A cross-country romance! Clayton Echard finally brought girlfriend Susie Evans home in the middle of their road trip from Arizona to Virginia.
“Had to take Suze back to the hometown,” the season 26 Bachelor, 28, explained in a Friday, April 15, Instagram Story video. “On the football field back where it all started, baby! Oh, Eureka [High School] Wildcats! Never gets old, never gets old.”
Before the twosome made it to his Missouri hometown on Friday, they kicked off their first official road trip from his primary residence in Scottsdale, Arizona, en route to her hometown in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
“Our first stop on this cross country trip — Moab, Utah,” the wedding videographer, 28, captioned a TikTok video several hours earlier. In the montage clip, the pair sat in their car and kissed for the camera before taking in the mountainside sights along the way.
The former football player initially connected with the Virginia native on season 26 of The Bachelor, which aired earlier this year. Evans eventually left the show ahead of the March finale after learning that Echard had been intimate with both Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia. The University of Mizzou grad later admitted that he was the most interested in Evans and sent Windey, 31, and Recchia, 26, home to rekindle their romance. (Windey and Recchia were named joint leads of season 19 of The Bachelorette, which is currently filming.)
“We’ve talked about it and we know from here on out, like, this is a relationship in the real world where you never know — anything can happen and we’re aware of that,” Echard exclusively told Us Weekly in March of his relationship with Evans. “We’re gonna give this every chance that we can. We love each other. And as of right now, we’re both very, very happy. But relationships take effort. They are hard at times. And so we know that there’s gonna be those moments that lie ahead. There’s never any guarantee in life, but with all that being said, I am incredibly happy to be with her. I’m so excited to be able to just go get dinner, to go hiking, do all these things with her, travel.”
While the twosome blissfully made plans for their future, Echard was the subject of cheating allegations earlier this month. TikTok user Sasha Narang alleged on April 9 that she hooked up with a former Bachelor, who was still dating his final pick, after meeting at a bar in New York City. The former orthopedic sales rep, and Evans, strongly denied her claims, noting that he was at a gym in Arizona at the time of the alleged encounter. (Narang has since apologized for her accusations, explaining that she did not hook up with Echard but an impersonator.)
“People that make these false accusations should be held accountable,” Echard wrote via Instagram Story at the time. “Trying to gain clout by ruining a relationship is embarrassing and extremely immature.”
Scroll below to see more snaps from the Bachelor couple’s road trip:
