Promisedc

You would think Texas was the most brutal part of our trip. Not so. It was the Mojave Desert. This could be because the last time we stopped in Needles, CA we left a few hundred dollars poorer. All on account of some shady mechanic selling us a line about our tires and the heat [...] Read Full Story

We could practically smell Helga’s tires burning across the rest of New Mexico. Near the border, Andrew slowed down just long enough to queue up The Eagles “Take it Easy”. Here’s how much of a hurry we were in: Except for a DQ Blizzard outside of Gallup, we didn’t stop for lunch. Intent on getting [...] Read Full Story

Morning at El Paradero was beautiful. We had blueberry pancakes on the patio, walked around Santa Fe, and headed to Taos. After getting lost a couple times, we found our way to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge outside of Taos. It’s 650 feet above the Rio Grande. It’s the fifth highest bridge in the US. [...] Read Full Story

Texas is so big it requires more that one post. We woke to the welcome sight of rain and then couldn’t leave the Best Western fast enough. Outside of Dallas, in Decatur, we finally found a Starbucks and I scored a chai. There was a horse trailer with horses in it. Right outside the Starbucks. [...] Read Full Story

Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana are done and it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be, though Mississippi was a little rundown. We minded our manners, didn’t egregiously speed, and made it through without incident. Our one stop for some sort of cultural enrichment was in Vicksburg, MS. I noticed during my on-the-fly [...] Read Full Story

Oh, Mississippi. The closed rest stops, no Starbucks chai, and general disarray bummed us out. We wanted badly to love you…. And, in the end, we (well, at least I) did. Andrew used the almighty iPad to discover that, in Vicksburg, there was an antebellum mansion. We skedaddled. I had visions of eating our last [...] Read Full Story

We’ve been busy. Those pancakes at Charleston’s Café must have been extra fortified, because we made it all the way to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Georgia was a blur. We blew through Atlanta so fast all I remember is that Andrew really liked the dried okra we bought from Fresh Market in Vienna. Alabama, though, was another [...] Read Full Story

There’s actually a few things I like about this drive, but the one thing that truly makes it all worthwhile is the food. If we’re lucky, we get to try some places we’ve seen on Food Network or Travel Channel, or we just get to follow the recommendations of the locals as we did last [...] Read Full Story

Heading south on 95 is nothing to write home about, but Hilary promised the Smithfield’s BBQ in North Carolina was totally worth the wait. The Ava Gardener Museum is in Smithfield, too, but our furry friends and time meant choosing one or the other. We went with BBQ. Andrew was rendered speechless. I got chicken fingers, which [...] Read Full Story

So, we’re back at it. On the road again, another cross-country adventure. #3 in three years, though the first since 2008. I’m not quite sure how to write what I want to write since I find most personal blogs pretentious (not to be confused with the blogs that are actually about something, such as one’s [...] Read Full Story