After I was fortunate enough to sell my first company to Dropbox in 2014, I craftily requested a delayed start date and set about gathering friends for a trip around the country.

The summer road trip has long been a rite of passage for Americans — celebrating the independence and sense of adventure that drove us to explore the frontier in the early days of the United States.

Although the stature of the road trip in American mythos has swelled, the ease and availability of air travel in recent years has seen more of our generation choosing to spend their vacation time abroad. I often heard friends tossing around the possibility of a cross-country drive during trip planning, only to dismiss the idea when a cheap flight deal inevitably popped up.

Still, ever the romantic, the deliberate pace and sheer American-ness of hopping into a car and driving across the country held an irresistible allure for me. Thus, I found myself at the wheel of a rental SUV, ready to embark on a breakneck five-week, 12,000-mile journey through the sweltering heart of the country. These brief vignettes don't nearly cover all of the places we visited, but here are a few of my personal favorites.

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