50 Days around America. (part 1 of ?)

Have you ever wanted to drive across the United States? Or at least take an epic road trip through a certain part of the country to finally experience places you’ve only seen on TV or read about? If not, this series of articles may not be for you. If so, I hope the following series of articles and pictures of my 50 day journey all over America inspires you to finally get on the road or an airplane.

I’ve always wanted to drive across, around and all over the U.S. Who hasn’t wanted to jump in their car with some friends and tour the U.S. without a care in the world. I’m imagining a VW van, 5 poor college aged guys and a bunch of top ramen (and cheap beer along the way). Not exactly how I ended up doing it at age 41 but that’s how I always sort of imagined it. Typical in life, when you’re young and have time, you don’t have money and when you have money you have responsibilities that won’t let you drive off into the sunset on a whim for an indeterminate amount of time. Luckily in August of 2015 I was good on money, low on responsibilities and finally made the drive happen.

Since 2012, I’ve spent the majority of my time working in Germany and I’ve visited 70% of Europe along the way through personal and work travel. What a great roller coaster ride that’s been. While in Germany working in 2014, I started to thinking that I really need to see the U.S. the same way I’ve seen most of Europe, by driving. I’ll write about my two week road trip through Eastern Europe and all the mistakes I made another day. Now that I’ve done the U.S. road trip I must say that I was truly shocked by some of the amazing locations in the U.S.. Locations many times the equivalent or greater to the Alps, European castles and city centres as evidenced by all the Europeans I encountered at our National Parks. We don’t have the many centuries of history in the U.S. but we do have natural wonders that more than make up for it. Those that know me know I love spending time in the Swiss Alps. The Alps are like travel crack to me and I’m sure many others. Before this trip I never thought I’d see anything in the U.S. that could equal all the places in Switzerland I’ve seen. I was wrong. National Parks like Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Glacier blew me away and like the Alps, I plan on going back some day. If you’re still reading by the time I get to days 20–30 of this trip, you’ll see what I mean. For now, I’ll explain how this adventure started.

I have family in New Mexico (the U.S. state for those that weren’t quite sure) and have driven from California to the small oil and farming town of Artesia, New Mexico probably 20 times in the past 20 years. As those that know me can attest, I’m a very “wild hair” sort of guy and shiny objects are especially shiny to me. Which is why I’ve driven so many times rather than fly to New Mexico. When I get the idea to go, I usually depart within a couple hours. In late July 2015, I returned from working Germany and spent a couple weeks getting settled back in and taking care of personal things. By the first week of August all was taken care of and it was time to make another visit to New Mexico to see my grandmother, dad and uncle. My grandfather had passed away the previous September and me and my sister have been trying to make it out to see my grandmother as often as possible. Now was the perfect time to jump in the car and make the drive. This was when the cross country road trip thoughts started percolating again. I knew I had friends across the country that I could probably stay with and there was plenty to see once I looked it up and figured out where it was. Those thoughts in mind, I packed a large suitcase vice just a smaller bag for a normal New Mexico trip. Just in case I pulled the trigger on the cross country trip after I left CA, I wanted to have proper clothing options for every possible event. Yeah, I way overpacked. It was Monday, 10 August, when I made the decision to go to New Mexico and see the family. As I write this now, it’s kind of funny that I tell myself that I had not yet decided on the U.S. road trip when I had already packed a suitcase and historically if I had the idea for something fun or interesting, I executed.

Since I’m at the part of the story where I’m hitting the road, I guess it would be a good time to tell you about my travel partner or German souvenir as I call it. As many people know, automakers like BMW, Audi and Volvo have military/government sales deals for U.S. folks working in Europe that usually include free shipment back to the states. In late 2013 I bought a silver BMW 535i and drove the heck out of it all over Germany, Switzerland and other German adjacent countries. Yes, the autobahn is fun at a 150mph WHEN NO ONE ELSE IS ON IT and it does have speed limits near and in cities. Sorry to disappoint. When I returned to the U.S. in late 2014, I had the car shipped back to CA and this is the car I drove in as I cruised around the U.S. for 50 days. Now, back to the story.

In August, the drive from Southern California to Artesia, New Mexico is extremely hot!! It takes you through Blythe, CA and Phoenix, AZ and all the desert’s in between them. I took off in the early afternoon and the U.S. road trip idea bounced around my head for the 3 hour drive to the CA/AZ border. As we all do, I got into my head and tried to think of all the reasons I shouldn’t do it. No planning, no one knows I’m coming, no idea where I’d go on the way home from the east coast, etc. But of course, those thoughts were eventually crushed by a few simple thoughts like, “why not now and if not now, when?” and, “you have no idea where you’ll be working or living in a year or two.” The Road Trip USA voice was starting to win. Earlier in the day I sent a text message to friends that live in Phoenix to see if they wanted to grab dinner and if I could take them up on their previous offer to stay with them while in town. Chris and Ashley Ott were good friends from my time working in Stuttgart and I was looking forward to catching up with them and seeing their now house. Chris and I have our own great road trip stories barrelling across Bulgaria/Romania/Serbia for work back in 2013. Once I got the text from Chris and Ashley saying yes to dinner and a place to stay for the night, I thought why not ask all my friends around the U.S. who would be up for a Rogers visit. I have former military friends all over the country and some I haven’t seen in over 15 years. It would be great to try and see them again and see the country while I’m at it. I could figure out the details as I go. Thoughts like these pushed me over the edge and the U.S. road trip was now a go. As I hit the Arizona border I took a picture of the “Arizona” border sign and posted the picture on FB with the status of “Who’s up for a Rogers visit in the next couple weeks?”

The funny part now is I thought it would only be a few weeks. It ended up being one day over 7 weeks. And the good ol Facebook status update to ask who’s up for a visit. Solid, I know. Not the best planning tool, but really the best option as I was already on the road. I’d find out later that I missed quite a few friends that somehow missed that FB post. On the fly is how I often plan personal adventures. My 2012 road trip from Germany to Poland down to Greece and over to Italy was planned pretty much one day at a time with a couple locations pre-planned. Wake up, figure out where I wanted to be the next day, book a hotel and get on the road. Tends to be a little more adventurous that way, especially through the Balkans (shaking my head). I ran my U.S. road trip under the same philosophy and it pretty much worked out. For now, the plan had been promulgated. I just needed to figure out the next few stops along the way once I got to my grandmother's house in Artesia. At this point, I was just enjoying the desert drive and trying to use WazeApp to locate Arizona highway patrol officers along the way. Next stops: Phoenix, dinner with Chris and Ashley Ott and Camelback Mountain morning hike.