Florida -> Colorado Road Trip

Day 1: Orlando, FL -> Whittwell, TN, 9.5 hours, 583 miles

Woke up in my friend’s apartment in southern Orlando and hit the road around 7:40AM for my 26 hour, 1,900 mile solo road trip. I had great weather and pretty light traffic most of the drive. Until I hit good ole Atlanta, Georgia… Can someone explain to me how it is possible to have a seven-lane road and still have stopped traffic?! Like how on earth are there that many people, much less that many people all in the same place at the same time. So that was a pretty frustrating hour and a half of my drive. But, besides that, it was a pretty good drive. I loved watching the terrain change from the lack of elevation and the palm trees of Florida to beautiful mountains of northern Georgia and Tennessee.

And, like all good road trips, I was prepared with lots of podcasts, audiobooks, and road trip worthy sing along jams (including High School Musical and Hannah Montana #notashamed). I like to listen to different science-based podcasts, but I struggle to stay focused on one topic for a long period of time, so I’ve been listening to 60 Second Science and Brain Stuff, which are usually no longer than 6-8 minutes long and super informative. I’m also listening to a book called “Girl, Wash Your Face” by Rachel Hollis. All ladies out there (honestly, all guys too) go listen to this book! It is super empowering and it’s about just learning how to embrace and overcome so many of the lies the world tells us. Many of the chapters are geared towards older, married women with kids, but even being a young, kid-free, single pringle, I still get something out of every chapter!

I love to sing in the car. Loud. And yes, I do get looks from the cars on the sides of me. And yes, I have been snapchatted by said drivers because I can look like I’m having a rave in my car while I’m dancing like a crazy person. Well you guys keep watching because I am living my best life! Yea 9 ½ hours might be a super long drive, but I am going to make the most of it and have a dang good time doing it!

So after this long 9 ½ hour drive, I finally made it to Chatanooga and headed to Prentice Cooper State Forest, which is a free campsite I found on freecampsites.net. It was located about 9 miles off the interstate and talk about a beautiful 9 miles. This drive was through the woods, running just next to the Tennessee River and it was incredible. When they said primitive on the website, they meant primitive. Like this place didn’t even have a sign for the entrance or anything. But thanks to the incredible modern technology of Global Positioning Systems, I was able to find the small parking area near the campsites. There were a few trails starting near the parking area and I followed them to find the few campsites marked with fire rings. I found a cool spot near some pretty big boulders and decided to claim it for the night.

I have a whole list of outdoor gear that I need to get and the next item on my list is a tent, so tent-less me found some nice sturdy trees and set up my hammock and bug net. After setting up, I explored the trails and found that we were located just about 50m from the river and an incredible view of Racoon Mountain. So I headed back up to my car, threw on my swimsuit, and jumped in for an afternoon swim! The water was absolutely perfect and the view was just incredible. I met a really nice group camping down by the water who were on a 30-mile canoeing trip and hung out with them for a little while. After the river, I spent some time relaxing at my campsite just writing and admiring the beautiful scenery all around. It’s unbelievable how you don’t realize how loud the world is until you’re immersed in the silence and serenity of nature. Ah it’s so peaceful!

After some relaxation, I had to grab some stuff from my car for the night and as I was doing so, I met the couple living in the converted van next to me and some guys that had been out doing some climbing in the area. They were all heading down to the pub in town for $2 beers and they invited me to tag along. That’s way too good of a deal to pass up, so I grabbed my wallet and headed down with them. They were all super cool and down to earth and they were just all together a great group to hang out with and we had a great time and enjoyed some cheap drinks.

Unfortunately, while we were there, it started to rain pretty hard and looking at the radar, it was going to be raining on and off most of the night. Sadly, I remembered I had already set up my hammock and also, unfortunately without a rain fly because unfortunately, that is also on my gear shopping list. When we got back to the campsite, my hammock and sleeping bag were pretty wet, so I laid everything out in various spots in my car and shoved all of my belongings that had basically exploded in my back seat to one side of the car and laid out my sleeping pad on the other side.

This will be my first time sleeping in my car and I’m pretty pumped about it. This is also my first big road/camping trip like this, so it’s all a big learning curve for me. So note to self, always check the weather. Especially before setting up a hammock.

Day 2: Whittwell, TN -> Jonesburg, MO, 8.5 hours, 514 miles

Today was an incredible day. I woke up in my car in my beautiful campsite and did the short walk down to the river just to catch a glimpse of the view one more time before heading out. Sadly, you couldn’t really see much of Racoon Mountain, but it was okay because it was covered by morning fog, which made it look incredibly mystical.

I got on the road around 7:30AM (eastern time). The climbers that I met last night told me about Foster’s Falls, which was about an hour north of us and had a pretty short hike down, so I decided to add it to my itinerary for the day and it did not disappoint! Even though it was a short half a mile hike in, it was a beautiful half a mile. The final approach to the falls was crossing a swinging wooden bridge, which was a great addition to the hike. The fall was a little skimpy due to not much rainfall recently, but it was still really cool to see and it was in a beautiful canyon type area with lots of fun little spots to explore. Also, I was the only one there since it was still pretty early in the morning and it was so peaceful to just enjoy the silence.

Got back on the road around 8:00AM (central time) and headed up northwest. My drive today took me through Tennessee, down south a little into Georgia for a few miles, back up to Tennessee, up to Kentucky, through Illinois, and over to Missouri. So yea, talk about covering some ground! I had never been to Illinois, so I couldn’t just drive through it without at least doing a little something to say I had been there. I looked up short waterfall hikes not far off I-24 and found a great little hike to Big Rocky Hollow Falls. It was only about a 20-minute detour off the interstate and it had a short three-quarter of a mile hike down to the fall. Again, we were in an area that had very little rainfall recently, so the fall wasn’t flowing extravagantly, but the area was just incredible and so fun to explore. It was another fall flowing over a cave, so that was so fun to explore the area around it. Since it’s such an easy hike, next to many pretty popular campsites, there were quite a few people down there, but it was still a big enough area to explore that you could find some serenity if you hopped off the beaten path a little.

After my refreshing little hike, I jumped back in the car and headed west. I have also never been to Missouri before and my drive was taking me through St. Louis, so even though I’m not big on really popular touristy spots, I figured why the heck not check out this famous St. Louis arch that everyone talks about since I will already be driving right next to it. I pulled off the interstate and headed into downtown St. Louis. Little did I know, there was a Cardinals game going on and there were probably ten thousand people in downtown at that moment! After finally getting through the traffic, I turned onto a small side road and found myself right next to the Arch with lots of open parking spots. Technically, it was illegal to park there if you weren’t part of the security team of the building adjacent to us, but I decided to be a rebel for a few minutes and break the law. I know, I’m such a bad girl, but I didn’t get caught, so that means it’s legal right? I just walked a little to get a good view of the Arch, snapped a few pics, and headed back. It’s one of those things that’s cool to say that you’ve seen, but in all seriousness, it’s really not that exciting. Like don’t get me wrong, in my list of top 10 arches that I’ve seen, it’s definitely up there, and it’s like pretty tall, which is cool. But it’s just an arch. Made of metal. I don’t know, I’m just more of a nature girl and get more excited about a tree that’s a hundred feet tall over a building that’s the same height. Anyways, it’s still cool to say that I’ve seen it and it was a fun little detour to see the city a little.

After that, I just drove around the city for a little while, then I jumped back on the interstate to finish up the last 2 hours of the drive to Jonesburg, MO. I found a free campsite called Daniel Boone Conservation Area located about 9 miles off the interstate and it is beautiful and very secluded, so it’s incredibly peaceful.

I’m not usually one to enjoy being in the car for crazy extended periods of time, but my drive today was incredible. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. It was so cool how the terrain changed from the mountains of Tennessee to the expansive farmlands of Kentucky and back through the mountains in Illinois. This is my first big road trip like this and I am loving it. I feel so unbelievably free and alive. I’ve been winging a good chunk of this trip and that has been so freeing. Like not having a daily schedule or a specific time that I need to get to a place. I am just going with the flow, stopping when I see something fun to explore, and figuring it out as I go. And it is amazing!

I am a little nervous about sleeping out in the hammock tonight just because all the campsites are pretty spread out. I mean, I can kind of see the campsite next to me, but it’s still a good ways through the trees and it’s just a little scary to be out in nature alone. I’m hoping to make it the whole night through without chickening out and sleeping in my car again, but I don’t have a whole lot of faith in my scaredy cat self. I guess we’ll see. I’ll update you guys in the morning.

Day 3: Jonesburg, MO -> Minneapolis, KS, 6 hours, 378 miles

Whelp, I chickened out. I started out in my hammock when the sun went down, but I didn’t make it very long. I just got too freaked out to sleep out in my hammock by myself, so I moved all my stuff back into my car. I lit a fire and roasted some marshmallows until I was ready for bed. I’m kind of a weenie and I was still pretty freaked out in my car. I tried listening to music and reading a book to take my mind off feeling super alone in the woods, but sadly they didn’t help very much. I pretty much tossed and turned all night and slightly dozed off a few times until about 4am. Unfortunately, one of my weaknesses is having zero ability to sleep once the sun is up, so even though I didn’t fall asleep until 4, I was still up at 6 with the sun. Talk about being exhausted. I didn’t have a huge day of traveling or adventures planned, so I decided to have a slow-paced relaxing morning. I laid out in my hammock for a while and played some guitar, which was really nice to just kind of take some time to stop and breathe.

Around 7:30, I decided to hit the road. I only made it about an hour and a half before I was tempted by the Rest Area signs and my drooping eyelids to pull in and take a nap. Trying to drive long distances while running on a measly two hours of sleep is not fun. So I pulled into the last rest stop in Missouri and hopped in the backseat to hopefully get some zzz’s. Thankfully, I was able to sleep about 45 minutes, which helped refresh me a little and I got back on the road.

Even though I’m not much of a coffee drinker, I’m a total sucker for trendy coffee shops. I was going to be driving through Kansas City, which is a total hot spot for hipster-inspired caffeine shops. I checked my favorite website in the world, Pinterest, for some insight on the best ones in town and picked the one that looked the most popular, Quay Coffee. I was really excited about this stop because I really enjoy exploring downtowns in new cities.

Unfortunately, this was not the exciting adventure I was hoping for. To start things off, I missed about 4 or 5 of my turns because the roads were so unbelievably confusing. Sometimes they turned into one-ways, sometimes one road branched into five roads, sometimes there’s a sketchy looking road with no lines on it so you have no idea if you’re even allowed to drive on it. I was so frustrated just trying to find this coffee shop, and once I did, there was NO parking anywhere. I was in downtown Kansas City (population over 400,000) on a Saturday at the beginning of summer. I should have seen this coming, but sadly, I didn’t. After driving around for almost a half hour, I finally find a spot on the side of some random building. After parking and loading up my backpack with my laptop, charger, and reusable coffee cup, I realize that hidden behind a very conveniently placed tree, there is a “No Parking” sign. I literally wanted to cry. But I decided to take the risk because I was not in the mood to drive around for another half an hour looking for a spot, and also there were about 15 other cars illegally parked there too so I figured the cops won’t give us all tickets. I’m a rebel, remember?!

I walked to the coffee shop about two blocks away and set my stuff down at one of the tables. I walked up to the counter to place my simple order of a small iced coffee, thinking it will be the same $2 price as the drip coffee, but was sadly mistaken when she told me that my total was $4.50. My small cup of coffee with no fancy milks or flavors or anything was almost five dollars. When she told me that, I wanted to take it back and just get a cup of drip coffee instead, but they had already started making it. Yall, I am insanely cheap and I won’t spend more than $5 on most of my meals or clothing and to spend it on one single cup of coffee… I was so frustrated. But I walked back to my table and started to do some work on my website. I worked for maybe 30 minutes, but I couldn’t get anything done because I was just not in a great mood and I was super paranoid about getting a ticket for being in an illegal spot. So I put my coffee in my to-go cup and headed back to my car where I (thankfully) did not have a ticket. I started the rest of the 3-hour drive and snacked on some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch.

Since I was so tired from not getting much sleep, I wasn’t really in the mood to do any hiking along my route today, but I did still want to do some work on my laptop, so I found a coffee shop not too far away from my campsite for the night.

I went to Ad Astra Books & Coffee House in Salina, KS and it was a great stop. It is a cute little book store connected to a coffee shop with a cool local shop inside. It had a really chill atmosphere and the staff was really nice. I got a little bit of work done, but when I could barely keep my eyes open anymore, I decided to call it a day and head over to my campsite.

I’m staying at Ottawa State Fishing Lake and it is wonderful. It is a gorgeous, peaceful spot about 15 miles off the interstate. It is a very poppin’ fishing spot with open land all along the shore available for camping. I found some great trees right on the water and set up my hammock to enjoy a nice, relaxing afternoon.

I walked all along the shore, met some really nice families, and watched the sun set just behind the trees by the lake. I spent the rest of the evening relaxing in my hammock and playing some ukulele. Once it started to get dark, I was greeted by some fireflies, which was a great surprise! Sadly, we don’t have those down in Louisiana. I had checked the weather forecast for the night earlier, and it wasn’t supposed to rain, so I was finally able to spend a night in my hammock! This campsite was incredibly popular, so I felt pretty safe, not being in the woods by myself. I fell asleep looking up at the beautiful, star-filled sky.

Day 4: Minneapolis, KS -> Denver, CO, 6.5 hours, 459 miles

I opened my eyes to an incredibly beautiful, colorful sunrise just over the lake. I laid in my hammock just in awe of how good life is and how free I feel on the road. I had a relaxing morning just hanging out in my hammock and walking around the lake. I got back on the road around 7:30AM and headed to my final destination of Denver!

It was about a 6 and a half hour drive and I was going to be gaining an hour. So, since I would be getting to the city a little earlier than anticipated, I decided to look for a fun stop along the way, like a short hike maybe to a waterfall or a nice lake to have a picnic at. Unfortunately, none of the fun parts of Colorado are located on the east side. The mountains don’t start until west of Denver and pretty much all the adventurous things in the state are on that side of the state, so there really wasn’t much to do or see before getting into Denver.

Due to this fact and the fact that I had been on the road for four days straight at this point, I was kind of ready to just get there anyway. I stopped for gas and I stopped at the Colorado welcome center. But besides that, I pretty much just drove the whole way through just enjoying the beautiful rolling hills of Kansas and Colorado. And got insanely excited when I finally saw the beautiful, snow-capped mountains of Denver!

I arrived in Denver around 1:30PM. It was an absolutely incredible four days. I got to see so much of the country that I’ve never seen before. I had to do a little bit of planning, but I more-so just went with the flow and found random places along my journey to explore. I made friends, I ate lots of pb&j’s, went on some crazy adventures, got a little scared, watched some beautiful sunrises, did lots of reflecting and journaling, and just lived life. This trip made me feel so free and alive. Life is just better without a plan or a schedule.

If you’ve got a couple days free, go on a road trip! Go explore the world around you. Get lost, make a few wrong turns, take some detours, make stops along the way, travel, explore, live!

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