Today was the last day of our journey around the country. We left Arlington at 7:45 am in order to account for traffic through DC and Baltimore. Strangely enough, however, we encountered no traffic. Very few cars were in downtown, on Memorial Bridge, on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, in the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, or even the New Jersey Turnpike. It was an extremely weird situation. We arrived back in New Jersey just after noon. Amazing timing. So now for my final thoughts: (1) I don't know what is holding this country together. Idaho and Wyoming are so different than Virginia and North Carolina. Utah operates in a different sphere than the Republic of Texas (which believes that it is a separate country). I understand that the United States is a country that gives considerable amounts of states ... read more

We left Montgomery nice and early because (1) we wanted to see Atlanta before heading to Jenny's house and (2) we would do our last time zone switch of the trip (thank goodness!). The drive wasn't bad at all; in fact, there was very little traffic which may have been due to the fact that there is no such thing as rush hour in Montgomery and we got into Atlanta around noon. Atlanta is a cool city. We spent most of our time downtown near Centennial Park. We walked around the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke (but not in them, because those cost money). We did look at the gift shop because, well, that's what you should do when you can't go into the museum. We then continued through the park and looked at ... read more

(An editing note: “Hakuna umeme” translates from Kiswahili to English as “There is no electricity.” Part 1 happened in Tanzania with Kayli and Sara and resulted in a plethora of ridiculous photos.) We went to see the Alamo this morning. It is so strange to see it sitting there in the middle of downtown San Antonio. Obviously it is old. But also the history surrounding the building. 139 men, not all of whom were Texan (in fact, they came from many different states, including 1 from New Jersey) defended that fort. But it wasn’t really a fort. It was supposed to be a Catholic mission but 70 years after starting the construction they decided to close the mission. With the roof of the church still incomplete. It’s such a mix of strangeness and standing inside of ... read more

We left dreary Flagstaff and drove across the rest of northern Arizona towards the Four Corners. In doing so we drove through the Navajo and Hopi Nations ... and our phones kept changing times every time we pulled a signal from somewhere else. It was moderately annoying. Buy by the time we approached the Four Corners we were firmly in Navajo Territory and therefore officially in the Mountain Daylight Time. The Four Corners itself is just strange. We know that they think it is in the wrong spot, but that doesn't change anything. Move the monument a mile in any direction and it all looks the same, so shush. It's not like the signs saying "Welcome to ______" are always in the right spot either (unless you are crossing some obvious boundary, like a river). Anyway, ... read more

We left the campground in Chula Vista early in the morning so that we could avoid most of the desert heat as we drove towards Las Vegas. We failed (kind of). It was still stifling, but a little more doable. It was very frustrating to see the signs that read "Avoid Overheating. Shut off your AC next 20 miles." There was no good way around that heat. Eventually we made it into Nevada (not that we hoped it would make it cooler, but it meant we were closer to Vegas). Nevada struck me as a fake state. Exit 1, Primm, had a roller coaster and other things that just seemed so overdone they were unreal. And that was before we even got to Vegas. In Vegas we met up with Jason who just so happened to ... read more