In the summer of 2019, I moved from Boston to Las Vegas. My boyfriend, Pat, was already in Vegas for med school, and we did one year of long-distance before deciding I should move there too. 

Since I had a car and a dog to get cross country, I planned a two-week road trip to get me there. My two aunts and one young cousin kept me company along the way–one aunt had already driven the northern US route, so we decided to go south. I wanted to do lots of sightseeing, focusing on visiting as many national parks as I could along the way. We visited 7 national parks, drove through 15 states, and listened to at least 5 different audiobooks. 

Day 1: Boston, MA to Verona, VA 

The beginning of the trip was a little uneventful, as we drove long days without stopping to get out of New England. We’ve already seen all there is to see in New England! I tried to keep our driving days to 6 hours or less, mostly because Charlie (my pup!) would start to get restless. She’s not the biggest fan of car rides. 

Unfortunately, due to traffic and rain this ended up being a ten-hour driving day. Oof. By the time we got to the hotel, we were all exhausted. Luckily we had nothing planned for Day 1 other than driving. This will get more interesting, I swear!

To follow us on to Shenandoah National Park (and find out my tips for visiting with a dog), continue on here: