City girl. Traveling soul. Always hungry.
It was nice to wake up in a real hotel room and not one that was one gust of wind from extinction. The air outside was brisk but it was also bright and inviting. I inhaled a full plate of hotel breakfast buffet food and several cups of coffee to prep for the day. Buzzing... Continue Reading →
Amidst howling wind and the intermittent shutoff of our motel’s ancient heater, I managed to get a bit of sleep. I moved the winter coat pressed against the motel door to block the draft and it was caked in fresh snow. So basically, it snowed inside our room. My heart ached for the check-out counter.... Continue Reading →
Rain drizzled onto our SUV as we drove towards the Airport Mesa Vortex, hoping to feel “energized”. The sky was ready to unleash onto our backs as we climbed to the top, less than 5 minutes from the parking lot. The walk was brief and ended on a small plateau surrounded by views. A vortex... Continue Reading →
I craved that bit of land full of desert plains, dusty roads, and mountain views. Despite my endless love of the Southwest, I don’t make it out there very often. My mom and brother set off for a month to tackle the region, a trend that has become more common each year. The need to... Continue Reading →
The next day we made the journey from north to south—a 40 minute plane ride separated us from the southern island. Wellington’s airport was so small that security didn’t open until an hour before our flight took off. I made the mistake of waiting to get breakfast until we arrived, but after losing a battle... Continue Reading →
It was absolutely pouring rain when we woke up, but I’ve come to learn that New Zealand’s weather can be rather bipolar. The day begins stormy and ominous and by lunchtime the sky is a piercing shade of blue. The air gets dryer the further south we go, so that freezing wind/blazing sun temperature shift... Continue Reading →
I’ve been anxious for weeks about driving in New Zealand. Neither Katie or I have ever done “left side driving”. I played a vision in my head on loop of careening into a medium or whacking a bicyclist. It is this paranoid daydream that drove my decision to purchase the super-ultra-mega-hit-anything-pay-nothing car insurance that agencies... Continue Reading →
We woke up in the “Little Apple” after my first night in my 50th state. The toasty Kansas air greeted us as we trekked to the truck for our final day of travel. Today’s route didn’t pass through Route 66 or into ghost towns or mountains—it was a relatively benign journey to Kansas City. Before... Continue Reading →
We woke up in Carthage, MO effortlessly, undeterred the night before by the torrential rain and intense winds that soaked our truck and whipped the trees against our window. We bid a friendly goodbye to our motel attendant and went to wander around the square in the center of town. Tiny, quiet shops lined the... Continue Reading →
The first time I tackled Route 66 was over 4 years ago. On that trip, we started in the little town of Amarillo, TX (searching for a route map that we never did find) and skated on through to New Mexico and Arizona full of desert back roads, ghost-like ruins, and vast expanses of open highway... Continue Reading →
Chaos & Coffee Beans 