"It's supposed to be a challenge, it's a shortcut! If it were easy it would just be the way." - Ruben in Roadtrip.

I'm filing this post under my "Success" category because the completion of my long -planned, never-taken roadtrip is indeed a success in my books. It also doesn't qualify as prudent on the financial scale when I'm effectively cash-broke.

You'll notice I haven't written in awhile and the trip was partly to blame for that. The final tally was over 5500 miles driven in 13 days. I passed through 19 states.

The path was New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota ($100 speeding ticket), Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, (back through CO), Kansas, Missouri, (IL), Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and back through PA and NJ to home.

I rented a Trailblazer for $700 and probably ploughed $1000 in gas into the thing over the entire trip. I ate Subway 12 times in two weeks (have them cut it into quarters and wrap the two halves separately - much easier to eat while driving). There is a Subway off almost every exit in America now.

My longest day by time was from the Badlands in SD to Denver, CO (via Mt. Rushmore and Devil's Tower). I drove for 15:30 that day. My longest distance day was from Chicago to the Badlands at 850 miles ($100 ticket was that day, 90 in a 75 - luckily you can pay by mail!).

The National Parks of this country are amazing. I highly recommend spending some time out there. My favorites were Arches and Rocky Mountain. Get the park pass and save some money if you can hit a few parks on the same trip.

Overall for gear, food, gas, car, etc. I think I came in around $2500. I'm thinking I may not even calculate the total cost because it might ruin it. Amazing time and I highly recommend doing it.

In the end, I realized I had looked to this trip as some sort of "end" of my youth. I came back realizing it was more the beginning of the type of life I want to lead. There is no reason I can't do this stuff if that's what I choose. That's why it's a success to me.mortgage calculator