Author: amandaonleave

My fervor to talk to you about being on the road got me out of order, so let me take a moment to set the scene. I left the Hoh Rainforest and Olympic peninsula moving south through Oregon and down to Crescent City. While my drive was coastal, my desire to get to Crescent City…

As I finished loading the car, I turned to look at the clouds sitting on the tops of the towering Sitka Spruce and Douglas Firs, cementing the light gray mist hanging over the Hoh Rainforest canopy, breeze rustling through the trees, and seeming threat of rain on the horizon (though it never rained while I…

I made it to Crescent City, California yesterday, and all I want to do is talk to you about the road. When I decided to take a sabbatical, I thought a lot about what I wanted this year to look like. What would leave me feeling rested? What would help me feel whole? How, having…

My obsession with Glacier National Park began in 2013 when my brother-in-law suggested it as a post-bar exam trip. After some quick Googling, I was an easy “YES.” The park looked stunning. For reasons I’ve long forgotten that trip never happened, but my desire to see Glacier never faded. In 2016, when I started running…

I left Minnesota bright and early Tuesday (June 27) morning, still reeling from the shame of the midnight car alarm. Truthfully, you have never seen anyone pack up a car so fast. My GPS was set for Cottonwood Campground in Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP), and my fingers were crossed that I’d get there in…

It was about 11:45 p.m. when I finally settled back into the air mattress to get some sleep on Monday (June 27). I was five days into my cross-country road trip and just hitting my second real day on the road. I spent the first three days of the trip in Chicago visiting my sister,…

One after the other we piled onto the bench seats in the dusty, white LandCruiser. Three in the front, six in the back—two Nicaraguans, two Brits, one Aussie, and four Americans—taking a break from surfing (which is only slightly ironic given that we were on a break/retreat to surf) to road trip to Leon, the…