Coast to Coast Fleece: Knitted, Collected & Sewn in the USA
Over the past couple years, I’ve lived in three different states (four if you count a part-time Tahoe cabin!) on two coasts and driven across the USA three times (and even once up to Canada).
The first of these cross-country drives was a 6-month post-layoff road trip. Will and I drove through 25 states, visited 6 national parks & attended 3 weddings, all while Airbnb-hopping and starting my own business.
It was the first time I really saw my country, all 3,000+ miles of it between my home state of CA and NY, where I had a short stint in college. Shapes and names I memorized in grade school, to be able to point at a map and say “that squiggly shape with the camelback hump is Kentucky!”.
Why did I care? When I was 9, I didn’t have any real sense of anywhere but the 10-mile radius around my suburban home, let alone did I care to visit the random and weird-sounding names on a map. As I got exposed to other worlds through TV, magazines, movies, and the other media aughts-adolescent-me consumed, the only places that seemed "cool" to live in were—surprise!—cities that checked most of these boxes: walkable streets, public transit, fashionable and interesting people with creative careers, museums, at least three neighborhoods considered "up-and-coming" with murals every other block. I don’t even have to name these places, you’re already thinking of them. I dreamed of graduating, my college degree in hand, with a job that would pay me enough to cover my expectedly high rent on a block in one of these super hip and urban streetscapes.
Fast forward to January 2023: I’d already lived in New York and San Francisco, and I’d seen the latter through its worst COVID-19 slump. I’d graduated, my college degree in hand, and gotten what I had once considered my dream job. Now I’d just been told that that job was ending come April. Lucky enough to have been given advance notice, I struggled to develop a real game plan, but Will and I knew that we’d want to change things up. We’d both moved to the Bay Area for jobs after college, and those jobs no longer required us to be there, so why stay—and where should we go next? Not the most of unique of questions, but we took a bit of a creative approach to the second part: drive all over the country and look for places to move next.
While on the road, I intended to work on two projects: a blog (for my thoughts) and a collection of makes (for my hands). I collected souvenir patches throughout the trip with the intention of making one item with each patch, solidifying a memory of each place. I’ve been collecting patches and sewing them onto readymades since I was in high school or college, back when I could only hand sew, but this seemed like a special enough collection to turn into a thing I’d craft from scratch. The project vision had several different iterations, but I’m proud to share its final form: a Daughter Judy Wren sweatshirt made from Ralph Lauren deadstock USA-made 100% cotton fleece.
A key for my pseudo-map, if you will:
Front, west-to-east
Oregon—1 month spent during the best time of the year in PDX, NE will always have my heart
Famous Potatoes—we didn’t technically stop in Ketchum, but I did find this embroidery on a fleece hat I thrifted in Boise. Boise is just ok.
Grand Teton NP—3 nights in the backcountry of these jaw-dropping peaks just as the snow was melting. The best way to spend time outdoors.
Rocky Mountain NP—the closest NP to Denver, god this place was so busy. We managed to find a tucked away hike that included scrambling up a waterfall—memorable and dangerous!
New Riff Distilling—blasting across the midwest, we stayed in Cinci, OH for a week and got a chance to see part of bourbon’s mecca, a new-wave distillery just across the Ohio River in Newport, KY
Hocking Hills SP—central OH, there’s a short hike in this park with a gorge gorge / cave where a guy lived in secret with his dogs for like 20 years before he died
Yinzer—yinz might have guessed it, 2 weeks in Pitt where the fact that it’s cheap isn’t even the best thing about it
Old Rag, Shenandoah NP—scrambles on scrambles, this hike is a must-do for anyone who loves outdoor rock climbing
Virginia is for lovers—our stay in DC was cut a little short due to our host getting COVID, so we spent a few nights at an Airbnb in nearby Arlington. Quaint suburbs are a thing on the east coast!
Harpers Ferry, WV—a beautiful place with important history. iykyk
Pipeline Trail—fun lil urban hike in Richmond, VA built on top of some old pipes, literally
Back, east-to-west (roughly)
Blue Ridge Parkway—connecting the southern end of Shenandoah to the Great Smokies in the SE, this byway is scenic, indeed
Humpback Rocks—rugged and rocky hike dead center of the AT, the perfect peak foliage hike
LeConte Lodge, Great Smoky Mts. NP—rustic lodge at the peak of Mt. LeConte dates back to the 1920s!
Mount LeConte—I cheated and bought a second patch because I liked how this one looked even more
Nashville—our stay was short and sweet, don’t sleep on East Nashville!
Palo Duro Canyon SP—this patch, and my campsite, was a little too far down for my liking, as in in the bottom of a canyon (specifically the second largest in the country, located in the Texas panhandle). A little spooky camping alone, but sweeping vistas nonetheless
Route 66—what’s left of this route are just bits and pieces and historic signage. Took it most of the way on our SW leg
Nomad—what (or who) is nomad? Is it me, or is it just the name of the store giving out this free patch?
Meow Wolf—needs no introduction, visiting this one was a little like visiting Disneyland—necessary, but perhaps underwhelming if you’ve been to Disney World (the Vegas or Denver outposts)
Petrified Forest NP—our earth’s underwater forest petrified and preserved in crystal. Really cool and unlike anything else you’ve seen before (in its million-year-or-so-habitat and not in a museum)
Mother Road Brewing—great vibes, great brews in our final stop before returning home, Flagstaff, AZ. Cheers!
