TJE 37: USA Take 3: Seashore to Lakeshore

Jan 2, 2017

How much can you fit in two weeks? It’s a challenging question when planning a road trip in the USA.

By the end of February 2015, I left Seoul, Korea, after deciding to take an opportunity in my home country. I had several weeks to spare before the start of work.

Thing is, the same cousin who convinced me to join her family in Japan, Jen, urged me to take a vacation with them to the USA. After a series of convincing and contemplating, I gave in, and decided to join them. I didn’t want to be away too long, so I chose to have only two weeks of travel.

It was settled. It would be my third time to visit the big country, and of course, I had to see new places. Even more, they should also see new places, considering it would be their fourth time. The challenge was, covering as much mileage as we can in a span of two weeks. And oh, there were seniors (peace!), kids, and an infant. So mobilizing the group could be difficult. Armed with the trusty Roadtrippers app, I tested routes until finally deciding with Jen to take on a seashore-to-lakeshore route: Los Angeles to Chicago (more than 4000 miles of road travel, back and forth).

It was demanding. We had to travel from state to state every day. Taking into consideration the different stops for: sightseeing, dining, peeing and sleeping. We were booking hotels along the way, ensuring a place 1-2 nights before our arrival. I was considering taking a plane back to LA from wherever state we would be if ever the two weeks weren’t enough for the group. In the end, we made it! And here are tidbits of what happened:

I was really thankful to my relatives for enduring the itinerary for what it was. (And yet again, for paying for the expenses, :D) Among all of them, it was my cousin Jeff (Jen’s brother) and his family (the one with the infant) who endured it most. They couldn’t sleep well because of the baby’s demands. And the little one got sick during the trip. Oops!

This USA trip simply blew my previous one because of the expanse. I don’t know if and when I will still go back to the big country. But if I do, I will try to top this last trip with an even longer mileage, haha!