WEST. 175 days, 1,500 miles hiked, 25,000 miles driven, 75 parks visited. One Story. Can you hear the NPR soft voice?! Haha. My inner monologue ran constantly as I drove the 2,600 miles home. After two hours of high mountain desert driving I hit I-40 and headed east, 2,450 miles east. I drove for 350 miles between stops, powered by caffeine, chocolate and sugar. I listened to music and political radio, catching up on the world that kept going while I walked. I stopped at 9pm just east of Albuquerque, New Mexico. By the next day, the scenery had flattened and I was officially not in the West. I felt like a trucker, on auto-pilot, making miles, stopping at the truck stops, even stopping in Oklahoma City for an oil change. I camped for the night a few hours west of Memphis, Tennessee. I eventually made it to the mountains of North Carolina and then home to my dad's house at 10:30pm on the third day. I had driven twel...