Across America

The beginning: Kim and I decided to move to Denver, Colorado to explore nature, venture new opportunities, learn, drink, eat, live life, and finish our educations. The city of Denver has become one of the biggest cities of growth since the legalization of weed. I heard a recent statistic of over 1000 people move to Denver every month. That being said finding a 1 bedroom apartment under $1000 was one of the most difficult searches I have ever done, but we made it happen. We planned out an exciting road trip to visit 4 new states I have never been, which would bring me ultimately closer to meeting my goal of visiting all 50 states by the age of 30. We also had to pack up all of Kim's furniture and belongings in a truck taking her items across country. As for me I don't own much, all I brought was 3 book bags full of clothes, my guitar/amp, and my bicycle. We realized this trip would be filled with camping, living on gas station food diets, and seeing parts of America we have never stepped foot in before. We were ready for it and our new move across country.

Goodbye Baltimore: There is no secret how much I love and care about my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. After coming back to Baltimore after the first time I left to go to LA in 2013. I was given the opportunities to do so many things I adored such as work at the Baltimore hostel and utilize it as a show/event space. I assisted in the launch of the second series of Baltimore's local currency, The BNote and restore it's relevance in the community. I played many gigs in the city with my best friend Thom as The Shaky Experience and debuted my solo project Pelvis Presley. I got involved in several media projects such as the hostel shows I hosted being featured in City Paper and BmoreArt, being on the front page of The Charles Villager and The Daily Record exploiting The BNotes return with new denominations. Most importantly I got to meet, work, play, and hangout with so many amazing people in the city of Baltimore. It is seriously my honor to say I'm from Baltimore, MD and know so many talented, passionate, caring individuals I will miss dearly. I'll love and miss that city everyday.

The Road Trip Across America: The day of the trip started off with a hangover and waking up on an air mattress on our living room floor. The initial plan was to get out early before the traffic started. Unfortunately due to an excessive amount of alcohol and hours worth of goodbyes from friends that we hung out with at WTMD's First Thursday's the plan to leave early was long gone. We packed up the rest of our belongings and left our Baltimore apartment for good. We road over to visit my family one last time. It was an emotional moment, but it was exciting to finally embrace a change of scenery. Finally hitting the road after noon. It was just Kim, Bailey (the dog), and myself venturing out to a new life together.

We drove north of Maryland and made it to Pittsburgh being our first stop for a late lunch/early dinner. We ate at a delicious takeout dinner from a place called Spak Brothers in a neighborhood called Garfield. We had vegan Philly (Pitts) cheese stakes. They were absolutely delicious! The restaurant was recommended to me by a friend. The neighborhood was located in a very artsy part of town. We sat and ate dinner next to a piece of instillation art and surrounded by murals. After we finished our meals, we checkout the art galleries and thrift stores within the area. It was a great time, but we needed to hit the road immediately as for destination for the evening was to stay in Chicago with Kim's cousin.


It started getting dark as we just made it to Ohio. We drove through the whole state with a few restroom breaks for a couple such as us with weak bladders. Our bodies started to become exhausted with what seemed to be endless driving. We drove through Indiana all night with an hour pit stop in a gas stations parking lot for a power nap. We continued on as the sun started rising as we made it to Forest Park, Illinois, It took us nearly 20 hours of driving and distractions to make it. As soon we arrived to Kim's cousin Deb's house we nearly collapsed of exhaustion. She welcomed us in, giving us our own private room and bed to sleep in. Bailey, Kim, and I passed out right away. Hours after our rest we showered and cleaned up to enjoy time in the city of Chicago. We had brunch in the famous vegetarian Chicago Diner. I got a tofu steak, eggs, and potato's. I highly recommend this place to anyone who enjoys delicious food, that doesn't involve actual meat. After our meal we went to a brewery I am too familiar with called Half Acre.

(The reason I know of this place so well is because last time I came to Chicago in September 2015. I went out to German beer fest with Kim's brother and fiance after endless liquid courage, the next morning I woke up to them taking me to Half Acre for a morning brewery tour/beer tasting. A few hours later my body gave up all hope on me, and parted ways with every body fluid I had in me. The worst part was I had to catch a flight that evening, after being unable to move due to being so ill, but I summed the strength to make it on the flight. I also would like to add, I never got to finish my deep dish pizza)

Anyway!!! Kim and I had a flight of 5 mouthwatering beers each, chilled around the tap for awhile and enjoyed the neighborhoods. We arrived back to Deb's house. She took us out, showed us around her spots. We had El Salvadorian (which is Kim and Deb's ancestors) food for dinner, it was delightful, I got pupusas and corn tamales. We stopped by a local ice cream shop for desert, talked, took pictures, the usual things. The next morning, after a much needed goodnight's rest. Kim and I went to Millennium Park, explored the sculptures, gardens, and walked down to the beautiful water front and walked Bailey along the piers. It was relaxing and genuinely nice. It was time for us to go again and make our way to a new state for to add to my list. Iowa!


We hit the road for another two and a half hours and finally made it to the boarder line of Iowa. It was my first time in the state of Iowa. I was ecstatic with excitement that I made it to my 45 state in America. We took pictures with the welcome sign. We made our way to Davenport, I expected it to be more than what it was, it seemed very abandoned. The population is around 99,000 something. I guess I've become so fluent to cities with more people. It didn't seem like much but I still cherished it. We continued our journey to Des Moines. We stopped by a place for dinner called Fuzzy's Tacos, they fortunately allowed dogs. Bailey got to join in the mini taco fiesta we indulged in. After dinner we continued our drive for another 2 hours till we finally arrived to Nebraska (my 46th state).


My friend Scott lives in Omaha. He invited us to stay with him for 2 nights as he dog sat for his parents while they were out of town. We arrived around 11pm, once again exhausted from the road, but thrilled to see an old friend. I met Scott through The Baltimore BNote. He volunteered with the currency, during his free time from his internship with John Hopkins. Omaha is his home town

and I knew this was a perfect time to catch up with an old friend. We crashed pretty quickly once we arrived, but as soon as we woke up he had already made a large breakfast for us. It was very nice, we got to catch up during that time. It turned out he was now a professor at a university and was teaching about renewable energy. He unfortunately had to spend the day working on getting ready for the semester, however he recommended us plenty of things to see in down town Omaha. We went to a place called Old Market. It was a historic market, I believe in the oldest neighborhood of the city. It had boutiques, record stores, pizza places we checked out. There was a part called The Passageway we enjoyed a lot. It was inside the market in a basement made out of old stone. It had a lot of plants and showed beauty to the area. We walked, picked up some sushi and ate it around the lake. It was a nice lunch. We finished the evening by catching up more and walking around the neighborhoods. The next day his parents arrived back home we all hung out for awhile. Visited the towns some more and focused on our plans to head to South Dakota the next day. We had an easy night, we watched a local debate, the Olympics, as well as a showed on Public Access Television called Not Dead Yet. It's a show about old people telling the world, they're not dead yet and are still really cool and hip. It was great.



The next morning Scott showed us his bio-fuels lab where him and his twin brother make bio-fuels as a hobby. It was so interesting to see something like this. Afterwards we hit the road and made our way to South Dakota.

The Adventure starts here
I couldn't be anymore excited to visit the SOUTH Dakota, especially since I already visited it's brother North Dakota in 2015. We drove for hours upon hours! All there was to see was corn fields and fields of sun flowers in every direction. The whole state of SD seemed super empty. I had no service at all during most of the state. We saw signs for ages that said "Wall Drug the place that serves free ice water" along with what it has there and how you can't miss out. We must of saw nearly 100 signs promoting the place as we drove past the fields. We finally arrived to this mythical place. It turned out to be identical to South of the Boarder. It was just a massive tourist trap. We parked at the main strip and looked in the shops. I found a sweet glow in the dark Mt Rushmore t-shirt with wolves standing around the monument. It's pretty amazing if I do say so myself. We bought dinner at a gas station called Common Cents, our meal consisted of chips, doughnuts, and beer. We eventually left the legendary town of Wall Drug and drove 30 minutes down to the core of the Earth which is where we were camping for the night. The name of the spot we were staying was called Sage Creek Campground, 

We had to drive down a massive mountain as the darkness of the night started approaching. We went down bumpy roads as we were sliding fast in the mud down the mountain. We saw our first bison a few feet from our car while we were cautiously looking where to tent out. We finally found our camping ground which was a circle of cars in a massive canyon like surrounding. We pitched up our tent but it was immediately knocked down by the winds. We pulled everything from the car and set up a backseat car mattress I got Kim as a Valentine's present this year. It's fortunate I got it because it helped us for the evening. We laid in a cramped car with our feet hanging out the window and Bailey laid up front in his dog bed. We tried to fall asleep but were woken up many times throughout the night by a super MASSIVE lightning storm. This was HUGE and seemed like is directed for us and the rest of the campers. It finally slowed down hours throughout the night. We woke up very early due to Bailey barking out the window. We look out to see what he's barking at, our campground was surrounded by bison. It was insane! Real live bison were around all of us looking for food. We got a few pictures and started packing up our things, as the bison left. We took Bailey for a walk around the campground before leaving. This is when we stumbled upon prairie dogs popping out of the ground. It was a cool night, but we had to continue to get a move on to our next destination.

Bella Fourche

Mt Rushmore is where we headed to next! How awesome is that? Seriously, I was "lit" to visit such a historic place. After a two hour drive around the mountains we made it to a small town right before Mt Rushmore. There were thousands of bikers around the town, at first I thought this was a normal spot for motorcyclist. It turned out it was for Sturgis Rallies 77th anniversary. We continued our way up the Black Mountains, till we finally saw George, Thomas, Theodore, and Abraham's faces. We parked in a lot, and journeyed up the historic tourist hub. We had a biker watch Bailey as for dogs were banished from the site. There was a monument for each state indicating in carving what order the state was announced as a US state of course I stood beside #7 my home state of Maryland. We walked up to the balcony view of the faces. It felt magical, we took pictures and admired the sculptures. We made our way down the steps to go inside of a cave which is where the gift shop, making of the sculptures video, and original models and tools were stored on display. We spend a good amount of time there. We eventually made our way back for Bailey. All of us got back in the car and drove around the mountains for hours. It was phenomenal to be in such a neat environment. We stopped at lakes, forest, etc and let it all sink in. We found a place called Bella Fourche. It was along a lake, there was sand, and designated spots to park and tent. There was a sweet sunset that day. It was the perfect travelers night for us after driving on the road endless hours.

Our view driving to Wyoming

The next day we took off and made it to my 48th state, Wyoming! We drove, drove, drove across the country till we made it to our destination which is called Lander's City Park. it's literally a park behind a school in a small city. It was dope, lots of campers were already set up when we arrived. We got some general style tofu and ate it on a bench at the park, drank beers, relaxed. Yet again, another enjoyable night. It was probably my favorite place to sleep. It felt extra exciting for some reason, I'm not sure why. I just enjoyed it for what it was. Our next morning started off at a place called Crux Coffee where we hoped on wifi to let the world know we were alive and flowing through America. I noticed a rock climbing wall in the coffee shop. I signed a waver saying I wouldn't sue, and got on that thing immediately. Yellowstone was on mind so we darted out the doors and hit the road for hours more. We stopped to pay our fee to get in the NPS of Grand Teton. We decided to buy a yearly NPS which was less than $100, instead of paying fees every time we passed an NPS. We stopped at a place called Leaks Marina. It was surrounded by water, sand mountains, and a delicious pizza place we indulged in. We got the pizza to go, walked around the forest area and ate on the beach. It was one of the nicest sights I ever saw. After our meal, our journey continued to Yellowstone, we finally arrived. It was insane!!! MOUNTAINS, MOUNTAINS, MOUNTAINS! That is the best way to describe my view. Cars have to swerve around scary cliffs, deer's were everywhere, elk, moose, it had everything. We drove through a lot of it till we finally made it to Old Faithful to check out some geysers. It was awesome seeing another historic place in person, we hung around for awhile and checked it out. We eventually set our sights out for camping. Upper Teton was the name of the campground, there were signs everywhere warning us "beware of bears". It was wild, we originally were going to set up tent but we were in the mind of nowhere, nothing was by us, it was just us and bears hiding in the woods so we decided to sleep in the car. We didn't get much rest but we made it work.


The third and last of Wyoming our morning was spent buying fruit from a Safeway, changing our clothes in their bathroom, and figuring out a plan for what to do with our final days on the road. We decided to venture out to small towns, and check out more history and culture. We ate and found our final camping spot in Medicine Bow National Forest. Once again, surrounded by beauty and nature. We camped out, got up, packed our things and made our way to our new home.


We made it to Denver:
We finally made it to Colorado! After driving through 10 states, we were here. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday and the property manager was unavailable to give us our key till Monday. We were hungry so we made our first meal stop at the first ever Chiptole. It was awesome being there. It was super tiny, but super delicious at the same time, We parked out front of our new apartment and looked in the windows. There wasn't much to see but we still enjoyed. We took Bailey to a near by park called Cheese Man Park. We laid in the grass and relaxed. We got up and walked over to the infamous Voodoo Doughnuts to use their bathroom and get some doughnuts. I got a Marshal Matters (m&m). We eventually set our sights on finding a place to crash for the night. We looked up camping grounds and found Cherry Creek camping ground and tented out there for the night.

The Horror Story Of Moving In!
The next morning we got up, thrilled to see our new home. We arrived to the place and the lard lord got out of her car. The first thing we realized was she looked nothing like she did on the reality website. She took us up to our place and it was a dump! It was dirty, there was a hole in the bottom the door. It smelled awful, it was very weird. She played it off to be an amazing place. Kim and I both were taken back and very discouraged, She didn't say much else, she handed us the key and left. There was barely any natural light able to come in. We didn't know what to do considering we already signed the lease without seeing it. The pictures she showed us online with to a different apartment. It was highly upsetting. I  shut the front door and tried to open it but it wouldn't open. from the inside. We were trapped in our "new" apartment. It was crazy, we tried calling her immediately, but she didn't answer. I was going to attempt to crawl out the window, but there were black bars preventing me. I opened the window anyway and the pushed the bars and they fell off. We were completely shocked. I slid out and tried to open the door, but it was completely stuck. Kim and Bailey are freaking out unsure what to do. The land lord finally comes upstairs and starts complaining that we don't know what were doing. She tries opening the door, of course she can't get open. She calls her 17 year old daughter to come up that has a ton of face tattoos to try and open the door. She couldn't do it either, meanwhile Kim and I are thinking what the fuck? This is what our first moving in day is like... the woman calls up her older son, he comes up with a crowbar and rips the door off. Meanwhile her daughter says someone may of tried to break in recently and that's why it's like that. The land lords daughter and son start arguing in front of us, our land lord starts yelling at them. I inform her we need another place to live. This won't work out, she laughs and says you already signed the lease. She said she'll get this all fixed up by tonight. We both say no, we all start arguing. She finally tells us she has another place by Washington Park. It's a garden level, same price, but it's not finished. We demanded to see it, she shows it to us and it is WAY BETTER! I said to her nearly 20 times in the first 5 minutes we'll take it. She had the reality company switch over our lease to a new home here.

Since all of that, our place has been amazing. It's much more spacious and has lots more natural sunlight. We've adapted well in the neighborhood and have been running, biking, and exercising around the neighborhood a lot lately. We're both in school and I already have been hired by a hostel out here. Denver has been nice to us so far. We're looking forward to immersing ourselves in the art/music scene out here, enjoy the 200 + breweries in this city, and enjoy the mountains. Stay tuned for my Mexico blog  I'll be putting out next month.

Thanks for reading!