WE MADE IT, EVERYONE! After driving over 5,000 miles and visiting about 37 states and territories, we're finally back on the west coast (best coast)!
For our last ever blog post we decided to do a Q&A about our travels. The following the are the TOP 10 most frequently asked questions during our trip and our attempt to answer them.
Thanks again to everyone who supported us on our cross-country journey! We are infinitely grateful and we couldn't have done it without you!
<3 Nics & Riks
For our last ever blog post we decided to do a Q&A about our travels. The following the are the TOP 10 most frequently asked questions during our trip and our attempt to answer them.
- How did you come up with the idea for this road trip?
BOTH: Once upon a senior year of undergrad, we casually threw around the idea of traveling to Coney Island by car, and then lost in the turmoil that was Capstone (senior thesis), immediately forgot about our spontaneous plans. By the next fall semester (after we graduated), the idea resurfaced and this time, we refused to let it die. So we decided to see our idea to fruition and thought, why stop at Coney Island - why not travel across the US like Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise in “On the Road?” And as SUA graduates, our humanistic nature emerged and we also asked, how can we make this trip meaningful? This is how a road trip to Coney Island became The Kerouac Crusade, a Jack Kerouac-inspired volunteer cross-country road trip. And so began our concrete planning. What started as a half-baked idea turned into a fully-baked pie. A whole apple pie with whipped topping and everything. - Where did you stay?
BOTH: In most places, we stayed with family or friends. In other places, we used AirBnB, a site that allows you to rent places to stay from local hosts all over the world, and depended on the kindness of strangers to house us. - Was it expensive?
BOTH: With our accumulated personal savings and with the generous support of family and friends through crowdfunding (via GoFundMe), we were able to fuel our entire trip cross-country and back as well as pay for other transportation fees and accommodations. Although “expensive” is a relative term, we feel that in our case, this trip was very affordable due to our careful planning and budgeting. - Did you get tired of driving?
RIKS: Actually, no. Surprisingly enough. I got tired (who wouldn’t after 12 hours straight on the road?!), but not of driving. For someone who isn’t particularly fond of driving long distances, I really enjoyed the scenery changes unique to each state. Driving isn’t tiring when you have something to look forward to and every moment, there was something to be excited about.
NICS: I live on an island, you can drive around it in 4 hours...so no, I didn’t get tired of driving, I was too excited to see all the amazing scenery America had to offer. - What was the best thing you ate?
NICS: This is too hard to answer, but if I were to choose, I would say the fresh picked strawberries from the Accokeek Foundation’s Ecosystem Farm in Maryland Riks and I volunteered for. After helping out on the farm and learning what it means to be an Ecosystem farm, we were able to just pick some strawberries right off the vine and have a taste. Those were the sweetest strawberries I’ve ever had!Also, all the home-cooked meal our hosts provided for us! Being on the road is fun, but some days we would live off of fast food and snacks we’ve packed in the car, so I missed real food.
RIKS: Food. I’m a cheater. And a foodie. It’s seriously difficult for me to choose because this entire trip was filled with such amazing food - Italian beef in Chicago, tacos de lengua in New York, thin crust pizza in Austin, cronuts in Arizona, a lobster tail pastry in Boston, and crispy fried chicken in New Orleans just to name a few…
- What was your favorite place?
RIKS: This one’s also tough. Dang. We passed through so many incredible places. Maybe I’m cheating again, but it wouldn’t be fair to choose one favorite. Each place had something so different and wonderful to offer. You name a place and I can name at least one thing I loved about it.
NICS: This is a really hard question! But one of my favorite places would be New Orleans! I just loved the atmosphere of the people and the place. People we would pass by would give us a friendly greeting, and just thinking about the beautiful French Quarter makes me want to go back! - What was most memorable?
NICS: The last day we were in Chicago, I realized that we haven’t had a chance to try their famous deep dish pizza! So started our adventure into downtown Chicago...well it was easy to find a deep dish pizza place, but bringing it back to the car (we were on a tight driving schedule) was where our real adventure started! Somehow we got lost going back to find the car..and it began to storm!!! Not a minute later our clothes were completely soaked. We desperately tried to protect our precious pizza box as we trekked through the streets of Chicago and at about 10 minutes into the storm, we were basically the only people out… Somehow, we managed to find the car but by this time we were in such low spirits as we could not fathom how our pizza could’ve survived. So you could imagine our once disappointed faces light up the moment we opened the soaked pizza box and see that, somehow, our pizza was unharmed! A hot steam of hope wafted up, and it made our stormy journey all worthwhile. Deep dish pizza should be on everyone’s to-eat list if you ever have a chance to stop by the lovely city of Chicago.
RIKS: It goes without saying that the whole trip was memorable, but some of the moments I won’t soon forget are:
-Getting caught in a thunderstorm in Chicago
-Walking from New York to Ontario and across Rainbow Bridge to Niagara Falls
-Going to my first, fancy-as-heck dine-in movie theatre to watch Maleficent
-My first taste of frozen Butterbeer (Yes, at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter)
-Hiding in a locked pagoda in an Orlando rainstorm
-A ghost tour through America’s most haunted city, intoxicated
-Driving through 27 states and 2 territories with one of the best people I know - Did you meet any interesting people?
RIKS: When did we NOT meet interesting people? I think the answer to this is a resounding yes! From the mysterious, disappearing lady who led us through the hidden alley-way to the high-on-life young man living the Bohemian lifestyle to Oreo, the cat who can brush his own fur, there wasn’t a shortage of “interesting” on this trip. Referring back to question 6, I realize that it really wasn’t about the places at all, but the people who made those places unforgettable.
NICS: I can say that in every place that we’ve stayed, we met some really interesting souls. Lucky for us, we’ve come across some of the kindhearted individuals that inspired and helped us along the way. - What was it like volunteering?
NICS: It was really a good feeling to get involved in the places we were visiting instead of only sight-seeing since we had the chance to meet awesome people who sincerely cared about their community. They were so friendly and welcoming that I felt like I was a part of the community, which made these places more personal to me. It’s nice to put faces to the places we’ve visited.
RIKS: I never really know how to answer this one. But it was certainly a humbling experience. It was a privilege having each organization openly welcome us and allow us, even for just a day to be a part of their day-to-day. But it was also not doing enough, wanting to do more, wishing for more hours in the days, more days in the month. And learning. So much learning. I know I went into each different volunteer experience hoping to help out a community, but I know that I gained more from each experience than I could have ever given. I didn’t go into volunteering thinking I could be anyone’s solution, but rather knowing that I wouldn’t be. And that’s the reality. - Was it difficult spending so much time together?
RIKS: I contemplated smothering Nics with a pillow once. And another time, almost abandoned her at a train station. Nah, just kidding. Truthfully, we do sometimes have our differences, but I knew no matter what, I was going to stick out TKC with Nics by my side. We went into this together and we were going to finish together. I think being roommates our senior year of undergrad was a good test run of our tolerance for each other, which turns out to be unusually high, FYI - especially for an introvert like myself who needs to recharge at the end of each day and would rather hang out with books than people. I’m not going to pretend that every moment was rainbows and butterflies and cupcakes, but the few times we had disagreements (and believe me, they were few), I think we both knew, that at the end of the day, we’d only have each other. And neither of us was prepared to take on this journey solo. So we sucked it up, rode it out, and made the best of every situation. Excuse me for getting sentimental for a second, but I mean this sincerely when I say that Nics is one of the only people in the world (that I know of) that I can spend every waking minute (and I seriously mean every. single. waking. minute.) with. And I guess that’s saying something.
NICS: Nope, and I would do it all over again! Before going on this trip, I did worry if spending so much time driving, not to mention being in each other’s personal space for a month, would drive us crazy, but it didn’t. Well, not as much as I imagined. Erika and I worked so well together to make this a successful, safe, and grand trip of a lifetime. So not to sound corny, but I cherished every exciting day of our trip!
Thanks again to everyone who supported us on our cross-country journey! We are infinitely grateful and we couldn't have done it without you!
<3 Nics & Riks