Today was a hectic day to say the least. We had lots of last minute things to get done. It was mainly packing and organizational things. I honestly have a feeling of nervousness and also excitement. After we loaded up, we all settled into our spots. My biggest worry was how I would do on this trip sickness wise. I typically get car sick and this is definitely not the trip to take as a person who gets it easily. However, this bus so far has felt nothing like a car. I think it is how spacious it is that helps me. I mean, you can’t get up and make a sandwich in the middle of a car ride. 

We finally got to the camp after about six hours of driving. It was a little underwhelming, honestly. Since we got there pretty late in the day, around 8:30 pm, we didn’t really have much time to set up camp. No cornhole, chairs, or even a campfire. We got the hotdogs on the grill and had ourselves a classic campsite dinner. Even without a great campsite, it felt nice to get out of the bus for a while and hangout with everyone. I had the great idea that I would volunteer to sleep outside in a tent to clear up a bit of space in the bus. Bad idea. It was debatably one of the worst nights of sleep in my life. It was very uncomfortable and even got a little wet on the bottom. Needless to say, I will now be sleeping on the bus even if it is on the floor. 

I would honestly say that today was a little bit discouraging because it was just lots of driving with no real destination. We just had to get miles behind us. But, at the end of the day I can’t complain. I am still grateful that I got the opportunity to go on this trip. I think that once we start getting out more west that things will start looking up for the trip. At the moment, I am most excited to see Mount Rushmore. Illinois is basically an extension of Indiana in my opinion, and I am ready to get out of it. I think my favorite part of the day today was getting an opportunity to do my physical therapy. It’s never something I look forward to, but after sitting in a bus for hours at a time, it quickly becomes a highlight. I am very excited for what the future of this trip holds.

Day 2

Today was a very early morning. We were on the road by 6 a.m. Since we were all used to Indiana time, though, it wasn’t too bad. 6 a.m. was essentially the 7 a.m. we were used to. Nobody, including myself, was looking forward to today. Not only did we have a 12 hour drive, but there were rumors of there being a snow storm. Well, the rumors came to fruition. After lots of driving, and ending up in South Dakota, I saw some of the worst snow I have. It was a mixture of snow, hail, and even rain. Brutal. Unfortunately, since we had to go so slow in the snow, it added a couple extra hours, turning our drive into about a 14 hour journey. I have riddenode to Florida before, and I still think that this may have been worse. At one point I really thought that I would never get off the bus. Not to mention we only stopped at Love’s gas stations for fuel. So, every time we got off the bus, it felt like we were repeating the same stop. 

With all of this being said, there was hope. We still did make it into South Dakota all in one piece. We did have a slight leakage in the bus, but we took care of it. South Dakota is such a sight, especially from the perspective of someone who lives in Indiana. I was taking a nap when we stopped at a viewpoint in South Dakota. I felt like I woke up on a different planet. We were near the badlands, and it was such a sight. You could see for what felt like miles. After driving through the snow storm, it was a nice break to get to see that. Hope hasd been restored. We got to the campground for the night. Fortunately, we were the only ones there! Unfortunately, all of their shower and bathroom facilities were down due to the snow storm… Also unfortunately, our toilet was unable to be used because the compost mixture wasn’t ready. We had to take care of business regardless, if you know what I mean. After business was conducted, we took turns taking showers. Phew, fortunately we had that working on the bus. Tomorrow should be a much more eventful day. We are going to see Mount Rushmore, which I am personally very excited for. We are also going to drive past Crazy Horse, but unfortunately aren’t going to hike up to it. Long day today, but not a bad one.

Day 3

I’m not sure if I can even fit today into a page. What a crazy adventure. We got on the road early once again and we unexpectedly stopped in this town called “Walldrug” in South Dakota. It was an old western style town that looked straight out of a movie scene. I am being so serious when I say that I ate the best donut of my entire life in Walldrug. After that, we quickly made our way to Mount Rushmore. It was smaller in person than I expected, but it was still so incredible. After that, we made our way into Wyoming and towards our camp site. I was so shocked at the amount of ranch land. Almost everywhere is just wide open land, with no houses or stores or anything. Their towns that they did have were so small and once again similar to an old style western town out of a movie. Our camp was very close to devils tower, in a very small town called Hulett. We had a bit of time at the camp to chill for a little bit, so we decided to explore the small town. On our adventure in town, we stumbled into a small museum about the town and devils tower. There were three people in there, and one was a girl. She just so happened to be the daughter of one of the senators of Wyoming. It was so crazy that we stumbled upon someone like that. The guide at the museum loved our story so much that they decided to take a picture of us and put us in their local paper. We literally stumbled into a museum and got into the paper and met the senator’s daughter. So crazy. The rest of the night, we chilled out at the campsite, which we were once again the only people there. Cornhole is one of my favorite things to do, so that was really fun. Tomorrow is going to be spent at devils tower, which I am very interested in. I have seen it on social media before, and I didn’t think that I would ever really get a chance to see it in real life. Pictures really don’t do it justice, and I would recommend that anyone who loves the outdoors and monuments should come out west to see it and the other things around it.

Day 4

Since we were within about 30 minutes of Devil’s Tower, we slept in just a little bit. When I say sleep in, I mean about 7:40am. That was a pretty good treat since most days we have been waking up at 6:30am. We were on the road by about 8am. Wow, I thought that driving by Devil’s Tower was crazy but it was nothing compared to hiking around it. I got some really good pictures. We had the choice to take a 1.5 mile paved hike or a 2.8 mile offroading hike. Of course we chose the offroading one, and I am so glad that we did. The stories behind the tower were really interesting to learn about. There are so many different myths, but the technical science answer that we were told is that it is the result of the core leftover from a volcano. Overall, I would have to say that Wyoming views are so beautiful and no pictures can really ever do it justice. This was definitely not a beginner friendly hike, and I honestly think they may have lied about the distance as well. Haha. We for sure got our cardio in for the trip. Something that I personally enjoyed so much was seeing prairie dogs. I think they are so neat and honestly just a funny little creature. Another random thing that was cool to see was active oil rigs drilling. The landscape all throughout Wyoming is absolutely breathtaking and life for sure moves a little slower over here. For a touch of normalcy, we made a stop at Walmart to restock on food and supplies. We all decided that spaghetti would be a great dinner. I was happy that this was the group decision because a home cooked meal sounded so good. It didn’t disappoint. Another really cool thing, in my opinion, is how well I could see the stars. There is almost no light pollution at all, and you can see just about every star. When I was a kid, I used to be obsessed with stars and constellations and honestly anything outer space. There is still a small part of me that finds it so fascinating, so getting an opportunity to see it that clearly was one of the highlights of my day. We also played Jackbox, which has become quite the tradition at night time on this trip.

Day 5

Today was one of our big stops, Yellowstone. I can’t lie, the drive was pretty brutal. It took about 7 hours to get there. Luckily, I slept for about half of it so it wasn’t too hateful. When we finally got to the park, we quickly realized that it was in fact still winter here. As we were entering the park, we saw some bison. I knew that Yellowstone had bison, but there were too many to even count. It was a really neat site to see. They are just so big and cool looking. It wasn’t actively snowing as we got there. Well, at least not until we got out of the bus. Yes, as soon as we got out of the  bus there was very heavy snow. But hey, we are at Yellowstone National Park so I can’t really complain too much. We “hiked” up to Mammoth Springs. The reason that I quoted hiked is because it was a wooden man-made path. I don’t really consider those types of paths hiking. Anyways, we eventually made it to the top and were able to see the springs and all of the mountains in their beauty. Some of the springs were still steaming and flowing water even with it being so cold. Of course we had to take a stop in the small shopping area to get souvenirs. I ended up getting a t-shirt and also some ice cream. What a combination. My ice cream flavor was called “Graham Slam,” and it was so good. It is probably in my top five ice cream flavors I have ever had. It was a nice graham cracker, chocolate pieces, and vanilla ice cream combination. We loaded up and went to our next campground. It was another 3 hour drive. When we arrived at the campground, Bernie and Sharons, and it was a little creepy. There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with it except the fact it was very old. But guess what? They had showers. That right there makes it equivalent to a luxury resort. Imagine the oldest looking shower that you can and multiply that by two. During my shower, the lights literally started flickering and I think I almost shed a tear out of fear. What an experience.

Day 6

Like every other morning, this was an early one. We were on the road by about 6am and we were off to Glacier National Park. We arrived at the park at around 10:30 am. I got the chance to see the Bishop Mountain Range from the bus. I also got to see Flathead lake and it was so big. Once we got out of the bus, it was such a surreal experience because there was snow everywhere but the temperature was honestly not too cold. Indiana winter is definitely a bit more nippy. Everyone went to the visitor center, after getting a picture in front of the national park sign, and got some souvenirs. A lot of the roads were closed due to snow, unfortunately including the road to the sun. But, I still got a chance to check out Lake McDonald and the mountains around it. It was so crazy to see. The lake is most popular for being so clear and having very cool and colorful rocks. I learned that the reason it is so clear is because of glaciers that have melted in it. As you will be able to see in the pictures at the end, it almost looks like there is no water. We walked around a bit more to check out the mountains and the small towns. I decided to buy a shirt from this shop instead of the first one. Glacier was a really big part of our trip, so I knew that today I had to get a shirt for it. When we left the park, we had about a two hour drive to get to our camp. It was a nice camp. We finally had a fire pit, which sounds like it would be common. For some reason, a lot of the campsites that we have been to don’t have campfire spots. We had to take advantage of this. In other words, it was s’mores time… For dinner, we had breakfast. They were protein pancakes, which I have never had before, and they were very good considering you were getting 15g of protein per pancake. It was mine and a couple others’ job to go out and collect firewood to keep the flame alive. Today was a nice day at the campsite since we got here somewhat early. It was nice to have a night with a little bit of relaxation instead of rushing around and having no time.

Day 7

Today we were off to the Grand Tetons. I am excited that we decided to keep this on our trip, because we were going to take it off to save time. This probably shouldn’t be a big reason that I want to see them, but unfortunately the fact that they are the mountains for the cover of a Kanye West album made me really want to see them. I THINK that we saw a moose in the distance on the way to the Tetons. We aren’t sure, but we think that it was one. We didn’t stay long because it is just something that you take a look at and that’s about it. I will say that the snow was perfect for a snowball fight, so inevitably we had to test that out. After that, we went into Jackson Hole. It is a small town in Wyoming. Part of the reason we went here was to check out the Elk Antler Arches. Then, after some slight exploring and group photos, we went to a restaurant called Snake River Brewing. They were mainly a burger restaurant and had bison meat. I honestly wasn’t too eager to try bison, especially after seeing the $25 price tag on it. It was a bit out of my price range. Some of the crew did try it out, though. After my belly was all full, we were allowed to explore the town for about an hour. I noticed that there was a ski mountain right above the town. I have always wanted to go skiing, and it was fun to watch the people go down the hill. They looked like ants from our point of view. While we were walking, we saw a raven. I never knew how big they were but it is actually crazy. It’s surprising they can even get in the air. After exploring, we went to meet back at the bus. When Blake came back, he had a few older people with him. He ran into them and they ended up talking about our bus. They came to check it out and really liked it. One of the guys recommended that we should go see Canyonlands whenever we went to arches the next day. I will keep you posted if we end up following his recommendation. We ended the day off with a long drive to camp in Utah. I really liked the camp. It was peaceful and had nice showers. Not much more you can ask for out here.

Day 8

The destination today was Arches National Park. This was the first day that we had where the weather was warm. I was so thankful for that. Matter of fact, it was so warm that most of us took our shirts off to get some sun and a tan. Once again, we were faced with the option of the normal trail or the off roading trail. Of course we picked the off roading one. We even went up onto some of the arches and the taller rocks. Between today’s hike and the Devil’s Tower hike, I would have to make Arches the winner. I think the fact it was so warm played a big role in its success. It was also a lot less restricted than other national parks we have been to. For example, Yellowstone threatened a one thousand dollar fine for even stepping off the path. Here at Arches, we all went just about everywhere you could safely reach. After we took many pictures and finished our hike, we decided to check out Canyonlands. It is the place that the guy from yesterday recommended to us. I am so glad that he told us we should go there because it was amazing. I haven’t seen the Grand Canyon yet, but I imagine that this is similar to it. At this point, I was super exhausted. The hike at Arches National Park took me out. I could hardly keep my eyes open at Canyonlands. Fortunately, we had a long drive ahead of us to camp. Usually that would seem like a bad thing, but with everyone being so tired it sounded amazing. I believe it was about a 6 hour drive to the camp. About halfway through the drive, we got to a gas station stop. Gas station stops are luxurious out here. You get a chance to use an actual bathroom and get a drink or snacks. Well, you also need gas of course. Since we are literally in the desert, water is scarce out here. That meant that we had no water hookups or anything at the RV camp. This is never a good thing with almost a dozen stinky guys in a small space. I believe that they did have an outhouse, but from my experience it is best to avoid it if possible. So far, I would put Arches National Park in my top three favorite places that we have gone on this trip. Tomorrow is a big day with Zion and the Grand Canyon.

Day 9

Today was a very busy day to say the least. We went to both Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. Most people spend a full day at either of these, but we were fitting them both into one day. Alec found a place in Zion National Park last night to get breakfast. It was near the visitor center, so we checked it out. I opted out to eat it because it was a bit overpriced. I couldn’t justify thirteen dollars for a piece of avocado toast. A protein bar was good enough for me. We loaded back up on the bus after breakfast and went to explore Zion a bit. The scenery of the park is out of a movie. At one point, we went through an almost two mile tunnel inside one of their giant rocks. I’m not sure if the landscape there is considered to be mountains or rocks, but I am going with rocks. We didn’t get a chance to hike due to our tight schedule, but we did get to pull over at a few outlooks to get some pictures and take in the views. I saw a rescue team on our drive. It was scary to think of someone falling or needing help in some way. I hope that they ended up being okay. We finished up at Zion and headed towards the Grand Canyon on about a four hour drive. We stopped at a gas station in a small Native American town and it was really neat to see some of their culture. We were back on the road shortly and eventually passed a dam over a bridge. I have never seen a dam, especially one that big. Even though it is man-made, it really is a cool thing to see. We got to the Grand Canyon in late afternoon and stopped at the first overlook. It was the most breathtaking thing I have ever seen. You really have to see it for yourself because no picture will do it justice. It is almost impossible to wrap your head around how big it is. We spent about an hour at the North Rim before heading over to the Mather outlook. It is a big outlook that most people stop at, and it is for good reason. Blake Curry tamed a squirrel while we were there. That was definitely a highlight. Another funny thing that happened involved Jay, Brennan, and myself. We were asking strangers to take pictures of us and we would make funny faces. Some were foreigners and probably thought America was weird because of us. Tonight’s camp was only about an hour and a half away from the Grand Canyon.  

Day 10

If I am going to be honest, today wasn’t an amazing day. I’m not sure if I am starting to literally get sick or maybe just missing home a little bit. Anyways, our first stop this morning was at Monument Valley. I did absolutely zero research on this place and really had no idea what to expect. It was another early morning, so we were woken up basically when we got there. It is always a weird feeling being in an entirely new place when you wake up. It makes me feel a bit disoriented. When I looked out the window, I was greeted by a desert with some tall rocks standing alone. We didn’t take the tour since it lasted almost two hours to get through the entire thing. We basically drove up to the visitors center and checked out the views from there. There was a Navajo shop with a lot of traditional items. They had sculptures, knives and arrowheads, dreamcatchers, and blankets. There was more than that, but that was the type of thing that they had there. I found a cool arrowhead for my grandma and got it for her. After a few pictures, we loaded back up and started heading to the four corners. It was a pretty long drive there. I would not recommend going out of your way to check it out. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. You take a very bumpy road to get to it, and once you get there it is just a slab of concrete with tourist shops around it. But, it was still really cool to get a picture of myself in four states at once. I also got a picture of just my feet in the states. A lot, if not all, of the shops were Navajo shops. They sold souvenirs and other products. I didn’t get anything from there because I didn’t really want a souvenir. We went to camp that night and had a cornhole tournament. Brennan and I absolutely destroyed everyone. I actually really liked this camp because we were right next to the water. We had a breakfast casserole for dinner. I also hit a pretty good body weight workout, so once it was time for bed I slept really well.

Day 11

This may have been one of my favorite days so far. The highlight of today was going to Garden of the Gods. It is such a beautiful park. It is filled with giant rock structures, beautiful wildlife and greenery, and amazing trails. While we were walking into the main parts of it, we saw some deer really close to us. We also met a guy who had a lizard with him on a leash. Once we got closer, we talked to him and I realized that it was a bearded dragon. I used to have a bearded dragon when I was younger and it was cool to see one getting to enjoy the park. As I walked up to the higher parts of the rock, I saw something crazy. There was a guy rock climbing, He had no gear or shoes. He was just climbing it using pure skill. It wasn’t a huge rock, but it was big enough to be serious if he fell. We got some pictures of him and he noticed us. When he came back down, he was talking to us about where he is from and asking us as well. We got his Instagram to send the pictures to. On our way out, we noticed some very nice looking houses at the top of the hill. We did some research and learned that they were literally all over three million dollars. We all decided to go try In ‘n Out for a late lunch afterwards. It was pretty good and felt like a step back in time. We also decided to do something fun for today since we had some free time. Everyone agreed on going to Top Golf, which I wasn’t too much of a fan of because I couldn’t participate due to my hand. Before we went to Top Golf, we had time to kill before our reservation. We went to a huge Bass Pro Shop that was right next to it. It was honestly really cool and a lot more affordable than I thought. Once it was our time, we headed over to Top Golf. I couldn’t swing a club, but it was still fun getting to watch everyone try to golf. I split some pretzel bites and cheese with Brennan. Once we were done, we were pleasantly surprised that it was free. Due to a donation, we didn’t have to pay out of pocket for that. I am very thankful for everyone’s support. We had about a four hour drive to camp, but we also were going into a different time zone so it was really about a six hour difference in time from when we left. We ended up just chilling out at the campground for the night.

Day 12

As our trip is coming to an end, our sights are getting slightly less amazing. There’s nothing wrong with that, it is just what happens when you start heading back towards Indiana. We took a stop early this morning to check out the center of the continental United States. It was literally in the middle of nowhere. More specifically, it was in Lebanon, Kansas. This town made Union City look like a metropolis. It was just a random little park with a block saying it was the center and a small chapel. The small chapel was pretty cool to see, and inside it encouraged you to write where you are visiting from. We put a note of where we were from and gave them our Facebook. Brennan found a little piece of playground equipment. It was like a little seat with a spring. It was the highlight of the stop and everyone took a turn on it. We spent about fifteen minutes there before getting back on the road. We also had to take a group picture of course. We headed off to Kansas City to try out a barbecue place. It was about a five hour drive or so. It was called “Slap’s BBQ.” I made the bad decision of saving a couple bucks and getting the chicken quarters. There was such a long line to get in, which I took as a good sign. If I am being honest, I’m not much of a fan of barbecue. It was still pretty good and I don’t regret stopping there. We didn’t even know it, since we just randomly picked the place, but it is actually rated as the fifth best barbecue place in Kansas City. Kansas City is famous for BBQ, so we didn’t really have much of a choice. We had to get some. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and some people even said that it was some of the best food that they have ever eaten. After our bellies were full, we debated on checking out Kansas City or not. We were on the outskirts. The group decided that trying to drive a massive bus through a city just to see some cool buildings wasn’t worth it. We opted to take the quicker route and just go back to camp. We had a little bit of time at camp tonight. There was an old gas station across the street so a few of the guys and I went and got some snacks. For dinner, we had chicken fingers and taquitos. What a great day.

Day 13

At this point, most of us were about ready to get back home. After yet another early morning, I was woken up to the sight of the Gateway Arch. It is a weird feeling when you get used to waking up to a new sight everyday. Typically, you are greeted with the sound of a diesel engine and beeping waking you up at about six in the morning. I honestly grew to like it. It would rock me to sleep like a little baby. Matter of fact, I started to look forward to being woken up by the bus, because that’s when I got my real sleep. Anyways, when I woke up for the second time, I saw a huge arch out of the window. It was around seven in the morning when we got there, and myself and everyone else groggily got off of the bus. People say that the arch isn’t even that cool, but I have to disagree. It is actually so big. Some might even say it is massive. We spent about twenty minutes or so checking it out and getting pictures. From the small part of St. Louis that we got to see, I actually really liked it. It is a big town, but it didn’t give me the same vibe as other big towns. It felt a bit cleaner, nicer, and honestly safer. We loaded back up onto our illegally parked bus and started the journey towards home. It was only about a five hour drive or so, which is a whole lot less than I figured it would be. There were rumors going around that we might stop on the way home to get some Raising Cane’s. I was ecstatic. Once we were closing in on Indianapolis, we all realized that we were going in a direction towards a Canes in Fishers. As we pulled into the parking lot, we were going crazy. After I got myself a Caniac Combo, I was fueled and prepared for the ride home. Once we got home, a lot of parents were waiting on us. We cleaned up and unloaded the bus quickly and got all of our stuff packed in the cars. It was bitter sweet to be home. I felt sad that it was over, but happy to be back home. It was such an amazing experience. Thank you for following me on this great journey!