Like most kids going away to college, I was nervous about getting along with my roommate. As I drove with my parents across several states, with everything I owned in the back of the car, I kept reading over the documents the university sent me and studying her name, trying to picture what she would be like. The typical roommate horror stories kept running through my head and I was prepared for life in the dorms to be a living hell. In all my wildest dreams I could not have imagined what amazing luck I would have. Not only did I get along with my roommate, we spent, and continue to spend, almost every waking moment together. She has turned out to be one of the best friends I’ve ever had. Like me, she has a passion not just for travel but for adventure. In fact, when we are together, every day is an adventure. Everything we do together, from a simple trip to the grocery store to one of our spontaneous coastal camping trips in which we drive to the coast in the middle of the night, sleep in her beat up car, and enjoy an early morning hot chocolate with whipped cream, turns out to be a blast. We are both college students so our travel experiences together have been on a pretty tight budget, but no matter where we go or what happens to us, we have a great time (and know that it will make a great story later). For example, she and I went on a 2000 mile road trip last spring break in which we went to Disneyland, spent one night in Las Vegas, attended a wedding, and then went backpacking in Canyonlands National Park.. Our car broke down twice, once in the middle of Utah, and we woke up to a snow storm while we were backpacking. We still talk about all of the unique people me met on that trip including Del the AAA mechanic in Salina Utah, and Peggy Sue, owner of the finest highway diner in all of California. To most people, including close friends and family members, this sounded like a horrible vacation. However, we look back on our “2000 Miles of Heavenly Bliss” road trip fondly because, armed with fantastic music, stacks of Mapquest directions, and each other, we had a wonderful time.