First stop - northern Ohio! I had read that Cuyahoga Valley National Park was one of the more dog-friendly national parks, allowing dogs on the majority of trails. So my original plan was to explore the park for most of the day with Oats, and since there's waterfalls I figured there would be enough water spots for her to cool off. However, like most things I plan, that didn't quite work out.

DOG-FRIENDLY STOP #1: Cuyahoga Valley National Park - Brandywine Gorge Trail

We started the day exploring the Brandywine Gorge Trail, one of the more famous trails with a large waterfall. It was a beautiful, shaded trail, but the bottom of the falls was closed off so we had less photo opportunities than I'd hoped. We could see the falls but unless we went down a lot of sketchy stairs, we couldn't get a great view. And I'll jump out of an airplane before I'll walk open wooden stairs (yes...issues).

Even though we found this pretty stream for Oats to take a dip, the temperature was at 95 and extremely high humidity, so it just wasn't quite enough to cool her off. We hiked 2 miles around the trail, playing in the water and taking some photos (and lots of water breaks) for about an hour, but by then she was completely overheated. I didn't want to push her to the point of heat stroke (that would be a bit of a vacation ruiner) so I bailed on my plan to spend the whole day hiking the park.

DOG-FRIENDLY STOP #2: Bow Wow Beach Dog Park, Stow

Instead, I quickly found (thanks Google) a little dog park with a beach about 20 minutes away in Stow, Ohio. If you're ever in this area, I would highly recommend Bow Wow Beach Dog Park. She had a blast swimming and playing with other pups, but the best part was the dog washing station on the way out. They have 3 spots sectioned off with hoses and I was able to give Oatsy a little bath before we left (the water left her a tad green - eek).

DOG-FRIENDLY STOP #3: Mitchell's Homemade Ice Cream, Solon

While Oats dried off, we sat outside at Mitchell's Homemade Ice Cream shop, which allows dogs in their outdoor seating area. We each had our own ice cream and it was fantastic. Ellie came along too because at least 10 people stopped to say hi to Oats, and she likes to greet them with her elephant. That always gets a laugh.

DOG-FRIENDLY STOP #4: Chagrin Falls, Ohio

Our lovely Airbnb hosts recommended we drive over to Chagrin Falls to walk around while the sun was setting. It was such a cute little town with a beautiful waterfall and just a generally nice place to walk around with Oats. We were both pretty hot and exhausted from the day, so we pretty much just walked around for an hour or so and snapped some photos.

We also stopped at one more little waterfall on the way back and walked around a bit. So we had a pretty nice day in northern Ohio....exploring waterfalls and eating ice cream. Andddd trying to stay cool (failed).

NEXT STOP: St. Louis, Missouri!

Our first day on the road didn't start as planned, but nothing ever does in my world. I had planned to leave at 8:00am to be in Ohio by dinnertime, so that would've meant packing the car almost completely yesterday. Which of course I didn't do. Instead, I spent the last day spending time with people I love. Priorities. It's worth leaving 2.5 hours late on Day 1 :)

Except that when I went to leave, 2 hours late at this point, my car decided it wasn't going with us. That's a great start to a 6 week road trip. I had left the keys in the ignition and the lights on for a while during my packing process, and evidently killed my battery. Thanks to our neighbor for giving my a quick jump, so I didn't have to unpack my entire car to dig out my own jumper cables. And we finally set off at 10:35am.

After that it was surprisingly smooth sailing from Connecticut to New York to Pennsylvania to Ohio. It's almost exactly 8 hours of driving, but it took us about 10 with stopping to stretch our legs, take bathroom breaks and get gas. We got lucky and didn't hit any Labor Day traffic. We have now arrived in Ohio and are ready to explore Cuyahoga Valley National Park tomorrow. I made a little video from today...just iPhone photos and videos so nothing spectacular, but here was our first day of the road trip.

Thank you to everyone who is supporting us and sending love our way :) And a HUGE thank you to those that helped us get ready for this massive undertaking of an adventure, especially my mom...who helped with everything even down to sorting through every clothing item and helping me make the tough decisions about what to leave home...who also snuck birthday cards in my car for me to have in 3 weeks. I may or may not have already opened them. Oops.

Oatsy and I hitting the road tomorrow! A lot of people have been asking me, so here is our cross country route *so far*. We will begin in Connecticut and drive to Oregon via the midwest, southwest and California coast, and then possibly head north up to Canada :) I'm considering driving back through Canada (eh?), so if anyone has suggestions about driving the Trans-Canada Highway please let me know! I've done a lot of research on the places in the US I'd love to see, but if I drive back through Canada (coming back into the US through Niagara Falls) I'm going to need to learn the route and the must-see places along the way. Comment below if you have suggestions!

Here's the tentative itinerary!
Sept 1-3: Cuyahoga Valley, OH
Sept 3-5: St. Louis, MO
Sept 5-7: Bucyrus, KS
Sept 7-10: Denver, CO
Sept 10-11: Moab, UT
Sept 11-12: Bryce Canyon, UT
Sept 12: Grand Canyon & Sedona, AZ
Sept 12-14: Tempe, AZ
Sept 14-15: San Diego, CA
Sept 15-20: Pacific Coast Highway, Sequoia National Park & Redwood Forest, CA
Sept 20-?: OREGON

Our first stop is northern Ohio - so tomorrow we will drive a little over 8 hours and spend the night close to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which is where I plan to take Oatsy hiking on Sunday. Cuyahoga Valley is one of the more dog-friendly national parks, so I'm excited to explore some trails there with my girl. Then on Monday morning we embark on another 8 hour drive to St. Louis to visit my aunt! I'll be taking lots of photos along the way and updating about our adventures so check back in with us. For now I have to stop stalling on my packing and actually go load my car. Maybe....maybe that might be a good idea.

I am excited to announce that Oats and I will be driving cross country for the entire month of September :) We will start at home in Portland Connecticut and travel to Portland Oregon, stopping at many fun places along the way, visiting with friends and family and seeing the country together. We hope you'll join us to follow along on our adventures. I'll be posting here on the road trip blog as well as on Facebook and Instagram, so we would love for you to follow along as we embark on this exciting next adventure.

For all those who are wondering, this is a trip I've been dreaming about for years, and the timing is finally right to make it happen. It's a bit of a soul searching journey for me...basically my "Eat Pray Love" trip :) I'm going to be spending a lot of time alone, just Oats and I on the open road. To me, this seems like the perfect adventure for finding myself, reinventing myself, and just doing whatever feels right. For saying yes to things. And that's something I've been putting off for far too long.

If you're interested in traveling with a dog, I will be posting about all the dog-friendly places I'm staying and dog-friendly activities and adventures we're doing, so follow along and feel free to ask us questions about our experiences. A lot of extra planning goes into traveling with a pet, because we have to know which places and activities are dog-friendly in advance and plan accordingly. So I'll be sharing all that information here and am happy to answer any questions!

We will be staying with friends, family, and in some Airbnbs and hotels, and we will be visiting and hiking in many national parks. Since not all national parks are dog-friendly, we're figuring out the best alternatives for still seeing all the beautiful sites this country has to offer. Stay tuned to learn more about where we go, what we learn, and all our favorite places!

SUPPORT OUR CROSS COUNTRY TRIP!