Road Trip

Favorite Vacation Moment

Palm Beach, FL

by gethegrooveon February 22, 2008

Me and my brother (on the right)

It began as a fun dream to just talk about and developed into a reality I have to confess I didn't think would actually happen. My brother and I were both in college, he wasin grad school and I was getting my undergrad degree. We were the typical brothers growing up, didn't always get along and as we moved into high school began to grow distant. It wasn't until I moved away from our hometown in Florida to go to college in Indiana that we began to miss each other. I guess the distance did make the hearts grow fonder. During my time in Indiana we began to talk about how cool it would be to take a road trip across the U.S., visiting friends and family and camping out and hiking in as many of the national parks as possible. We talked about it for a time and then started to actually save money for it! We finally came up with enough money and just a few weeks after I graduated from college and a few days after his graduation we headed out in my Dodge Neon. We did a typical guy thing and stuffed our belongings and camping gear into my car a few hours before we left, doing practically no planning. The idea was to just head out and decide each new day where we'd stay. It was so exciting and we couldn't believe we were actually doing it! After that shaky beginning we made our way literally around the United States, heading up the east coast to Maine, across the top of the country to Wyoming, down through the West to California, and finally across the bottom of the country till we got home again. We saw and experienced so many beautiful and special things. I have great memories of standing on a mountain in Maine looking at the Atlantic Ocean, freezing to death in a tent in the Badlands in South Dakota as the temperatures dipped into the 20's and snow fell, getting to watch the Tonight Show live in L.A., walking into the Olympic stadium in Salt Lake City, hiking through a mountain meadow in Yellowstone as buffalos grazed around us and so many more awesome memories. I guess the greatest thing about the whole trip, though, had to be seven weeks cramped in a little Dodge Neon, luggage stacked to the top of the seats in the back, or in a little tent, freezing to death getting to spend time with my big brother, no longer the guy I picked on or disliked, but the person that was now my best friend.