Doubts, Fears, Excitement, and Enthusiasm everything packed into one bundle is how I would describe my road trip. What was I thinking?! Having the guts to travel across a country that I just moved to a year back, not knowing who or what to expect?! Yeah, these are all the words I heard most often when I told someone about my plans of traveling solo across the state from the East coast to the West Coast. He might have done something like this before, he knows what he’s doing, you might have these thoughts, but that’s not true.
I had never been on a solo trip during the entire duration of my life, not even a day! Whenever I wondered about going on a vacation it was either with my family or friends. The idea of traveling solo never even crossed my mind in the past. Primarily because I never got the courage to be alone with myself and my thoughts. It’s scary to imagine not being around known people. But, now that I look back, I am proud of myself. This was a self take test for me, to do something that I never imagined would be possible for me to do.
9 Days and 11 States! That may not seem like a huge number, but 3000+ miles on the road is! That’s right, I traveled more than 3000+ miles via road during these 9 days. The feeling of drifting across time zones and realizing the fact that you moved back an hour is just mind-blowing! Wow! Even as I am writing this, I can’t digest the fact that I drove 3000+ miles all by myself. I gotta hand it to you, US has some of the world’s best and safest roads to travel. Not once during my entire trip, I felt I was driving down a dangerous road. Well done US, you have put in a lot of effort in planning your highways and maintaining them. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the road workers who put in their sweat to make this happen.
Day 1, I am off from Raleigh, North Carolina after the last day of my Spring Semester. My internship starts after 12 days in Seattle. Renting out an SUV and off began my journey. Traveling across West Virginia, I reached my destination for Day 1 at Barboursville a small town in West Virginia. This town had a beautiful riverside park and some amazing restaurants.
On day 2, I start moving toward Indiana with my destination Lafayette, home to Purdue University. Along the way took a pit stop at Indianapolis and visited the famous water canals. Visited hollow Park at Lafayette for s short trek after which I roamed around the Purdue University campus.
On day 3, driving across Chicago, Illinois, and appreciating the Chicago skyline, I reached my destination at Onalaska, Wisconsin. On my way visited the Wisconsin Deer Park, it was a lovely experience to pet deer just roaming around without any barriers. In Onalaska, visited the Riverfront Park, Grandad Bluff Mountain View, and ended my day with home-like Indian food.
Day 4, planned destination Mitchell, South Dakota. This went by pretty quickly and had a quiet rest day at the hotel. We are halfway there!
Day 5, continuing our journey to Deadwood, South Dakota. Pretty excited about this journey as I had seen a lot of amazing photos of Deadwood, and the route towards it kept up to its promise! This day was one of the best days of the trip. I visited the badlands national park along the way, it was nothing like I had seen before. The landscape was mesmerizing! Next, I visited Mount Rushmore, it was a dream come true to witness the manmade monument! Wow! Finally traveling across the woods I reached Deadwood, only to find out my hotel was connected with a casino. Loved it!
On day 6, moving towards Billings, Montana, I made a pit stop at the Devils Tower national monument. It felt so peaceful being there. A close friend of mine had suggested I go to this place, and I owe him this! It was serene and beautiful. Visited the Billings, riverfront in the evening. At this point, while I was proud to have made it this far, it felt sad that this would end in a couple of days. It was fun being on the road and I didn’t want it to end.
Day 7, I had planned to move straight towards Missoula, Montana but that didn’t quite happen as planned. Along the way, I got my first glimpse of snow-capped mountains, and one thing to know about me is that I can’t resist moving toward them! And that’s what happened, Yellowstone national park! I knew it was 3 hours out of my way, but I just knew I wanted this so badly. Thus, I went for it, and I don’t know where to start, the park, the weather, the wildlife, the mountains, and the snow everything was perfect. I didn’t wanna leave! Please no. But sadly, I had to and reached Missoula in the late evening.
Finally, the day came the second last day. I was not ready to say goodbye, it’s difficult to embrace change, and it’s always been difficult for me to adjust to change, but this road trip was a sign that maybe if I put in effort I can embrace change daily as well. Today finally I was gonna reach Washington State. I reached Wenatchee in the afternoon after enjoying amazing lakes and rivers along the way.
On the last day, I enjoyed every bit of it. Washington is a beautiful state! Traveling from Wenatchee to Seattle through the snow-capped mountains was an amazing feeling. Couldn’t ask for a better ending. Finally reached home, that’s what Seattle is to me for the next 3 months!
My emotions were running amok. I didn’t know what to feel anymore. Proud that I completed the trip, sad that it had to end, tired, excited, nervous, clueless, and many more. But in such situations, I remind myself of just one thing, live in the moment. The past can’t be changed and it’s pointless to worry about the future, the best one can do is to live to the fullest in the present and that’s what I would be doing.
Cheers!