Philadelphia Freedom: Day 1

On June 27, Peter and I left San Juan Capistrano shortly after the crack of dawn. The destination: Philadelphia. But before we could leave, Peter bid a fond farewell to his grandma.

Then the two of us were on our way. It quickly became apparent that Peter was happy to do all the driving. This meant I had to create jobs for myself. One of those jobs was to be the documenter of the road trip. It wasn't long before Peter got used to having an amateur (and slightly annoying) photographer sitting next to him.

Having an amateur photographer along for the ride meant we had visual proof of Peter's squeegie-ing skills. And let me tell you, a small army of bugs lost their lives on that windshield every day. Squeegie-ing was imperative.

On our first day we drove by this solar farm. I looked it up on Google so I can give you the scoop. It's called the Ivanpah Electric Generating System. It's in the Mojave Desert in California, across the state line from Primm, Nevada. At least as of 2014, it was the world's largest solar thermal power station. It's a sight to behold and is quite distinct and memorable.

In fact, it's so distinct and memorable that a few days later when I was flying home I could spot it from the sky.

But back to our drive. I would like to give a shout out to an excellent fast-casual Mexican hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Mesquite, Nevada. This place is tucked inside an am/pm Mini Mart and you'd never find it unless you knew about it ahead of time or lucked into it. Since one of the jobs I created for myself on this road trip was food finder, I found it on Instagram. This place was was fantastic. We both loved El Coyote Charro.

After driving through California and Nevada, we drove a short distance through Arizona. It looked pretty much like this.

Next up was Utah. We drove a lot in Utah. It looked a lot like this.

It was a long day—almost 700 miles. That night we arrived tired but happy in Green River, Utah. I'd love to continue on with telling you about our trip, but I think this is enough for one post. Tomorrow: Colorado!