An American couple embarked on a road trip across the country to create a GPS drawing of the words “Will you marry me” on a map of the United States, but the journey ended up causing their breakup.
Dan Henschel, of Los Angeles, California, then announced their breakup on X. He also explained how he went about proposing.
“When I proposed, my idea was simple: to take a road trip across the country and eventually ask her, 'Will you marry me?'” Henschel, who is also a mental health content creator, wrote in the post.
He also said it was difficult to keep his GPS art plans a secret until after his cross-country trip, during which his ex-girlfriend thought he was just going on a long road trip.
The journey began on the Pacific coast, then traveled along the US interstate highways, and ended on the Atlantic coast.
Hentschel also said he repeatedly used “tricks,” such as pretending to forget his wallet, to carry out his message designs.
If you view the final route of his journey online, you can see parts of the trail highlighted in green, indicating the sections where the GPS went off.
Hentschel had always dreamed of proposing during a road trip across the US, but in the end, the endeavor of driving from coast to coast didn't produce the results he had hoped for.
“The trip ended up playing an even more important role. It turned out we just weren't a good fit for each other after all,” Henschel said.
He did not reveal the specific reason for the breakup, which led to various speculations among netizens.
One netizen commented: “Such a ridiculous trip would destroy any relationship. It's like being on the road for weeks. Plus the constant excuses to back out would drive anyone crazy.”
Some may recall that Japanese artist Yasushi Takahashi (aka Yassan) also undertook a similar endeavor in Japan last year.
“Japanese artist Koji Takahashi (known as Yassan) quit his job to travel across Japan, covering more than 4,349 miles (7,000 km) in six months, mostly on foot and sometimes by car, ferry and bicycle. He proposed to his girlfriend using Google Earth and a GPS device. The GPS technology tracked his every step as he traveled from Hokkaido to the end of his journey at Hyodo Cliff in Kyushu.”
Inspired by large-scale GPS art, Takahashi plans to spell out “Marry Me” with hearts and arrows across Japan.
Takahashi even quit his job to propose to his girlfriend.
He carefully decided to spend six months away from his beloved to make his proposal special. He started from Hokkaido, Japan and ended up in Kagoshima, in the south of Japan. This journey earned him praise as the man who had the most planned marriage proposal.
