Who's Up For A Trip?

Two Alums Span Country On Post-Graduate Road Trip

By: Christopher Duray

Posted: 1/31/08

Lots of students leave college eager to jump into a career, or to keep studying in graduate school, but seven months ago, two UConn graduates decided to take an extended road trip throughout America, a tour that should end some time next week when they return to their starting point in West Suffield.

Brett Mickelson, 24 and his girlfriend Julia Bolton, 23 have traveled through 35 states in their 1993 Chevrolet Suburban with their 1 1/2-year-old chocolate lab retriever, Data. The two met while interning for the HEART program at UConn. They have been driving since July 16, all the while keeping a blog at roadtrip.brettmickelson.com. Their trip started heading west across New York going through Canada and the north Midwestern states to California before looping around and traveling through the southern states. The two estimate they have been to more than 20 national parks on the way. At the time of the interview, the two were in New Jersey, close to Atlantic City.

"It's the kind of trip that both of us agree everyone should get out and do," Mickelson said. "We're doing it on a much larger scale than most people are able or inclined to do. I know some people say they couldn't live in a car for six months even if they wanted to, but it was the perfect time and the perfect opportunity for us to do this, and it was an experience above and beyond what we expected."

Mickelson said that the main reason for the trip came at the realization that he and Bolton had been to more foreign countries than states, and decided to take the opportunity to truly see the place where they lived.

"You can watch as many movies as you want and get the feel for the west, or you can see all the national parks in a book, but to see them in real life is a totally different experience," he said.

The pair have been living out of their car for nearly seven months, though they took every chance they could to stay with any friends and family who lived along the way.

"Mapping out where we had people to stay with actually gave us something of an idea of which way to go," Bolton said.

The decision to put their lives on hold for so long came as something as a shock to their friends, although their families were supportive as Mickelson's mother had taken a similar trip after college, and Bolton's parents had also traveled extensively, valuing the experience.

"It's not that [our friends] weren't supportive," Bolton said. "But they were confused as to why we wanted to do what we did, like living out of a car. They thought we'd get sick of driving or each other, but that never happened and in the end I think a lot of people were pleasantly surprised."

Mickelson is a professional photographer, and the pictures he sells through his "smugmug" photohosting site has funded much of the trip, though the biggest windfall he received came from a picture featured on popular celebrity gossip site perezhilton.com.

"When we were in San Francisco around Halloween, we got passes to the 'exotic erotic ball,' and this event was being hosted by Danny Bonaduce along with [former porn star] Tera Patrick," Mickelson said. "At one point he came out after a group of Chippendales, who finish their act wearing nothing but hats in front of the genitals, so as a joke he was dressed like that. And at one point he lifted the hat, and I happen to take a photo."

Bolton convinced Mickelson to send the photo to Perez Hilton, who posted the shot. Within a few days Mickelson was receiving offers to license the photo from major news organizations.

"From that photo alone, we've been able to finance a decent amount of the expenses," Mickelson said.

The two were able to complete their trip without any major impediments, occasionally having to struggle against sickness or some car troubles, but generally nothing that small town mechanics, sympathetic to the fact that the pair were sleeping in their car, could not fix in a day. The biggest problem that arose was the policy against dogs that most national parks enforce.

"Data was such an important part of the trip," Bolton said.

"It was too bad that national parks don't allow dog along their trails," Mickelson said.

Now that the trip is nearing its end, both are experiencing a mixture of emotions.

"I'm not too excited to be going back," Mickelson said. "I'm not depressed, but I knew this would be a defining period in my life, and I don't in any way feel tired of the road, even after six months."

"I'm sad that it's ending, but I'm excited about the future," said Bolton, who graduated with a degree in political science, will commence two internships in February, one for a United Nations affiliate in Greenwich and the other for the Student World Assembly in Manhattan, N.Y.

After the trip, Mickelson intends to look for a photography or design job at a newspaper. While at UConn, he worked on both at The Daily Campus. At the same time he is pursuing avenues toward getting a book about their trip published.

"I want to get a book published not just so that we can relive it, but so that other people can know just what a great experience traveling the country is, and how worthwhile it really is."

Contact Christopher Duray at Christopher.Duray@UConn.edu.