Westward did I go! I left DC at noon on July 21st with some major emotions; anything from extremely sad to super excited. I had an amazing 9 day journey, with tolls galore, gas stations, coke in hand, GPS systems, and so much trail mix I didn't know what to do with myself. All the logistics of the trip turned out tremendously and I even managed to visit some family and friends along the way. It was a trip of a lifetime and I drove about 36 hours total to get to my final destination of Utah. Yes, I'm feeling pretty empowered right now!
Here's an account of my travels. If you follow me on insta, you've already seen most of these!
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| My final hurrah at the Jefferson the night before I left. So many tears. I love DC. |
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| Road trip CD mixes, cards, snacks, and trail mix galore! All from wonderful friends. |
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| My final goodbye at the Grove St. house |
1st stop, Cleveland:
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| Gravesite of John D. Rockefellar. Managed to get some history in there! |
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| My cousin Kim and I with her 2 girls at the gravesite of President James A Garfield. |
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| This is Indiana. Check out those clouds! |
2nd stop, Notre Dame--for a nice hour or so.
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| Touchdown Jesus! |
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| And there's my selfie! |
3rd stop, Chicago.
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| Architecture boat tour. Can I say AMAZING? An absolutely beautiful day! |
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| Another gorgeous view of Chicago! |
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| Oh and Melissa joined me in Chicago. At the Bean in Millenial Park |
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| Beanin' it |
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| No road trip is complete without a jumping picture. |
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| The Willis Tower. Formerly known as the Sears Tower. |
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| Those are our feet--Duh. |
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| And Melissa with me. Yes, that's a huge drop down there. |
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| Another jumping pic on the shore of Lake Michigan |
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| And we biked along the shore. Gorgeous! |
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| A Chicago style hot dog. I didn't like it. |
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| We went to a Cubs game too! |
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| Check out that view! Too bad they lost 12-1. :( |
4th stop: Nauvoo, Illinois
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| Lucy Mack Smith house |
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| Selfie time |
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| The temple. Had an amazing session and saw Susan Easton Black (popular church historian. I took her class at BYU) |
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| with Melissa |
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| Love this pic with Hyrum and Joseph and an incredible sunset |
5th stop: LDS Church history sites in Missouri
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| There's a lot of land, in case you're wondering |
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| We drove an extra 40 minutes for this. Oh well. Haun's Mill. |
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| Far West MO temple cornerstone |
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| Liberty Jail--my favorite stop out of all of them! |
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| Kansas City, MO temple. |
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| Oh yah and then we ate some Kansas City BBQ. Mmmm good. Met up with my old roommie Stacia and her husband, not pictured. |
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| SO much meat! So messy. |
6th stop, Lawrence Kansas with my cousins!
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| Got to see 4 of my cousins while I was there! |
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| Janae and I decided to match. That's what you do when you're the same age. |
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Oh and this was on my 8 hour drive to Denver! Kansas was freakin' boring just FYI
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7th stop, Denver, CO:
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| My cousin's cute kids. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics with my Baer cousins |
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| Yep and people sell Marijuana. Denver is quite the hippy town! |
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| Got some sight-seeing in. |
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| Love me some historical homes |
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| And Voodoo Donuts |
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| I even braved a torrential rainstorm to get these, which is why I look so wet. I also saw my friend Melanie who is not pictured! |
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| Oh the Rockies! |
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| And 9 hours later I got home to Utah--Exhausted. |
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| And my nieces made me some sweet signs to greet me |
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| I had no idea I had short brown hair… :) |
Now I'm back in Utah. It was an EPIC journey that turned out to be incredibly empowering. For 2/3 of the trip I drove by myself and had a lot of time to drive and think. I kept chanting to myself: I CAN DO HARD THINGS. Driving across the country was one of them and now starting a new chapter in my life is another. I got this: I CAN DO HARD THINGS--again.
