I am sitting in the back seat of my friend Samuel’s Honda CR-V. Samuel is in the passenger seat and our friend and my fellow blogger Dani Maney is driving.

The three of us are somewhere in Ohio, fast-approaching Columbus, the first official stop on our road trip. We have been in the car since 10 a.m. and have already covered the distance between the Jersey Shore (where I live) and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was on the first driving shift, covering almost 400 miles over eight hours. Needless to say, writing this entry as I relax in the back seat is somewhat of a necessity.

Dani, Samuel and I each love driving, as well as exploring areas unfamiliar to us. I have always loved the idea of just getting in the car and driving for miles on end with minimal responsibilities and various fun destinations. During the spring semester at Conn, I brought this love of mine up to Dani and Samuel and the three of us got to talking about what our hypothetical road trip would look like. As we got into more detail, we realized we could make this road trip a reality—and sooner than we thought.

The three of us started mapping out a route as well as a rough estimate of the gas, food and lodging costs. We discovered that this road trip was very much within our reach. However, it would not be possible without working this summer and saving as much money as we could. We each got summer jobs to pay for the trip: I worked as a host at a restaurant, a pretzel vendor at music festivals and a busser at a diner, Dani worked as a YMCA camp counselor and Samuel worked as a counselor for squash camp.

Dani, Samuel and I spent most of the summer apart, working our tails off, but it was all worth it. We saved enough money to embark on a 14-state, 13-day road trip.

This is the first in a series of posts that Dani and I will be writing about our road trip over Summer Break 2017.