August 2014: Two spunky Californian gal pals with fistful of gumption hit the road starting in the Big Apple with sights set for the Foggy city. My good friend Eva and I loaded up the GMC van fully equipped w/ a loft bed (generously loaned to us by our dear friend Kenny) and had the open road at our fingertips for 10 days.
From NYC we headed straight to the famous Falling Water house by Frank Lloyd Wright in Pennsylvania. The outside and inside of the house was stunning beyond belief. A beautiful sight with its seamless integration into the natural surroundings... Drool city! After a few hours we headed to Columbus, Ohio to visit Eva's friends for the night. We were welcomed into a gorgeous loft straight out of a design magazine. We had a home cooked meal and learned more about the couple's whiskey distillery called OYO. The next morning we drove through Amish country in Indiana. I was hoping to get some home-made soaps, wool, or something traditionally hand-crafted but by the time we arrived it was too late and a lot of the little shops had closed. We seriously debated whether or not to stay the night and explore the area further the next morning but we decided that we had a lot more road to put behind us so we kept moving. Our next destination was Plano, Illinois to see the Farnsworth House designed by Mies van der Rohe. The house was an hour outside Chicago and since we arrived in the evening we set up camp in the nearby Walmart parking lot. Kenny had told us that Walmarts nation-wide allowed overnight parking because the CEO's daughter went on a road trip and was frequently turned away from many parking lots . I'm personally not a huge fan of Walmart but super grateful we were able to use the bathroom and parking lot like vagrants. After sleeping in the van under a well-lit lamp post we were off to visit my good friend Dee in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Before Minny, we made a pit stop in Madison, Wisconsin and had lunch by the water at the beautiful University campus. Minneapolis was a fun little city with lots of midwest urban charm. We spent a whopping 2 nights there (a record at this point in the trip). We explored some neighborhoods, ate pizza, took photo booth pics and lounged around.. oh and napped of course. After Minnie we left for South Dakota. We spotted a sign for "Cowboy Ghost Town- Buffalo Ridge" off the I-90 and there was no question.. we were stopping to check it out. We pulled of the interstate and it was exactly what we had hoped to randomly stumble upon.. a real, preserved Western Ghost town. We first entered a huge room of fireworks and was greeted by the owner of the shop. He was a pleasant older man who explained that he was a retired history teacher who maintains the old Ghost Town for educational purposes. It was clear he was really proud of his involvement with the preservation and loved to share a lot of facts about the Old west. We took some photos, bought our load of fireworks and hit the road again. We were Badlands-bound.. Badlands National Park that is. Millions of years of wind, water and erosion have created the spires, canyons and jagged buttes of the Badlands. We arrived at dusk and felt as though we had landed on another planet. The dramatic sight of eroded earth mixed with green prairies was nothing I had seen anywhere before. We settled into our campsite, stretched out our muscles with Eva's foam rollers, burned some sage and were out before 9pm. The next morning we headed straight to Mt. Rushmore. We snapped some photos and had some of the best vanilla ice cream I'd ever tasted (Thomas Jefferson's original recipe from 1780). 17 miles out, we visited Crazy Horse which is another mountain monument of a Native American warrior. It's still under construction and been a work-in-progress since 1948 . It's privately funded and once complete, may be the largest sculpture in the world. If you ask me, it looks pretty rad already- so I'd just leave it. I'd love to say the photos of Eva and I on the bad-ass motorcycles were more than a staged photo but I can't. We were stuck in some heavy traffic and decided to ask the guys ahead of us in line if we could take a photo with their super cool rides and they obliged us . As you can see, our equally cool white van is in the background. We were invited for a drink in the next town over by the two motorcyclist men and, as the 2 nerds that we are, were struck with disbelief that we could even be cool enough to share a beer with them. We actually had to confer with each other back in the van to confirm we heard the same thing. hahah We drove 20 minutes giddy as could be before sleepiness overcame us. We had to choose between a unique biker babe experience and sleep... and sleep prevailed. So we stopped at a gas station, had some ice cream and then passed out in the van under a tree for a solid hour. What can I say?.. road trip life is rough. Montana was next and it was open ranges, horses and real-live cowboys! This was one of our longest days of driving so we arrived at Jim and Pam's (Eva's sister's in-laws friends) house pretty late. The couple were such generous and sweet people.They tried to convince us to stay another day but we were set to leave for Yellowstone the next morning. We were able to get a little look inside the small town community by attending a firehouse pancake breakfast before we left. Yellowstone National Park was so amazing! The park crosses into 3 states: Montana, Idaho and Wyoming and is at its peak in summer. We saw geysers (including Old Faithful of course), mud pots, lakes, forests, bison and deer. We camped 2 nights here and easily could have stayed longer. We left Yellowstone and drove through Idaho. I didn't know what the drive through Idaho would look like but I was totally impressed. The landscape was made up of lush, green pine trees, scattered lakes and snow-capped mountain ranges in the distance. Every time I say the word Idaho aloud I think of this Urban outfitters t-shirt I had in college that said, "Idaho, no U daho!" So cool, right? Holla at me if you know what I mean. Our final destination that day was Salt Lake City, Utah. We were warmly welcomed in, Eva's friend, Renata's gorgeous mid-century modern home along the foothills. I wish I had photos to share of her home because it was a dream with a stunning views of the city. We left early the next morning for a quick stop at the Salt Lake LDS (Mormon) Temple. The whole area sort of reminded mw of Disneyland- super manicured and pristine.. just less fun. We had our sights on San Francisco but had to make an overnight stop in Reno, Nevada. On our way from Salt Lake to Reno we stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. A densely packed salt pan provided for beautiful panoramic views of the desolate terrain bordered by distant mountains. Eva and I clearly took advantage of the endless photo-ops here. It's also a famous spot for land speed records since there's access to drive on the flats. The next leg of the road trip was the worst. Salt Lake City to Reno was one of our longest driving stretches with unbearable heat and not much to look at. This was the tail-end of the trip and we were getting restless. We finally arrived in Reno at night and checked into a cheap hotel. The next morning we left for San Francisco and arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge by mid-afternoon.
Success! Over 4,000 miles, 10 days and 60+ hours of driving completed and I was back in California after exactly 1 year of travel. I love long road trips and I especially love how this one panned out. We left our itinerary fairly open to change and enjoyed the freedom of the open road. "Roughed-it" in Walmart bathrooms and had some cold nights in the van but I wouldn't change a thing; it was the perfect cross-country road trip. If I could sum up the whole trip with 2 words it would be "ice cream" & "naps"!
dailybridgerton
izzy806
tangentwithtanner