5 Reasons Why Everyone Should Drive Cross-Country

Now I have settled in my destination, Brightwood Oregon with my boyfriend. I want to tell you driving across country was a beautiful experience. Everyone needs to do this trip at least once in their lives and see the country they live in. We see pictures in magazines, scenes from movies and read about the beauty of America, but to actually witness it yourself is surreal.

1. America is fucking beautiful

I grew up on the East Coast in New Jersey, where I was always near a big city. I grew up knowing NYC and I always yearned for nature, which was why I always loved sitting in central park having lunch or reading a book. I always thought when I was younger, "I want to do a road trip across country." Now I'm witnessing the vast beauty of this country and everyone needs to see it. We forget when we get caught up in our everyday lives to stop  and smell the roses. Some people would do anything to come to this country and we do not realize what we have here. Point blank, America is beautiful,  you need to see it, start planning your road trip right now!

2. Experience small town America

You always hear about small time America in books, school, and especially the media. Its a huge topic when it comes to elections in this country. Living on the East Coast my whole life, I became accustomed to the big city life. I never really understood what small towns were like or what was the big deal. Traveling across the U.S., I never realized how much of this country is run by small towns. We have a big cities here and there but in between all of that is small towns. I remember driving through a town in Emblem, Wyoming, it only had a population of 10 people! Experiencing small town America and taking it all in made me appreciate them. Seeing it for yourself always puts things into perspective.

3. You will find out if you like the person you are traveling with or not

"I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them." - Mark Twain

I was traveling with my then bf whom I only knew for a couple weeks. I was wondering how our road trip would go after being in the car with each other for so many hours and days. I was surprised we got along fine and enjoyed our drive even though it was a long one. We had Pandora, which was a life saver. We listened to plenty of music and comedy skits which kept us laughing for hours.

The road trip was not the cause of our parting.

4. Its not as expensive as you think

A lot of people have the misconception that its really expensive to drive cross country, especially with food, hotels, and gas. We did not stay in the best hotels, the cheaper the better. And yes, we had some sketchy ones but it was only usually for one night anyway. All I cared about was if the place had a shower and a bed. Food, I stocked up on healthy snacks and sandwiches for the road with a cooler because I knew there's plenty of fast food joints along the highways. I went to Trader Joe's which is cheap and healthy. For gas, I guess it really depends on what kind of car you have but mine is a VW rabbit and its about 40-45$USD to fill it. It does good on the highway so we didn't have to fill it that many times. If you have a hybrid it probably would be better.

5. Driving through National Parks

The best part of this road trip was not having to be on straight highway the entire 5 days we were driving. We went through many national parks which were so damn beautiful. I highly recommend driving as scenic as you can, it makes the trip a lot better when you have beauty to drive through. Just make sure you don't do this trip when the U.S. is shutdown.

(Sorry for those who are out there now doing this, its really shameful and selfish).