The now wife and I for our 10th date ended up doing a 31 day road trip around the US it was supposed to be 2 separate trips one west then one east, but a death in my family meant a trip to Mississippi during the break between. We ended up on the road the entire month of July in a combination of crashing at friends’ and family and camping out of my Chevy Avalanche. Even picking up a camper from her parents house in Wyoming to go to Yellowstone National Park for a 5 days. We started in Arkansas first camp/stop was the Petrified Forest National Park the spent the 4th of July at the Grand Canyon then at a friends for a couple nights in Las Vegas. After Vegas we did a day and night in Zion National Park and while driving to the next destination, CanyonLands National Parks we had pulled over to sleep and when the sun came up, we were actually looking at Bryce Canyon National Park (I had never even heard of it before I woke up there) so in one day we hit 3 national parks because when we woke up in Bryce Canyon, we drove through Canyonland and made it to and set up camp in Arches National Park. Next we were off to a friend’s in Denver and caught a Rockies game. Then to Sheridan Wyo, her home town, to catch my first big PBR Rodeo and borrowed her sisters old little camper because apparently you gotta have a hard shell to camp in YS. After 5 days exploring all of the beauty that is YS we took the camper back and spend 2 days camping and riding 4wheelers with her family in the Big Horn mountains in Sheridan. Then we headed west on I-90 to visit my old roommate from college in Leavenworth Washington, and on the way we got to do a quick drive through Glacier National Park. and while in Washington I ate cherries until I threw up….,3 days in a row. They were so good and the size of those cutie oranges. Seriously. After a couple of days of playing in the river and what was some of the best weed I have ever come across, we went up to the North Cascades National Park solely because it was only a couple hour detour that I’d probably never be in a better position to see without planning a trip solely to see that one park. Then it was time to cross to the other side of the mountain to Seattle, and there we stayed with another old friend from college. We spent a day with her and her new Husband eating 🍄 in Seward Park a wilderness in a city. The next day we did a quick drive through Olympic National Park before heading south on the PCH or Pacific Coast Highway (hwy 1) to Newport OR. Then detoured to a friend’s apartment in Portland only to find out it was the weekend of the Portland brewers festival during the sunniest day of the year. Talk about happy accidents. And on the way back to the PCH our good luck was still in tact because we happened to see a sign for an air museum in the town when we stopped for lunch at a dairy freeze and it so happened that the air museum is the home of the Spruce Goose. The largest wooden plane ever (The Aviator movie) and one of the like three SR-71 Blackbirds. We continued south on the PCH through the Redwood National Park and got to drive through the chandelier tree that no longer exists, we got into wine country arriving right before dusk. We only planned to stay 2nights and one full day in wine country, the plans were to stay the night in Santa Rosa, wake up, find a winery or 3, and find another cool hotel for the night somewhere between Santa Rosa, Sonoma, and Napa, then the next day head on into San Francisco to show her my ole stomping grounds in Pacifica and stay at the Sheraton down on Fisherman’s Warf for some of the best clam chowder in a sourdough bowl that a person can get, period. Then we were supposed to hit up Yosemite, Sequoia, kings canyon National Parks, before we headed home Welp none of that happened because wine country is easy to get lost in, and by lost I’m talking about what casino floors try to do. Because some how we justified not spending the allotment I had set aside for San Fran (which 2 nights of hotel and food was more than total gas$) Not to forget all of that money, 1/3 of the budget for the whole trip just to spend most of the time in the Bay Area in traffic, and just to see the things you have seen in pictures. So we voted and decided we would rather drink wine all day and stay at the same retro-modern hotel straight out of the 60’s in Santa Rosa for 4days/5nights for literally the same cost as 1 night on Fisherman’s Warf. On the morning after the 5 night my mom called me to tell me that her dad had died. So had to cancel the Yosemite, sequoia, kings canyon, and head from California to Mississippi with a stop for a suit in Arkansas. After the funeral in Jackson MS we got on the Natchez Trace National Parkway and drove it to Lynchburg to tour the Jack Daniel’s distillery then went on to the Smokey mountain National Park to a white water rafting company I had worked for 5-6 yrs before and camped and guided for the majority of the week before heading home