eSCAping Type 1

An unfortunate stereotype that comes with being disabled, is people assume you don’t do ANYTHING. Like, going out to dinner must be this huge, awesome event since I can’t even walk.

Well, I’m here to prove them very wrong.

You see, one of the coolest things I’ve ever done is the cross country road trip my husband and I take every year. Together, we’ve been to 42 different states. 

You don’t need a whole lot of money, a set plan, or even the ability to walk – which makes this the perfect vacation for me. I strongly believe that a road trip should be on everyone’s bucket list.

So, to help inspire you, to prove adventures aren’t limited to able-bodied people, & so you can briefly live vicariously through me (because this is one of the rare instances you’ll actually want my life), I’ll tell you about all 3.5 of them.

Starting with our 2016 Road Trip #1 – the 6,290 mile drive from Buffalo, NY to San Diego, CA and back.

Note: Every single picture in this post is mine – many from Snapchat that were somehow saved?

We were gone for two weeks (thank you private high school spring break time!), brought our 2-year-old German Shepherd,  & way too much unnecessary stuff.

Day 1: Chicago

After a late start that didn’t really matter because there are no set plans on road trips, our first stop was Chicago.

We both hate cities but love pizza, so it was ok. We got there at night, ate some authentic deep-dish, slept in a dog-friendly hotel, and then left the next morning after taking some pictures by Lake Michigan. 

Day 2: Des Moines

From there, we went to Iowa to visit Antique Archeology – the “American Pickers” store. Rummaging through strangers’ junk,  I mean, discovering hidden gems among antiques is actually my husband’s dream job, so he was in his glory.

No, we did not see Mike or Frank, and all the stuff was either too expensive or not for sale, but it was still a neat stop! If you’re a fan of the show, I recommend it. We ate lunch by the Mississippi River and then headed to Des Moines – which I, unexpectedly, loved. 

Now, I highly doubt you would ever fly to Des Moines, Iowa, despite it being a nice city, but that’s why road trips are so great. Since we happened to be driving through, we were able to stop and walk around the kind of creepy but awesome, free, accessible Pappajohn Sculpture Park with Bogart that we weirdly still talk about four years later. It’s those random, unplanned stops that make every road trip memorable and fun.

Which brings me to our first night sleeping in the car! Let me say right away – it’s not as bad as it sounds. That night we were at a truck stop somewhere near Omaha, Nebraska. Truck stops are nice because they have everything you need right inside … and it’s not so weird brushing your teeth in the public bathroom in the morning (unlike Walmart, but we’ll get to that later).

Day 3: Colorado

Now, if you’re road-tripping and have the chance to avoid Nebraska, do it. It is brown and flat with absolutely nothing to look at for hours.

Out of every state we’ve driven through, Nebraska is hands. down. the. most. boring. one.

Luckily, Colorado makes that drive worth it. Unfortunately, we arrived in my favorite state at the same time as a State-Emergency-level blizzard.

With all of the highways closed down, Coloradians were travel-banned, sticking us in a Dairy Queen parking lot for four hours. In that time, we made several epiphanies: Bogart discovered his love for DQ hotdogs, I learned how entertaining SnapChat filters can be, and Cody decided since he’s from Buffalo this travel ban was more of a suggestion, so we’d be fine.

So, once it stopped snowing enough for us to see, our journey to Boulder continued. Since all major roads were literally barricaded, we took a three-hour trip down an unplowed backroad that we shared with a herd of cows whose fence was destroyed in the storm. It sounds like the plot of a country song.

The number of cars in ditches was insane. But we did not slide or get stuck once! And if that’s not a testimony to buy a Rav 4 – along with the fact that we’ve driven my one car across the country three times – I don’t know what is. (Heyyyy, Toyota…)

Day 4-5: Boulder

We stayed at an Air B&B in Eldorado Springs for two nights, and it was not long enough. We didn’t even really do anything; visited some breweries, ate Chinese steamed buns and drank boba tea at the Pearl Street Mall, took Bogart walking through this (flat) park near the mountains…

But the whole time we were there my heart just felt free and happy, you know? I loved seeing mountains everywhere I looked.

It was the perfect mix of being similar enough to home where I felt comfortable, yet different enough to be beautiful and exciting.

And everyone there is just plain nice. Which may have something to do with the legalized marijuana, or the fact that I compare everyone to New Yorkers, but I’ll take it either way.

I was genuinely sad when we left. But a few locals recommended Arches National Park in Utah, so we had to head there. 

Day 6: Arches

One neat thing about National Parks is that you can drive through them and still get to experience all of the awe and beauty as if you were hiking. (Note: I’m sure hiking provides unique, unimaginable experiences, but let me live!)

Plus, they all have some handicap accessible trails if you’re really itching to get out of the car. But, my point is, is you don’t need to!

Just getting to Arches was amazing in itself. Utah is like another world compared to New York. It’s desert and then these huge red rocks everywhere. It deserves a better description, but no words give it justice. Obviously it’s not something you experience from a plane.

I’m telling you, driving through these completely new places gives you this primal sense of freedom. Road trips give meaning to the words adventure & exploration.

Arches National Park is exactly what you’d think it would be: An expansive area of those huge red rocks with gaps in them, forming arches.

I get that it sounds boring – who would want to sit in a car and look at a bunch of rocks? But it’s not just arches (though there are over 2,000 of them). The fact that there are so many and they are huge and were all naturally made is so cool.

After exploring for a few hours, we drove to our next point of recommendation – Zion National Park.

We arrived to the east side of the park at night … and then somehow, unknowingly, drove through the entire park in the dark to reach the southwest-side main entrance.

That may have been the most terrifying part of our first road trip.

Zion is literally known for its “steep red cliffs,” which you navigate driving up and down them with pinpoint turns. While the park is open 24/7, there are no lights or guardrails or cell phone reception because, well, nature.

But (obviously) we made it! We slept in the car just outside the park’s main entrance, ready to spend Easter Sunday in one of our favorite places in America…

…which you can continue reading about here 🙂