My 7,000 Mile Road Trip Generated 5 Major Realizations I'll Be Applying To My Businesses Going Forward

Forrest Baird
Jul 13
10 min read

Updated: Aug 30

7000 miles. 19 states + 1 province. 25 days. 800 photos. 200 new ideas.

Up to this point, I had never done anything like this before. Either I would periodically take a one-week staycation, or I would travel to familiar sites: my parents’ house, my in-laws’ house, or see some friends from other cities I used to live in. When leaving the area, I would fly to my destination.

This time was different. It was time to pack my bags, see the country from the ground view, and connect the dots from coast to coast.

Up until this road trip, the longest road trip I ever took was after college. I drove from near Erie, Pennsylvania, to Kansas City, Missouri, and returned using a different route through Kentucky and West Virginia. The longest day drive stemmed from near Des Moines, Iowa, to Colorado Springs, Colorado.

It was time for another road trip. This time, my journey would be longer in both time and distance to properly visit states, cities, and landmarks that I would otherwise miss.

From California to New York State, I took my time exploring the country by limiting my driving time to eight hours per day. This decision enabled me to see some sites along the way, enjoy the places I was staying in, and visit a few friends without any hurry.

During my road trip, there were a few noteworthy highlights I hadn’t realized until they became apparent to me, including:

On my trip, I visited three new national parks that were dream destinations in my 20s: Yellowstone National Park, Mount Rushmore, and the Badlands.
When I arrived in Omaha, Nebraska, I realized I finally had a continuous, connected vision from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.
I chased and captured my first storm on a pro camera in Western Kansas.

To my surprise, there were no major interruptions or setbacks. Not everything went according to plan, but many good, unexpected surprises overshadowed any setbacks.

I packed lightly with only the essentials. Music is essential, so my guitar and saxophone were at the top of my packing list. During my stay at various places, I never received a complaint about playing either instrument.

Of course, I knew I had to pack my Sony Mirrorless camera to capture beautiful scenery, wildlife, and people along the way. I snapped over 8000 photographs and kept nearly 800 of the best ones.

Additionally, I captured 200 new creative, entrepreneurial, and technological ideas by having Siri take a note for me as I enjoyed the road, scenery, and lodging in strange and familiar lands.

My 5 Realizations From An Epic Road Trip

This reflection documents several key ideas and realizations from my road trip. The old saying goes that evaluated experience is far more valuable than raw experience.

Below are five of the major realizations I had throughout the trip that were reinforced time and time again.

-1- Worst Case Is Exactly That–Worst Case

The idea of a road trip brings mixed emotions: excitement for the thrills to come with bucket list items to knock out, and the horrors of the worst things that can happen.

When it comes to the worst case, it's easy to imagine everything going wrong:

The car could break down, lose a tire, get swept up by a tornado, or get into an accident,
A thug could break into the car and steal hidden valuables,
I could get hijacked from driving through inner city Chicago to get around a major accident on the interstate,

The list goes on. For all the worst-case scenarios that could happen, none of them happened. That's because worst-case scenarios have barely any probability of occurring.

Mostly, I had an enjoyable experience driving throughout each state. Other drivers were friendly, people enjoyed saying hello, and everybody wanted to get along their way. It was amazing.

While it’s possible that adversity can strike, as long as we do our due diligence to protect ourselves and treat others with respect, there is hardly any reason to believe that any road trip will encounter major adversities.

Business operates similarly. We should be aware of possible worst-case scenarios, but we shouldn't spend precious time trying to prevent them when we could be generating revenue, improving our operations, ensuring our stakeholders' successes, and so on.

Tim Ferriss, your words make far more sense than ever before.

-2- Every Destination Has An Opportunity Cost

While driving from coast to coast, there are endless opportunities for sightseeing and experiencing new things. There are two sides to the coin in any adventure: the expected and the unexpected.

This reality creates two equally valid temptations:

The first temptation is to spend more time in our current location because there’s no guarantee that the next place we visit will be as good. Here, the opportunity cost is losing time to enjoy hidden surprises. Additionally, we may underestimate how much we appreciate the next destination.

The second temptation is to get to the next destination faster to maximize the time spent there. Similar to the first temptation, the cost is the hidden treasures that may be missed along the way. More importantly, the next destination may not meet our expectations, and backtracking would be time-consuming and fruitless.

With these opportunity costs, is there a way to optimize the maximum enjoyment of a road trip? This question may become a classic in a microeconomics class.

The answer: No.

Complete information is unattainable, and there's no way to know without hindsight. When venturing into the unknown, we will never truly know what is out there until we experience it first-hand. Additionally, what one person perceives as boring may be adventurous for someone else.

Therefore, the best course of action is to move forward by making the best decisions possible with limited information and actively embracing our experiences. It’s as simple as that.

However, there is one guarantee: precious time will be lost if we choose to overanalyze how to best enjoy the road trip before proceeding. As we all know, time is not a renewable resource.

Therefore, the best approach to a road trip is to adopt a flexible mindset that maintains reasonable certainty about planned activities while embracing the uncertainty of thrills that appear along the way.

This mindset works well in business, too.

-3- Some Plans Wash Out, While The Surprises Make Up For It

Initially, I had about 60 potential destinations to visit. These were national parks, cities, homes of friends and family, and other desired destinations. However, not all plans worked out, while others were a real gamble.

In some unfortunate cases, the weather made enjoying outdoor destinations impractical. Other destinations were closed for maintenance, repairs, staff meetings, or other reasons beyond any traveler's control.

Even when I successfully reached some destinations, they didn’t live up to the hype. The visits, which I thought would be more involved, were short and sweet. In these situations, I found myself with surplus time. It didn’t necessarily make them bad; it just changed the flow of the anticipated game.

On the flipside, there were other destinations I had never heard of before, which turned out to be some of my favorite moments from the trip.

One of my favorite moments was towards the end of the trip. I arrived at my hotel in Goodland, Kansas, and the sun was setting and vivid in color, immediately attracting my attention.

I pulled up the weather radar and noticed some red in the cells 15 miles west of my location, which indicates heavy storms with possible lightning. In my mind, the thought of seeing my first tornado was a thrill.

I pounced on the opportunity by grabbing my camera and tripod to drive west towards that vivid sunset. As I approached the Kansas–Colorado border, I noticed a windmill farm where the sun was setting and snapped the following picture:

As the sun disappeared, I noticed that the lightning was increasing in frequency. Sometimes, it was crackling through the sky, and other times, it was slamming the ground. It was scary but captivating.

Before my final moments of escaping the storm and not getting struck by lightning, I captured some pictures with my Sony. Here is one of my favorite moments:

After capturing Mother Nature's display, I bolted to the hotel to shack up and ride out the storm. The microburst brought plenty of lightning and thunder as the near 60 mph winds thrusted heavy rain and dime-sized hail on the town. While the storm was thrilling, there was no tornado.

Luckily for me, my car fared just fine.

Capturing the storm was a great reminder that plans are always subject to change in business. Adaptability is far more important than a rigid vision. When an opportunity presents itself, it's crucial to pounce before it passes.

-4- There Is Beauty Everywhere

Many people consider coastal states a photographer's paradise for scenic photography. In California, we have ample beaches, numerous mountain sides, and Mediterranean scenery that enjoys some of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen. The Pacific Northwest and Alaska bring their own natural treasures.

However, all 19 states plus the one Canadian province I visited had beauty. Whether it was wildlife or unforgettable landscapes, every place I visited had something to offer.

I will admit that becoming a photographer has trained my eye to look for perspectives that might be missed or taken for granted. However, it’s one of the most substantial rewards of being a photographer and a skill that enhances all other areas of life, including business.

If we know where to look, change our perspective (and perhaps our mindset), and adjust our focus, we may capture an epic and unforgettable shot. Here is a gallery of a few surprise landscapes throughout North America:

-5- On Average, People Love To Help Out

Many people love to poke fun at the middle of the country for being boring, flyover country. I am fortunate to live on one of the coasts, where I enjoy some of the best weather, food, arts, and technological innovation that life offers.

However, driving through the country–specifically the Rockies and the Midwest–reminded me of a life that goes to a much slower beat. At this tempo, people are more inclined to lend a helping hand for situations big and small. It was a nostalgic reminder of how much I appreciated the people of Iowa during my first two years of college.

Throughout my journey, I met numerous strangers who held doors with a genuine smile. Whenever I checked into a hotel, the front desk agents were terrific and always asked if I needed any additional accommodations. Waiters and waitresses asked thoughtful questions about my travels and life back in California.

People in these parts of the country are genuine and hard-working. Most of them are ordinary Americans with careers, families, and modest lifestyles that move at a far different pace. Others have big dreams and aspirations, as I did growing up, and they are leveraging their small-town roots to learn what's out there for them.

That’s when it hit me that these parts of the country generally value social currency more than anything else. The locals pride themselves on lending a hand to someone in need and ensuring they feel welcome.

While driving from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Omaha, Nebraska, I decided to take the back roads along the Missouri River to change the pace from driving on the interstate. It was only a 180-mile drive, so I figured I had ample time to enjoy the road and stop along the way.

Within the first hour, I noticed a persistent clicking in the back of the car, which led me to suspect that something wasn’t right with the vehicle. Naturally, I pulled over to inspect the car to see if I could identify the problem.

I discovered that one of my backpack straps was hanging out of the trunk, and the plastic piece at the end kept hitting the car.

It wasn’t even one minute after I pulled over when somebody drove from their driveway to ask if I needed help. She was a very sweet, retired lady who offered me a place to stay and leftovers from lunch.

As wonderful an offer as it was, I told her that I pulled over because a plastic part from my backpack kept hitting the car. She laughed at this and said she was glad to see I was okay. She revalidated the offer if I wanted a place to rest for a little while. I politely declined her offer, but I sincerely appreciated it.

Our encounter was a good reminder that offering to help others is what business is all about. Just remember to be a servant, and not a doormat.

A New Chapter In Business

Even though I didn’t get to do everything I wanted, I had the road trip of a lifetime.

I was able to take time off from my business, do some things I wanted to do, and build some new, long-lasting memories that I’m using as a springboard to push me forward in my new chapter.

There's something to be said about being able to walk away from the everyday grind and experience different walks of life throughout the country. It's a great reminder that we don't always need to go fast. In business, direction is far more important than speed.

As I return to the city lifestyle, these realizations will serve as cornerstones for moving forward.

In my own city, I look forward to uncovering new opportunities with fresh eyes by building long-lasting relationships with my community. Since returning, I've visited new events and asked people about their interests.

Perhaps Dale Carnegie is right: you can make more friends in two months by taking a genuine interest in someone else than in two years talking about yourself.

Hopefully, I will be able to get my new ventures just right by ensuring they serve the needs of my immediate community.

Should You Do A Road Trip?

Yes. Ultimately, I recommend that everyone take a road trip at some point in their lives.

A great road trip doesn't need to span multiple states and several weeks. Something as simple as going four hours out of town for a weekend can bring new changes and direction.

A road trip represents a break from our natural routines to teach us the humility needed to trust that unfamiliar situations will work out. Additionally, seeing new sites can trigger new ideas, which cannot be obtained from executing the same routines in familiar environments.

Along the way, we will capture new ideas and memories that serve as a springboard to build a better future. We will see how the dots connect to identify similarities and differences of distinct cultures and lands far better than if we are anchored in one area.

In addition to the people, we see changes in the residents of Mother Nature along the way. In America, we're fortunate that the wildlife is bountiful. Here are some other wildlife highlights from my road trip: