Hey guys :)
So this is it huh. This is the last blog post of the entire trip, and probably the last one that we’re going to write for this adventure at all
Sprinkled through are pictures of us from today, and the entire rest of the trip
It’s been one hell of a ride, hasn’t it?
We’ve traveled to stopping points in 22 states - for pictures of various things within the cities located in these places! We did this as like, two human beings (20 and 19 years old) and we did it so well! We ate cold soup and sandwiches for a majority of the trip, with some really awesome meals provided by really awesome people throughout and in between!
We saw so many things, and we got to see family and friends
Safe to say, we can spend a month together interacting almost exclusively with each other and come out still really liking each other (and hoarding a host of inside jokes to top it off)
We are severely dehydrated
That’s crazy…
So, do me a favor? Won’t you stick it out, just for one more post?
Indulge me and read through our nonsense :)
For old times sake?
Just a warning. This post is going to be so lengthy!
Our final announcements of the trip
The ultimate song of the day was Devil Town by Cavetown
We did a whole bracket system for this guys we went so hard
The runner up ultimates were: 2nd place Meant to be Yours from the Heathers musical and 3rd place Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy by Queen
A song that didn’t make the daily list but hit hard: Love is an Open Door from Frozen
Favorite song discovered on the trip:
Jess’s favorite: Nirvana (ニルバーナ) by MUCC
Elena’s favorite: Supermassive Black Hole by Muse
The lowest gas of today: 4.09 (Virginia)
The lowest on the trip: 3.32 (New Mexico)
The highest of today: 4.49 (Pennsylvania)
The highest of the trip: 6.99 (California)
Signs that we saw today
NO
ENTER CODE
Favorite signs that we saw
Don't lose control. Be in control. EYES ON THE ROAD (Jess’s favorite)
Road will flood (Elena’s favorite)
The last middle child of the day:
It’s us. We are the middle children that you’ve all followed along on this trip and watched us as our photography skills plummeted (we peaked in New York you guys)
“Our parents are cool but we still felt the need to cause problems, so we crossed the country and came back by ourselves in a month”
We have no applesauce jokes because we would honestly rather bite it than eat anymore applesauce
But we can share a favorite out of the ones we’ve collected
We both liked the almonquack joke
How do ducks know when to migrate - they check the almonquack - it’s comedy
Wooo
Today’s announcements really decided to be long…
But we’re not done yet!
Here’s the last dose of knowing what Jess and Elena have done in their day in any sort of detail
Today wasn’t even that riveting, at least, not for you to read about but like for us it was fun
We got up this morning (we slept in different places last night, Elena was on the couch in her sleeping bag and Jess was in Kayla’s room)
So there was some like getting ready and doing stuff in between 7 and 7:50
But Jess and Kayla came out to the living room, Georgia and Elena had ben socializing
Kayla took a polaroid of us (Jess and Elena), and then we were on our way leaving campus (we’ll be back Lex, just wait a few weeks for us)
We loaded up the car (for the last time, so we were sort of disorganized and just threw stuff in) and we set our map to DC
Off we go
Just kidding. We had to stop to get gas from SHEETZ (which we have missed seeing, and Elena has a sheetz points card! Saving 3 cents on gas is super cool man)
So we got gas, and also some food (like not breakfast but like food to eat it doesn’t count as breakfast…)
And then we hit the road towards DC
Traffic was manageable (we hit some bad stuff along the beltway but like that’s just DC driving)
But we struggled with finding a place to park the most - apparently everyone and their mother was in DC today, and so all of the parking garages were just packed
We paid 25 dollars for parking (yikes, probably the most we’ve paid the entire trip)
Jess had to back the car into the parking spot - this stressed her out a lot - but she did it and it was totally fine (lil tight but like we managed)
BUT BUT BUT
We decided to go to the National Gallery
And that was just awesome
We let ourselves be art kids and enjoy an actual museum because we did not let ourselves do that the entire trip (because we would never leave)
And honestly it was so so fun
The east wing of the gallery was open (much to Jess’s surprise and absolute delight) and we had a wonderful time just wandering around
Elena was excited because it was like her first time in the National Gallery and it was cool
We spent like 2 ½ hours wandering around the gallery - and then were surprised by the fact that we spent like 2 ½ hours in the gallery. It felt like maybe 15 minutes
There were a lot of cool exhibits
Furniture. Always is in every museum ever.
There was a Robert Adams special exhibit (it was massive but really cool old photographs)
And we looked at the pop art things that were amazing (Roy Lichtenstein and Alexander Calder were the fan favorites for this round)
After we were shocked at spending about 2 ½ hours in the museum itself, we spent another 30 minutes in the sculpture garden
We boosted from DC after like 3 hours (oops, we were behind our self imposed travel schedule) and hit the ever predictable traffic
Which wasn’t horrible but I think it was definitely just a bad omen for the last day of the trip
But we managed and we were alright
We reached Pennsylvania!! We got to the point where we stopped needing the map to navigate, and it felt tremendously weird
Like we knew where we were and didn’t need to rely on the GPS or a map to tell us that
For the 17th time today, it sunk in that we just drove across the country and back like adults, and didn’t die doing it
This is crazy.
We whipped into Jess’s driveway and sort of just sat in the car for a second
We were both sort of a little bit dazed
And then we got out of the car, and unloaded
Everything
From Jess’s car
For the very last time of this trip
Both of us feel like gremlins to be honest.
We didn’t know what to do with ourselves being in like a real house that we didn’t have to leave again the next day at some ungodly hour (lies Elena has to leave for her actual house tomorrow morning)
Jess’s mom ordered us pizza and we sorted and organized all of our stuff
We edited and we wrote the post
And that was pretty much it you know
We’re done…
That’s weird
I guess this is the end then.
See below for a thank you note from the team, and our final sign off of the trip :)
A little reflection from Jess:
First off, big thank you to Elena for being the best project partner ever and big thank you to everyone for supporting us over the past few weeks. Y’all are the best! Extra thank you to Ci, Katie and Chuck, Nichole and Tim, Bri and Kaitlyn, and Kayla, Georgia, and Kelly for giving us places to crash on our journey and for generally being kind and amazing people. It was so great to meet those of you I hadn't met before and to see some friends!!!
All I wanted over the past three weeks was to see some art and take some pictures with a friend, and I definitely did that so, mission accomplished!
A smallish reflection from Elena:
First and foremost, biggest thank you to Jess for inviting me on this trip in the first place, it’s completely changed my life and I couldn’t think of anyone else I would’ve rather done this with :) You were the best project partner and the greatest copilot. Thank you 100X to all of the amazing people who let us crash in their homes during this trip, and for feeding us and just being overall wonderful, the trip wouldn’t have been the same without these experiences with y’all! Finally, this trip has really changed the way that I look at photography, and I really have Jess and all of the places we’ve been to thank for that.
If you’re going to drive across country
Find a friend who’s crazy enough to go along with it
But first
Figure out how to focus your camera
And
Don’t peak at the beginning of the trip (NY was all we had in us man, it was all downhill after that)
Lots of love and endless amounts of thanks for following along with us as we drove 10,000 miles coast to coast and back again in the span of 26 days.
We hope that you guys had as much fun following along as we did driving it.
We had fun, and we’ll never forget this adventure, but it’s good to be home now :)
Signing off for the very last time,
Jess Kishbaugh and Elena Lee
