JoshOvermyer.com

Thank you to those who’ve already read the first 2-ish months of my gap year travels. If you haven’t yet, you may want to go start there and come back.

August

This month wasn’t a very big month of traveling for me, since I had just done the 20-day road-trip in July, but I did fly back to Florida (Orlando) to do a little bit of “work.” I’m on the Board of Directors of the Florida Floodplain Managers Association, and we were having an in-person board meeting and a planning session for the upcoming national conference that we will be hosting. This was as good of an excuse as any to fly down and spend a few days in sunny rainy Florida.

I purchased my tickets on Southwest, but instead of using my accumulated Rapid Rewards points, I decided to pay mostly with some Southwest gift cards I had picked up in 2019. Hint: sometimes stores like Staples will run a sale on Southwest or Lowe’s gift cards and you can buy $100 cards for $90. I’ve done this quite a few times through the years. I also bought some Uber gifts cards on a website called Raise, where you can buy discounted gift cards that other people are trying to sell to liquidate into cash. I expected to use quite a few Ubers that week because I did not want to rent a car just to then pay to park the car at the resort. But my friend Christa ended up taking me to the airport on my return trip, so that saved me approximately $30 to get back to MCO (Orlando airport code).

The rest of the month was mostly spent at the golf course or in the pool, for those waning days of Summer in Indiana.

September

At first, a continuation of the golf and pool time, because it was just about to close the family pool. We had a family wedding over Labor Day weekend, and my parents and I took a day trip to Dayton Ohio to check out the Carillon Historical Park, which includes a lot of cool history about the industrial past in the Dayton area, as well as the Wright Brothers National Museum.

In the middle of the month, I set out towards Texas for the annual FinCon financial media conference that I’ve attended a few times and where I meet up with so many of my blogging and podcasting friends.

I started out by cutting across Indiana, down past historic New Harmony, Indiana, then across the Ohio River into Kentucky to see the waterfront areas of Paducah. I continued south to Memphis, Tennessee, where I gorged on some BBQ meats and took a loop past Beale Street before settling into my Hyatt Place (booked for free* with 5,000 World of Hyatt points). I used the asterisk there because apparently in Memphis, they still charge some taxes on award night bookings, so I had a strange $36 and change charge on my credit card. Still a pretty nice hotel stay for $36.

The next morning, I checked out of the hotel and drove past Graceland, the famous home of Elvis Presley. I crossed the southern border of Tennessee down into Mississippi (a first time in the state for me), and took a conference call while driving back north through Memphis and then west across the Mississippi River into Arkansas. The plan was to stop in Little Rock for lunch and to check out the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Museum, but when I got there it was closed (I assume Covid). So I regrouped and drove west to Hot Springs, Arkansas to see the historic buildings of the Hot Springs National Park. That was a very worthwhile detour, and then I grabbed lunch at a cool little bar and grill on Lake Hamilton.

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After lunch, I headed south to Hope, Arkansas, site of the President Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site, but I got there just before they closed and I didn’t get to tour the home, just the small museum galleries.

Continuing on from there, I reached Texarkana, which as the name implies, straddles the Texas and Arkansas border. I have an online friend who lives there, but he was out of town that day, so I took a selfie at the historic Post Office and Courthouse building that also straddles the state line. Grabbed some Mexican food for dinner and checked into my hotel, a Courtyard by Marriott to use up some more of my annual $300 travel credit on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant credit card.

I only had 2 things on my agenda the next day, check out Confections cookie shop in Lufkin (East Texas) and wind my way closer to Austin or San Antonio. I did a lot more than that, though. Starting out, I backtracked a little bit to head south into Louisiana (another first time in the state). I wanted to check out Shreveport, but before I got there, the remnants of Hurricane Nicholas beat me to it, and it was the most difficult driving I’ve ever done (even pulled off onto an Interstate off-ramp for 15-20 minutes). Since it was raining so hard, I continued west into Texas and found my way to Lufkin.

You may be asking, why Lufkin? and why Confections cookie shop? Well around the time that I was gearing up to quit my job and take this gap year, Confections went viral online when a customer canceled a large (5 dozen) cookie order because the shop had made rainbow colored heart cookies for the LGBT+ club at the local high school. An outpouring of support rushed in and bought up all of those already-decorated cookies, and they grew a huge following of supportive people on Instagram and Facebook. I wanted to taste some of that magic for myself 😊

While I was there, I actually picked up an extra cookie, one decorated like a birthday cake, for my friend Brenda’s birthday. But she is in Austin and I was heading towards Houston to check out the beaches at Galveston (being the floodplain geek that I am). I stupidly planned to get her the cookie the following week when I was in Austin for FinCon, but that was going to be at least 4 days away, so I detoured to Austin to meet up with Brenda and give her the cookie. I also got to see her new BMW SUV and chat for a bit in her office before she wrapped up her day there to go to her second job at a Covid-19 vaccination clinic. She is a total badass, co-hosting a podcast and working on her PhD right now, too!

After leaving Austin, I reached out to my old coworker Luisa from 15+ years ago when we worked together in Fort Myers, Florida. She and her husband were going to get a couple drinks at a local outdoor bar, and invited me to come join them. It was great to catch up with how much had changed in the past decade and a half (I think we had seen each other once in the past 10 years, but only briefly), her whole career trajectory and the challenges of WFH and online schooling for her two teenagers (HOW ARE THOSE BABIES TEENAGERS ALREADY?) I checked into my room at the SpringHill Suites (part of Marriott) to use up some more of the $300 travel credit, and called it a night.

Saturday morning, I woke up early and went downtown San Antonio to wander around the famous River Walk. It was a very hot and humid morning, so within 2 minutes I was already drenched, but I kept walking. I stumbled upon the Alamo, which you’ll hear everyone say “is smaller than I expected it to be” and I walked around some more before heading back to my car to chug a couple Gatorades and hit the highway. I was headed to the beach!

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The purpose of this loop on the trip was to visit Port Aransas, near Corpus Christi, to stay with some friends for 3 nights at an Airbnb they were renting before the 4 days of the FinCon conference. A little rest and relaxation before the busy/loud/excitement of a conference full of money nerds. On my way to Port Aransas, I wandered south to the Padre Island National Seashore, again with free admission thanks to my National Parks pass. This was my first time ever driving directly on the beach, since that’s a big no-no everywhere in Florida except apparently still in Daytona.

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After leaving the PINS, I met up with my friends at the Airbnb and we chilled out for 3 nights. There were walks to the beach, some grilling out, an adventure to a local sports bar to watch football, and another walk to the inlet to see sunset. But mostly just fun chats, a podcast interview, and some much-needed downtime.

As we left Port Aransas, I decided to take the ferry back to the mainland instead of the bridge/causeway that took me a lot further south than necessary. That was a neat experience and saved me at least 15 miles of driving. I then took all sorts of back roads to Austin, and wound up stopping at the Barton Springs Municipal Pool. This is a spring-fed, natural pool (of sorts) that is a constant 68° year-round. Perhaps a little chilly on that day, but it felt good to float and soak for a while after 4+ hours of driving.

I explored areas south of the Colorado River and had lunch at the Green Mesquite BBQ, before heading to my hotel, another Hyatt Place booked with 5,000 World of Hyatt points, by the airport. In the evening, I took a city bus downtown to meet up with conference-goers who arrived early, and I got to see several friends including JD Roth, Miranda Marquit, Jana Lynch and a whole bunch more. I took a late bus back to the airport and called it a night.

The next morning, I was going to be picking up my roommate for the conference at the airport. Jully-Alma Tavares is the founder of Investing Latina, and she would go on to win a Plutus Award for Best Personal Finance Content for Underserved Communities later in the week. We actually had not met before I picked her up at the airport, but she lives in NYC and has had 3-4 roommates for the past several years, so it didn’t phase her one bit. I was happy to have someone help cover the $900+ hotel stay for 3 nights.

After we checked into the Courtyard (by Marriott, finishing off the remaining travel credit on my credit card), I left my car with the valet so I would have access to it whenever other friends needed rides to the airport (about 15-20 minutes away). I ended up picking up my friend Jillian Johnsrud on that first day and took her back to the airport on Saturday, just as I was leaving Austin myself.

FinCon was a blast and I got to hang out in the hotel and went to meals with so many people that I interact with regularly online, but I didn’t actually buy a ticket to the conference this year and that was a mistake. I wasn’t able to go check out the presentations, Big Idea talks, and vendors, obviously, but I also wasn’t able to go to many of the social outings, and could not attend the Plutus Awards ceremony, even though I have sponsored one of the awards each of the past 3 years. My best friends in the world attend that conference, and if I ever go back to a FinCon, I’m actually buying a ticket and will be able to access everything that it entails.

When I left on Saturday, I drove up through Waco and Dallas, and then headed east into northeastern Arkansas for the night. I stayed in another Courtyard (by Marriott) in Jonesboro, Arkansas, so I could earn additional Marriott points to be used for future free night stays. From there, I cut across Missouri, southern Illinois and Indiana to get back to my home base in Indiana.

October

There was no overnight travel for me in October 2021, but there was one very special day-trip. I drove to Columbus Ohio to visit with my friend Amanda Page. Mandy is an educator, a freelance writer, founded a non-profit, is working on a documentary, a dog-mom and one heckuva friend. I got to meet her in Cleveland in 2019 when she drove up to spend an afternoon with me, so it was my turn to make the drive and spend the day with her, this time on her home turf. We took a walk through nature and through the adorable downtown of Worthington, had lunch at an English pub, walked some more and grabbed ice cream at Jenni’s. It was a great day of chatting, walking, laughing, and connection, and I hope we don’t have to wait 2 years to do it again.

Since I was already in Central Ohio, I drove another hour or so east to Licking Valley High School, where my friend Brent had his pizza food truck set up for the evening. This time, I was smart enough to buy two pizzas, helping him sell out by 7pm and allowing me to have leftovers for the next couple days. The first time I visited his food truck, I ate most of the pizza in the first sitting, and finished it off when I got back home that night. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again 😉

November

November was a big month of travel for me, after the light month in October. On the first, my parents and I drove down to Indianapolis to have dinner with my sister and then check into a hotel near the airport for a very early morning flight. I picked up the tab and we stayed at a Fairfield Inn & Suites (you guessed it, Marriott) so I could earn some more points for future travel. We flew out super early, connecting at Houston Hobby airport and then getting to Tucson Arizona by around 10:30am local time. My mom’s cousin Deby and her husband Jack picked us up, and we met up with my great-uncle Dudley and his wife Laura for lunch at a sports bar in Sahuarita. We were pretty tired from all the travel, so we relaxed around Uncle Dudley’s house, and walked to dinner at the clubhouse within the golf community where they live. Sharing this here because I’m not sure where else to put it: the motto of the week was “When the mountains are pink, it’s time to drink!”

On the next day, we loaded up in Jack’s SUV and drove to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, but not before having a delicious lunch at Tiny’s Family Restaurant first. I had no idea the Sonoran Desert was as expansive as it is, but it was pretty cool to see some of the wildlife and of course the Saguaro cacti. We grabbed Papa Murphy’s take-and-bake pizza for a relaxed evening at home.

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Thursday is Uncle Dudley’s golf day, and we had 13 guys play in his group (5, 4, and 4). I was using borrowed clubs that were too short for me, and old golf balls, but I still played pretty well for having never even seen the course before.

On Friday, we took a big road-trip to Bisbee and Tombstone. Bisbee was a big copper mine city, but is now bustling with hipsters. We took a tour of the Queen Mine and learned a lot about the process. Tombstone is basically a tourist trap, and unfortunately, we fell into one of those traps, visiting a comedy re-enactment of the shootout, rather than actually visit the OK Corral. But the tickets we bought included a bus tour of the city, and that was at least worth the price of admission.

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Saturday was another big driving day, heading north of Tucson to the Biosphere 2 project. It was cool to see the various different biomes within one contained building, including an OCEAN in the desert! We grabbed lunch near the University of Arizona campus, which might have been a mistake since they were hosting a college football game that afternoon. Arizona ended a long losing streak that afternoon, although I’m not sure I can claim any credit for that! Haha. After lunch we headed back home to Green Valley, but not before stopping to see the Titan Missile Museum. Our tour guide was one of the men who worked inside the missile silo during the Cold War, so it was very exciting and scary to hear him run through all of the things that the 4 of them would do if they ever got the nuclear launch codes from the President or the Pentagon. And it was cool to hear that some of the missiles were refurbished and turned into some of the early rockets used by NASA.

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On Sunday, we stayed closer to home, visiting the artist little town of Tubac, and a few miles south of there is the Tumacácori National Historic Park. This is where I purchased my dad’s National Parks pass that is good for the remainder of his life (as teased about in the intro to Part 1). This gave us free admission for 4 people, so we only had to pay admission for 1 more. Tumacácori was one of the Spanish missions scattered throughout the desert southwest, and it was neat to see the church building and several out-buildings that helped support life in the desert so long ago.

On Monday, Uncle Dudley and I squeezed in another round of golf, and we packed up to leave on Tuesday morning. We were able to squeeze in one more attraction when we were near the airport, which was the Pima Air & Space Museum, where we saw multiple old Air Force One planes, tons of military history, along with some commercial jets and some aviation art.

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A few days after leaving Arizona, it was time for the second EconoMe Conference in Cincinnati. I drove down early on Friday morning because I had arranged to pick up several friends and some of the speakers at the CVG (Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky airport code) airport throughout the day. I used to be an Uber driver on the side, so this was kind of like that, except I already knew my passengers beforehand, and it would give me a bit of one-on-one time with them before the busy-ness of the 500+ person conference on Saturday and Sunday. In between airport runs, I met up with JaxBeachLife and her partner, and Emilie was able to join us for a little while, too. It was so great to finally meet Jax and spend time with Emilie again, because I hadn’t seen her since the first EconoMe Conference in March 2020.

That evening, the Stacking Benjamins podcast held an event that would be recorded as a live-taping of one of their episodes. They featured special guests Kitty and Piggy from BitchesGetRiches, which is a multiple-award-winning blog and podcast. It was a hilarious night of money nerdery, and when I got back to my hotel (this time a Hampton Inn, part of the Hilton chain), my roommate for the weekend had arrived. Darcy is also a Plutus Award-winning blogger and she would help me co-host a panel on “SlowFI” at the conference the next day with my good friend Gwen from Fiery Millennials.

I walked over to the conference center early the next morning, since I was on the volunteer squad for check-in with my friends Lynn, Flynn and Amberly. We got just about everyone checked in for the conference within an hour, and then it was time for the main stage presentations at 10. Diania welcomed us all again with a talk about the importance of Community, and then the BitchesGetRiches duo started off the talks with some hilarity that involved audience participation in writing Kitty’s resignation letter, which she will be using when she retires at the age of 35 this coming spring. Other morning speakers included Naseema McElroy (who paid off nearly 1 million dollars in debt) and Jeremy Schneider (who founded a company that he later sold for $5m but talked about leading with humility).

After a lunch break, we had 2 more rounds of breakout sessions (including the one I mentioned before), and main stage speakers for the afternoon included Paula Pant, Carl Jensen, Angel Cellucci, and Rich Jones, before a closing panel with Paula, Mr. Money Mustache (Pete Adeney), Naseema, Joe Saul-Sehy, JD Roth and Kirsten Saunders from Rich and Regular. After a dinner break, it was time for the after-party!

Sunday was the day for off-site events. The day started with an urban hike, but I was content to hang out in the hotel lobby with other stragglers. We were heading to the Fowling Warehouse, which has nothing to do with birds, but is actually kind of like bowling with footballs, but also kind of like cornhole? I took a real estate tour around Cincinnati, and then took more friends to the airport after we were done Fowling.

A couple days later, I was all packed up and ready to end my summer/fall based out of Indiana. I hit the road early (for me) around 6am, and made good time throughout the day. I got through Atlanta before 3pm, so I kept driving. I hit the Florida border not long after 6pm, so I kept driving. By the time I should have stopped, I felt like I was too close to home to spend points or $100+ on a hotel night, so I kept driving. I eventually back to my house in Florida around 11pm, which is a pretty reasonable 17 hours of driving for the 1,134 miles I covered.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I made a trip across the state to visit the ChooseFI local group in Stuart, which is led by my friend Lisa Duke. I figured she was one of my last friends in Florida to see me back in May before the Gap Year began, so I went back to see her and give her a recap on what all I had done so far. But this time, there were a total of 5 of us who showed up, so that was fun. And I met a fellow early-retiree/semi-retiree who had just gotten back to Florida from extended travels, so that was a lot of fun, too!

I will start another post with December travels after the new year. Thanks to all who’ve read this far.

I quit my job in June 2021, just as things seemed to be opening up to travel again (thanks Vaccines!) but before the myriad of variants started showing up and making things difficult. But I’m going to start a little bit earlier, since my gap year travels actually started before my last day of work.

May

In May 2021, I purchased a National Parks pass. This was perhaps the best $85 ($80 plus $5 shipping and handling that can be avoided if you buy the pass at a national park or other federal lands) that I spent all year. The pass is good for the month of purchase plus the next 12 months after, so you get almost 13 months of use out of the pass. That is, unless you are age 65+ in which case the pass is good for the remainder of your life! I actually had planned to buy one for my dad on his 65^th birthday and never had a reason to do so until November 2021 when we visited a national historic site, but that’s jumping ahead to Part 2.

Since I live in Southwest Florida, I am only a few hours drive away from 3 national parks (ok, maybe a plane or boat ride are involved with getting to Dry Tortugas). One Sunday morning, I woke up early and decided I wanted to put my pass to good use, so I hit the road by 7am and set out for Miami-Dade County, site of the Biscayne National Park. But when I got to the Miami area, it was raining over the coastline, so I stayed on the highway and kept going south until I entered the Florida Keys. I had been to Key West before, but I had arrived via the Key West Express boat from Fort Myers Beach, so I decided to explore the Overseas Highway, taking in the sights of the various small towns and villages through the Keys, and traversing the famous 7-mile bridge. After reaching the key landmark of the Southernmost Point, I circled back and headed towards Miami once again. Biscayne NP was a really cool spot along the shoreline south of the high-rise buildings in Miami/Miami Beach, but I missed out since 90% of the park is actually underwater! Biscayne became federally protected as a way to avoid more filling and development of low-lying offshore sandy islands. As a former city planner and floodplain manager in coastal areas of Florida, I was thrilled to see such foresight from President Lyndon B. Johnson to declare the area a national monument in 1968 and later Congress made it a National Park in 1980. All told, I spent 13 hours driving that day, but it was so worth it for everything I got to see.

The next weekend I drove over to the east coast again to visit with my friend Lisa Duke in downtown Stuart for the monthly ChooseFI local group she hosts there. Only 1 other person showed up, so I got to visit quite a bit and share the details of my upcoming gap year/sabbatical, since I had turned in my 2-week notice just 2 days prior. But the following weekend, I finally visited Everglades National Park, which I am ashamed to admit I had never previously visited in my 15+ years living in Southwest Florida, despite being about an hour and a half away from my home. I stopped in at the Gulf Coast Visitors Center near Everglades City and then continued east on US-41 to Shark Valley Visitors Center. Everglades National Park is a massive chunk of land at the southern tip of the Florida Peninsula, including the famous Ten Thousand Islands. I also visited the adjacent Big Cypress National Preserve during my day trip.

June

On June 4^th, I worked my last day and said goodbye to my coworkers from the past 3 years. I went home that evening and packed my bags, knowing I would probably be staying away from Florida for several months, and I hit the road the next morning. Two days of driving 8-9 hours later, I was back in my childhood bedroom at my parents’ house in Indiana. This would become my home base for my travels throughout the summer and fall. I spent the night on the north side of Atlanta, where I used a “35k free night certificate” from my Marriott Bonvoy (formerly SPG) credit card to stay in a suite at the Le Meridien hotel, part of the Marriott chain. This certificate was actually a holdover from 2020, since I didn’t have an opportunity to do much travel after the pandemic began. I also tried to incorporate a few touristy stops along the way on day 2 of the trip to Indiana, so I stopped at the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, along with Fort Knox and the historic first capital of Indiana at Corydon.

I spent the bulk of June in my hometown, spending time with my parents and grandparents, and I attended my 20-year high school reunion while I was in town. It was interesting to catch up with some folks I hadn’t seen in 5-20 years, and to see both how much, and how little, has changed for many of us. It was a fun night with old classmates, even if none are the type of friend that I would hang out with once more during my 5+ months in Indiana.

The last weekend in June, I drove 5+ hours roundtrip for pizza. Let me explain, I went to the Columbus, Ohio area to finally meet a couple Twitter friends, and try the pizza from @TheFoodTruckCEO. I wore my Farm Fired Pizzas t-shirt I had ordered from his store, and met up with Kristy, Ben and Owen from @Our_Hytreks, along with Chad Methner and we all had Brent’s delicious pizzas.

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A couple days later, I would kick off my biggest road-trip of the year, a 20-day, 6,000+ mile adventure through 11 states.

July

Even though I hit the road June 28^th, I’m putting this into July, since this trip is how I spent the majority of the month. I actually started the day by being part of a panel of flood experts at a national conference of insurance agents, but finalized packing and spent 5 hours on the road to reach Peoria Illinois for the night. I did take a detour through Champaign-Urbana to see the University of Illinois, but I didn’t stop because it had already been a long day. I stayed in a Springhill Suites (part of Marriott) and booked a government rate, since I still have my county government ID badge and that rate can be used for personal travel as well as official business travel. I wasn’t even asked for my ID, just asked if it was for personal or business travel, and I paid for the night with my newly-upgraded Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant credit card, which has a $300 annual travel credit, so the room night was refunded to the credit card as part of that travel credit.

Up next was a trip across the Mississippi River in the area of the Quad Cities, then past Iowa City to see the University of Iowa Hawkeyes stadium, a quick detour to see the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum (closed), and on to Ames to visit my friend Sarah at a delicious BBQ restaurant in an historic railroad depot building.

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After that, it was back south to Des Moines where I unfortunately missed out visiting with Kristin Knight and then several more hours of driving as I went through Omaha, Lincoln and approximately 2/3 of Nebraska. It was at this point where I tried “car camping” for the first time, and while the location was a great city park in North Platte ($10 donation per night), I am too large and/or my Toyota Camry is too small to comfortably sleep in the driver’s seat. If I try this out again, I will empty everything out of the back seat and try sleeping in the fetal position on the larger cushion back there. Live and learn, but I definitely saved money that night.

Day 3, I was awake very early and knew I would not be getting any more sleep in my car, so I hit the road and took a scenic drive along US-26, where I passed by the gigantic Lake McConaughy State Recreation Area and continued west to Scottsbluff. Along the way, I saw Chimney Rock and I stopped at Scotts Bluff National Monument, and I sought out the local Walmart for some free wifi since my cell signal with Mint Mobile was non-existent for almost the entirety of Nebraska.

Once I got close to the Wyoming border, cell signal re-emerged and I was getting texts and notifications like crazy! I continued southwest until I got to Cheyenne, where I grabbed a quick early lunch and made my way south into Northern Colorado, which would be my home for the next couple days.

I saw a Wyndham promotion that promised 6,500 points on top of the points you would earn by staying a minimum of 2 nights in one of their hotels, and 7,500 points is enough for a free night at their lower-end properties, so I booked 2 nights at the Travelodge in Longmont. They had an indoor pool and laundry facilities onsite, so I took a chance and also got caught up on a load of laundry. Later that evening, I drove down to Denver to visit my friend Piggy and to meet Michelle Jackson. We went to a local microbrewery/pub, that it turns out Piggy is a partial owner of, and we hung out for a few hours over beers (and Sprite for me, thanks!). I was still pursuing a “Dry 2021” at that point, and halfway through the year, I was not about to give that up due to some (very convincing) social pressure.

The next day I got up late and explored around Longmont and Boulder, but mostly had a very relaxed day with as little driving as possible. I even ordered a pizza for delivery instead of picking it up a mile or so down the road.

But Friday was the day to head down to Colorado Springs for the annual CampFI Rocky Mountain. I started the morning by scrolling social media in bed, and I saw my friend Becca had just posted photos of Scotts Bluff National Monument, where I had been 2 days ago. I sent her a message asking where she was headed, and it turned out she was going to an RVers hangout in the mountains of Colorado. We arranged a meetup in the parking lot of a Trader Joe’s in Colorado Springs, and I got to tour her home on wheels, where she visited all 48 of the contiguous United States this year. We sat and talked about my gap year plans, her travels, the future of remote work arrangements, and she even suggested I hit her up whenever I want to get back into the working world again, because she does similar work to my past couple jobs, albeit for a private sector firm versus my state and local government experience. After we took a selfie in front of her RV “BB” for Becca’s Bus, I drove a couple more miles to arrive at the Franciscan Retreat Center for my 4^th CampFI, but first one outside of Florida.

CampFI is always a blast, making new friends and catching up with old ones. Speakers at this CampFI included Carl Jensen, Mr. Waffles on Wednesday, Lynn Frair, and Diania Merriam (who had the unfortunate experience of having her flight canceled, so we improvised and she presented to us over Zoom). There is always a lot of down time in the schedule for hikes, breakout sessions, meals, and relaxation, but I spent the majority of the weekend sitting on the patio outside in the sun, chatting with fellow FI enthusiasts and sharing my plans for my gap year, which was 1 month old as of that weekend. We watched the 4^th of July fireworks from above the city, and slowly said our goodbyes on Monday, even as we desperately pleaded for folks to buy their tickets to EconoMe Conference in November so we could have a mini CampFI Rocky Mountain reunion in Cincinnati. (Spoiler alert, lots of the attendees did make the journey to Cincy!).

I stuck around Colorado Springs for an extra day, so I could be sure I had decent wifi for a morning conference call the next day (narrator: the wifi went down multiple times during the call), but I used 5,000 points from World of Hyatt for a free night at the Hyatt House (which was so poorly operated that it lost its affiliation with Hyatt sometime between July and mid-December when I am writing this post).

After checking out of the hotel, I made my way to the Red Rocks Canyon Open Space area for a short hike, as recommended by my mom. I left there to go to Garden of the Gods, but parking was in such short supply that I left after circling the parking lot for 15 minutes. From there, it was a short drive to Pikes Peak and I spent the next couple hours driving towards the top and then slowly back down to avoid burning up my brakes. This was the most spectacular drive I have ever made, and so worth the $15 admission fee. After leaving Pikes Peak, I went west towards Buena Vista and then north to Leadville before making my way back to Denver for the night. I booked a free night at the Springhill Suites for 20,000 Marriott points and went to bed early (8:30ish?) so I could wake up early and head to my next National Park.

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Around 5am, I checked out of the hotel and headed towards Estes Park and the eastern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. Due to overcrowding issues in the summer months, the National Parks Service had instituted a policy requiring reservations for the busiest parks during the busiest times of the day, but if you went into the park early (or late), you didn’t need a “timed entry pass” so I went through the entrance gate around 7:45am and watched the sun rise over the mountains from inside the park. This was another incredibly beautiful drive, with switchbacks and thousands of feet of elevation gain. I experienced tundra for the first time, and saw a pika and a moose while climbing to the Alpine Visitors Center. I waited around 45 minutes for the visitors’ center to open, but unfortunately, they did not have any hot chocolate (even though it was on the menu), so I left there to continue traveling west and south through the Grand Lake exit point.

I drove through Granby and had lunch in Breckenridge, before detouring through Vail and Glenwood Springs on my way to Grand Junction.

That same Wyndham promotion was still running, so I booked another 2-night stay at a cheap Travelodge (using my AAA discount) and it was truly the worst hotel experience of my life. I gave the property a 1-star rating on Google and encouraged others to read and believe all of the 1-star ratings that had already been left. I was never sure that my door to my motel-style room was actually closed/locked, and when I left for the in-between day to visit more parks, I took all of my belongings with me in my car because I couldn’t get the door to feel fully shut, even though the wooden door itself was almost cracking with the force I applied to try closing it. I made sure to hop in the pool both afternoons (105° days) instead of trying to use the decrepit shower/tub combo in the room. To top it all off, they actually CHARGED me a $100 deposit, rather than ringing up a pending charge. When I called to complain, they said this is standard procedure and I assured them that it is not, in my decade+ of traveling all over the country for work and pleasure. It took more than a week, but the charge was refunded.

On that in-between day, I headed southeast to visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and then Colorado National Monument when I returned to Grand Junction. Both of these are very cool rock formations with scenic drives along the rim of the particular canyon. Black Canyon is half a mile deep and only about a quarter mile across, so it is a very deep V-shape, while the Colorado National Monument is more varied with painted rocks, 3 tunnels and the road spits you out in the neighboring town of Fruita.

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I woke up early and got out of the hotel/motel from hell as soon as I could, and headed north to the Dinosaur National Monument. The drive there was probably the most spectacular part of the day, as it winded through Bureau of Land Management land and cows were grazing all up and down the mountain road. This was near the Douglas Pass View Point, if you want to check it out on Google Maps. Since I was tired, I didn’t actually spend much time at either of the two Dinosaur visitor centers that I stopped at, the Canyon Visitor Center and the Quarry Visitor Center, since I was going to be driving a few more hours west into Utah for my next two-night stay.

On my way into the Salt Lake City area, I took a detour through Park City, which hosted giant slalom and snowboarding events in the 2002 Winter Olympics. I then made my way down into Salt Lake City to visit an auto shop. This wasn’t any old body shop though, it is home to Kindig-It Design, which is featured on the television show “Bitchin’ Rides.” I picked up a t-shirt, a coozy and looked around for a little bit before heading down to Provo for a relaxing 2-night stay.

After arriving in the Provo checking into my Hyatt House near the BYU campus (booked with 10,000 points from World of Hyatt, 5k per night), I spent some time in the pool (another 100+ degree weekend). The next day, I drove up into downtown Salt Lake City, checking out the State Capitol building and the Temple square, before heading west to the Great Salt Lake and then back down to Provo for more exploring. I went to Timpanogos Cave National Monument and then drove up through an old rail line that has been paved into the Alpine Scenic Loop in American Fork Canyon. It took me past Sundance, home of the famous film festival, and then I drove through the BYU campus and down to Utah Lake before going back to my hotel for some more pool and relaxation time.

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It was at this point where I was pondering which direction to go next, and I was leaning towards making a 15-hour drive straight-through to Seattle, but I got an Instagram message from a friend who had been following along my journey and wondered where I was going next. She was actually in Dubrovnik Croatia at the time, but would be heading to Las Vegas in two days and offered her spare bedroom if I wanted to spend 3 nights there. I jumped at the chance to hang out with my friend who I’d met at FinCon in 2018, but had only seen one other time (in Fort Myers, near where we both actually live). I was about 500 miles away and had 1 more day in between, so when I checked out of my hotel the next morning, I went through the mostly-rural parts of Utah.

While driving through Utah, I stopped at Bryce Canyon National Park and saw that I was only about an hour away from Cedar Breaks National Monument, so I backtracked and visited there, too. I have been thoroughly impressed by the national monuments at this point, so I’m not going to let an hour detour stop me from visiting whenever possible.

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From there, I went alongside the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument on my way into Page, Arizona for the night. I stayed in another Marriott property (this time Courtyard) on my remaining 35k free night certificate for holding the Marriott Bonvoy credit card. It was 108° when I arrived, so I spent a couple hours in the pool and then enjoyed a cold shower and the air conditioning.

Later that evening, I met up with a fellow Florida Floodplain manager who was passing through Page on her own grand vacation with her husband and granddaughters. We met up at the Wahweep Marina on Lake Powell, inside Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and we ate at a floating restaurant called Latitude 37. I want to point out that on this day, I more-than-paid-for my National Parks pass, since I would have spent $35, $30 and $30 on three park admission fees, whereas my $85 spent on the pass allowed me to enter all 3 for free.

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The next morning, I set out to visit my friends Ali and Alison from All Options Considered in Flagstaff for brunch. We had an awesome time chatting for a couple hours, but I needed to hit the road and head towards Las Vegas. I picked up the tab, but somehow the little hand-held credit card machine must’ve added another table’s order to our bill AFTER I paid the check, so I found out the next morning that the bill was approximately double what it should have been. I didn’t ask for a receipt, so I could only ask them to remove a couple items I KNEW we had not ordered. At least I did get a few dollars back, but not everything that should have been owed to me. Oh well!

I arrived in Las Vegas on a 118° afternoon, no exaggeration. My friend was still working for the afternoon, but I got unpacked and started a couple loads of laundry, then we got ready and went to explore the city a little bit. She’s a Vegas expert, having ties to the city that go back 40 years, so she has status at multiple hotels/casinos and we tried to make the most of that fact. I dropped her off at Caesar’s Palace so she could check into the rewards that were offered for her Diamond status, and I drove the Strip for about 30-45 minutes and saw things in a different way than I had in February 2020 when I visited the city for the first time (albeit for less than 24 hours). I got a text that she was ready to be picked up, so I went back to Caesar’s Palace and then we walked through the newly-opened Resorts World hotel and casino, even though this property apparently had been under construction for more than 6 years, and that’s after several years of delay in design and permitting. We decided we wanted a little more quiet atmosphere for dinner, so we went downtown to the Downtown Container Park, which is a very cool urban shopping/dining/entertainment space made out of old shipping containers. We had some Mexican food and called it a night.

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The next day, I slept in a bit and then decided to go spend some time at the casinos on the Strip. Thanks to the prior night’s expedition, I knew I could park for free at Resorts World but also at Treasure Island. I spent several hours walking through the casinos, playing a little bit here and there, but then went outside the city to check out two other features: Clark County Wetlands Park on the east side of the city, and made a loop around to the west side of the city where Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is located. I enjoyed the 13-mile scenic loop (and the air conditioning inside the visitor center) and went back to my Vegas home base. Since we had scoped out the Caesar’s rewards benefits the prior evening, we now had plans for the second night: The Body Exhibit at Bally’s, and then the High Roller (looks like a ferris wheel, but is actually a giant pod for 15-20 people). We timed sunset perfectly for the top of the High Roller, and then we had dinner at an Old Vegas institution: Peppermill and Fireside Lounge.

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The next day, I spent several more hours wandering the Strip during the daytime, and I stumbled upon my friends Scott and Sam (and 4 others) from Southwest Florida, who were in Vegas celebrating both of their birthdays. I spent a couple hours wandering around more casinos and shops with them before heading back to home base to pack up and grab dinner with my host at a very cool pizza shop downtown called Pizza Rock (which seems to have every type of crust, style, you-name-it on the planet). Then we walked over to Circa to visit the highest bar in downtown Vegas and thanks to a very windy evening, we were two of only a few people outside on their rooftop lounge. We caught another spectacular sunset over the mountains, watched the lights turn on along the Strip and went home.

I woke up really early and hit the road, since I wasn’t sure of a good place to stop for the next 12+ hours, but I needed to head towards Colorado to visit some more friends the next day. This day, I drove through the Virgin River Gorge in NW Arizona, through St. George, Utah and made a stop at the Kolob Canyons Visitor Center, which is at the NW portion of Zion National Park. This included a short 5-6 mile scenic drive into the park, and some gorgeous scenery in the mid-morning sun. After that, I drove non-stop for the next 8 hours to get into western Colorado and eventually used up all of those Wyndham points I had earned from the two crappy Travelodge stays to get a decent night’s sleep in a LaQuinta in Rifle, CO.

Around this point in July, there were almost daily closures of Interstate 70 through central Colorado due to flooding and landslides after a wildfire destroyed the vegetation that kept the hillside in place. So I decided to avoid that potential mess and take the scenic route up through Craig and Steamboat Springs, on my way through the “back side” of Rocky Mountain National Park, which is actually the lovely State Forest State Park.

I was finally back in Fort Collins (wasn’t mentioned for day 3 of the trip, since all I did was get an oil change there), a few hours before I needed to get to Carl and Mindy’s house for a FI-friend gathering and meal. It was there that I met up again with Kristy, Ben and Owen (from the Columbus area pizza gathering in Ohio) the Jensen family, the Waffles on Wednesday family, and another FI couple from the Denver area. I spent the night in the Jensen guest bedroom, and woke up early the next day to finish up the 6,000+ mile drive with the final 1,208 miles in one shot that took me 17 hours and 18 minutes of driving. Fortunately most of that was pretty flat and pretty straight as I was leaving the Denver area and heading through Kansas and Missouri. By the time I got through St. Louis, the sun was fading fast, but I was determined to get through Illinois and Indiana to get a good night’s rest in my own bed.

I kind of rushed that last day because I needed to get home for a family funeral. My mom’s close cousin passed away after a few years battling cancer, and I wanted to be there to attend with my parents, grandma and aunt & uncle. We celebrated her life and the countless ways she had helped others, and ended the evening with a pizza party at Marion’s Piazza, a pizza chain that is famous in southwest Ohio where she lived most of her life. One more night in a Home2Suites (a Hilton chain) and I was back in Indiana for the next couple weeks. The rest of the month is filled with golf in the mornings, naps after lunch, and pool time in the afternoons and evenings.

The next several months of recap can be found here: Fall 2021.