10,921 Miles Trip ~ Oddities Of A Girl Finding Her Place In The World

As I sit on a chair outside in the backyard, I felt like I never went on a long road trip. I felt that I am ready to go on the road and travel a bit.

In the truth, I just got back home from a two month-long road trip across the United States by myself.

I always have wanted to take a road trip across the United States since I have been, and will be, travelling outside of the United States. I gave my time and money to get know more about other countries. I thought I should give my time to see what my home country has to offer.

So, I packed up my car with a tent, sleeping bag, some canned food and a backpack of clothes. I hate driving and I have no sense of direction. So, I set off to Washington, D.C. in the early morning.

I saw changes in landscapes. The United States have beautiful land and I wanted more out of my road trip. I felt my road trip was too short, to truly immerse into the United State's road trip, I'll need about six months or more.

I drove from rolling mountains of the Appalachian Mountains to the Great Plains of the Midwest to snow-capped Rocky Mountains to towering pine trees of the Northwest to rocky coast of the Pacific Coast Highway to the brilliant desert of the Southwest to heavy and humid air of the Deep South to the sandy beach of the Highway 13 to Adirondacks Mountains.

Toward the end of my trip, just before my job at a summer camp in Adirondack Mountains, I started to take detours. I started to take impulsive side trips along the route after missing out cool stuff I saw in South Dakota - I kept asking myself, did I miss it out, should I have stopped by and check it out? I didn't like to keep asking myself so I started to make more stops along the trip for side trips.

Sure, I was lonely sometimes, especially when I was visiting somewhere cool and I wanted to share with somebody at the moment. I don't regret going on the trip alone, I've made so many impulsive side trips that probably would annoy my travel companion (if I had any). More than often, I ended up arriving different spot for the night than I planned a day before.

I had more fun when I decided to stop setting goals of arriving at place in the day, I took a lot more side trips and checked off more stuff on my bucket list.

I was able to hike for more than 10 hours in Arches National Park, I was able to cruise along the Pacific Coast Highway and the US 66 route, spray my name in Cadillac Ranch, and pick wherever I want to sleep for the night.

I love the fact that I actually packed up and go. It gave me the sense of freedom that I only can feel when I am travelling to somewhere. I loved the feeling of no sense of responsibility except toward my basic needs (including the financial part). I liked being under the open sky.