Our host assured us that we lived on the right side of the tracks and that people in her neighborhood knew to avoid crossing them because of gang activity. Annie said, “Wait- the tracks we just drove by?” They were 6 houses down from the one that we were staying in.
Our expectations for Memphis were high and the city didn’t disappoint. We were there for a grand total of 24 hours, but we packed a lot of action into our short window of time.
Driving through Hot Springs is a little bizarre. It holds an air of good times passed, but you know after being there, that those heydays are gone. This place is known for 1) being Bill Clinton's boyhood home and 2) having a bunch of old school bathhouses.
On our eastward journey, we drove 6 hours out of our way for one reason: NASCAR! The Kansas Speedway was hosting one of the 24 NASCAR events held each year.
We took a wrong turn as we entered Oklahoma City because Adam failed to listen to Annie’s directions. Google recalculated and brought us through the hood of OKC.
This place is apparently a “hard-nosed cattle town,” but it seemed like a trucker stop to us. It’s home to the largest canyon in the state of Texas, the Palo Duro Canyon, which is 2nd in size only to the Grand Canyon. We’re glad we stopped here, but we were happy to keep on going.
We spent two days here and really enjoyed exploring downtown and the Plaza. It was Adam’s first time to Santa Fe, and while Annie had been there prior to visit her brother James, she really hadn’t gotten a chance to do much exploring.
We visited all 5 of Utah’s Mighty Five National Parks. Originally, Utah wasn’t even on our itinerary, but after bumping into a friend by chance, we redirected our driving route to bring us through this beautiful state.
One of the primary missions of our cross-country trip was to experience places unlike home. For this reason, we were really looking forward to our stay in Salt Lake City. We were excited to see some incredible landscapes and learn more about the Mormon lifestyle.
Middle America, here we come. After driving 8 hours along the Oregon Trail, we arrived in Boise. The city feels like an oversized suburb centered around Boise State University, which, to Annie’s surprise, has a blue football field.
We’ve heard a lot about Portland so we were excited to visit. It seems like a millennial hotspot. It’s liberal, forward-looking, a bit hippy, and definitely weird.
The Cascades have loads of great driving routes. We snaked through the mountains to the little town of Leavenworth before sleeping in Yakima for the evening.
We’ve loved the last 2 months in Asia, but it feels good to be back on U.S. soil. We originally planned for 3 days in Seattle, but we quickly extended it to 6 as we got our feet back on the ground.