Austin Road Trip: Arches, Four Corners & Two Step Inn Festival Fun

Leaving the RV behind in West Wendover, we packed up the truck for a wild idea: a 22-hour drive to Austin, Texas for the Two Step Inn Festival, where Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers were headlining. Back in January, this plan sounded fun and spontaneous. By the time we were loading snacks and playlists, it felt a little crazy—but the good kind.

Moab & Canyonlands Detour

Our first night was in Moab, Utah, which was an easy choice. We love that area so much we’ll use any excuse to go back. Even though we’d already been to Arches National Park, we swung in for another round of those towering stone windows and delicate arches. We also made time for Canyonlands, with its sweeping mesas and winding rivers. That whole region has a way of making you feel both tiny and incredibly alive at the same time.

A view from one of the lookout points in Canyonlands

Four Corners (Or, How to Waste $5)

On the way south, we checked another “bucket list” item: Four Corners Monument, where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. You always hear about it, so why not? Well… it was lame as hell. It’s essentially a spot on the ground where you can spread out like a starfish across four states, surrounded by Native American booths selling crafts. Usually, I’d have been all over those stands, but I’d already blown my budget on Native American jewelry back in Arizona. So we snapped the picture, laughed, and called it a day.

Give you a sneak preview of when you go to Four Corners

Green Grass & Sunburns in Austin

By the time we rolled into Austin, we were shocked to see green grass again. After weeks in desert landscapes, it felt like we’d landed in Ireland. We even had time to lounge at the pool for a few hours before the concert, which seemed like a great idea… until we realized we were fried to a crisp. Let’s just say dancing at a festival while feeling like a rotisserie chicken adds an extra layer of “fun.”

The concert itself was everything we’d hoped for. Zach Bryan was as good as ever, and sharing it with our best friends, Tashina and Mike—who had gotten us hooked on his music in the first place—made it even better.

All of us waiting for Zach Bryan to come on

RV Lessons Meet Uber Surge Pricing

Funny enough, one of the biggest lessons from RV life carried over: patience. When you’re on the road in an RV, you get used to a slower pace. You wait out weather, you wait out lines, you wait out traffic. That mindset came in handy after the concert, when every Uber in Austin was booked solid and surge pricing was through the roof.

Patrick and I kept telling Mike and Tashina, “Let’s just wait it out—this will die down if we give it a little time.” But they weren’t having it. They wanted out of there immediately, so we all piled into one of the few Ubers available—for a whopping $166. We laughed about it on the way back, but I couldn’t help thinking: RV logic would’ve saved us a small fortune that night.

Tashina and Mike stayed on for night two and got to see Tyler Childers, while Patrick and I pointed the truck back toward Nevada, ready to return to our sweet RV and the glowing sunsets over the salt flats.