Joshua Tree National Park is filled with rocks. Big ones, small ones, gigantic ones. Rocks, rocks, rocks. But it’s also the inhospitable desert where water is scarce and trees and shrubs struggle to survive. Intense winds spin and twist plants into the oddest shapes. Here are a few of my favorite non-rock photos from Joshua Tree.
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First of all, Joshua trees are cool. A Joshua tree is not a tree, per se, it’s a yucca. Unlike the Joshua trees we’ve seen elsewhere, the Joshua trees we saw in and around Joshua Tree National Park were of tree size — they were huge! Joshua trees are not limited to the park — they can be found anywhere in the Mohave desert. But these were by far the [...]
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There’s no food that I can think of as malleable and regional (and wonderful) as the hot dog. In Chicago it’s topped with nearly everything (except ketchup) and it’s amazing. In Arizona, the Mexican / Sonoran hot dogs are wrapped in mesquite-smoked bacon and are terrific. In upstate New York, you can get a Hofmann frank on a potato roll at Heid’s in Liverpool and it’s delicious. They all have [...]
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We’re about three and a half months into our twelve month trip, so we thought it was about time for a quarterly status report. Rather than create a formal report, which would need to be audited for accuracy by someone like KPMG, we thought we’d just answer some of the common questions we’ve been receiving. How’s it going so far? So far, so good. The first few weeks were by [...]
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We’re doing a pretty good job reading on this trip. Which is easy to do without a TV. Here’s what I’ve read so far along with some notes. October through December: Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage — This book is phenomenal. Lansing’s writing is great and the story is wild. If you haven’t read it, you should. Nature’s Metropolis — An interesting read about Chicago’s influence over the development of the western United [...]
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In Temecula, we learned the difference between a winery and a tasting room. Temecula is filled with tasting rooms, but we couldn’t find a single winery even though people were making wine everywhere. Let me explain. Temecula is one of California’s B-list wine regions. It’s not Napa or Sonoma or Paso Robles … it’s Temecula (pronounced like Dracula). It’s filled with too-nice tasting rooms and too-expensive wine, but it seems [...]
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When you have an out-of-town visitor, what’s the number one thing you want to show them in your city/town? When I can manage to remember, I’m planning to ask random people this question and hopefully discover the people’s guide to the best things to do in a city. Last weekend, we were in Boise for a work/fun visit, and I had the opportunity to solicit opinions for what I thought [...]
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We’re giving away a $50 Travelocity gift card to one of our readers! It comes wrapped in an inspirational copy of Blue Highways. To enter to win the package (book + $50 gift card), all you have to do is follow @drivinginertia on Twitter or ‘like’ Driving Inertia on Facebook. Technically, you could enter twice, and that’s fine. We currently have about 80 fans on Facebook and over 100 followers on [...]
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Full full full. We’re full of good food thanks to LA. Loved eating here. I think the food sold us on this town. Me at least. I could live here. We get LA. The farmers’ market in January with multiple varieties of avocado? Yum. The fresh fish and cheap wine? Yum. The traffic? Meh. Not so bad, really. Pick a neighborhood and stay in it, just like in Chicago. You can [...]
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Was I prepared to hate LA, or what? Smog, driving everywhere, parking garages, sprawl, fake people. I imagined a city dominated by the things I hate. But here I am, sitting on the beach just north of Santa Monica. The waves are rolling in, one after the other, crashing, in a never-ending variety of colors and patterns. Offshore I just spotted a school of dolphins and a seal. I’m watching [...]
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