection on this trip. I thought a lot about past relationships and family during long stretches of corn. I thought about some trash times I wish hadn’t happened and thought about how they shaped me and why. I thought about dudes I wish I could see one last time just to explain that I finally understand that what they did or said to me was wrong, and they should feel really bad. I thought about things I regret and times when I was a shitty person to other people. I thought about what I want out of my future. My career, relationships, friends, family. Having that time alone with my brain was different now. It was rational and useful and sometimes (a lot of times) funny because I’m hilarious and think about weird shit.

And I didn’t get tired of driving. The only time I was tired of driving was when I couldn’t find parking in Queens today and people were being fucking stupid per usual and I HATE THEM oh god why, Queens, why. And I got literally tired sometimes. But driving has always been therapeutic for me, and that didn’t change. Driving at night still sucks. But driving in general was something I spent a long time looking forward to being able to do, because it meant I could go when and where I wanted. That’s always been extremely important to me.

All the driving didn’t feel like it was endless hours strung together for three weeks. It felt like steps. Okay, I drive six hours today, I have arrived at the place I wanted to be. Tomorrow, I have a new place to go and I’ll drive however long it takes to land there. This drive was eight episodes of Potterless long, or six episodes of Dr. Death, or three of Invisibilia. I stopped when I wanted to stop, took detours that seemed interesting, and had no set timeline aside from needing to eventually be asleep in a new location. I wasn’t looking more than a day or two ahead at any given moment, so it felt like I was just taking two-day trips repeatedly. Not one looooong trip. It doesn’t feel like it took three weeks to get back home. It feels like it took about 3 hours from Pennsylvania, with one stop for ice cream in Morristown.

It feels really weird. Three weeks happened and didn’t happen to me. I know I was gone. But I don’t feel it. I feel like I was gone for a weekend. I keep thinking tomorrow is Monday.

And it feels weird to be in a large city, especially since I went into Manhattan only a few hours after I got home and I barely even did that this summer, let alone this month. The skyline looked crazy big as I drove over the GW and there were too many people in my neighborhood. More buildings and more people than I’ve seen in weeks and my first thought was WHY AM I HERE but I remembered in Manhattan that I like all the people and buildings. I did not like my $10 vodka tonic in midtown. Stupid midtown.

I’m also home with my dumb cats, who don’t stand still long enough for a photo. They ignored me at first, and then I left for a few hours and now that I’ve returned again they’re behaving. They probably think I was threatening them with more absence. The Mr. is in his usual spot.

I know people are going to ask me what my favorite stop was and I’m not sure I have an answer, honestly. The whole trip was my favorite stop? The Badlands ended up being maybe my favorite National Park. I think. It was definitely the most unique, and it’s the only stop where I got in some stargazing. Wind farms were one of my favorite sights on the road. River swimming in Utah was a good break. Utah in general is perfect. The geysers in Yellowstone were surprisingly beautiful and interesting - minus Old Faithful, which was boring and not even colorful. You know, I guess my favorite place really was Wall Drug, though.

And I guess that’s it. My Chinese food is here. Writing this makes things pretty final, though I still have five bins in my car to unload. Welp. Until the next adventure, goooooodbye.

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Day 22: Home on the Horizon

Another tough day of being a woman in the world, but a little, tiny glimmer of hope at least and I’m a bit closer to home.

And this video exists and is great and necessary.

Mostly I drove across Ohio, a bit of West Virginia, and a lot of Pennsylvania to land in Harrisburg today.

The morning started in Columbus, with a bit of wandering around North Market and a nearby park downtown just to make my legs move at least a little bit on a loooong driving day. I wandered with my headphones on, listening to the judiciary committee take turns either bashing or praising Dr. Ford, and tried to resist feeling pure destructive rage when every GOP senator acted like they give a shit about how Dr. Ford feels during this process. Cory Booker gave a fantastic speech (2020? Eh?) that made me feel better (and also cry), and then they said, “Next, John Kennedy...” and I turned everything off.

Look at this very nice butterfly.

Why don’t we have combo farmer’s market and food halls in New York City? We have each thing separately and farmer’s markets aren’t permanent like this. Am I just not realizing there is a place with both? Because every city I’ve been to on this trip has a market like this one, and I can’t think of the equivalent in NYC.

Love me some vintage newspaper signs. Feels like the Newsies are going to emerge to sing while climbing it.

Driving down the highway, WNYC blaring, news came in that coward piece of shit Jeff Flake got chastised by two women in an elevator and then did one correct thing and called for a proper FBI investigation before the full senate vote. And that investigation is happening. I had a bit of a justice cry and then stress-ate a burger.

Wheeling, West Virginia at Avenue Eats. Apparently it’s one of the 33 best burgers in America. It was a pretty solid burger despite the couple behind me arguing about Kavanaugh while I ate it. Gouda, garlic aioli, caramelized onions, spinach. Decadent and delicious. They believe all boys do things like that in high school.

Caught a jazzy sunset in Pennsylvania while listening to Dr. Death. That shit is WILD. It’s about a psychopath/sociopath/narcissist doctor who destroyed the lives of dozens of patients because of his atrocious spine surgery skills and possible desire to murder and also the Texas Medical Board/Baylor University’s complete incompetence and greed. I listened to all six episodes in one go and highly recommend it if you want something different to yell at right now. Fascinatingly horrifying.

And I’ve landed in my hotel. I love hotels. I’m happy to be here with Bob’s Burgers and some vodka after a long day. And there’s free breakfast in the morning, which you bet your bippy I’m waking up early to eat. They have pancakes!! I’m trying to bring back “you bet your bippy.”

Home is only three hours away, which at this point feels like a 15 minute drive to me. I have little callouses from driving. I’m roadworn.

It’s time to be with my noisy cats, who are both going to be huge dicks to me like they always are when I’m gone longer than a weekend.

[clicheroadtripblogname]

Day 21: Driving and Kavanaugh.

I drove from St. Louis to Columbus all day while listening to the Kavanaugh hearings as much as I could. That was my entire day, minus a stop at this pie place off I-70.

I had to turn the hearing off a few times. It’s not easy to listen to as both a survivor of sexual assault AND someone who once went through a rough two-week trial by jury. I heard so much of my own trial prep in her demeanor. She was calm and intelligent and pleasant and strong, while Kavanaugh yelled and cried and mocked and dodged questions like a bratty teenager. Today was some of the worst parts of my recent past converging on NPR, and it sucked.

I’m bracing myself for the committee vote tomorrow, and I’m trying to prepare for the day he’s confirmed and then sworn in. Because I know how this works. I know today didn’t matter to the people it needs to matter to. We, on the outside, can be as outraged as we want. But the vote isn’t really ours at this point. We can call and pressure our representatives, but I truly, deeply believe it’s too late now. Kavanaugh will be on the Supreme Court for much of my life and the lives of all the women I know who are feeling empty and hopeless today.

During Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony, calls to the National Sexual Assault Hotline spiked by 147%. They’ve spiked over 55% higher throughout the last couple of weeks. That’s how bad this has been for us, if you don’t believe me.

I’ve never seen so many stories about surviving sexual assault on my Facebook and Instagram feeds. Women I’ve never heard anything like this from, and/or who I don’t know super well, some women who rarely post, came forward and wrote out their own experiences in extreme detail. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen at any other point in the last year of #MeToo. I’ve also seen a lot of men offering support, and that’s appreciated.

I personally just want to be home right now. I’m at a house I rented in Columbus. Part of me wants to ditch my last stop and drive 10 hours directly home tomorrow instead. But I paid for a decent hotel in Harrisburg, and hotels always make me happy, so I’ll spend time in Columbus tomorrow and instead get home as early as I can on Saturday. I want to be in my own bed with my stupid cats.

November is coming. I have a feeling we’ll all feel a bit better then.

[clicheroadtripblogname]

Day 20: No One Cares About the Zoo, Museum, and Food

I’m not all that into writing any of this today. I’m not exhausted by this trip, I’m exhausted by politics. I’ve been largely detached from the news for me -- ordinarily I listen to WNYC for a few hours every morning and keep up on Twitter throughout the day. This trip I’ve just kind of checked in on Twitter daily to see what nightmares are trending, read a few articles, and gone back to roaming and eating across our great nation, trying to forget. This week is not the most forgettable.

So. I spent the full day in St. Louis walking and eating today. St. Louis is home to a lot of amazing free cultural stuff.

First I hit the zoo. Polar bears are big and they let you get pretty close.

This anaconda was not feelin’ it today. Reminds me of the snake in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when Dudley falls into the tank and it’s like “thanks” and Harry’s like “don’t mention it” those lines may be wrong. He grumpy.

Giraffes and shit.

Then the St. Louis Museum of Art, also free.

A smashed violin. Big mood.

“Gray Mirror.” Kind of calling bullshit on this one. The description said it was about seeing the world as a moving black and white photo or something. Also relevant to Harry Potter. I’m listening to a Harry Potter podcast so most things are being mentally connected to Harry Potter this week.

Scribbles hell yeah

A Lyft driver told me about how great Miami is on my way back to my AirBnB.

I then went to Gooey Louie’s to buy some butter cake, a St. Louis specialty. I thought I’d get like, one square. Then I walk in and there are no bakery display cases or anything and an old woman emerges and is like WELCOME, HERE IS ONE FULL CAKE, IT IS GOOD FOR 5-7 DAYS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE and I was like I GUESS I’M BUYING A WHOLE CAKE NOW. It was the last one in the shop. They don’t seem to sell non-whole-cakes.

There’s now a whole cake in my car. Good for stress eating.

Then more art at the Laumeier Sculpture Park. They have a lot of the same sculptors as Storm King, but free.

Buncha balls in the woods

More stress eating: Mama’s on the Hill for toasted ravioli, another St. Louis specialty. It’s deep fried beef and ricotta ravioli and it’s grand. The servers were old and Italian and annoyed that it was a slow night.

I rounded out my stress eating with some custard from Ted Drewes. One more Only In St. Louis food.

I really like St. Louis. It has a good vibe to it, great food, and a solid cultural scene. Something about St. Louis feels kind of old-school, like hipsters haven’t found it yet. It still feels diverse and affordable. A small part of me feels like I wouldn’t be sad to live here.

I drive to Columbus, Ohio tomorrow. My license place is getting less exotic by the day. No more “what are YOU doing here?” conversations, no more humble bragging about my solo road trip. But I’m ready to get closer to home.

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Day 19: Is it Lou-Ee or Lou-Iss?

Back on the road bright and early this morning for St. Louis! Did this drive running on empty, sleep-wise. It was not fun.

Along the way, I stopped in at college town Columbia, MO where I ate at a place called Seoul Taco, which is sort of like Korilla, which is a Korean/Mexican fusion spot created by Columbia students. Only I think that’s funny? Alright. Well, the bulgogi steak quesadilla was pretty good and the decor was funky.

Arriving in St. Louis, I mostly wanted to crash at my AirBnB and not move. But it was only 5PM and I needed to continue eating nonstop, so first stop: Smoki O’s Barbecue. It’s highly rated on sites that rate this sort of thing, so I expected it to be packed for dinner on a perfect weather Tuesday night. Their website even tells you to order ahead to avoid a long wait.

When I initially got there, I sat in my car wondering if this was actually it. It was the only store on the whole block, and it was a tiny, crappy-looking cinder block building with a kind of busted sign out front. I thought maybe I got the name wrong. But then I opened the door and the world smelled like perfectly smoked meat so I knew it had to be the right one. It was a true hole-in-the-wall place, with just a kind of dingy area to wait for your food and some old awards all over the wall. It felt very Anthony Bourdain.

I decided to take my rib tips, potato salad, and corn bread over to Illinois.

A park on the other side of the Mississippi overlooks the Gateway Arch, and I caught the tail end of twilight. Not the vampires kind, unless you count the ten thousand mosquitos that immediately started attacking me as soon as the sun went down. Bastards.

As if I hadn’t eaten enough today, I went to Clementine’s Creamery for some mocha coconut caramel and salted caramel crack ice cream. Not pictured because it was super dark and I don’t want to remember how much I ate today. It’s going to be a real adjustment when I return home in a few days and force myself to eat like an adult again.

Tomorrow, I’m exploring Forest Park and all of the stuff in it, like the zoo and art museum. It’s all free and it’s all a block away from my AirBnB, which means I already love St. Louis. Anyone want to meet me here? Ayyyyyy old people reference.

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Day 18: Back to the Midwest

Coming to you live from Topeka! It is 2AM and I’ve just arrived at the cottage that I’ll have to vacate by 11AM. It’s been a looooooong day. Over 500 miles driving. I think it’s probably for the best that I drove mostly in the dark across Kansas. I have a feeling it was primarily corn again, and this way I didn’t have to experience that hellscape. In all of this night time driving, I learned that the best way to keep from tunnel vision and fear of deer is to linger behind a tractor trailer as much as possible. Also drank SO MUCH COFFEE. My body is not liking this.

But before all that, I was in Denver until the late afternoon. Alex and I started our day with a disgustingly huge breakfast at Denver Biscuit Company. Their entire menu is just Things On Biscuits Slathered With More Things.

That cinnamon roll. Oh my god. I’ve been looking for the perfect cinnamon roll all over the midwest/west because it’s such a Thing here apparently, and this one was finally the Holy Grail. The leftovers from it are sitting in the kitchen of my AirBnB for breakfast and I’m so excited to wake up and eat it.

We followed our unbelievably unhealthy breakfast up with a walk around nearby City Park, which has a pretty trash manmade lake but this one kind of cool island full of bird nests of some kind.

And a visit to the Denver Botanical Gardens, which was really impressive. They have a Science Pyramid full of little educational games and things, and it’s just generally a lovely place to wander around.

A+, Denver. I wanted to go to the wildlife refuge, but it was stupidly closed on Mondays. A lot of cool things are closed on Mondays. Including the museum where Alex was going to go after I left, so I basically abandoned him in the rain at the Capitol Building since his flight wasn’t until much later. Alex, are you alive? Who knows!

And then I was on the road for a lifetime. One of the Kansas rest stops was home to a store called Mittens, which is some kind of hunting store, and it was absolutely covered in dead animals.

Why is it called this? Why were there so many dead animals? There was a huge sign on the outside that said WELCOME HUNTERS. It was the most aggressive rest stop I’ve ever been to, but strangely not the first rest stop I’ve been to on this trip that was covered in taxidermied animals. The Wyoming Welcome Center was also riddled with taxidermy, but at least theirs was educational. This one was just like, Murder Town USA. Oh, Kansas.

As I was driving I also periodically saw miles of blinking red lights, which confused the hell out of me. They were all in the middle of nowhere, not near towns or cities, so it didn’t seem like airports. I couldn’t imagine what kind of warning system it would be. One theory was, “Oh, this must be how they keep truckers from getting bored and crashing on this endless highway,” which is very dumb.

I finally managed to see a silhouette as I passed by a row, and it’s wind turbines! They look like enormous Christmas lights across the horizon at night, and it’s a nice break from the otherwise endless darkness all around. That sounds more depressing than it is. But I promise, it’s not as depressing as the corn.

Sleep is a thing I should do. Tomorrow I wake up, eat, and hit the road for St. Louis, where I’ll have a two day stop/brief driving break again. This trip is over Saturday, and I’m currently right in the middle of the country. A whole lot of driving ahead, but what else is new?

[clicheroadtripblogname]

Day 17: Artsy Fartsy in Denver

A new museum has entered into my all-time favorites: Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Oh man. What an awesome place. It’s a non-collection museum, which means that everything in the museum is temporary - you won’t see the same exhibition again once it’s over. It was so good that I’m not even going to discuss the many baked goods I ate at a farmer’s market this morning.

The current exhibition is a full-museum solo artist takeover by Tara Donovan. She takes everyday objects and creates absolutely spectacular sculptures and optical illusions on a grand scale. Cardboard, metal straws, foil, push pins, cups. When you first see these sculptures you can’t even tell what they’re made of, and then you get up close and realize it’s hundreds of thousands of index cards.

Or it’s the most tangled Slinky pile in history.

Or it’s pins.

Or it’s one of the greatest sculptures I’ve ever seen, made out of sheets of silver foil.

This sculpture made me a Tara Donovan fangirl. I can’t even imagine how many hours it had to have taken to create this insanity. It was so impressive that I actually chatted with a stranger about it, which literally never happens to me in museums.

So yeah, huge fan of MCA Denver and really happy I caught this exhibition.

From the museum, I went to get a Spang for a Spang Hang! Translation: I picked up Alex from the airport.

We went off to Renegade Craft Fair, which turned out to be way more awesome than expected! Lots of local artists with genuinely unique things. And Maker’s Mark was doing a little promo pop-up there, complete with free craft cocktails and customized coasters made by a local woodworker, TheWoodChick. #AdvertisingIdeas. 

Followed shopping up with eating, and I finally got to try The Impossible Burger! It’s made entirely from plants, but supposed to be the first veggie burger to actually taste, cook, feel, and look like beef. They’re also far more environmentally friendly than beef. Woohoo!

Decent on the looks front. Taste-wise, it was suuuuuuper delicious. Would I eat this and be convinced it’s beef? Maybe not. But it really is close in texture, and whatever they use to season it needs to be how all burgers are seasoned. I didn’t expect to love it, and apparently they’ve been in NYC all this time while I’ve been thinking they were only out west. Oops.

The night ended with drinks in RiNo (River North Art District), where we chilled on a bar balcony watching a couple at a bar across the street get excessively into each other right in the doorway, where people kept having to pass them while they were making out. Ah, young love. We also watched a really awkward cop repeatedly get approached by excitable drunk people while he was standing on a corner.

RiNo is a pretty cool area. It was basically Williamsburg with more breweries. And I failed to take a photo, but the cyclist signs painted in the bike lines were rhinos on bikes. Get it? Graffiti was gorgeous across the board. Big fan of this area.

Solid Denver day. A bit more Denver tomorrow with Alex, then on to one sure-to-be-exciting night in Topeka!

[clicheroadtripblogname]

Day 16: The Drama Continues. And Rocky Mountain!

Most of the time I don’t like being on a trail full of people, but today it was nice. Everyone on the trail was in a good mood. No one on the trail was blaming me for dumb shit. And the views were pretty good.Welp, the drama of last night did not end this morning. I could rant about this for approximately ten years. This is actually a short version.

I woke up at 7:30AM in an effort to be gone before the host, Calvin, could talk to me. But I failed. Another guy was in the shower and I got stuck waiting. Calvin asked me what had happened the night before and why I wasn’t happy.

My short version was that I didn’t anticipate having another person sleep in the room with me, I didn’t feel comfortable arriving home to three guys sitting on my bed, and I didn’t feel comfortable having to be the person to clear them out. I told him that for future guests, he might want to be a little more clear about the space being a common area for all guests.

He told me that all of this was my fault, that I had the chance to get him to tell everyone to leave and I didn’t take it, and everyone else is here to make friends so it’s my problem if I don’t want to socialize. I stayed so calm, you guys. SO CALM. Oh my god, this is why I’m currently drinking. After his rant, I said, “Well, I guess I know not to book shared spaces in the future.”

And THAT kicked off a new rant from him about how he’s never going to rent the couch again, it’s not worth cleaning, it’s not worth the money, it’s not worth all of the complaints from people like me, and he’s going to tell AirBnB he’s done.

Y’all.

I threw all my shit in my bag and BOUNCED.

That should be the end, right? Nope. He texted me to say he’d asked the other guest in my room if I’d gone to sleep right away, and the guest said I’d been on my laptop for a bit (literally 15 minutes, to write here). Calvin took this to mean I wasn’t as tired as I claimed, and reiterated that he was a good host and everything was my fault. SO HE WAS HAVING OTHER GUESTS FUCKING SPY. ON. ME.

I remained calm via text even though I was 100% rage-crying in my car because despite my constant liberal rage and propensity for debating, I HATE CONFRONTATIONS. Debates are great. I would rather hide forever than get into an actual fight. I informed him he was harassing me, he was wrong, and I’m reporting him to AirBnB and blocking him.

I got my $21 refunded, who fucking cares, and he hasn’t contacted me since then. I wrote a VERY long and detailed review. Protip: don’t fuck with a writer.

Drama wasn’t all that happened today, though! I also went to Rocky Mountain National Park, where my phone went on airplane mode so I could try and forget the morning.

Hiking is a pretty good thing to do when you’re dealing with some bullshit. It’s part of why I’ve come to love hiking over the last few years, despite remaining out of shape on the uphills.

If you really want to focus on all of the amazing comebacks and valid things you wish you would have said in that argument, you’re going to trip. And maybe die? Probably not, but there’s an 85% chance of tripping on a legit hiking trail, and it’s going to hurt. A lot. And that’s going to make you more mad.

And you can totally be enraged over whatever nonsense happened, but it’s going to be awkward when someone gives you a really cheery hello on the trail and you look like you’re ready to murder someone. And it’s going to feel really insignificant when you round a corner and nature punches you in the face with all kinds of splendor.

Or when there’s a chipmunk that has been trained by humans to be unbelievably cute for food.

Most of the time I don’t like being on a trail full of people, but today it was nice. Everyone on the trail was in a good mood. No one on the trail was blaming me for dumb shit. And the views were pretty good.

And when I arrived at my hotel room in Denver, it was quiet and clean and enormous and no one was in it but me. And tomorrow Alex will be here! He’s allowed.

[clicheroadtripblogname]

Day 15: Goodbye, Desert. Hello, Male Nonsense.

I’ve arrived in Colorado! Staying in Boulder tonight so I can get an early start at Rocky Mountain National Park for the day.

Along the road, not much happened. I stopped at a ghost town near Moab and immediately felt weird and guilty about it, especially since there were still some people living just down the road from it. It was mostly wrecked cars and small, collapsed wooden houses.

The scenery changed from red desert to green mountains. Leaves are just starting to change in Colorado, so I’m excited to see how they’re doing at a bit of a higher altitude tomorrow in the park.

My place for tonight is a couch I reserved off AirBnB in the condo of a VERY high-energy dude who’s also hosting like five other people in assorted parts of his apartment. The host is super nice and greeted me with chocolate, which is always a plus, but holy shit does he have a lot of energy and I’m so not in the mood for energy and chatting after driving all day. I can’t even cough once without him asking if I need more water. It’s stressful to be so intensely hosted.

There is apparently going to be a guy sleeping on the floor nearby which is not what I signed up for. Not thrilled by this development. Apparently two guests decided to stay an extra night, so everyone else got shifted. It’s $25 and I’m here approximately 14 hours total, so I’m going to just let it go, let it gooooo. No more shared space bookings, especially if it only saves me $25. Private rooms and whole places only.

Update several hours later, post-ice cream, SHIT HAS GONE DOWN.

I arrived home to three dudes sitting on my couch, where I’m sleeping. Two of them are “relationship coaches,” and they were in the middle of a conversation about spirituality and whether or not one of the guys should pursue his STUDENT. They brought me into the conversation because I was sitting on my couch waiting for them to leave. So this guy feels that “it’s awkward if he hides his feelings from this woman...he has abandonment issues, and this causes him to feel strongly for this woman.” Et cetera. Side note, he’s also apparently attracted to a second student but she’s apparently too clearly interested in him so he has no issue there. But god forbid he not pursue a second student anyway, right?

I listened. I asked a bit about their whole spirituality conference and relationship coaching. Then they drew me into the conversation and asked what I thought, and I mentioned the awkwardness of the power dynamic, with him being the teacher attracted to a student who is paying for the class he teaches.

We argued in a calm, spiritual tone, and I, the only woman in the room, pointed out that he was putting her in a really strange position since she paid money to be his student and knowing that her teacher is trying to bang her may put her in the position of having to decide between continuing the course and feeling weird around him or leaving it and losing time and money. I said that speaking from my own experience, I would feel uncomfortable being the student of someone who was trying to get with me even if I was interested and I would try not to be his student if I was interested. And if he’s really interested in her, he can wait for the course to be over in 9 months and pursue her then and there’s no issue.

Him: I believe not telling your truth, not being honest causes stress, and stress kills.

Me: But what if your truth causes HER stress? Isn’t that unfair to force her to confront these issues if she doesn’t have any say in the matter?

Him: Well, those are her feelings and issues to deal with. I need to share my truth, and any reaction she has is her responsibility, not mine.

Me: Okay. I understand that sharing your truth, expressing yourself, will make you feel less stressed. But if she is stressed, isn’t is just kind of like you’re handing off your own stress and telling her to deal with it for you?

Him: No, because my stress isn’t her stress.

Me: It is if you make it hers. Hypothetically speaking, she wasn’t stressed before you told her.

Him: No, that’s her stress. I am not responsible for her reaction. She can choose not to be stressed.

I CANNOT HANDLE THESE DUDES. It was like sitting inside of Tinder. Once I gave too much fight, they decided my contributions were irrelevant and no longer addressed me. The third dude in the room, not a relationship coach, spoke up to say that listening to this conversation made him feel healed and accepted, and he feels honored to have been a part of it. I cannot invent this shit.

And then the dude who is conflicted about whether or not he should hit on his student turned to me to ask why I don’t understand his position and why he HAS to share his feelings with his student. And we argued more intensely. And when I repeatedly tried to make him understand that the power dynamic, the fact that he’s her teacher and she’s paying him to teach her and would have to consider dropping out of the course if she felt uncomfortable, he told me I didn’t understand.

I told him there’s a line between being her friend and putting her in a weird position and it’s easy to just be friends, and he said he can’t possibly know where that line is. I asked if he had friends, he told me I was being sarcastic and attacking him. I asked how he treats his friends, he said he can tell them anything therefore he can tell his student he is interested in her.

I asked him if I was really having a #MeToo conversation right now. He said I was not understanding and he felt this was my own issues and background making me react in this way. (Side note, NO SHIT. I’M A WOMAN. ALL WOMEN SHOULD REACT THIS WAY.)

He’s known me for 15 minutes at this point.

Finally, I looked at him and said, “This conversation is making me very anxious, and I’d really like to sleep now so please get off my bed.” He informed me that he was also anxious because of me. I guess we both spoke our fucking truths.

Men are trash and that was some exhausting nonsense. Everyone, please take responsibility for your effect on others instead of acting like it’s their fault if they get upset when you act like an asshole. It’s that simple. Be responsible for your shit. Be respectful. Don’t use a shitty past to justify your shitty behavior toward others in the present. And as a bonus, do your best to understand power dynamics. I’m here to help if you ever feel uncertain about where the god damn line is.

Here’s some fucking scenery from Boulder. Goodnight.

[clicheroadtripblogname]

Day 14: Into the Land of Canyons

Canyonlands! This one definitely beat Arches for me, and not because I didn’t accidentally hike forever in the desert. A little because Elissa and Ryan joined and a lot because it had insane canyon views for days everywhere you look. But since Elissa is going to read this, Canyonlands was amazing exclusively because she was there.

Fun fact: this park is where the 127 Hours dude got stuck and had to cut off his arm to escape! We didn’t hike in that section of the park. We hiked the section with nice, clearly marked, and often paved walkways. So it was more like Hiking for Dummies.

Today was only two shorter hikes in the Islands in the Sky district: one to Mesa Arch, one to Grand Views. I’m convinced they only call it Grand Views because Grand Canyon was already taken.

Mesa Arch was first.

Repulsive.

Then the Grand Views trail, which did, in fact, lead to some grand views. Love it when the title is accurate. And I even had an Instagram Boyfriend to take photos of me in precarious locations! (They’re not actually ever precarious. They just look that way. Do it for the gram.)

That was just at the start. And a little further along the trail...

And then the end of the trail, a full 360 degree view of all the canyons.

Pretty solid park. 10/10 would recommend to anyone roaming Utah.

And as if all the splendor of National Parks isn’t enough to make you want to visit Utah, they ALSO have incredible beaches by way of sandy rivers.

Utah, it’s been real. I’m glad I got some friend time at the halfway mark, and somehow I only have one week left. It does NOT feel like I’ve been on the road for two weeks. It’s going by so quickly. Next stop: Boulder and the Rocky Mountains, possibly with a morning stop at Arches to see a bit more.

I’m really glad I double checked camping weather last weekend in Wyoming and decided to nix this weekend as well. It’s going to be in the 30s at night in the Rockies, and luckily I’ll be cozied up in an AirBnB instead now. On we go!

[clicheroadtripblogname]

Day 13: This is the hike that never ends, it just goes on and on, my friends! Some people started hiking without knowing what it was, and they’ll continue hiking it forever just because...

Arches National Park: I give it a 9/10 for geological features. Since the name is Arches, I would’ve liked to see exclusively arches. But Utah felt like having more shit besides arches. Typical Utah.

So, I accidentally hiked an extremely difficult 8 mile trail through the desert. I went in intending to do a moderately challenging hike that Elissa and Ryan did the other day, but I got cocky AND confused right at the beginning, which is a horrible combination.

There was a sign about a mile in on a paved walkway that said something like, “Primitive Trail. Difficult Hiking.” with an arrow. And given that I was surrounded by hordes of tourists and would give anything to get away from them, AND I was feeling like the paved trail I was on was not the moderately hard trail they'd done the other day, I went for the Primitive Trail.

The first two miles, not so bad. Sandy, but level. I was convinced the only reason it was marked as hard was because the trail was a lot of sand, not pavement, and I mocked its difficulty and felt like I'd beat the system going this way. The whole park to myself! Amazing!

And then the trail started to feel way too long. Elissa said it was 2-3 hours for them, about 4 miles. I was coming up on 2.5 hours and 4 miles, and civilization did NOT feel nearby. It was so silent I could hear my ears ringing. Shoutout to tinnitus!

So I was convinced this trail was longer, but fairly easy.

Then came the rock scrambling, and ridge climbing, and sections that I genuinely didn't think I could physically do.

I was at this spot for about 15 minutes. It was only when a guy appeared above me that I managed to propel myself up onto the rock through the power of Not Wanting To Embarrass Myself. Shame works wonders.

Every time I rounded a corner or made it to the top of a ridge, I saw people a mile away and 200 feet higher up than me. I didn't understand how there was always more Up and Across to go on this horrible nightmare trail. I also learned later that I hiked it the wrong/harder direction, so allllllll of the rock scrambling and uphill hiking was in my last 2-3 miles, when I was busy losing the will to live. Because of course it was. This is also when the wind picked up, right as I was walking along ridges. I just. I couldn’t believe how many elements were not in my favor.

These views were spectacular, but I'd just run out of water (I brought 2 liters!! Whyyy) and had no gauge of how much further I had to go on the hike. Spoiler alert: I still had another 1.5 hours after this view before I was back at my car.

And that 1.5 hours was the hardest. The trail got less and less clear because people are assholes and walk off a trail that is MADE OF SAND AND HAS NO MARKERS. Why is that horrible? Because your markers are footprints and occasional cairns/rock piles. When footprints are everywhere, the trail is nowhere. Remember this if you ever hike in the desert. Don't be an asshole to the people who come after you. Your photos won't be better than on the trail.

By the time I actually got to some arches, I hated arches. I hated sand and rocks and wind that kicks sand and rocks in my face and sunshine and heat and my backpack and my lack of water. Arches are cool. But oh my god, I didn't give two shits about anything at that point.

But I made it, which always eventually sinks in after this kind of hike. It blows so intensely while I'm in it, but afterwards it's like oh shit, I did that. It was an accident, but I did it. And I saw some pretty cool things and got a shitty story out of the deal.

And it was followed by another hike (WHY) to a local waterfall in Moab with Elissa and Ryan, back from their morning Moab rappelling adventure, for some ice-cold swimming that helped my body feel a little less like the end times are near. We also watched some teenagers make bad life choices jumping off cliffs into shallow water!

Then we got home and ate three different kinds of meat for dinner because we all had an exhausting day and clearly protein was the cure. I learned that elk meat tastes like next-level beef and I dig it.

Tomorrow, the gang goes to Canyonlands bright and early and possibly probably the beach. And now, I need sleep. This blog post got accidentally deleted as I finished it because Google Chrome crashed for its shitty redesign, so this is a full rewrite and I hate this. Goodnight.

[clicheroadtripblogname]

Day 12: Wyoming to Utah

That’s basically all today was: driving from Wyoming to/through Utah to reach Elissa and her boyfriend/personal chef, Ryan! I stopped for tacos and some Walmart groceries, did a little walk through the desert at a very cool rest stop, annnnd stopped at a few cool viewpoints. Utah is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and this is my third time driving along its highways. Still not old.

 Tomorrow, Arches National Park followed by some waterfall swimming.

[clicheroadtripblogname]

Day 11: A Te-Ton of Grand Teton Time

Is that funny? It was that or “Look at them there Tetons,” so deal with it.

Honestly, I was exhausted today -- mostly of the alone traveling in nature stuff. I resented that I couldn’t really hike because it’s not a great idea to head into “Bear Country” alone. It’s maybe extra cautious, but I knew that I would be anxious the entire hike and not enjoy any of it anyway. Even walking down to Jenny Lake’s shoreline through some woods made me anxious. I don’t mind being alone, but it sucks to feel limited in these moments.

I had to stick to driving to scenic overlooks through the park. Yellowstone had a lot of boardwalks to different sites that were safe. Teton did not. All said and done, I spent about 9 hours in my car today. My body is atrophying and heavy Wyoming food options are making me feel gross. Everything here is ten unhealthy portions in one.

It might be a bit of nature fatigue, too. I’ve seen a lot of ponderosa pines and rock formations. The sights I was looking at were beautiful, but it felt like my eyes were seeing them and my brain didn’t have any reaction today. Zero awe. More of a, “Huh. Those mountains are large. That’s a nice lake, too.” I wish I’d felt more alive, but I was just so tired. Not sad. Just spent.

So here’s a bit of what I saw of Grand Teton. I had no “me and my car” photos, so this seemed like a good spot.

My brain didn’t really have any interest in anything until my drive out of the park to my AirBnB in Pinedale, Wyoming.

The whole day, I’d been staring at a mountain with a big fluffy bit of cloud over it that didn’t move even slightly the entire time. The front of the cloud was almost cartoonish, and the bottom looked opalescent.

Exiting the park, I was driving toward that mountain and the sky was getting increasingly gray. It kind of looked like a storm was up ahead, but something about it was kind of off. So I pulled over to take a photo.

As I opened the door, what I thought were a bunch of flies were pelting the windows. And that’s when I smelled the fires and noticed all of the ash falling out of the sky, onto me and my car.

Everyone knows California is covered in wildfires, and maybe I just haven’t paid attention, but I had no idea Wyoming is having them too. Apparently these fires have just begun, and according to my AirBnB host, towns near Grand Teton are starting to be evacuated. There are now three major fires, none of which have any clear reason for starting beyond it being hot and dry.

It’s a terrible situation, so it feels weird to think of the sunset as beautiful. But it was, in an eerie, apocalyptic way.

After I took that photo from the side of the road, two cop cars pulled out of a side road and proceeded to follow me closely for 20 minutes. I figured they were going to pull me over for being in the shoulder to take photos. I’ve never kept the needle so firmly on the speed limit, but they moved along when I stopped for gas. It felt like they could justifiably be annoyed by me, since I assume they and the local firefighters are having a shit time with the thing I was photographing. A lot of fire department pickup trucks were going by on the highway.

I’ve been told I’m going to hit even more fires and smoke on my way into Utah tomorrow. Not looking forward to it, but I am looking forward to seeing Elissa and Ryan for some Canyonlands hiking and waterfall swimming. I’ve reached my furthest western stop, so the swing back home begins tomorrow.

[clicheroadtripblogname]

Day 10: Yellowstone Can't Be Done in a Day

I’m at basically the halfway point for my trip, and with all of the changes to my schedule/sleeping arrangements this weekend and an unintentionally late start to a long day, it was my first minor meltdown of the trip. Ten days in! Not bad at all, honestly.

It’s probably the most ridiculous reason in the world, but my final breaking moment today was when bison were fully blocking the one road in Yellowstone and I had to scrap half of my planned stops because they weren’t moving. Then it spiraled into wondering if I would get back in time to check in to my hotel. And there’s no phone service anywhere near Yellowstone, and no WiFi, so I started crying because I couldn’t call my hotel. I am in my hotel room now (which is a mini cabin, actually) so obviously I’m fine.

I complained about not seeing any of the advertised bison in the grasslands the other day. Well, I saw a LOT of bison today, and they’re assholes. Here’s the first one I saw on my way into the park:

A lot of people were also apparently looking at a bear ten million miles in the distance on the road in. I don’t have a telescope so I couldn’t see it. Yes, I was salty about it.

So the thing about Yellowstone: it’s so, so, so, so large. On a map you’re like, oh, these stops are so close to each other. And then on the road, it’s an hour to go one inch of the map. It’s one hour from the park entrance to even get to anything, and that hour was under construction. From Cody, WY to my first stop at Old Faithful/the trail with all the hot springs and geysers, with a quick lunch break, took me almost 4 hours.

Which is why getting a late start sucked and I was mad at myself, and even more mad when it became apparent I would have a tough time seeing much of the park in a day.

Old Faithful was fine, but ultimately it’s just a kind of ugly steamy hill most of the time. I was lucky enough to get there an hour before it erupted, which was definitely cool.

But beyond Old Faithful, I’m glad I made it to the hot springs/geysers trail. It was a bright (though insanely windy) day so the colors were, as the kids say, lit. They looked like the geodes I cracked open as a kid. The minerals and deposits and all those words I don’t actually know made weird, beautiful formations all along the boardwalk.

A bit further down the road...

It was shortly after this spot, Firehole Lake Road, that bison decided to block the route to Northwest Yellowstone. I sat for about 20 minutes. I couldn’t actually see exactly why we were stopped, but there were bison chillin on both sides of the road so my best guess is that one decided to plop down and remain unfazed by the traffic. When I decided to give up and drive the 1.5 hours the other way, back to the entrance, there was easily a mile-long line of cars waiting for this bison to move.

Even though I only saw a tiiiiiiiny slice of the park, I was glad I decided to start with the springs. Forests and mountains and waterfalls are lovely, but they can be seen just about anywhere. The springs and geysers are totally unique to Yellowstone.

Then, on the way back to Cody, I stopped because people with long lenses were stopped, which means cool things are happening. When I got out of my car initially to see what’s up and saw three grizzly bears 50 feet away, I said, “Oh, HELL no. No thank you to THAT” to the person nearest to me, who didn’t care, and I went back to my car. I’m terrified of running into a bear while hiking alone. But then I realized at least ten idiots were waaaaaay closer to the bears than I was and they’d clearly be first to die, so I got excited about bears! Yay bears! They were so cool. By the way, these bears can run 30mph and it’s a $5,000 fine if you bother them. I particularly enjoyed the people in the background who straight-up did not even try to put a barrier between themselves and these bears, and the guy sitting with his car window open six feet away from the front bear. Like I said, plenty of idiots for the bears to work on before me.

I also had a large hawk almost fly into my car on the way home. Nature is wild.

Tomorrow, I’m moving on to Grand Teton...which requires a drive back through Yellowstone, the section I already saw. Lulz. I don’t really have a clear plan, unlike today. Can’t really be upset about plans going to shit if you don’t have one! #facts

[clicheroadtripblogname]

Day 9: Scenic Byways and Passing Cows With Care

Today was just a whole lot of picturesque roads on my way from Bighorn National Forest to Cody, Wyoming. I stayed in tonight and ate lots of Chinese food and watched trashy TV to recover from last night. I just looked at the forecast, and holy lord, it’s going to get down to 28 degrees tonight in Yellowstone. My hotel is feeling VERY worth it right now, and everyone on TripAdvisor who said it’s fine to camp here in September is an asshole.

Photos are the important part of today, but three things:

1. Every time I see a “Pass With Care” sign on the road, I imagine myself speeding past someone yelling, “I CARE ABOUT YOU” and waving.

2. I now know that when a pickup truck is moving verrrrry slowly on a 70mph road in Wyoming and waving an orange flag, it means don’t go 70mph (read: 85mph) anymore because there are cows and real, live cowboys -- hats and horses and all -- up the road. I didn’t kill anything. But I was very surprised. And really liked watching a biker try to get around one anarchist cow (the very end).

3. All along the scenic highway in Bighorn, there were road signs saying what period the rocks were formed. I’m talking Precambrian, Cambrian, Jurassic, other ones I don’t remember because I didn’t pay attention in school, etc. Hundreds of millions of years ago, and as you drive through Bighorn you essentially drive through time. You can learn a tiiiiny bit about what you’re seeing without stopping the car. Pretty great.

And now for some of the roads, all phone pics because my camera was under a pile of shit I threw in the car when running from my campsite.

I’m in Cody now, staying in both Buffalo Bill’s Antlers Inn and Buffalo Bill’s Cabin Village while here. They are a block apart. Everything here is named Buffalo Bill Something.

Tomorrow, Yellowstone exploration on the Grand Loop and maybe a bit of wandering around Buffalo Bill’s domain.

[clicheroadtripblogname]

Day 8: Gee Whiz, It’s Cold At Night

It turns out camping in my car in 45-degree weather doesn’t work out so well for me. The car-bed itself was very comfortable, but the whole temperature thing. Nope. Around 5AM I decided it wasn’t worth getting sick and/or freezing to death, so I threw everything into my car haphazardly (I was trying to dry out my tent, which also failed) and jetted to a Super 8 down the road. I got settled into my room around 6AM, checked for bed bugs (all clear), showered like I’ve never experienced a shower, and crashed.

Camping season is over for me in my northern stops, unfortunately. Camping in Yellowstone/Grand Teton would be just as cold if not colder. There’s a reason the only other campers at my site last night were in RVs.

So, this has been a stressful morning of throwing money at two hotels and one AirBnB so I have places to sleep for the next three nights. It sucks. I’m not happy about it. But I went cheap and I do get to stay at a place called Buffalo Bill’s Antlers. I’m excited to see what that decor is like.

En route to this whole cold camping experience, actual good things happened.

For example, I FINALLY GOT TO WALL DRUG. People who have followed my Instagram story know about this. Basically, for hundreds and hundreds of miles, hours of driving, all over both Nebraska and South Dakota, on multiple highways, there have been insane signs for a place called Wall Drug. I WISH I had photos of all of the signs, because they were all so hokey and weird and there were at least 100 of them. I’m sure they’re on the internet. Lots of dad jokes and puns and sometimes just one word, like, “Wall Drug: Dinosaurs!” ??????

So I was about to lose my shit if I didn’t ever make it to Wall Drug. When I turned into the Badlands, I thought the dream was dead and I was so mad about it. I assumed Wall Drug was down a highway I wouldn’t be on. I WAS WRONG. It was just outside of the northern entrance to the Badlands.

It was so stupid. I don’t even have photos. I was the youngest person there by about 50 years. Literal busloads of the elderly were being unleashed on this tiny, hokey, faux Old West Main Street. I was pretty exhausted from waking up at 7AM in the fog, so all I did was eat a MASSIVE burger and fries, both of which were way better than I expected in a tourist trap town. Then I bought groceries that are currently going bad in my car because I can’t cook at a non-campsite. Awesome!

From there, I moved on to Mount Rushmore. Man, did I hate it. I bought my ticket at 3:08PM, and by 3:22PM I was back in my car. I only went back to see if there was WiFi in the visitor’s center.

Why did I hate it? Listen, I’m cool with America. There are some issues, obviously, but overall I’m here for it. Yay America. But there are degrees of America I can stand, and there are degrees that freak me out because it feels like a weird propaganda machine. When I heard “America, the Beautiful” (instrumental version) blaring over loudspeakers, it felt like a propaganda stop.

This was a creepy place full of people I don’t want to know, wearing shirts like, “I kneel for the fallen, and stand for the flag” (dude, missing the point of kneeling) and some racist shirts and overall just a lot of really strange t-shirts. One VERY old woman had a rhinestone shirt that said, “Drink Until He’s Cute,” which I both admired and feared. A woman screamed at her daughter, Mikaela (sp?), in a deep Southern accent, which was one of the whitest sounds I’ve ever heard in my life. Sorry conservative family members, this is my deep liberal speaking.

It just felt like this weird little slice of the America I’m not into. To each their own, I guess, but I regretted paying to get a worse view than the one from the road while being in a weird situation. The forest around it was way more beautiful and gave me way more of a “wow, America is cool” feeling. Here’s a photo though.

From there, it was on through the Black Hills to Bighorn. I wish I had photos of the Black Hills, but the roads are winding and not cut out for stopping to take photos. So here’s some grasslands and the approach to what I think might be Yellowstone way in the distance? Maybe?

Onward to Yellowstone!

[clicheroadtripblogname]

Day 7: Misty Mountain Hop

About last night.

The sky was perfectly clear, and the moon was a sliver that set early, so it was pure Milky Way last night. I kept getting irrationally angry about people driving by on the highway next to the campgrounds, and EXTRA mad when someone had the audacity to arrive at the campgrounds and flood my site with their headlights. Rude. Can’t they just let me enjoy the sky without horrible human beings interfering? I’m realizing that while I love having a bathroom and water readily available, I hate the whole ‘other people’ aspect of campsites.

For example: around 6am, the couple across from me accidentally leaned on their car horn and my immediate thought was SOMEONE IS STEALING MY CAR AND THEY’RE NOT GOOD AT IT. It took me several tries to find my glasses in the tent, and then I zipped open my window to see if my car was being stolen. It wasn’t. But then I noticed that everything was cold and wet, so sleep wasn’t happening.

The whole world was misty in the Badlands today. The guy next to me, who had not made eye contact once while I was staring down his camping setup to make sure I was doing it right, asked me if I knew why the weather was so bad. No, dude. I don’t know. I was told to pack gallons of water because of how hot and dry it would be, and now I’m sitting in freezing mist wondering if I should bother hiking or try to jet to Yellowstone a day early.

Luckily, I packed for every possible weather condition in my vast array of bins.

I spent about 30 mins trying to make enough pancakes to feel like I ate breakfast. Pancakes are a horrible idea when you only have one portable stove and can only cook one silver dollar pancake at a time. One day I will know how to make camping food. Or I’ll buy a larger stove not designed for ultralight backpacking. I spent a lot of time staring at the full-fledged jumbo stove of the guy next to me.

I managed to get a hike in and drove along the scenic highway. Here’s all that:

All the mist made it extra other-worldly, especially in photos. I almost appreciated that it was not the best weather, especially when the mist let up and it was just gray.

I considered pushing through and driving 9 hours to Yellowstone, with a stop at Mount Rushmore. My original plan was to do Rushmore and camp in the Black Hills surrounding it, then do a 7 hour drive to Yellowstone tomorrow. Though while driving through the Black Hills, I almost stayed because it was so beautiful. But after the travesty that is Mount Rushmore, I kind of just wanted to press on and get closer to Yellowstone so I can drive less tomorrow. Only 4-5ish hours.

So that’s what I did. I’m at a campsite outside of Bighorn (which I’m 99% sure I called Big Teton earlier) National Forest. It’s similar to a KOA, which I hate. I can hear the highway. And there’s something about making chili next to your car, next to the highway, with bad lighting, while looking at Facebook, that feels really garbage. Plus, I’m sleeping in my car. It’s all a bit off. But my car is comfortable and yes, Aunt Doreen and mom, I’m using the curtains. The back window one didn’t work out, though. I’ll take photos.

Tomorrow: the absolute nonsense of Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug, and insane sunsets.