A Fan of The Good Place Takes the Leap of Faith

A Cross-Country Road Trip to Celebrate My Favorite Comedy

✨ Ever wonder what road leads to The Good Place?

As an avid fan of The Good Place, NBC’s television comedy hit show, and someone with experience in the film industry, I dreamed of working on the show as season four approached. Alas, when NBC announced that season four would be the show’s final season, my heart sank and I knew that path had closed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfBgT5djaQw

What’s this “Good Place” Thing?
Here’s a trailer to introduce yourselves to NBC’s The Good Place

But as the series finale approached, a new idea sprung up in me: what if I could go to L.A. to be there on the day the series finale aired?

*Me as Jason Mendoza, one of the main characters on NBC’s The Good Place.*

The series finale was only a couple weeks away, and I was more than 3,000 miles away in the Washington, D.C metro area.

As someone who has done travel writing, Instagram, and video work through my online platform Tripping Thru the USA, I had done road trips, but never a cross-country road trip.

I looked up my airline points, but at that moment, I knew what I had to do.

I followed the philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard and took the leap of faith, or more accurately translated, the leap into faith.

Leap of Faith or Leap into Faith

I was determined to drive cross-country to be in L.A. for the series finale of The Good Place.

And so I sought out to do precisely forking that.

The Cross-Country Journey

With limited funds, I proceeded to Airbnb to book private rooms and planned to hop city-to-city across the country.

Normally, people would share the load of driving, but I was driving all by myself, and I had to stick to my schedule.

So I stayed with friends in South Carolina, and then proceeded to book Airbnbs only a day or two in advance in Memphis, Oklahoma City, Santa Fe, and Phoenix before planning to arrive in L.A.

I drove eight to ten hours every day, stopping for meals, rest stops, and occasionally to see Route 66 landmarks.

*The National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma*

I hit a scary patch near Flagstaff, Arizona, when I descended the long road down to Phoenix on I-17. The grade was very steep, and I worried whether I would lose control and plunge off the side of the mountain to the afterlife.

Interestingly enough, I was driving right to the place where one of the main characters of The Good Place show, Eleanor Shellstrop, lived before she entered the afterlife: Phoenix, Arizona.

Fortunately, I made it safely there to Eleanor Shellstrop land, and celebrated with an Instagram post of my ceramic “Eleanor Shellstrop file” (a cactus) next to a living “Eleanor Shellstrop file” (another cactus).

*Is it a cactus or an Eleanor Shellstrop file?*

Here’s an explainer if you don’t get the joke.

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A post shared by The Good Place (@nbcthegoodplace)

An Exploration into the Correlation of Cactuses and Eleanor Shellstrop Files

But the last leg of my journey to L.A. was still ahead.

I drove through the desert and faced fierce winds as I drove through southeastern California. I reached Indio for lunch, and in surreal fashion, saw grocery carts perilously blown by the wind into the path of people’s cars.

I managed to save a car from a grocery cart’s impending collision, and had a flashback to the very first episode of The Good Place.

But I had to keep going, and after six days of driving, I reached my Airbnb on January 29th, one day before the series finale.

I found a cozy, self-contained Airbnb near the Huntington Gardens to stay for the series finale. Its coziness reminded me of Eleanor Shellstrop’s Good Place lodge, but this one exhibited more peace than the one on the show. I planned to go to the gardens the next day because several episodes of the show were filmed there.

After resting that night, I woke up ready to head out on Series Forking Finale Day to celebrate my love of The Good Place at The Huntington Gardens. It was showtime.

Series Forking Finale Day

I decided to bring out a surprise for this occasion. I wore my Jason Mendoza outfit with a Blake Bortles jersey and DJ Music hat, and took pictures at the gardens. Some of these pictures are on my Instagram, including a pop-and-lock video tribute next to…more Eleanor Shellstrop files! More cactuses!

I returned to Chez Airbnb to witness the series finale, and holy mother forking shirt balls, it was a good one.

A totally non-spoiler spoiler alert shot of the series finale

A beautiful ending, indeed, to a show that has blessed me and countless others.

I spent another two weeks in L.A. taking it sleazy, talking to people who work in film, and enjoying creating Instagram posts from placed all around the region.