Travel: Virginia to California

When I bought a van earlier this year, the first plan of action was to get across the country to visit my little brother. The whole COVID situation had me working from home, which meant I could work from anywhere.

I couldn’t sleep the night before so I left at the crack of dawn in the morning– truthfully earlier than the crack of dawn. I headed first through West Virginia and then Kentucky. I stopped by Churchill Downs on the way to stay with my brother’s in laws in Bloomington, Indiana.

It was nice that I had friendly faces as the end of my first day of driving. They also cooked me a lovely meal of wild rice and salmon. I took some for leftovers the next day.

To get a break in driving on day two, i stopped in Casey, Illinois to see some of the largest objects (of their kind) in the world. My personal favorite was my twizzle spoon–since I have one tattooed on my arm.

That evening I slept at a winery’s tasting room in Paxico, Kansas. I had a challenging time sleeping because it was incredibly hot and it was my first night totally alone. I didn’t see a person in the entire town the whole time I was there which was slightly nerve wrecking.

Since I didn’t sleep well, I woke up early again to head on to Denver, Colorado. An old friend from church let me park the van in her backyard for the evening.

Even better, another old coworker messaged me while driving when she saw me cross the border into Colorado and we ended up grabbing tacos downtown. I hadn’t eaten out yet during COVID and the rooftop in Denver with a friend was the perfect end to the hiatus.

I wish I had gotten more time to spend in Colorado so I am going to look into going back that way when I head home. The next day, I headed through Wyoming and got $1 swirl soft serve in Little America.

I ended the evening grabbing pizza in Salt Lake City, Utah for dinner before driving to the Bonneville Salt Flats. This place was just beautiful. On the way from the city to the salt flats, I blasted music and tested just how fast the van could go.

There wasn’t really anyone around when I arrived at the flats so I took some pictures of myself using a tripod. These are some of my favorites from the five days across the country. I slept right next to the flats in the van and woke up to a gorgeous colored sky above the white ground.

My last day on the road went pretty quick. I ate some leftover pizza early in the morning and stopped through a burger joint outside of Lake Tahoe. I arrived at my brother’s house in the evening and crashed for work the next morning.

Glad I planned my first van trip quickly across the USA. It was incredibly empowering to realize that I could handle that many miles all alone. I plan on taking more time when I go back home (pending the country begins to open up by then!), but for now, I am going to focus on some time with my little brother and his wife.