To celebrate completing our master’s degrees this year, my best friend and I decided to take a trip together.
We’ve been close since elementary school, but lived in different places for about a decade. Between the 2,674-mile distance and our busy schedules, we’d never had the chance to go on a vacation, just the two of us. Graduating felt like the perfect reason to celebrate.
There was a small problem, though. My friend had just gotten a new job and didn’t have much time off yet. This left us with only one option: a weekend trip.
We decided to drive from Reno, where my friend lives, to Disneyland in Anaheim, California. I proposed that we visit three national parks on the way: Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia National Park.
My friend hesitated, but ultimately agreed that it sounded doable enough. We ended up visiting all three, without any major disaster.
Our rental car didn’t break down, we made it back home in time for the workweek, and we remained friends by the time our trip ended on Monday.
That said, we made a lot of logistical mistakes along the way — and next time, I won’t set such a lofty itinerary for such a short trip.
We should’ve planned our driving and parking better
My friend had offered to be added as a driver for the rental car, but in the interest of saving time on paperwork, I declined. This turned out to be a mistake: I ended up driving just shy of a thousand miles on my own and feeling exhausted.
My night vision isn’t great, either, which didn’t help with the long drives.
It wasn’t only the drive I’d underestimated. My friend had been conscientious about obtaining park passes and vehicle reservations.
After all that, I’d assumed that finding parking spots once we arrived would be the easy part.
In Yosemite, with all the lots filled to capacity, we had to park a 27-minute walk away from the nearest shuttle stop that also had a place to eat — and, at the end of the day, we raced against the setting sun to get back to the car before we saw any bears.
There are a few things I wish we’d thought to pack
The drive through all three parks was pretty much the same: one way in, one way out, and with lots of single-lane switchbacks the entire way.
The rides were beautiful, especially Kings Canyon, but we’d forgotten one crucial thing: My best friend and I both get motion sickness. The more beautiful a drive was, the worse it seemed to make our nausea, especially at a high altitude.
We’d remembered to pack hats, fans, sunscreens, and UV tattoos that helped us figure out when we needed to reapply said sunscreen.
However, we dropped the ball on packing for the winding roads — next time, I’ll remember ginger ale and lots of Dramamine.
Most of all, we didn’t need to see three national parks in one weekend
Looking back, I planned this trip with a lot of optimism. My friend may have had a point when she hesitated before agreeing to three parks.
Going into our road trip, I’d only ever visited one national park and had no idea how big they really were. Just one park would have been plenty of adventure, and probably would’ve left us with a lot more wiggle room to explore and rest.
Instead, we felt rushed. We only saw a small part of Yosemite, but I would have loved the time and flexibility to lounge, sketch, and journal — or the chance to see Mariposa Grove and Tuolumne Meadows, which were a bit farther out.
Kings Canyon and Sequoia both deserved a few days, too. We felt crammed by the time we got to Sequoia; the only thing we saw there was the General Sherman Tree.
There were so many other things to explore — caves, rivers, falls, and other monuments — but we just didn’t have time.
Despite our mistakes, we bonded and gave each other grace
Even with a flawed itinerary, motion sickness, and a lot of stress, my best friend and I made an active choice to be patient with each other no matter what, which truly saved our trip.
Sure, I was a bit snippy after driving five hours straight without eating, and she got increasingly annoyed about other people walking into her photos, but we didn’t take each other’s gripes personally.
Whenever we found ourselves getting testy or tired in the car, we’d start listening to show tunes — the original cast recordings of “Heathers” and “The Great Gatsby” got us from Kings Canyon to Sequoia with smiles on our faces.
We also tried to take small breaks wherever we could to enjoy the moment, whether that meant letting our feet soak in the water by Grizzly Falls, or pulling over to watch a beautiful sunset by Lake Kaweah on the way out of Sequoia.
Between living on opposite sides of the country and the demands of everyday life, my best friend and I don’t often get opportunities to spend time together.
Although I definitely wouldn’t ever make a jam-packed itinerary like this again, we did learn that a weekend trip can be an affordable, quick way to reconnect.
We’ll plan another brief road trip soon — maybe next time, though, we’ll aim for just one destination.
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