(CNN) — There's no "best way" to get across the United States during a pandemic.
So when I was faced with moving all my possessions from one coast to the other, while also working remotely, I could only hope my most affordable option -- driving the 2,517 miles -- was also the safest.
I had made the long road trip twice before from Los Angeles to Atlanta, where I had lived and worked the past five years, but never the other way. And never while working 10-hour international breaking news shifts from the road.
Luckily my roommate and fellow CNN producer Artemis Moshtaghian had been wanting to do a road trip back to our hometown of Los Angeles before she left Atlanta to work from New York -- even if it meant practically sitting knees to chest in my passenger seat for an entire week on the road.
What we discovered along the way were unique work-from-anywhere opportunities, remote desert landmarks, spectacular landscapes and the lesson that wildlife could care less about social distancing. We also witnessed firsthand the patchwork and divisions of the US coronavirus response and met a wide range of characters that spanned from tremendously helpful to a little too cordial.