You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?

I have been been incredibly lucky to travel the US by Greyhound Bus, Amtrak Train, and Delta Airlines. Here are a few of my stories below!

Back in 2005, I took a trip from Austin Minnesota to Salem, Oregon to find myself. This trip happened after living with my mom for two weeks after living on campus after graduation. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I couldn’t live in Austin. I connected with a friend of a friend who had a room for rent and it honestly changed my life forever. The bus trip is kind of a blur, because of the route, the bus was fairly empty. At the time, I was still dedicated to my life as a Christian, but I was having doubts for the first time ever. This specific bus ride was beautiful, peaceful, and it felt like I was entering a new moment in my life. Ironically, I also took a train back to Minnesota after a year in Salem. I found myself, but I was scared to change who I was. So after initially leaving the church after 6 months in Salem, I tried to find community again when I came back to Minneapolis. Though, what I found was that the community I joined, that the connections I formed, were only because of faith and not because who I was. Anyway, lets talk about my train across the country in 2009.

In 2009, after my mother died, I decided to visit the city where I was born. I flew to Philadelphia in July of 2009 to reconnect with my extended family. We didn’t really do very much, it was a lot of eating, relaxing and catching up. My journey to Philly was my first solo flight, and first real solo vacation. You see, I was supposed to travel the world with my mother. My mother and I had plans to travel to all 50 states. To date, I have made it to 49, and I just have Hawaii to visit. I haven’t made it there because of the ethical issues surrounding tourism and Hawaii. All that said, I loved this trip, I traveled from Philly back to Minneapolis. I saw some of the most beautiful train stations in the country. My favorite was the station in Washington DC. If you get a chance you should visit. I think this particular visit helped heal me in a way. It helped solidify my grief in a way that felt manageable. The solitude of a long trip, where you don’t need to drive but just exist with yourself, I would definitely recommend doing this. Now, lets talk about my favorite trip by plane… So Far…

I am a Delta flyer, I try to only fly this airline, and I am not sure that will ever change. I used to travel every month up until COVID-19 shut things down. My favorite flight was in September of 2016, I flew to New Orleans, Louisiana. I hadn’t been to the state in the past, but I had heard such great things about the city. This trip solidified my desire and need to travel places alone. It was the first time that I wasn’t in a city that was predominantly Caucasian. I saw people who looked like me, I met people who appreciated my curves, people who were familiar with my last name. These are things that are small, but at the time they solidified the rightness of my travel plans.