I love that you didn't let a little thing like losing your planned companion deter you from having a great travel adventure! I've never traveled solo out of the country before (like you, I'd be meeting up with people on the far end), but loved sightseeing the weird little stuff around the US when I was doing lots of business trips. I'd make sure to get the last plane back from the destination city so I could go exploring. There's a LOT of weird stuff to see in the US!