#RSRSeesTheUSA: Breaking It Down

The epic journey has come to a close. I’ve been wrestling with how to write about it here at the end of my almost 2.5 months on the road, and what I’ve concluded is that there’s no one perfect way to conclude. So I’m going to offer a few different kinds of reflection and summary posts of this trip.

Here’s one for the statisticians and the summarizers among you.

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To interact with this map, you can visit My Scenic Drives, the site I used to plot it all out.

Stats & Superlatives

Where To

States visited (27) [bold=first time to that state]

• Massachusetts

• Connecticut

• New York

• Pennsylvania

• Maryland

• West Virginia

• Virginia

• North Carolina

• South Carolina

• Georgia

• Alabama

• Mississippi

• Tennessee

• Arkansas

• Oklahoma

• Texas

• New Mexico

• Arizona

• Utah

• California

• Nevada

• Colorado

• Nebraska

• Iowa

• Illinois

• Indiana

• Ohio

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Museums visited (22, not counting Meow Wolf Santa Fe & Meow Wolf Denver)

• Legacy Museum, Montgomery

• Crystal Bridges, Bentonville

• First Americans Museum, OKC

• Russell’s Classic Car & Collectible Museum, Glen Rio

• Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe

• Georgia O’Keeffe Home & Studio, Abiquiu

• SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe

• The Getty Center, LA

• Noah Purifoy Outdoor Museum, Joshua Tree

• Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs

• Museum of Jurassic Technology, LA

• LACMA, LA

• The Broad, LA

• Center for Land Use Interpretation, LA

• Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey

• SFMOMA, SF

• de Young Museum, SF

• Legion of Honor, SF

• International Quilt Museum, Lincoln

• National Czech & Slovak Museum, Cedar Rapids

• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland

• Corning Museum of Glass, Corning

Scenic Sights

National & state parks & monuments visited [only one I’d been to before was Death Valley]

• Shenandoah National Park, VA

• Blue Ridge Parkway, VA/NC

• Oljato-Monument Valley Tribal Park, Navajo Nation

• Joshua Tree National Park, CA

• Limekiln State Park, CA

• Asilomar State Beach, CA

• Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, CA

• Yosemite National Park, CA

• Death Valley National Park, CA/NV

• Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

• Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, AZ/UT

• Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, UT

• Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, UT

• Capitol Reef National Park, UT

Most awe-inspiring geology: Bryce Canyon NP

Most magical hiking: Limekiln SP

Most difficult hiking: Yosemite NP

Best overal hike for scenery + end location payoff: Lower Calf Creek Falls, UT

Hot baths soaked in:

• Ojo Caliente, NM

• Olympic Spa, LA

• Avalanche Ranch, CO

• Penny Hot Springs, CO

Celebrity sightings: 1

Bumper stickers using gun silhouettes to spell out words: countless

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Reading/Listening

Books read and/or listened to

• Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead

• The Overstory, Richard Powers

• Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman

• I Didn’t Do the Thing Today, Madeleine Dore

• Sea of Tranquility, Emily St John Mandel

• The Quiet Before, Gal Beckerman

• From Strength to Strength, Arthur C Brooks

Albums listened to repeatedly

• ruin, The Amazing Devil

• Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers

• The Joshua Tree, U2

• Plastic Hearts, Miley Cyrus

• Cuz I Love You, Lizzo

• Little Fictions, Elbow

Podcast listened to: All of them. All the podcasts.

Driving

Total miles driven: 12,108

Total amount spent on gas: $1,978

Most expensive (16-gallon) tank of gas: $121.28

AutoZones stopped at: 4 (at least)

Best road: Utah Rte 12

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Accommodation

Accommodation breakdown:

• Nights in airbnbs: 24

• Nights in hotels: 9

• Nights in motels/cabins: 13

• Nights camping in my tent: 2

• Nights camping in my car: 6

• Nights at friends’ places: 9

• Nights glamping: 1

• Nights in treehouses: 1

Average cost per night: $100

Most luxurious stay: The Prospect Hollywood, Los Angeles

Most postmodern stay: Cancùn Resort, Las Vegas

Most magical stay: Avalanche Ranch, CO

Most offbeat stay: tie between n*Everland Barnyard & Phoenix Mountains Treehouse

Most last-minute booked stay (20 minutes before checking in): Wingate by Wyndham, Montgomery

Most hobbity stay: Finger Lakes Cottage, Ithaca

Most roughing-it-and-worth-every-uncomfortable-moment stay: Hummingbird Campsite, Navajo Nation

Best boondocking spot: Rattlesnake Canyon, CA

Most hygge stay: The Winnie A-Frame, Oakhurst (although the Depot Lodge Caboose is a very close second)

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Natural Sounds

A 29-minute playlist of all the audio snippets I recorded along the way