We’re Taking a 7-Week Road Trip Across the Country: Here’s Why We’re Doing it And How We Plan to Eat
Seven weeks. Across the country. Coast to coast. With nothing but me, my fiance (Evan), our dog (Stella), laptops, and a truck full of food, camping, and adventuring supplies.
If you read that, you probably either thought to yourself, “Wow, you're crazy!” or “Damn! That sounds like the trip of a lifetime.” In any case, you’re not wrong 😅.
There was a lot of tears, planning, and conspiring with the universe that went on for this trip to unfold at the time it is in our lives.
To sum it up, there were three things that inspired us to set sail on this adventure.
The first thing was that Evan’s college bestie is getting married in Lake Taho on October 15th.
The second was that we both have conferences in San Diego during the last week of October (the stars aligned ✨ and by some miracle, that totally worked out!)
And the third was that we both wanted time to selfishly grow our love without any distractions or obligations (besides work, of course!) before starting to plan our wedding for next October.
“How’s this Going to Work? You’re working AND traveling across the country?”
Yuppers.
Fortunately, Evan and I both work from home, which is honestly another reason why we were excited to go on this trip. When else would we be able to do this?
When we get home, we’ll be in wedding planning mode, then baby-making mode, and then after that, we’ll be building our empire of little bare-foot, nature-loving, happy hippie kiddos. 👦🏻👣
If not, now, then when? Carpe diem, folks! Seize the mother effin’ day!
On our seven-week journey, we’ll be staying in Airbnbs and working during the weekdays. The afternoons and evenings are for adventuring and seeking out local foods, and the weekends are for covering some serious distance.
So that’s the plan—but that’s not where it ends! Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a very deep and emotional thinker (I think that’s the Pisces in me ♓). I like to do things for a reason and believe there’s a purpose in everything!
What’s the Why?
For me, this trip is all about connection. Connection to my partner, connection to nature, to food, to my dog, to the environment, to the earth, the ocean, the sun, the moon, the stars, to farmers, and to local food growers.
To me, this trip is about connecting to the things that make us human.
Why Connection is KEY 🗝
We live in a world bombarded by chronic disease, mental illness, stress, anxiety, worry, fear, addiction, and negativity.
We have become completely disconnected from ourselves and from what makes us human, and our health, happiness, and overall zest for life have suffered because of it.
Especially since covid hit, the disconnection has been thrown into hyperdrive. The separation from ourselves, each other, our bodies, and our minds have become increasingly worse—and our health as a nation has suffered tremendously because of it.
The stats don’t lie. The United States had some of the worst covid outcomes. And it’s not because of a lack of vaccines. It’s because our health is some of the worst in the world, and covid has shined a light on it and its urgency like never before.
I don’t think our poor health as a country is a freak thing that just happened because of genetics or “bad luck,” I think that it’s because we’ve forgotten about the basic building blocks of what we need to thrive. We’ve traded in these ancestral practices:
Love
Food
Nature
Sunlight
Movement
Spirituality
Community
Cooking and preparing meals
Living in sync with our circadian rhythm
For tv, phones, social media, material items, spending all of our time indoors, binge-watching Netflix, junk food, drugs, and alcohol, and always wanting to move on to the next big thing.
And for what? Do we feel joy from these things? Do they make us feel any happier? Freer? Safer? Connected? With purpose? I’ll answer that for you. That’s a big, fat N-O!
More than half of the population has at least one chronic disease that’s driven by poor lifestyle choices (1). HALF!
These things obviously don’t fill up our cups. They don’t make us happy. They are temporary fixes that numb us and distract us from a dull and unfilling life.
Suicide rates are up, anti-depressants are being prescribed to children, and we’re fighting with the people we love over politics, religion, and whose “side they’re on.”
Society paints this as normal, but the truth is, it’s anything but. There’s a reason we’re sicker and unhappier than ever—and it’s not because we need MORE, it's because we need LESS.
We need to go back to basics, the things that make us human. The things that have made us who we are for centuries.
It’s time to wake up. It’s time we tap back into our human roots. It’s truly the only way to build a happy life that’s sustainable long-term.
What does all of this have to do with our 7-week adventure?
For me, this trip is about connecting to the things that make us human and sharing that experience with you to hopefully inspire you to do the same.
It’s about having the freedom and the awareness to make decisions that support our long-term health. It’s about presence and peace with our minds and with each other. And what better way to do that than to rediscover our ancestral roots and what it feels like to “live off the land.”
Maybe not literally live off the land. We won’t be hunting, fishing, or anything like that, although I know Evan would LOVE that (sorry, babe).
But we will be modern-day foraging, going to local farmer’s markets and finding the freshest fruits and vegetables, seeking out butchers, local farms, seafood markets, and farm-to-table cuisine.
We will be eating (and living) as ancestrally as possible. Cooking our own meals (we made sure our Airbnbs have kitchens!), making our own car snacks, and taking in every moment of this experience together.
I am so excited to go on this journey and even more excited to bring you with me. I’ll be posting about our experience on Instagram (tips for healthy eating on the road, how to source nutritious food, and hacks for traveling/living your best life!!) and YouTube.
I’ll share where we’re going, the places we stop, and where we stay so that you can follow along with us!
Here’s the route and where we’ll be taking from Royersford, PA —> Lake Tahoe, CA, and some highlights we have planned.
October 1: The Great Smoky Mountains, NC (Camping! ⛺️)
October 2: Memphis, TN (Camping!⛺️)
October 3-6: The Ozarks
October 7: Palo Duro Canyon, TZ (Camping! ⛺️)
October 8-9: Albuquerque, NM (Hot Air Balloon Fest! 🎈)
October 10-13: Las Vegas, NV (Staying with family!)
October 14-15: Foresthill, CA (Friend’s wedding! 💒 )
October 12-19: Tahoe, CA (Lake Tahoe National Park!)
October 20-23: Yosemite, CA (Yosemite National Park⛰️)
October 24: Los Angeles, CA (Meeting my boss for the first time in person! Shout out to Dhru!)
October 25-30: San Diego, CA 🌊 (Nutrition conference and meeting my other boss, Kaya, too!)
October 31: Joshua Tree, CA (Camping! ⛺️)
November 1-2: Midway, UT (Hot Springs!)
November 3-4: Salt Lake City, UT
November 5-13: Jackson, WY 🤠 (Grand Tetons & Yellowstone National Park!)
November 14-19: Rapid City, SD (The Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore 🗿)
November 20: Cleveland, OH (Meeting my co-workers Farrell and Lauren for the first time!)
November 21: Home! 🏡
I hope you’ll join me as I take foodhappy on the road!
Sending love and kindness to everyone,
Taylor Groff
