This article will serve as a guide to planning your friends road trip, as well as a recap of our road trip. Each day I will reveal a new day from the road trip until the last day.
My friends, Shena Nicole and Dierre Taylor, and I decided to embark on a two week road trip from New York City to Los Angeles and back after reading that road trips were the best way to travel during the pandemic.
Only word I can describe our road trip…MAGICAL. We were able to stay in 12 different cities, visited 16 cities, hiked and walked over 7 national parks, visited civil rights landmarks, learned more about the indigenous people and experience some of the best food the United States has to offer (minus Louisiana Creole/Cajun cuisine).
Somethings to consider while planning your road trip:
- Pick your friends wisely! You will be on the road and in hotels with these people for over a week, so you want to make sure that you all mesh well. I would recommend picking friends that you have already traveled with in the past. This will give you insight into their travel habits.
- Create an itinerary that has some flexibility. The joy of a road trip is stopping at random places along the route.
- Use credit cards and websites, such as Hotels.com, that allow you to collect points that can go towards a free night at a hotel or other useful products or services for the trip.
- Make sure everyone that will be going on the trip get tested for COVID-19 before traveling. This is paramount as you will be spending many days with your friends in tight spaces, e.g. the car, SUV or RV. We got tested for COVID-19 four days before the trip to make sure we were all negative.
- Make sure to pack the COVID-19 prevention essentials, such as hand sanitizer, antibacterial wipes, washable masks, antibacterial spray and gloves (for times when the gas station doesn’t provide them). You have to pack your essentials, otherwise, you’ll be in a lot of trouble once the going gets tough. Be sure to double-check and then triple-check as it’s pretty vital that you get it right. You won’t want to be heading to the likes of Eyeglasses.com and picking up a new pair every other week because you continue to ‘misplace’ the ones you already own.
- Pack snacks that travels well, such as trail mix, canned tuna, dried fruit, nuts, and chips.
- Try to pick each location by the amount of hours you and your friends are comfortable driving each day. Our sweet spot was 7 – 8 hours.
- Use GPS navigation software like Google Maps or Waze
- Make sure your rental car has a e-toll or automatic tolling device so that you do not have to pay with cash each time you cross a toll bridge.
- Outdoor restaurants and bars are your friend! Being outdoors limits the chance of contracting COVID-19.
- Speaking of outdoors, make sure to add national parks to your itinerary. Use this time to hike and be part of nature.
Let’s jump right into the trip!
Our Itinerary
New York City
Akron, OH
Chicago, IL
Lincoln, NE
Denver, CO
Moab, UT
Los Angeles, CA
Joshua Tree, CA
Las Vegas, NV
Flagstaff, AZ
Santa Fe, NM
Tulsa, OK
Memphis, TN
Nashville, TN
Roanoke, VA
Blacksburg, VA
New York City, NY
Day One: New York City to Akron, OH
We actually spent the night at Dierre’s apartment, the night before, because he lived closer to LaGuardia Airport, where we were going to pick up our rental car.
Pro Tip: We used Kayak.com to book our rental, which was around $300 cheaper than any other site and direct rental car website.
To our surprise, when we made it to Budget Rental Car, we received a free upgrade to a SUV since they didn’t have our size car in stock. WINNING!
I remember it like it was yesterday, we couldn’t stop smiling and laughing at the thought of the adventure that was about to unfold. So we said a prayer and set out for the road. Out of the three, there were only two of us who had a license, so, the third person because the de facto navigator. Our navigator was Dierre! (He was a pretty excellent navigator). He would put in all the addresses into the GPS, made sure we were on track and made sure the tunes were queued up and ready. Shena and I planned to split the days traveling in half, but Shena was pumped and decided to drive the whole way to Akron (I drove the whole duration of the following day).
The reason we chose Akron is because Dierre was born and raised there. It was a stop that wasn’t too long of a drive and we also had the opportunity to meet his family. That’s a win-win in my book. The 7.5 hour drive flew by as we chatted about current issues and hot topics.
When we arrived in Akron, we took a mini tour around Dierre’s old stomping grounds.
After the tour, we went to his mother’s house. To our surprise, she planned a family BBQ for our welcome. You have to love the hospitality of mid-westerners! We spent the day eating burgers, hot dogs, potato salad and all of the traditional BBQ fixings, along with some wine and beer.
His family was lovely! They were so welcoming and sweet! The first night, we crashed at Dierre’s sister house who was so gracious to host us. This was another win as we saved on a hotel for the night.
Day Two: Akron to Chicago, IL.
We woke up bright and early to get on the road for our 7 hour drive to Chicago, IL. I knew this day would be uniquely challenging as I was driving directly to my friend’s funeral in Evanston, IL. A few days before our road trip, I found out that my friend, Jasmine Waters, had passed away in Los Angeles. It was a devastating blow. She was such a talented writer with so much going for her in her career. It just so happened that her funeral coincided with the road trip. We made some adjustments to make the date work, my friends knew how much it meant for me to be there. Luckily, my car mates were awesome and made sure that I was okay along the drive.
When we arrived to Evanston, IL, I went to the church for the service.
After leaving the church, we set out to check into our hotel that was directly across the street from Grant Park. The hotel was only $83.99 for the night, a steal! We had to wait about an hour to check in, so Shena jumped on a work call and Dierre decided to hit up the park.
After checking in, we were starving! Before the trip, we talked about supporting Black owned businesses along our trip. So we decided to grab a late lunch at Harold’s Chicken.
The food was AMAZING! Everything we needed. There were even pescatarian options for Dierre. We took out food and headed to the park to eat on one of the lawns in the park. We may or may not have had a wine spritzer with our food. 😉
This was Shena’s first time to Chicago, so we showed her all of the touristy attractions that were near to us like Cloud Gate (The Bean), The Art Institute of Chicago and the Pertrillo Music Shell ampitheater.
After we toured the area, we went back to our hotel room, showered and changed, and met up with my friend, Candice!
We grabbed some drinks at a local outdoor eatery and caught up on life. During this time, we realized that it was actually Pride Sunday, for the LGBTQ community. If you’ve been to Chicago, then you know there is a huge LGBTQ community and neighborhood called Boys Town. After the drinks, we decided to hop in a car and check out Boys Town. Unfortunately, when we arrived, all of the outdoor bars were closing because of the city’s COVID-19 protection order.
We still made the best of it, by strolling the streets and taking pictures at the rainbow crosswalk, as well as reading historical facts about the LGBTQ community on pillars along the street. All was not lost.
After the stroll, we departed with my friend and went back to the hotel to get ready for the next day.
Next up is our trip to Lincoln, Nebraska!
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