Road Trip Recap Uno

My best friend and I went on a 17 day car-bound odyssey across America and had a blast.

Above is a map of the United States (duh) that we used to plan our route. The skinny solid blue line was all we left PA with; a thin blue line and a vague vision. The thicker dotted lines depict the route we actually took and the places we stopped. Color coded by stretch of driving, for your viewing convenience. Make sense of it what you will. Or ask me about it in person. OR go get a tattoo from Gorgi and she'll explain it to you perfectly as she inks you. (;

I haven't the slightest idea where to begin. I think I'm just going to write about some of my favorite spots and then poss drop more stories in like installations? It's a ton to write about so I'll chop it up. Don't ask for it in chronological order, though, because my concept of time is not linear.

Here's a few stories about 3 of my favorite spots. Enjoyyyyyy.

PAGE, ARIZONA

Most of what we saw of Arizona was through the dark lens of the deepest hours of the night. It's unfortunate because I was looking forward to seeing cacti. (I think 'cacti' is the most obnoxious plural ever and I cringed as I wrote the word.) By this leg of our trip, we were becoming increasingly aware of the time crunch we were on. We had to be back before June 1st, when we would both start our big girl jobs.

We stopped at a Home2 Suites right off Route 89. Now, we did not stop at a Home2 Suites to get a room at the Home2 Suites; don't be silly. We had read on the internet that hotel parking lots are safe for sleeping in cars, so that's why we went to the Home2 Suites. LOL. Ok so we go to sleep until about 8AM. We wake up in Stella, the trusty vessel we drove across the country in. That was so extra... Stella is my CAR, my sweet Honda HRV. We get out to do our morning routine. Brush teeth. Change clothes. Brush hair? That's about all our current situation allowed.

When SUDDENLY! The kindest man in the history of Arizona emerges from the general vicinity of the neighboring vehicle. He lowkey just appeared...

"You drive through the night?" he asked.

We kinda hesitated because we hadn't really driven through the whole night... But I said yes because that seemed like it'd lead to a more interesting plot. He approached us calmly holding out two plastic room keys.

"Checkout's not until noon." He shrugged. "I'm leaving. At least get some sleep in a real bed."

I shared a glance with Lena before we both gushed, "Thank you so much!!"

We watched him drive away and thanked him again as he bid us safe travels from his pickup truck. Extremely excited to shower, we rushed to the top floor of the Home2. It felt incredible to step into that sunlit hotel room; equipped with a king size bed and a SHOWER! At that point, we were on our way to Utah and were unsure of when we would get to bathe next. We didn't even catch man's name, but he came in unbelieveably clutch. Things sorta just worked out for us throughout this entire trip. We were protected.

I shower and perform a much more thorough, much appreciated morning routine. Lena sleeps soundly on the giant bed. While she indulged in a shower, I answered a few texts that hadn't been on my mind in the slightest. It was pretty nice to not be so focused on my phone and reliant on it for communication. I had Lena to chat to at all times! I feel like I reach for my phone out of loneliness and a feeling of lacking connection. Having my bestie beside me 24/7 for a fortnight+, I connected with another human in a way I've never experienced before. It was super cool.

So yeah that's what happened in Page, Arizona. We left in a jiffy once housekeeping came knocking and went on our way.

ALDEN, MINNESOTA

We encountered the only storm of the voyage this night. I was driving and Lena had dozed off as we listened to our playlist that we curated months prior. We had put more thought into our song choices than we did the route of our trip TBH. And I love that about us. So yeah, I'm driving thru this treachorous storm in Minnesota and decide to pull off on the nearest exit. I tap Lena awake and point to a sign tucked in the thick forest that had snuck out onto the road through the years:

Alden, Minnesota

Population: 500 something

Woahhhhhh we said in unison. Lena and I say a lot of things in unison, we're tethered like that. I learned that word from Emily Ratajkowski's podcast, which we listened to briefly when music got redundant.

We pulled into Alden late, probably like 1AM. The rain ceased for us as we arrived at a baseball field/church/school parking lot. We situated ourselves, which involves getting out of the car and STRETCHING so it was perfect that the heavy storm had suddenly dissapated. Our sleeping sitch involved Lena reclined in the passenger's seat and myself curled up in whatever space wasn't taken up by our shit in the back of the car. As soon as we bid eachother good night, the rain picked back up. Mother Nature looked out for us through the entire trip; that night, she sang us a lullaby.

I woke up first and crawled out of my fetal position to assess Alden in the light of day. The vibes were immaculate. The sun was shining so bright over the dewy field. We didn't speak to any of the 500 residents of the Minnesota town; but as the school parking lot filled up, no one seemed to mind that we were brushing our teeth with water bottles and changing our clothes in the parking lot. We chilled there for a while then drove off.

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO

After a swirly ride through the snow-capped Colorado mountains, we arrived in this ski town to visit the lovely Erin. Her boyfriend was out of town, so we had rolled in at just the right time for a girls' night.

We had great conversation with Erin right off the bat. I'm telling you, that chick rocks! The three of us got a late start at the Irish pub in town because we were chatting away.

Erin ordered us each a John Daly. If you don't know what a John Daly is, let me put you on. It's Arnold Palmer and vodka. Nothing groundbreaking, but we were drinking those puppies like it was the nectar of the Gods. Something about the vibes in Steamboat Springs is so refreshing. Perhaps it's the altitude. That was a running joke between Lena and I, blaming everything on the altitude. Lolz. But seriously, this might have been my fave stop of the trip.

A girl with a mega tight ponytail tried to pimp out her "nice" friend to Lena. Allow me to explain. Some chick approached us and left a napkin inscribed with his number and the most underwhelming wingwoman pitch of all time: "He's really nice". She wouldn't even point him out to us. We assumed the worst and couldn't stop laughing. Lena was in tears finding the whole situation particularly hilarious.

We escaped to another bar and resumed yapping until she popped up again! Ponytail girl and the three dudes, one of them the mystery man, all of them uggo, rolled into the divey establishment. She made a beeline for the table we were sat at and interrupted our conversation with nonsense words that I couldn't even be bothered to remember. Erin flawlessly shut down Miss. Ponytail Pimp and we left for the next spot.

Our final stop was a music venue called Shmiggity's where a local band was playing.

They were really good! I don't know if that's a John Daly-influenced judgement or they were like..really good. Total mega vibe. But it was time to go home when ponytail chick and her male posse appeared.

We woke up slow and hungover the next morning. But in a "this is totally okay" way and not a panicked "I'm being lazy and I must complete every task on my to do list in order to be a quality human being" type of way. You feel me?

We spent some of the day watching a comedy with a stacked cast and doing our own things. Lena drew on her iPad, I wrote in my diary, and Erin played Zelda on her Nintendo Switch.

It was a lovely day and we wanted to explore, so Erin took us on a hike to Fish Creek Falls. We walked the novice trail along a babbling brook to a massive, rushing, breathtaking waterfall.

We admired the forest of Aspen trees around us, some rudely engraved with markings of love. Those couples believe that their love is as beautiful as the landscape, that their initials encased in a jagged heart fit right in. I wondered if they're still together, but not for long.

I was wearing platform slides and I could feel them blistering my feet as we trudged up the incline. My focus shifted to stepping juuuuust right so as to not destroy my poor feetsies. I hadn't thought that through. Whatevs.

That evening, we decided it was time to get on the road again. We said our goodbyes and set off for the Pacific Coast.

Shout out Erin. Shout out Shmiggity's. Shout out Tater honestly cuz he was chill as hell. Shout out Fish Creek Falls. Shout out Erin again. Shout out to our entire time in Steamboat Springs!

IN CONCLUSION... FOR NOW

I had the time of my life on this road trip and it's safe to say I'll remember these stories forever. But I think it's cool that I get to share them with the masses!

I have so much more to write about. I asked on an Instagram story about what you guys wanted to hear from me about the road trip. I'll get to those inquiries! I recieved lots of great ideas. But first I'm just going to do what I just did a few more times. Capisce?

TTFN,

Sara