With over 2,800 miles ahead, the unknown lurks around. The journey begins in senior Ava McKay’s Nissan Rogue. The sign comes into view… 3… 2… 1… they have reached North Carolina, just one of nearly 15 state crossings.

For McKay, this will become the adventure of a lifetime. From coast-to-coast, she will travel transcontinental in a four-door, five seat Nissan Rogue with herself and two friends.  The idea goes back to McKay’s roots.

“I lived in Oregon for 14 [years] and I wanted to drive to Oregon from here,” McKay said. “We have an iKamper that we’re putting up on the roof of my car that can fit three people… we just bought the America the Beautiful pass for national parks [and] maps from AAA with all the highways. We’re going to be camping [on] my car with a pop-up tent and we’re going to [several] national parks.”

Being from Oregon, McKay has had a sense of adventure from the very beginning. Constantly out hiking, chasing nature, or doing mission work, McKay knew this would be the ideal finale to high school.

“I’ve always loved traveling, but I’ve only ever done it with family,” McKay said. “So many seniors go on trips and spend a bunch of money. I really wanted to spend my money and time enjoying places I’ve always wanted to see. I also wanted the independence of a trip with just a few friends. I had the idea last summer, then started talking to some friends about it and they loved the idea
too. From then on the idea has only flourished. Now here we are nine months later, three girls across the country and it’s less than a month away.”

McKay knew the first step of this adventure was to build a team. Despite only knowing them for a short amount of time, McKay soon invited seniors Amadea Friedl and Allie Cross. While the
fear of the unknown crossed their minds, the team’s sense of adventure outweighed their worries.

“Ava brought up the idea of us going on a trip. She’s talked about her dad doing it with some of his friends before so I was like ‘Oh cool, that sounds really fun,’ and then we kind of just started talking about it. The idea just grew and eventually now we’re here and I’m literally going, which is crazy,” Freidl said.

For Freidl, the decision was not a difficult one. Much like McKay, adventure has been in her blood for years.

“I’ve been cross country three times with my family,” Freidl said. “It was always a family thing, we would go with my mom, dad, and brother, but that was always a bougie trip. We stayed in nice
hotels [but] this one is in a car… Ava’s really good at all the camping stuff [so] I’m just relying on her for all of that.”

With the idea slowly becoming a reality, the team began planning their big adventure. This involved planning a camping trip to test their dynamic. For Cross, this was a major confidence boost ahead of the journey.

“We went to Lake Hartwell for the weekend and we really just wanted to see how we would work together and how it would go so that our parents would be more comfortable with the whole going to Oregon thing,” Cross said. “It went really well. We just camped, made dinners, we built a fire, we went on a little hike. The only problem we had was setting up the tent but we’re not going to have to do that for the actual road trip because we’re going to have a tent on top of the car that’s really easy to set up.”

While in the upstate, the team was tested on their communication, problem solving, and independence skills. All of which they know will come in handy on the trip.

“Afterwards, we were like ‘oh my gosh, this could actually happen and work and it can go really smoothly.’ I am just really excited about it,” Cross said.

The next and one of the most important steps of planning involved compiling a route on which they will travel. The team had both adventure and safety on their minds. As the organizer of the trip, McKay first compiled a list of places she wanted to hit.

“We’re going to be camping in the Badlands. We’re going to go to Zion and are probably going to hike. From there we’re going to be staying with family in Utah. [Then] from Utah to Oregon we’re going up through Northern California and we’re just staying with family. Then when we get to Oregon we’re going to be all along the coast and then we’re going to try to go to Mount Rainier because that’s in Washington,” McKay said.

Although the team feels well prepared following the camping trip and has a game plan as far as their route, there is still a lot of unknown they can face on the road.

“It’s a lot of driving and none of us have really experienced a lot,” Freidl said, “Thoughts go through my head because I have no idea what’s going to happen exact ly. We could get in a car accident, scorpions, you never know.”

Despite this, the team has their eyes set on the thrill of adventure ahead.

“I’m excited for the unknown [and] I’m excited… what’s going to happen and I don’t know the type of people I’m going to meet,” Freidl said.