Jun. 14—I’m that guy with a tent on top of his car. You may have pulled up next to me at a red light or at Frank Ortiz Dog Park and wondered, “How often could this person possibly be sleeping on top of their Subaru Outback?”

Well, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in 11 months with a moving accommodation, it’s this: You can see a lot of the country if you’re willing to drive eight hours in a day. I’ve gone adventuring north, south, and west over the last year, and that’s not a coincidence: I came from the East Coast, and you can’t make me go back there.

Back home, I was not an outdoorsy person. I was unduly concerned about being away from home and missing the New York Jets play on Sunday.

I enjoyed hiking and seeing national parks, but it would never occur to me that I could sleep in one and wake up there the next morning. And now, since I’ve become a New Mexican, it’s basically all I do with my free time.

So far over the past year, I’ve camped out in Big Bend National Park, the Great Sand Dune, Rocky Mountain National Park, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, the Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, and Zion National Park.

At all of these places, I’ve followed the same procedure: I’ve packed up my car and left Santa Fe with an entire day’s worth of driving before I reached my destination. I set up camp at sundown, went to sleep, and woke up to set about exploring at first light. My trusty golden retriever, Pepper, has been my companion, snoozing in the back seat with a sleeping bag and dork-barking whenever something is amiss at 4 a.m.

Together, we’ve experienced some of the greatest sights you can see in this country. We walked several miles of the Rim Trail at the Grand Canyon, and Pepper sized herself up next to trees that are millions of years old at the Petrified Forest National Park. We drove down the rocky Shafer Trail and Potash Road at Canyonlands National Park, and unfortunately I busted my car’s fog lamp in the process. We drove up Fall River Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, a dirt-and-gravel one-way strip that was first cleared in 1920.

At all these places, we marveled at the incredible work Mother Nature has done in carving out this country, and we learned how to fall asleep outside when it’s below freezing. I even picked up the most basic camping rule — put your shoes inside before you go to sleep at night — by sadly living through a torrential downpour after I had retreated to my tent.

By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be waking up in Yellowstone National Park, which is an adventure I never thought would be possible.

Yellowstone is 14 hours north of Santa Fe, and believe it or not, that is by far the closest I’ve ever lived to it. Hotels in the vicinity of the park can cost you up to $300 a night, and that’s if you’re fortunate enough to find one that works for your itinerary. But with my secret weapon, the tent on top of my car, I can avail myself of the campgrounds that cost just $20 a day.

You may be saying, Spencer, why don’t you pitch a tent on the ground?

Because it’s dark out there, it’s cold, it’s wet, it’s rocky, and that’s where all the bugs and the critters are. I guess you can take the writer out of New York, but you can’t fully take the New York out of the writer.