Back in December, I traveled around the country for a few weeks for a client. I knew I’d be spending just a night in each location with almost a dozen flights and rental cars over the course of the trip. I needed a meta-game to keep myself sane with the long days of travel and client photography so I came up with two goals: 1. Photograph moody black and white photos of the best trees I could find and 2. Eat at any vegan restaurant I could find. The moody tree photos would keep me searching for good photos to post on Days in a Year and lead me down some more wrong turns to find parks and trails. I had to eat and hoped the vegan food would be generally healthier than McDonald’s.

If you are looking for a long drive and want some tasty food here are my top recommendations from the trip: the vegan schnitzel sandwich at Pierogi Mountain in Columbus, OH, vegan pizza at Pie-Sci in Detroit, MI, and Orange Bird from Dharma in Orlando, FL definitely took the cake.