On August 9th, Amanda and I set out on a journey of a lifetime through 9 spectacular states…
Times visited: 2 (10 days in 2008 and 2 weeks in 2017) + once in Alaska (1 month and 10 days in 2023, see separate category)
Cities visited: Miami, Orlando, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, San Bernardino, Barstow, Las Vegas, Kingman, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Amarillo, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, St. Louis, Carbondale and Chicago
States visited: Florida, California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Alaska
National parks visited: Everglades National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Petrified Forest National Park, Gateway Arch
UNESCO sites visited: 3
USA is one of those countries that you’ll simply never see all of. It’s too huge and there’s too much worth seeing. To me, it was always a country that I was interested in seeing mainly influenced by tv shows and films. But one experience in particular interested – driving Route 66. I went to the States for the first time in 2008, on a family trip to Florida, but didn’t return until August 2017, where I finally experienced the Route 66.
My friend and I flew to Los Angeles, where we started our two-week journey across nine states, sleeping in the car most nights. We saw so much along the way and even took detours to Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. We experienced ghost towns and small atmospheric cafe’s and saw the most incredible natural landscapes. We also visited a good friend of mine in Oklahoma City and found ourselves a lovely family in Barstow. When we got to Illinois, we abandoned the route for a couple of days to drive down South to Makanda, where we watched the incredible Great American Eclipse, before continuing on to Chicago. Despite being under time pressure, we really made the most of it and saw and did so much. It was an amazing journey!
In August 2023, I returned to the US to visit a dream destination; Alaska! But since Alaska is an exclave, I’ve given it its own category. Click here to read more!
