On June 22nd, 2013 I left Los Angeles behind for the open road. The night before, I placed my pug in good hands and prepared myself for a voyage that would span from California to North Carolina and back. My preparation was somewhat organized...I had arranged places to stay for most of my stops and borrowed some camping gear from a friend for the one or two nights I would be "roughing it." I had amazing friends who helped me find people to meet up with and stay with along the way. Very necessary for a solo traveller.

When I would mention to people that I was taking a road trip ALONE, I had very mixed reactions. Some called me, "brave." Hmmm, I guess if you aren't good at alone time, maybe this is something brave or bold. I didn't feel brave. I would be zipping around in a functional, air conditioned vehicle, visiting cities and towns that are fairly well-worn territory. Other lone-wolves hearing about my road trip were clearly jealous, knowing full well the pleasures of being alone and being free to meet up with new people and old friends along the way. To them I offer wholehearted encouragement. It took me a long time to get around to taking this trip. But I finally just did it, and here I am, in a weird apartment in New Orleans on a Friday night, blogging. Ha!

There are certain challenges to travelling alone, which I will touch on later, hopefully providing some useful guidance for the solo road tripper. But back to starting out. My first destination was Tucson, Arizona. I will mention here that I have never been to any of the places I am visiting on this trip, making it an extra special journey, and LA to Tucson marked my first day of travel!

I started the day knowing somewhat how the first few hours would unfold. I had been to Palm Springs once and was familiar with the I-10 up until there. I also knew I had to stop at the giant dinosaurs in Cabazon. I had been there once before and love them because they remind me of two great movies: Pee Wee's Big Adventure and The Wizard. I have unfortunately never been to the expanded animatronic portion of this roadside attraction, but it exists and if I wasn't in a hurry, I would check it out, man! Also the dinosaurs are operated by "creationists," making it all the more interesting.

From the dinosaurs on, I didn't do much stopping until I got to Phoenix, Arizona, which for the life of me I can never get the "o" and the "e" in the right order. I had a recommendation from a friend to stop at a place called Green Vegetarian, which I did, and I don't regret.