A road trip, a breakup, and learning to hold both the gas and the brakes
I didn’t plan a brand.
I didn’t map a route for content.
I didn’t even know how long I’d be gone.
Seven weeks before I left, someone I loved walked away.
And I could feel, in a way that didn’t need words, that if I stayed still—I might go back.
So I didn’t stay.
I packed my car with more instinct than certainty and gave myself three simple anchors:
visit people I love,
work on myself,
and see places I’ve never seen.
I thought it might last six weeks.
Maybe 7,000 miles.
But I just kept going.
There’s a version of me that had always been a co-adventurer.
I wasn’t just along for the ride.
I was engaged, paying attention, part of it.
But I tended to be the one with a foot on the brakes—
measuring, considering, pacing things out—
while someone else pressed the gas.
There was a balance in that.
This trip asked something different of me.
Somewhere between backroads and unfamiliar towns, I became the one who:
planned the next stop,
read the map,
made the call,
and decided when to go, and when to stay.
There wasn’t anyone else to defer to.
I had to be both.
And at first, that was quiet.
Then it was uncomfortable.
Then it was… steady.
I met people I never would have met if I had stayed.
Some were brief—just a conversation, a shared moment, a place at the right time.
And one became a dear friend.
That still surprises me.
That something so unstructured, so open-ended, could lead to connection that lasts.
I didn’t film the trip with a plan.
I just shared pieces of it with people who wanted to keep up.
Little glimpses.
Moments.
Places that caught my attention.
It wasn’t until nearly a year later that I went back and gathered it all.
I sorted it the only way that made sense to me:
by region—South, Midwest, West, Southwest,
and by experience—Stays, Sights, Delights.
It wasn’t about creating something impressive.
It was about honoring what happened.
If you’re curious, I gathered pieces of the trip into short videos here:
https://youtube.com/@leahthelocaltraveller
Because what happened wasn’t just a road trip.
It was a decision.
To keep going.
To not turn around.
To not hand the wheel back over.
To see what would happen if I stayed with myself.
And I did.
Longer than I expected.
Further than I planned.
More fully than I knew I could.
I wrote about parts of this while I was still inside it—learning how to take action in the presence of fear here—but this feels different.
I’m proud of the places I saw.
But more than that—
I’m proud of the way I showed up.
And now, I’m in a different kind of stretch.
Not crossing state lines, but still learning how to stay with myself.
Still noticing when it would be easier to hand the wheel over.
Still choosing not to.
The scenery has changed. The work hasn’t.
I’m building something now—more rooted, more intentional.
But it’s coming from the same place:
I know I can carry my own life.
Leah McCracken 