Our Cross Country Drive

Thank you for all the love and support for our upcoming adventures, you guys! We can't wait! Since it's bound to be a crazy year I figured I may as well attempt to stay on top of documenting and blogging so I don't get behind. Here we gooooo!

After putting our furniture and things we wouldn't need for the next year in storage and returning the moving truck we said goodbye to our family in Southeast Ohio and off we went at 6 pm on Friday, July 6th!

We folded our mattress topper and put it in the back of our car in a little sliver of space along with a pillow and a blanket for when we got tired so we were able to go the entire 31+ hours without stopping to sleep. It was awesome and that space was actually sooooo comfy! I got some nice z's there! 

^^After I woke up from a 4.5-hour nap. Seriously so comfy and cozy! 

Parker drove the first stretch and we swapped on and off every 4 or 5 hours or so. When we first moved to Ohio, I had a really rough time driving across the country. I'm not a great long distance driver so I was a little nervous about this trip but we were well stocked with snacks and books and podcasts and movies and shows and all that jazz. Also, I did the entire trip without caffeine. I'm two months strong without it, you guys! Go me! lol 

I took photos in each bathroom that we stopped at along the way (minus a few) as you can see below! I progressively look more and more disheveled and tired in each one haha!

We had plans to stop in South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore since we probably wouldn't find ourselves in South Dakota again any time soon. We decided we may as well stop at the Badlands, too, since they were near that stop. Both of these places were a welcome pitstop and opportunity to get out of the car and move around a bit! We ended up doing a little hike in the badlands which I was scared to do bc they have signs saying to watch out for rattlesnakes. Snakes are my biggest fear (I don't even like typing the word) and heights are my second biggest fear so the combination of hiking somewhere where we could encounter both of those had my hands all clammy. Luckily, our prayers were answered and we didn't come across any unwelcome animals or cliffs. I was very, very grateful. 

At Mount Rushmore, Parker quizzed me on American history which I honestly haven't thought about in 7 years so I got pretty much every question wrong. My embarrassing answers were on his Instagram story for all the world to see lol. Sorry, America! Also, history/social studies was one of my worst subjects so don't judge, ok?!

#Parkerforpresident!

Parker and I contemplated stopping somewhere for the night either at a hotel or a campground but both of us wanted to just get to our final destination so we could be done the driving. We pulled into Parker's parent's house at 5 am on July 8th and how happy we were to have arrived safe and sound. In total, we drove through 8 states: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. I tried to get a photo or video of each of the signs but we missed a couple of them since it was the middle of the night when we were driving through and I was asleep. 

^^ Not a bad destination, eh?

I was pleasantly surprised by how fun the drive was! Parker and I talked and laughed and got along the whole time lol. Grateful for these memories with my love! 

xoxo, Chelan