From California to Massachusetts

The day had come to travel home. With Carrick flying out we left early the next morning and headed up to Cupertino. I mean if we're going to be in California, we might as well go to corporate. I told Carrick that I was going to go slightly off the grid. I didn't want the world to know when I was going to be home. I just kind of wanted to show back up to work. 

Day One: California

California is huge. So day one we never left the state! We headed up to Cupertino. This was a time to stop in at corporate and take the typical picture outside of the sign.

Typical employee photo.

From Cupertino we headed over to San Jose. I wanted to tour the Winchester Mystery House. I've always wanted to go here and if I was that close I was going! We did the Grand Estate Tour. This is actually two tours: the Mansion Tour and the Behind-the-Scenes Tour. All together you will spend about 2 1/2 hours going through this home. I highly recommend seeing this home if you are in the San Jose area!

Winchester Mystery House

 Day Two: California-Wyoming

From our night in northern California, we headed out towards Nevada. We had to go through Tahoe National Forest. This place was incredible! We were above clouds and in tons of pine trees. (I was missing the trees!) It was about 34 degrees outside when I took this picture!

Tahoe National Forest

 One of the places I really wanted to see on the way home was the Bonneville Salt Flats. This place is wild! It is huge. There are mountains around the area (I promise there are some in the background of this picture) and you could see the rain up on them. You may not believe it, but behind me in the distance is I-80. There is a highway right in the middle! I probably could have just looked at this place for hours, but Massachusetts is pretty far from Utah!

Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah

 I always thought of Utah being full of snow and a place I never wanted to go. While driving through the state I only want to go back! The state is beautiful. You can just pull off the highway and be surrounded by mountains and lakes.

Echo Reservoir, Coalville, UT

We made it into Wyoming that day. We have GoPro videos to prove it. We drove towards a storm. Somehow we never made it into the storm though.

 Day Three: Wyoming-Iowa

After getting out of Wyoming we were in Nebraska. If you've never been to Nebraska, never fear! It's flat and full of cows. You don't need to go there. It's okay.

Nebraska. This is part of the Oregon Trail.

 I did see that you could go to a Pony Express Station and we stopped. It was a quite place, but it was cool to see where people would stop on their way out west.

Pony Express Station, Gothenburg, Nebraska

I pretty much said we were not stopping until we got to Iowa. We made it to Iowa and stayed the night.

Day Four: Iowa-New York

There wasn't much to report over the next few states. We didn't stop anywhere special except at a few rest areas. This photo is from a rest area explaining Iowa's part in the Underground Railroad. I had no idea that Iowa played such a role in the Underground Railroad.

From Iowa, we went into Illinois, Indiana (where the Indy 500 was happening), Ohio (where we saw the first real city in days: Cleveland), Pennsylvania, and into New York. We stopped just outside of Buffalo for our final rest before heading home.

Day Five: New York-Massachusetts 

We were almost home. We drove through a lot of trees. Saw some silly signs from the State Police in Massachusetts. I dropped Carrick off at his car with a promise we'd see each other in a couple weeks. (This was an easy promise. We had to work together again!) From there I had about an hour drive back home. It was weird to drive back through places I had been out of for so long. I noticed some signs changed. I pulled into my driveway and ran into the house to see Thor. I had missed him a ton. He was not too happy that I had been gone, but after a few days he warmed back up to me. 

I'm glad I took this opportunity to work in a different state and step out of my comfort zone. I'm glad I took this time to see the country. I'm glad Carrick drove back with me. I know I always have another home to go to with new friends to take adventures with. 

If you ever get the chance to take a road trip, long or short, you should. You never know what you may come across.