Just a small 21000km roadtrip...

Mood was at an all time low, crying all the time for no reason, not wanting to go to bed at night because it meant work in the morning, life was not amazing. After going to the hospital 2 times for panic attacks, the doctor put me on sick leave and gave me meds. I was placed on unemployment insurance. The meds were making me feel odd, everything was meh. Took them for 3-4 months and decided they weren't that good for me.

Meanwhile, most of my time was spent on teamspeak with faraway friends, playing games or watching Twitch... this is when "the plan" came to be. After my unemployment insurance time would be done, I'd leave on an epic roadtrip to meet some of those friends. One of these, living in Arizona, agreed to be kidnapped and follow me along this trip!

June 18th, 2015. My trusty steed, a 2012 Lancer, ready for the road with a Rand McNally because, as much fun as a gps can be, nothing is as trustworthy as a paper map. Paper always has service...

The first stage of the trip - going to Arizona with all kinds of detours along the way! I've wanted to go on a roadtrip since I was a teenager and doing this part of the road alone meant I could do pretty much all I wanted! I had two friends to meet on this lap, one in Minnesota and one in Utah.

Nearing the border in Sarnia, Ontario, the wait wasn't too bad, took about 30 minutes to pass. I was nervous since I only went once in the US, in 1996, and I wasn't alone then. Lots of questions were asked, it seems I satisfied the border officer because he let me pass! Wooo!!

Random rocks on the side of the I-90, Mill Bluff in Wisconsin. Later learned it was actually part of a state park which seems quite nice. Wisconsin was surprisingly beautiful.

Going through my first big american city, the Minneapolis - St-Paul agglomeration. This is a true roller-coaster for cars, it goes down, back up, oh suddenly a tunnel, exits and entrances left and right, all the curves everywhere... I'm glad I went against my friend's advice and went through instead of using the bypass, it was fun!

SO MANY WINDMILLS!! We don't really have windmills in Québec (hurray for all the hydro power I guess) and they are everywhere in the US, I kept on going "oooh" because I love windmills, I think they are a sexy way to create power. This was taken along Route 23 south of Ruthton, Minnesota.

While driving west on the I-90 in South Dakota, I see a sign - Badlands Petrified Gardens. I like rocks and I'm intrigued. I decide to stop. The place looks a bit sketchy but for someone who likes rocks and fossils, it is an interesting place to visit. The store was filled with goodies, I had to spend a lot of willpower to not fill my car with rocks...

Still on the I-90, I notice strange rocky formations to the south... "Hmm, this looks like the Badlands... OH IT IS THE BADLANDS!!!" Even though I stopped at the petrified gardens, my brain did not realize I was that close to the Badlands, which have always fascinated me. So of course, when I saw a sign for the Badlands National Park, I HAD to go, entrance fees be damned! The detour was most definitely worth it, the place is gorgeous and no picture can give it justice.

Up the Black Hills towards Mount Rushmore, which I had to see since I was in the area. There were TONS of people, took longer to get in there than it took me to pass country border!

All the colors, the angle of this formation, the lovely sky.. I had to stop to take a better picture of this. Just north of Rawlins, Wyoming, on the side of Route 287. Wyoming was a beautiful state to go through, many "oooh" and "aaaaah" and "deergods wow" were said that day.

One of the many mountains surrounding Lehi, Utah, where I spent a few day to hang out with a friend. I wasn't expecting such epic mountains and scenery in Utah. Snow on the mountains when it's over 45°C in the valley, I didn't knew this could be a thing.

My first of many true dust devils seen in Nevada, near the I-15. Hurray for desert biomes!

June 28th. FINALLY!!! Arizona!! I'm almost where I'll finally meet my friend, the one who will be my travelling companion for the rest of my trip in the US and back to Canada!

Cruising down Route 95 towards Lake Havasu City. The contrast between rocky sand and dark mountains was a lovely surprise, I had no idea it would be so lovely.

Welcome to Lake Havasu City in the beginning of summer! To those poor people not using the metric system, 50°C is 122F. "But it's a dry heat!" they say. Yeah, screw that, it's like breathing air coming out of an oven. Surprisingly though, you do get used to it... after a week there I wasn't complaining as much!

A simplified map of our travels in the southwest. Most of the things I wanted to see were in Arizona so, good thing I now had a native of the state as a guide! While looking at maps, I realize that the Pacific ocean is less than 4 hours away from his place... after crossing an entire continent, that's right next door!!

Going south on Route 78 on the way to San Diego, I see something odd on the horizon. I ask my friend, he just smiles and says "you'll see..." We go up a hill and bang! Dunes!! A real sand desert!! I never thought I would go from rocky scenery to what looks like the middle of the Sahara! That was a jaw dropping moment. So yeah, that's Algodones Dunes in southeastern California.

On I-80 going west in California, the mountains are made of rocks. All kinds of sizes of rocks. It goes on for a while too, it's really odd. It still mystifies me, why, how can those mountains be made of random rocks?

Screw the no selfie policy, this picture is pure happiness! Me and my friend enjoying amazing beers and waiting for what turned out to be one of the best burger we had in all the trip! If you ever get lost in Mission Beach, go to Coaster's. Oh and yeah, 52 draft beers....

July 3rd, coming back from San Diego after a busy day, a lovely arizonan sunset to ease the way back to my friend's home. A few days off to relax from travelling before exploring the state..

Going towards Lake Mead to go see Hoover Dam. The mountains are lovely, the lower part shows the higher water limit the lake can reach.

That bridge made me gasp and let out a loud, typically québécois swear word that still makes my friend laugh to this day. It is an amazing feat of engineering that I wasn't expecting when I turned around that bend on the access road. Hoover Dam was impressive but this bridge wins over it!

It was raining all the while we were going up to the Grand Canyon then, as we get there, clouds move to the north and suddenly, sunshine over the canyon! It could not have been more perfect, I adore the dark clouds backdrop to the grandeur of the canyon. This picture doesn't do justice to all the magnificence of the place!

Coming down Route 89 towards the lovely city of Flagstaff. We can see Humpfreys Peak to the right and part of the Sunset Crater National Park to the left, both sticking out of an otherwise flat land. Volcanism does wonders for epic scenery!

At the beginning of Route 160 just besides the Tuba City airport. This was like driving through a postcard. I wanted to see cute and colorful mesas like in Minecraft, I got the Painted Desert instead!

Leaving Kayenta and going to Monument Valley via Route 163, where we were greeted by the El Capitan on the right and what I called the Giant Boob Lady on the left (it looked like that from afar) and I barely have a hold on myself. We are nearing a place I never thought I would see for real!

Pure epicness that words cannot describe. Tears in my eyes, lump in my throat, all the feels in the world. Monument Valley was the one thing I most wanted to see and even though we never made it to the official park (line to enter was disgustingly huge and slow) just the road there was worth it a thousand times!

All those random rocks sticking out of nowhere, all the red and the green contrast is so amazing, sure is a contrast to my usual rolling and forested laurentian hills! To me, northern Arizona is beyond beautiful.

Still on Route 191 going south, just before Rock Point. All the mesas, huge sky with little fluffy clouds, a wild sunflower making an appearance.. I don't believe I could tire of such a scenery.

One of the many reasons I wanted to visit Arizona, Barringer Crater!! I've always had a thing for crater impacts and few are as well preserved as this one. It's a lot bigger than it seems, huge hole is huge! Not ideal if you are afraid of heights, though..

The second lap of the trip, which implied an unplanned month pit-stop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to stay with a very good friend of ours. This was followed by two small stops in Virginia to meet other friends, plus a detour to Chicago to spend a day and a half with a streamer friend, then back to Minnesota to wait for my friend's passport to arrive...

New Mexico being all sexy cliffs on the side of I-40, on our way towards Texas. It rained on and off all day.

July 16th, my friend is crossing an item from his bucket list, quite happy with his 'Burger from Hell' at Coyote Bluff Cafe in Amarillo, Texas. Food was good and well worth the stop, though we both wished for more beer options!

Sooooo yeah, I guess we're in Texas now. Oil wells and huge fields and cows... quite relaxing, which isn't always a good thing when you're driving.

Our first of many glorious sunsets in Baton Rouge! I ended up spending lots of time in that yard, in the heat and humidity but in such good company, it didn't matter. Amazing times were had with our good friend there... he didn't want to let us go and still tries to lure me back to his place!

A typical street in Baton Rouge. Such nice trees everywhere, with all the spanish moss to make them look even more surreal. This was quite a change of scenery for my arizonan friend!

A panoramic view of the great Mississippi taken from the top of the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge. Again, not the best place if you are afraid of heights!

When we heard that another friend was coming back to his house in Austin, Texas, I decided we all needed to go meet him. After all, it was only 7 hours away... he took us to Gordough's Public House for supper. We had burgers on donuts. Yes, donuts. Here you can see the Ron Burgundy. It was freakantastic!!!

Going back from Austin towards Baton Rouge on the I-10, over the Atchafalaya Basin. It was basically like driving over a lake, water was very high and it was slightly scary.

August 19th. Leaving Louisiana was hard, it was so lovely, people there were so friendly and welcoming... the weather on the way towards Virginia reflected quite well how I felt about leaving.

Going north on the I-85... unless we took a wrong turn somewhere, I'm pretty sure Alberta is nowhere near Virginia. (Yes, I know that's the name of a town there, hush)

Again, screw the no selfie policy!! Since my friend and I first met on his twitch chat, we arranged a stop in Chicago to meet up with streamer extraordinaire Eddie Ruckus! This ended up with the two guys enjoing a lot of the amazing beers at the Beercade HQ (I'm driving so no beer for me) and very good ramen at Oiistar!

Made it back to Minnesota to another streamer friend's place. It was because of him that me and my friend finally got to talk to each other via teamspeak. After all the travelling we did, we rested there for about two weeks, waiting for my friend's passport to finally come in. This map shows the third and final lap of the trip.

September 16th. Finally!!! Oh wait, what... no?? Turns out Immigration Canada in Sarnia is very picky on who gets in. To those crossing the border for the first time, be prepared to be assaulted by a mountain of questions and requirements. Much to our despair, my friend was refused entry in Canada.

I got angry and decided we would cross the border in my own province, where they would understand the concept of québécois hospitality.. While on our way there, we got more cash money, travel insurance and a train ticket back for my friend, just to reassure immigration officers that he would be okay to stay in and leave the country. When we got to the border in Lacolle, Québec two days later, immigration officers were satisfied and let him in!!! I spent about 30 minutes repeating to him "Eh, you're in Canada now"!!

Mandatory cat tax!! My friend spending quality time with my 13 years old baby, Crowley.

So, my friend stayed almost a month and a half in Québec, I got to show him real fall colours of the laurentian mixed forests, make him eat all the poutine, drink amazing local beers and all in all just having a chill time. That time was way too short...

Of the 1244 photos I took along my trip, this is by far the saddest one. November 1st, my friend is on that train and going back home. Again, the weather agrees with me. It was a windy, cold and rainy day in Montréal. My friend, who I've been having a blast with for the last four months, who shared my life-long dream of an epic roadtrip, with whom I've seen and experienced so many awesome things, is leaving for Arizona.

I took a walk in the rain.