On our recent vacation, my wife and I met an Australian couple from Perth, who were on a six-month trip around the world. They told us how much they enjoyed their road trip in the states from Georgia to Missouri, then over to New York. We got chatting about how similar the size of our two countries were. But it was the remoteness of the Australian cities that blew my mind. Perth’s nearest neighbor is Adelaide, nearly 1,300 miles away, which is the distance from San Diego to Dallas. They told us how rare it was for Aussies to ever make the drive across their country, and we realized how true it was for Americans too. So where does that leave us, having driven across the country, with the dog in tow, 10 times in the past three years, and once more in 2018. Sure, we mostly stick to the highways, but over those trips we’ve seen so much of this country that we never imagined.
| Trip # | Destination | Year |
| 1 | Move out west to Utah | 2018 |
| 2 | Van trip to East Coast in Winter | 2023 |
| 3 | Florida back to UT in Winter | 2024 |
| 4 | Trip to OBX in Fall | 2024 |
| 5 | Trip back to Utah in Fall | 2024 |
| 6 | Move back east to OBX in November | 2024 |
| 7 | Trip to Utah in March | 2025 |
| 8 | Trip back to OBX in May | 2025 |
| 9 | Move from OBX to Utah in November | 2025 |
| 10 | Trip to back to OBX in Spring | 2026 |
| 11 | Trip back to Utah in Spring | 2026 |
Every time we rolled out of our driveway, in either direction, the GPS always reads a daunting 36 hours and 2,300 miles to our destination. And every time it seems just as impossibly far away as it was the last time. Nearly all of our trips have started after work at the end of the week to get an evening of miles complete before two full days of driving to follow. Which is why I quickly change the destination from either Utah or North Carolina, depending on which direction, to something more attainable in the short term. It’s so much more rewarding to count down to each of the major cities along the route, and by rewarding, I really just do mean it helps keep my sanity. I can fathom completing 250 miles since it normally takes four hours to complete, and coincidentally, the perfect time to take a bathroom break for one of us, especially the dog. But even with those micro-goals, in the back of my head, I know that I will be driving from 6-7AM all the way until 11PM-12AM back-to-back days in order to get across the country in a weekend. Which the time, despite having a clocks all around us, is most distinctly told by the sun in the sky and that will never lie to you.
In a perfect world, of course we would take our time, stopping at all the major cities and interesting small towns along the way. But sadly, it just doesn’t work that way for our schedule. Let’s be honest, vacation days are too precious to be spent in a small town in Missouri just because we didn’t want to keep driving. The flip side to that would be to work during the day wherever we are in the country, then drive at night as much as we can, repeating every day until we get home. Sure, we would definitely see many more small towns and experience each of them in a new way that we don’t get from the highway, but that would be torturous in its own way. Best case scenario, we’d be able to get 5 hours of driving in after working hours. Which means from Monday-Friday, we’d only accomplish 25 hours of driving, leaving still 11 hours to be done on the weekend. That takes our normal 2.5 day trip and turns it into a 6 or 7 day trip. Sure, that sounds good, breaking up the long days, but now think about working 8 to 10 hours, followed by 5 hours of driving, and repeat that for 6 days straight. Count me out.
Excluding our first cross country trip in 2018 when we moved out west to Utah in a big ole box truck, and the reverse to North Carolina, the remainder have been in our extended, high top Ford Transit, Hoagie, that we built out in 2023. And while I have absolutely loved the van and build-out process, the are downsides to driving an 11ft tall, 22ft long vehicle in the 40mph crosswinds of Wyoming. Luckily, the newer Transits have crosswind assist that helps you fight those brutal winds across the planes by automatically adjusting the steering angle into the wind which corrects the vehicle’s straight-direction so you don’t have to forcefully hold the wheel into the wind. But that feature doesn’t account for when an 18wheeler passes you, blocking the wind momentarily, and you are now pointing your steering angle directly into the path of the massive semi-truck. Needless to say, you’re always fighting the vehicle one way or another.
To add to downsides of traveling in a massive cargo van that is much heavier than the empty shell we bought it as, are fuel efficiency and the momentum of getting it to go and stop with the ebbs and flow of traffic across the country. In the rest of the country, traffic doesn’t exist the same way it does on the east and west coast with their incredible population densities. Sure, commuter traffic in all the midwest cities exist, but it’s not nearly as bad. But the construction on the interstates, bringing 3 lane highways down to a single, narrow, concrete barrier lane can lead to some real white knuckle driving with that wide of a vehicle. Which is why we spend half our drive going back and forth between the Windy.com App and Google Maps to find routes that keep us out of headwinds or cross winds, and to avoid the most amount of traffic as possible. Otherwise, we often see the already pitiful gas mileage drop from 12-13mpg, quickly down to 8-9mpg, driving up the cost of an already expensive journey.
Regardless of how well our fuel efficiency is on any given trip, after 10 cross country trips, it feels like we’ve stopped at almost every gas station along the interstates. When departure times line up with previous trips, we’ve ended up at the same station, like the one outside of St. Louis near an antique mall that seems to always be busy. Even though most of the time, we just stop wherever to get gas or a break from the drive, we do always hold out or push the limits for one gas station in particular. Of course, I’m talking about Buc-ee’s. If you’ve never been, it’s almost making a trip dedicated to visit one. Beyond the 100+ gas pumps, inside the building has everything you could ever dream about. That is, if you dream about all the most delicious snacks, top-tier BBQ meats, a mall’s worth of clothes and knick-knacks, and everything in between. I know it’s a hot take, but we consistently stop at the Buc-ee’s in Tennessee, forgoing a local BBQ joint because we honestly think it’s nearly as good. Plus, if you’re in the market for Buc-ee the Beaver themed swimsuits, t-shirts, or pajamas, you’ll find exactly what you need. Be warned, the crowds that are ever-present inside can be quite overwhelming.
Besides the gas station stops I can all but recite from memory, one tends to stick out more than the others. That would be the Love’s Travel Stop. Not specifically for their gas prices or rest stop, but the fact that we’ve slept in Love’s parking lots on no less than 14 nights on these trips across the country. There are few other places in my life I’ve spent more singular nights at than a Love’s Travel Stop. Thankfully, on the far edge of their property, small RVs, work tucks, and vans line the parking paces each night. Vehicles all in transit across the state, region, or country just like us. And each time, we rolled into the parking lot at night, exhausted from an entire day of travel, some 18 hours in a row behind the wheel. We’d square the van away, pulling the bed down, use the bathroom inside, and get a few hours of sleep before repeating the entire process the following day. Love’s has a special place in these journeys, even though it’s no different than most other truck stops, but the fact they allow vans to park there for free and without bother has been a godsend for our trips across this country.
In the end, some of my favorite moments on these drives are the things that you can’t do without being stuck behind the wheel for some 30+ hours. Things like going through one album of your favorite teenage band after another or getting thru an 8hr playlist of the best classic rock songs with your dad in the box truck bench seat next to you. Between moments of jamming out to rock songs, true crime podcasts, or audiobooks, there’s the uninterrupted thought. When driving behind the wheel on the long, endless highways, your mind gets to wander, for hours on end, without being distracted. Not by your phone, your work, chores to do, or random distractions. It’s forced time with yourself, even though you’re sharing the ride with someone a few feet away. No matter how hard you try in your every day life, it feels impossible to get that amount of time, and it seems like driving across the country might be the only way to really get it.
Hi there, my name is Zachary Kenney and I’m an adventure filmmaker & photographer. My passion is to tell stories that will hopefully motivate you to go live a more adventurous life. Whether that is to experience the view from the summit of a mountain, or wandering through a new town on a road trip. Currently based in the Park City, Utah.
