I'm Done

I got into Atlanta yesterday, so I figured I'd go ahead and tell you all since it'll be known soon enough, but I'm ending my trip here.

"But why, Kobie? Is it because life on the road is too hard? Is it because you miss your family and friends? Or maybe because you're getting sick of Walmart sandwiches?"

While all those things are true, none are why I'm ending my trip early. The reason is, I've got no mo' money. I set aside so much for this trip and managed to spend just about all of it getting this far. I could spend the rest of my life savings to maybe get the rest of the way, but I'm a little better at controlling my money than that as long as I'm not at a craps table, so I'm calling it quits.

"But Kobie, where did your money go?" I hear you say, "I bet it was all those hotels you've been staying in!"

Good question! No, it wasn't the hotels. In fact, I realized I was going to run out of trip money while planning for Las Vegas, so part of my staying in hotels was because I knew I wouldn't have to stretch my money so long. From what I can tell, where the money did go is a combination of things that I didn't account for in my monetary predictions:

1) Insurance. I didn't even think about getting insurance until after I'd decided to go. I was getting insurance through my job, and while I could've just not gotten it and hoped I didn't hurt myself, I'd still have to get epilepsy medication which cost so much without insurance, I figured I might as well get coverage.

2) Storage unit. I rented out a storage unit to keep some of my things in (Big thanks to my friends John, Josh, and Milledge and my dad for helping move stuff, as well as for John, Josh, and my parents letting me store some of my stuff at their places). It wasn't a significant cost, but a cost none-the-less.

3) Car repairs. If you've been following, you know I've had quite a few stops to get my car worked on. This is something I knew COULD happen, and is the reason I was trying to find a new car before the trip, but I had no idea on a way to accurately predict it, so I accounted no money into my trip fund for it.

4) Gas. I already knew before hand gas was the brunt of the trip cost, but I slightly underestimated how far I'd drive. The trip was meant to be 26,000 miles with Atlanta being the halfway point at 13,000. But so far I've driven 17,570 miles, 4,570 more than expected. Google maps showed me how far I'd travel going destination to destination, but I didn't think I'd need to account for the small things, like finding food or shelter, getting lost, taking detours, etc., but they added up a lot more than I expected. And for any who are wondering, Google maps says it would take 205 hours, or 8.5 days, of driving to get between the destinations I've been to so far.

5) The Apartment. I ended up paying 2 months rent until my apartment moved another tenant in...*grumble grumble grumble*

6) California Speeding Citation. This happened after I realized I was running out of money, but still: suck it Kern County.

"So how many states did you make it through?"

While I didn't completely visit all the states, the states I at least passed through were: South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. That's 17/48, or only 35%, which sounds pretty bad. But considering the area of these states, I covered, if I added correctly, 1,594,721.03 of 3,120,426.47 square miles, which is 51%: I've seen, politically, over half the contiguous United States by square mileage, and that's something. It's not all 48, but I could only afford half the expected time and saw half the expected country, so I feel like I planned somewhat accordingly.

"Are you upset you didn't make it to see the other states/will you try to see them?"

I'm not upset at all actually. I saw so much on this trip, it almost feels like I've already been everywhere. Any place left on my trip, I may not have seen it, but I can imagine it to the point I don't mind. If I ever have the chance, I'll finish it, but I'm perfectly content if I never do, and contentment is what I needed.

"What will you do now?"

There's a lot of things I'd like to do, none of them including going back to work, but I know it'll have to happen, so I may try to get my old job back. Outside of work, I have a lot of ambitions now, the most important of which will be turning this blog into a book. I still plan on writing entries up to Atlanta, want to rewrite the crappier entries, and edit it all into something people might be willing to look through while they're on the toilet. Aside from this, I'd still like to learn Spanish, guitar, finish a website, and test out an abstract quality measurement system I developed while traveling (I have unique hobbies).

I wanna thank all of you for supporting me during this trip. It really helps a lot on those nights after eating dull food and sleeping at an angle again to know other people care and are interested in what you're doing. That being said, thanks again, and I hope you have and will continue to enjoy my blog.