5 MONTH ROAD TRIP
// THE ROAD-TRIP FORMULA
Town & Country 2010 Minivan + 300k Miles + Moving to El Paso + Career Change + 2 Kind Uncles
= Roleplaying as a Long Haul Trucker
Day 12 · July 31, 2026
Glacier National Park
I expended all my creative writing energy in the last entry, so I will keep this brief and let the images do the talking. TLDR: "Teacher, if a picture is worth a thousand words then my slideshow surely meets the 600 word essay requirement."
Read full entryCurrently near Glacier National Park
Planned loops
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>> NOTES ALONG THE WAY
Small moments, long views, and honest notes from life between stops.
It was my first day in glacier and I was roaring and ready to get started; you could tell because my head leaped off my pillow like a narcoleptic sloth at the early hour of 1pm. Despite my late start I had a absolutely wonderful day, largely thanks to the absolutely wonderful
Had a great day in Missoula! Mostly full of chores, but still fun. Got some of my laundry done, went to the beautifully modern local library, and packed up at Walmart. In between that time I got to walk the main river walk, where a community event had just finished wrapping
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I woke up inside of a volcano, both literally and metaphorically. I have learned that my inhuman ability to sleep in extends past the confines of a normal bedroom and apply even in a 95° fully lit van at 11am. Maybe that is something I should get checked out... Anywho, tod
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Nothing major this day other than seeing Ethan and Royce! Always such a good time seeing old friends and catching up. If you are on my road trip route, please let me know! I would love to grab lunch and catch up! Otherwise after this and some chores, made the drive to Crate
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Today was the first city exploration day of the trip, and it set a high bar that is going to be tough to beat. I mean right off the bat, going from waking up to having a McDonald's hash-brown in under 4 minutes is already pretty peak. But after that euphoric experience I had some
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Quinn and I packed up our campsite and said goodbye to Zion by doing the iconic valley view lookout. From there we headed to the Gerstner's favorite coffee shop. In the tiny hamlet between Zion and Bryce canyon lies the best chocolate croissant you will ever have. We went here ov
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By far, the most fun hike I have ever been on. Quinn and I were punctual getting ready in the morning, eager to get on the shuttle to the trailhead. After 2 miles of boring dry land hiking, we made it to the river entrance. From there it was 9 miles of trudging through a rive
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First day in Zion! Woke up in my tent to Quinn reminding me that you can't sleep in till noon when you are camping. But I got my butt moving and we went on a great hike up to Scott's Landing. Sadly my speech skill was not high enough to convince a Park Ranger to let us walk the c
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If Monument Valley was in the US, it would be a National Park. Started the day by heading to the Navajo Nation and driving to Monument Valley. The whole car right there I was like, "this must be it, it is so beautiful!" But it never was. Until got to the visitor center and was gr
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First off, need to point out the major success: I woke up in the van without any aches or pains, slept like a baby! Then I headed to the roadtrip's first destination: The Very Large Array (VLA). I was so pleasantly surprised, it was super neat! I found the place randomly on my ro
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The day started the same as all days that require Curtis to do any packing; by pulling an all nighter.... whoops. But by 5pm the van was packed and ready to go! I said a last goodbye to Ollie and Ricky and started on the road towards the first stop: A Very Large Array. It was a b
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