Last September, my grandfather from Florida passed away. It was such a sad situation for my mother and her brother, who I know as Uncle Scott. However, there was a silver lining to this: he left behind a car, which we were going to give to my brother Brandon, who lives out in Los Angeles, California. In order to do so, we were going to drive out to California.

This wasn’t my first road trip out to California: back when my brother first moved out to California, we took a road trip to move him out there. Surprisingly, I did well on the trip with just my phone to entertain me, and went to places such as Nashville, the school where the Little Rock Nine went to, the Petrified Forest, and the Grand Canyon. This time, we were going to do the northern route to get to California, and unlike last time, I was more prepared by bringing my iPad and a bag full of activities, like a ton of coloring books and a rainbow LCD drawing pad, but found the iPad to be the ideal device for the trip.

Day 1 of the trip started with us leaving around 4:30AM. I was a bit tired, but thanks to watching a movie on my iPad and listening to music, I was able to perk up. We stopped for breakfast at a Cracker Barrel in Pennsylvania. After driving for a bit, we stopped at a rest stop in Ohio, as well as briefly stopping at a few stores in a mall in Ohio. For dinner, we went to the popular fast food restaurant, Culver’s, which was pretty good, especially the frozen custard, and then we stopped for the night in Jolliet, Illinois.

Day 2 began with us going through Iowa from Illinois. There was a ton of farmland as we were passing through, so there was not much to see, except for some rest stops and windmills. It was amazing seeing the windmills, as I can’t believe they were gigantic, but were helpful in this area in providing energy. We then looked around the Jordan Creek Town Center, which was a beautiful mall, before driving again. We then stopped for dinner in Nebraska at a Perkins, and stopped in Ogallala for the night.

Day 3 had us drive to Colorado, where we could see the Rockies as soon as we got into the state, and it was quite a majestic site. We stopped at Town Center at Aurora. After getting back into the car, we saw the Rockies up close. I was amazed that people actually live on these mountains, as I saw houses up there. We also drove through several tunnels in the mountains, which an up-close experience. We stopped in Green River, Utah for the night, a town known for tourism, at an independently owned inn that was recommended to us by a person who worked at the restaurant we ate at, Tamarisk.

Day 4 was the day we drove to Las Vegas. On the way there, we saw many majestic canyons, making the long drive nice and scenic. To make it even more beautiful, it snowed on the way there! We spent the night in Vegas, where I went to Fashion Show Mall, Circus Circus, and stores in the hotel we were at, The Venetian.

Day 5 ended our drive. After having gambled and had breakfast at our Las Vegas hotel, we went on the road to Los Angeles, California. It flew by fast! I was so happy that we finally were going to do the main part of our trip for the next week or so, and I felt free when we were almost there.

Though it wasn’t as eventful as the first road trip I did in 2015, since it had fewer stops, I still enjoyed this road trip. Though I mostly went to malls and restaurants on the way so we could deliver the car to my brother, it still was a great experience. However, there were some downsides, mainly there being no cell service in the Rocky Mountains and one part of Utah, and I was hurting when I sat in the car for a long time. Also, the route wasn’t as interesting as the one from 2015, so if I went on a trip next time, I’d pick the southern route.