Covering a Lot of Land in a Little Time

     While planning my travels for the last month, I knew I'd be covering a lot of ground. Starting in Alaska, going home to Illinois, seeing my boyfriend's family in Virginia, and ending up at the Grand Canyon were all in the plans. It wasn't until I drove several thousand miles and went through many new places that it really set in. Here I made up a map of the places that I passed through, visited, or camped in the last month. These points actually only scratch the surface, as there are many more places along these routes that made for an even more notable trip.

     Though I traveled back through Alaska and Canada in much the same route as I had going north, it still managed to be quite different. Fall colors were rampant and wildlife activity had changed. I had the pleasure of visiting Liard River Hot Springs in British Columbia again, which was amazing. You can see the summary of my road trip up to Alaska here. The route was the same until we got to Calgary. My boyfriend and I were sick with colds and for my boyfriend, a sinus infection as well. We had planned on going through Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada again, as well as Glacier in Montana. Unfortunately, sickness left us rushing for the lower 48 so that doctor visits would be covered by health insurance. We darted south from Calgary, passing east of the mountains and really anything fun.

     Once in Montana, my boyfriend was able to get antibiotics. We got back on track with our fun plans for the rest of the trip. We went to visit the Battle of Little Bighorn Battlefield, but then the car broke down! Luckily, we were only about 20 minutes from a Chevy dealer and were able to get the car running long enough to get to the dealership without a tow. After five hours there, we were able to get back on the road. We camped at Devil's Tower in Wyoming, waking up to the giant landmark in our view. Then we visited Mt. Rushmore and Badlands National Park in South Dakota on our way toward Illinois.

     Finally we finished off the last stretch and arrived at my parents' house. I had family and familiarity for one week before moving on. We headed to Virginia for a week so that my boyfriend could experience the same. Then our two weeks of comfort at home were over.

     We left the Richmond area first thing in the morning on October 12th. The first day was extremely boring because it was a very long drive through unchanging landscape of the southeast. We lost about an hour in traffic in Atlanta, but still made good time. Our destination was the home of family friends near Mobile, Alabama. Yes, we took quite a detour to be able to visit the Gulf Coast. The following day was a designated beach day during which we went to Gulf Shores State Park. The beach was beautiful!

     After our beach day, we headed to New Orleans to check out the French Quarter with a friend we met in Alaska. We were disappointed that we only had time to be there for an afternoon, but it was still a blast. I tried some delicious jambalaya at a restaurant called Gumbo Shop. That evening, we camped in a free campground in rural Louisiana.

     Then we had to move on to the middle of no where yet again. We passed through Dallas and hundreds of miles of *no offense* boring Texas. The route through the state unfortunately does not pass much of interest. We camped at Santa Rosa Lake State Park in New Mexico.
     The fun arrived again the next day when we had some time to explore a few national monuments in New Mexico. We had already planned to see El Malpais, but ended up seeing two more unplanned. Petroglyphs National Monument and El Morro were both spontaneous visits that were well worth the stop. Markings from ancient Puebloans are scattered throughout the rocks at Petroglyphs National Monument. At El Morro, there were some petroglyphs as well, but is more noted for the inscriptions on the rocks by the Spanish and other cultures who passed through a couple hundred years ago. There are also Puebloan ruins, which were extremely neat to see. We camped at Walnut Canyon National Monument, which we actually didn't have time to check out.
     Finally, on the morning of the 17th, we got to the Grand Canyon to start our new jobs. We checked in and have started to settle into our new environment. My car can finally get a decent rest-- until we start our series of weekend trips that are planned!

     As a side note regarding my YouTube channel and social media, my content may be making a bit of a switch. For the last several months, I had kind of been neglecting my blog to focus on my YouTube channel. I finally caught up on editing my videos during my weeks in Illinois and Virginia, only to not be able to upload them here at the Grand Canyon. I will still be hunting for ways to be able to upload, but as of right now, it appears that I would need to spend literally an entire day sitting in the community rec center in order to upload one video. It looks like my blog may become my main source of content, along with my Twitter and Instagram posts. Anyway, please continue to follow my accounts-- there are more crazy adventures to be had!