West to East Road Trip
If we go back to the beginning, it takes us to October 2021 when Adam and I decided to leave Hawaii together and see where the road takes us. Adam had the brilliant idea to go on a road trip from west to east, so I created the plan to make this month-long adventure happen.
You all know most of the stories there if you read our previous posts when this blog first started. However, for the sake of memory lane and my current reflections, we’re going to start there.
Our initial road-trip was quite the experience! Buying a van in San Diego from an older gentleman started the trip off just right. Buying cars at this time was quite a challenge as most were way over-priced (they still are). After looking at a LOT of dealerships, I found this beautiful van online and we met up with him at a gas station. We wanted to snag it as quickly as we could once we saw it. This meant racing around to every ATM we could find and even buying $2 candy bars to get cash back from Walmart. But it was a success! She was ours for the taking and we were off.
The entire month was really a blur as we were trying to see as much as we could in such a short period of time. A month seems long, but when you’re road tripping, so much of that time involves driving. There were many crazy planned periods of time where we had an hour to see the area before we had to be on the road again. Sometimes, we arrived at midnight to our hotel just to sleep and start driving the next morning. That being said, it was an experience we’ll never forget.
Some of our favorite areas include: Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Louisiana, Georgia, and seeing family! (Peep some repeat pictures from the month long trip below).
Amongst all our exploration, we made a point to stop and meet each others’ families along the way. Initially, this was a bit hectic to meet new people and introduce your own family to someone new when our relationship was just beginning. But looking back, I’m so grateful we had this opportunity. Since then, we’ve seen each others’ families multiple times (even while abroad) and everyone is now familiar with each of us. It’s quite special knowing those connections are made and they all started with this adventure.
On our drive, we made it to 12 states - California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, and Virginia. (Our current state count is about 24 states I believe?). It was quite the whirlwind! But we enjoyed every minute of it. The end destination at this time was Virginia to stay with my family for a bit.
We had some big plans at that time (to visit Adam’s brother in Italy) but didn’t know exactly when or how that would happen. After arriving to Virginia, we came to the conclusion that we’d be staying for 6-8 months or so until we would begin our worldly travels. This allowed us time to work and save up money. It also gave me the opportunity to find a remote job so I could continue to work while we were adventuring.
Overall, this first road trip was a huge success. We survived being with each other 24/7 for the first time and had a lot of fun exploring new states. It’s the origin of our adventures together!
This is very important to us because it’s a value that we share - experiences. We both value experiencing life and the amazing places that exist on this planet. Now we have the beautiful opportunity to do so together and it’s everything we’ve dreamed of. I can’t express enough gratitude for the life we lead together.
It’s interesting to look back at this time when everything was new and just beginning. We had no idea what was coming down the road and I believe that we really made the best of our time in Virginia. More on that to come!
