[This post is backlogged from Thursday, June 25th]

A little over two weeks ago I flew into Fresno, California to begin a National Parks/ National Forests road trip out West. I’ve updated you once since then, from Portland, Oregon, and since we’ve continued to see many more sights.

Sadly our trip is coming to an end, I flew out from Detroit, Michigan and am currently waiting in the Boston airport for my plane back to Florida to depart.

I’m still feeling so refreshed and inspired, my heart full and grateful. I also still plan to share more in depth about my travels (with a hint towards COVID safe travel, especially on airplanes), but again for now I wanted to give a little update simply with where else we’ve been, what we’ve done, where we’ve eaten, and what’s up next.

If you want more frequent trip updates, follow along on Instagram! Otherwise, stay tuned here on my blog for more soon!

Locations

We had been car-camping our way across the country (another topic I plan to share more about too) but now we have a 24 foot travel trailer, Camper Ernie, that we’re staying in. My travel partner and best friend Tori renovated the trailer herself, so we’re staying at campsites with trailer as our home!

(more on Camper Ernie to come too!)

I did this on my last update, so again I’m including places we’ve found to eat when not cooking at our campsite (if you didn’t see my last post,  I’m on a vegan, soy-free, gluten-free, nut-free diet for medical reasons). Here I’m sharing places that I’ve found that have amazingly accommodated my dietary restrictions.

So here are the cities we hit in the last week! ! Some cities we’ve just stopped through, and other’s we stayed in.

Portland, Oregon

Next Level Burger

Rovente Pizza

Carson, Washington

Red Bluff Tap House

Boise, Idaho

Yoi Tomo Sushi and Grill

Salt Lake City, Utah

Purgatory Bar

Raw Bean Coffee

Grand Junction, Colorado

Dinosaur, Colorado/ Jensen, Utah

Outlaw Trail RV Park

Cheyenne, Wyoming

 A B Camping

Omaha, Nebraska

Walnut Creek Campground

Modern Love

Maquoketa, Iowa

 Maquoketa Caves State Park Campground

Chicago, Illinois

 Emerald Trails Campground

Uncommon Grounds

Trails

We took to the trails and tracked our mileage as we’ve explored the National Parks and Forests!

Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area

Coyote Wall — 5.2 miles

Dinosaur National Monument

Fossil Discovery Trail — 1.8 miles

Walnut Creek Recreation Area

— 3.6 miles

Maquoketa Caves

— 3 miles

That brings my total mileage to 22.2! I had hoped to do a marathon’s worth of hiking, and I was only four miles short.

Reflections

This trip has been a much needed release from the rigid lifestyle I fell into after a break-up followed by the worldwide quarantine.

Living one day at a time, chasing freedom, waking up in forests, literally stopping to smell the roses; this is how I want to live every day. The independence, freedom, and openness that comes from time in nature and travel has left me feeling inspired and balanced.

I can’t wait to share more about how that’s manifesting in my life and work, but for now I’ll just say some exciting ideas were born from this trip.