My last night in Eugene was very special and very simple. My best friend Jacklyn, flew in from Florida to attend a wedding with me and co-pilot the first part of my journey with me. It was just a few months earlier that we had been celebrating her moving across the country and it is so special that she was able to be there to celebrate me moving across the country. My last night in Eugene was filled with emotions from every spectrum. I was technically moved out of my house at this point and needed a place to stay for the night, which turned into a sleepover with some of my best friends in Eugene. We stayed up watching movies, and in the morning I had the perfect send off.

My car was packed, my snacks were bought, my best friend was sitting shotgun, and we were blaring not only my favorite song at this very moment but one that really captured what this adventure was really about. It’s crazy how one song can encompass so much of how you feel. Not only was I “sick of that town, and sick of that boy, and sick of dreams never taking flight” as the song stated, I also happened to have a full tank of gas and was driving a hand–me-down Ford. The similarities were uncanny.

It is kind of crazy. Leading up to this point: I got a job 3,000 miles from home, found a place to live, found a part time job, and mapped out my road trip perfectly with free places to stay across the whole country. And, if my car hadn’t been stolen three months earlier I wouldn’t be driving my hand–me-down Ford. The irony in this is absolutely in insane. This song explained exactly how I felt leaving Eugene.

“She’s fighting back tears, she’s fighting back years

Of the only life she’s ever known

There’s a future that’s bright in the dead of this night,

And all she’s gotta do is go”

Lucky for me I had my best friend sitting next to me, my dog Mylo in the back seat, and we were on our way to Medford. Our three-hour drive consisted of rehashing our months apart and writing a poem for the card for our married friends. We laughed as we tried to rhyme everything. Our beginning attempts were awful, but I think our final product was quite good. Our friends were getting married on a river and literally were arriving on boat to the ceremony. It gave us somewhat of a theme to go off of. That and the pure love, happiness, and joy we had for these two made all but the rhyming easy to write about.

I’ve always loved weddings. If you think about the tradition of weddings they are very much like Christmas. You are surrounded by all of your closet family and friends, you get tons of presents, and there is lots of food and drink to go around. But instead of celebrating the gift of Christ, you are celebrating a good friend! She was beautiful, he was handsome, and the wedding was adorable. They even did a “first fish” together as they arrived for the reception. How freakin’ cool is that?

Though the wedding night came to an end, the party did not—which then continued at a bar near the wedding venue. None of us were good to drive at this point and making it to the camping site where we were going to camp at seemed like a very unlikely plan of action. So our slightly inebriated selves decided it would be a good idea to camp in the designated wedding parking area, which was located beside a river rafting store. Now this wasn’t a cemented parking lot or anything; it was a half–gravel, half-grass parking lot that seemed like a decent place to sleep. Now to remind you: My dog is with us as well and during the wedding slept comfortably in a friend’s parents’ hotel room, but joined us for a night in the parking lot. We all woke up to the store owner yelling at his dog who had decided to play with mine. As we woke up, we realized exactly where we had slept. The raft shop was called Rapid Pleasure Rafting and the owners had a little trailer that they lived in behind the store. They also happened to have an outhouse about 30 feet from where I slept. You would think it would be slightly unsettling to wake up to an outshouse, but instead I was relieved to have a place to use the in the morning.

We made our way back to our friend’s parents’ hotel room and cleaned up a bit and ate breakfast. Then Jacklyn, Mylo and I were on our way! The journey had begun, and we felt like we had all the time in the world. We decided to stop in Klamath Falls because it was our last chance to get Dutch Bros (for those of you who aren’t from Oregon, Dutch Bros is the Starbucks of Oregon, only better!) and because we needed gas. Our quick stop turned into a bit of an exploration as we frolicked around Klamath Lake taking pictures and enjoying our last little bit of time in Oregon.

From there, the 12-hour drive to Provo, Utah, that turned into a 17-hour drive, began. We really have no idea to this day why it took us so long. I mean we stopped, but not that much… or so we thought.

The drive was beautiful. It was peaceful and there were almost no cars in sight. We even passed the Goodbye Oregon sign and put the car in reverse on the highway in order to go back and take a picture. Oh yeah… that’s probably how it took us so long. Anyways, we blasted music and enjoyed God’s beauty around us. The terrain was simply beautiful.

We stopped in the funniest little town in Nevada called Denio. I’m not sure the town consisted of anything more than what was in these pictures. It was a motel, gas station, and bar all in one. Other than this one building, all you could see were Nevada mountains. What I think I loved most about this town were the little quirks. No where else along my journey would I see a sign to where I am going. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (my final destination) just happens to be fairly close to New York City. So seeing a sign of how much farther I had to go–although slightly frightening—was exciting at the same time.

Jacklyn and I went inside and decided to get some food, where we giggled a bit at the chosen decor and contributed to it ourselves. Writing your names on a dollar bill seemed to be a thing at this bar, so we put one amongst the silly signs and continued on our way.

Hours went by quickly and we stopped many times to enjoy the middle-of-no-where. We literally were sitting in the middle of the road to watch the sunset over the mountains in where I think at that point was Utah. I felt a peacefulness I don’t think I could begin to explain. We were on a road, not in a forest or somewhere else you know would be peaceful, but sitting in the middle of a highway that could have been buzzing with cars but wasn’t.

We stopped less after the sun went down. Sadly, there was less to look at. Then my bike came loose and we found ourselves on the side of a freeway at one in the morning trying to adjust my bike with just the light from my phone when a car pulled up behind us. I’m not going to lie, I was terrified. I thought this was the moment were we got kidnapped or robbed and I hadn’t even made it to my first stop. A lady walked up, who just happened to be a cop; I was immediately relieved and she helped us adjust my bike.

We both we getting really tired when we arrived at Provo at about 4am. But, we had made it to our first stop and only thing we were excited for at this moment was bedtime.

After a great night’s sleep, we grabbed a quick lunch with and old teammate. Her and her husband took us to an awesome burger joint that was similar to Subway, where you just go down the line and pick out your meat and toppings. Why hasn’t someone thought of this before? Or maybe I don’t get out enough, but brilliant concept none-the-less. As we sat there pondering what we would do with our day over a delicious lunch, we settled on floating the Provo River.

We rented float tubes from this awesome little place. His “office” was hilarious. He took credit cards and we rented our tubes and he bused us up to a drop off area while our car waited for us as we came down the river. As we chatted with this guy on the way to the drop off location, he was telling us how there were many Yeti sightings in this area and to keep a look out. Although we didn’t see any Yetis, we enjoyed our time relaxing and looking at the Utah Mountains.

It was time for me to take Jacklyn to the airport. Before I did, though, we attempted to go to a Crossfit workout, but we were late for it and ended up going on a run through Salt Lake City. We stumbled across stairs that seemed to be in the middle of the city and of course we had no choice but to follow them. They spiraled around the side of this big building, but were completely exposed. Later we realized that we had just run to the top of the Public Library and were six stories up looking out at the city. Of course, I didn’t have my camera on this run, but thankfully I found the cutest blog that captured this shot beautifully and the another picture from the library website itself that captured this moment. (brendajohnston.blogspot.com)

But the sun was setting, Jacklyn was leaving, and this chapter of my 3,000 mile road trip had ended. It left me with a smile on my face and eager to turn to the next page.