It's been about a month and a half since I've come back from my fateful trip around a decent portion of the United States. Seven days, traveling about 3500 miles. Five hotel stops. Many stops at gas stations (never let my tank dip below a third). Stopping at Niagara Falls. Not seeing the ocean like I wanted. Many, many conversations with my GPS about wrong directions. I tell you I had one hell of an adventure.

Around March or so, I started to feel like the normal vacations I took weren't really cutting it. There was just something that wasn't really fulfilling. Outside of the two very fucking awesome times bunny bro visited, I'd either just stayed at home, or went to my Mom's place. And, much as I love the both of them, it'd really left me feeling as though something was lacking substantially. I hadn't left the state in YEARS, not since my Dad fell and cracked his skull like ten or so years prior. And that was just a day or two out of state before coming back for work. Thusly I began to consider just a small drive, out of state for a couple days, then back. Just to test the waters and stuff. But, the more I really put thought into it, the more I started to realize that if I actually planned, I might just get cold feet and not do that at all. I'm fucking notoriously bad for that. backing out because I get scared or something. I don't know why. My gumption is not very sturdy.

So, cut to June, and I take a vacation. I sit around the apartment and think to myself 'What would I do? What do I want to accomplish?' It hits me. I've never seen the ocean. Ever. I live land-locked and I'll probably always will. But, that doesn't mean I can't go out and do something. So, I decided that I would travel to a coast. I posted a journal here on FA a couple weeks before I went, just asking for a direction, and I got more Easterly nods. That and California was on fire, so that seemed to guide me in the direction I was going. I didn't really pick a destination until like two days before I shipped out. It was going to be Portland, Maine. I wanted to spend a couple days in a hotel, walk the beach. Eat some local food. Just have some fun, then come back home.

I didn't tell my Mom or my Dad that I was doing this until the day before I left, when I came to stay at my Mom's for the night, in BA, OK. She was kind of surprised, her and her husband both. And her husband, good guy, tried to get me to plan a little bit before I left. Took me to AAA to get some travel guides and such. Said it's good that I had a destination, but that I should have a little bit of a route before I got there. His youngest son offered to get me a couple nights hotel stays along the way so I wasn't eating the whole cost by myself. I appreciated both their help.

So, I started off! It was rainy. Fucking rainy. Like, it rained most of my first day traveling. I got from BA, OK, all the way to Vandalia, Ill. Passing through the mountains in Missouri was awesome. They were really pretty, and pretty craggy. Like, harder mountains. My poor car though, little four cylinder engine, wasn't too happy with going up a lot. But she managed. And rain, so much rain, again. My first night, stopped in Vandalia, was pretty nice. I'd never stayed in a hotel before and it was a really awesome experience, sleeping in a place I knew I wouldn't have to worry about. Sheets were comfy. Rooms were cool. I checked everything for bedbugs because I've been eaten up before and it suuuuuuucks.

Next leg of the trip saw me get from Vandalia to Buffalo, NY. When I was close to Buffalo, past Erie, I got ahold of my step-brother to take him up on the offer to stay at the hotel. He got me a room at this really, really, REALLY nice place. Turns out though, my GPS, Miss Garmin, doesn't have good maps of the Eastern US. I couldn't key in directions. And had no way of holding my phone up. So once I got into Buffalo, it took me an hour of blindly driving around to find my destination. And of course too it wasn't super clearly defined, it's location, as it sat back on a side road behind two other hotels. When I got into the room, I was taken aback. A large living room, a kitchen, a bedroom with two queen beds and a bathroom, and a master bedroom with a king bed and a master bathroom. And I was like 'You know, this is going to be awesome.' It more than made up for my hour spent getting aggrivated because I couldn't find the place. While there, my step-brother's wife called me, talking to me about Niagara Falls. It wasn't originally on my stopping list because I had a destination in mind. But, thinking about it, and then talking to her, I decided to make that trip the next morning.

I'm so, so glad that I did. Niagara Falls really is beautiful. I felt really humbled when I got parked and walked closer to the river. It was LOUD. The roar of the water was incredible, and it was just so awe-inspiring when I finally came to and got my first good picture. Then another. And another. And a couple little videos. And a bunch more pictures. The air smelled of algae of course, but it was just so beautiful. And I really wanted to ride the boats at the bottom of the falls, but they were paaaaacked. And this was at like nine in the morning. So that didn't happen. I stayed there for about two hours, walking, talking pictures, just generally enjoying the site. And I got to see Canada across the way. That's the first time I'd ever seen another country.

I'm fucking 36 years old. I've not adventured like I should have.

I will also state that I'm pretty much Walmart branded. I stopped at a number of them along the way. In fact, I kept hoping to find them when I needed something, as I didn't want to shop anywhere else. >.>

I didn't get too far across New York, because of that stop at Niagara. I felt a bit lagged because of the hard drive the day before (Over 700 miles), and then spending a couple hours walking around, so I put over a bit early for the evening at a place I can't remember, and got another night's sleep.

And Thursday. Thursday was the day from hell. Fucking hell. My step-dad, trying to get me to plan some, and I didn't. And I should have. I got lost. First I made it to Albany, NY, and my GPS then suddenly put me on backroad highways. I had about 250 miles, and I got myself on backroad highways. And fifty miles into it I realized I wasn't going to make backroad highways. So I backtracked, back into Albany. Firstly, I made it to Vermont, and being that far up in the mountains, it's beautiful. It really is. I wish I'd gotten more pictures than I did because I missed some gorgeous opportunities. But, coming back, realizing that I wasn't going to make it to Portland, I decided I'd go ahead and stop in New York City and stay there for a day. Yeah, no that was even worse. I made it to the Big Apple, and then got stuck in traffic on the Interstate for two hours. I didn't know where to go. I didn't know if I could stop and get myself reoriented or anything, so I freaked out. I quickly.... slowly... bailed on the idea of staying there and just thought I'd do something else. Drive down the coast a little and stop elsewhere. Unfortunately, I got turned the fuck around. Got myself into Newark, New Jersey, and Elizabeth, New Jersey, and got even more lost. Miss Garmin wasn't helpful. Exits weren't clearly defined in certain spots. I kept making the same mistakes over and over, and getting more fustrated. Garmin kept telling me to turn, or make a u-turn in the middle of nowhere. And I lost my cool. After about the sixth or seventh time missing my exit and Garmin telling me 'make a u-turn' I screamed, in my car. Tears and frustration and anger boiled over because Thursday did not go the way I wanted. And when I finally got out of Elizabeth, I drove down the interstate a few miles and pulled into a hotel. Called my Mom and talked to her. And wound up staying there both Thursday night and all day Friday.

Really, it was a good thing I did. I reset. I calmed down. I pulled out the maps that my step-dad got me and I started planning a bit more. Not completely, but better learning my next destinations and routes. There wasn't going to be anymore SNAFUs. And, really, from that little jersey hotel, my next stops were Baltimore, Maryland, Washington DC, and then Richmond, Virginia. And I couldn't have been happier getting through those cities on a Saturday. If it'd been Friday, the weekend setting in, I would have been locked in traffic from hell, people trying to get home. Madness and chaos. Yeah, no. So, I made it through, with a bit of a delay outside of Richmond because of hitting a large clump of backed up traffic. Like twenty miles worth. And then I missed my exit to Raleigh, North Carolina, so I did have to take about fifty more miles of backroad highways to make it back to the correct interstate. And another stop for the night in North Carolina itself.

And then Sunday, driving once more through the mountains. Beautiful, stunning. Gorgeous. Watching the outside temp gauge go down to 68 or 66 degrees the higher I went in the mountains, only to climb back up into the mid seventies the lower I got. And the fog at their peaks. And, just beautiful. Until the last twenty miles on I40 before crossing the border into Tennessee. That was just nothing but twists and turns like a snake. And then the loooooong drive across Tennessee. My god. It's so long! And fucking... I wanted to tr BoJangles Chicken. But when I was driving, it was too early for them to be open. And I didn't eat breakfast. And at 11AM I was all hungry and couldn't take it anymore. Didn't see any others. So I stopped and got Hardees for lunch. And wouldn't you fuuucking know it. The very next exit had the last BoJangles Chicken stop that I'd see. I was angry. ANGRY! But, that's okay. I kept on going, through the mountains, all across Tennessee, and into Arkansas, where I stopped just a short while after the border. And fucking surprised myself because, it was the last hotel I'd stay in, and the lady at the service desk said I could have pizza delivered to my room. Fucking delivered. So I did. I ate pizza, and sat lazily, watching television. And just enjoyed my last hotel.

And then Monday was my last day's trip. From Arkansas back to Oklahoma, where I stopped and had lunch with my Mom and step-dad, and then back home to the OKC area.

I either went through or around Tulsa (Oklahoma), Joplin and St Louis (Missouri), Indianapolis (Indiana), Columbus and Cleveland (Ohio), Erie (Pennsylvania), Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Syracuse, Albany, New York City (New York), Newark and Trenton (New Jersey), Baltimore and Washington DC (Maryland), Richmond (Virginia), Raleigh (North Carolina), Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis (Tennessee), Little Rock and Fort Smith (Arkansas), and then Muskogee, Tulsa, and OKC back in Oklahoma.

It was a very fantastic trip overall, and I really did learn a lot of things about how to better plan and think through. And just what it was like being on the road. I will be doing this again, though next drive will be out in the opposite direction, towards the West Coast. Annnd, in a rental car because my poor car is a little small for driving that far, and legs were cramped. And fuck.

If you read to the end, thank you very much! Ask questions in the comments if you want to know anything more about my experiences. What I saw or did or anything like that. I'll answer everything!