246 karma · joined February 14, 2019
Your company is awesome, I tinkered with something exactly like this but with a little plastic RC excavator. I'm a web developer but probably not a competitive candidate. Just wanted to say "cool!"
https://medium.com/personal-growth/travel-is-no-cure-for-the...
I make decent money. A lot less than all the FAANG engineers here, but still probably double the national average. I can't afford a house in the major city I live in and not sure I ever will but I'm comfortable and just trying to enjoy my life at this point.
Cutting down old trees happens all the time for lumber.
The entirety of the US is extremely safe. You can probably find trouble in extremely specific neighborhoods of large cities but you'd never find your way to those places as a tourist.
Roads to avoid is a funny question. Country is huge. My general advice is don't drive at night outside of cities. There are deer everywhere and they will total your car, land you in the hospital, and end your trip. I had it happen to me once and now I plan my road trips to never travel at night. Plus it's dark and you can't see anything and you're missing the point of the road trip at that point.
Driving state to state isn't a problem. There's rarely a stop at state borders and when there is they're only there to regulate commercial trucking.
My advice is to pick a few cities and fly between them. Pick cities you can get around in without renting a car. You're not missing much by taking an 7 hour flight instead of a 5 day drive.