In search of the continuous road trip
I was really looking forward to returning to Colorado and exploring a few more mountain towns. Here’s where we stopped and what we liked: View Larger Map Grand Junction Grand Junction, even though it’s right next to Colorado National Monument, doesn’t feel like a Colorado …
As if Aspen couldn’t get any better, we drove out of town over one of the coolest passes of the trip — Independence Pass. Why is it awesome? Well, the US Pro Cycling Challenge just biked over it (full route). The road from Aspen narrows and …
We didn’t think we’d like Aspen. We were expecting affluent assholes, pretentious pricks, and spoiled schoolkids. We were expecting Telluride. Telluride feels like it’s uncomfortable with its rich-town status. It asserts that its mine is still open, that it’s a working-class town. Which is bullshit, …
Crested Butte isn’t the most accessible town. If you want to arrive via dirt road, you have some options (in the summer). If you want to stick to pavement, you’ve only got one choice — Highway 135, up the valley from the south. Maybe it’s …
Man, I was so excited to be back in Colorado. Even the billboards were excited for us to arrive — “Real beer is worth the drive,” they proclaimed. Soon we’d be able to buy Fat Tire beer, Lisa’s favorite. Our first stop: Dinosaur, Colorado. We checked …
The Border Inn sits just outside Baker, Nevada along Highway 50. It straddles the border … literally. On the Nevada side, you can get a breakfast beer, play a slot machine, and buy coffee. On the Utah side, you can fill up on gasoline or rent …
Drive Highway 50 long enough across Nevada, and you’ll eventually end up near Baker, Nevada (you’ll have to detour south about two miles on Highway 487). Baker is the gateway to Great Basin National Park (more to come on that). But let’s stop first in …
Las Vegas, when it dresses up, pretends it’s another city — New York, Venice, Rome, Paris, ancient Egypt, Circus-ville, Strato-opolis. Reno, when it dresses up, pretends it’s Las Vegas, old-timey Las Vegas. I find this tremendously endearing. It’s just so … precious, so cute, like …
Ansel Adams ruined Yosemite. Well …. somebody did. Probably, a bunch of people had a hand in it, collectively ruining the park by popularization. Ansel may have just kicked it off. The cool climbers that flock here just sealed its fate. Honestly, though, why even try …
Sonoma’s the turn — we’re now headed east for the first time in a long time. East, generally, with zigs and zags, of course, but east nonetheless. Not west. There’s no more west to be had. We’ve pushed across the state already, hungover after a …
Well, firstly, this was no McGangBang (and also not authentico at all unlike these, these, and these), but it didn’t make me hate myself after eating it, so let’s call that a win. Secondly, let’s translate the name for the non-Spanglish speakers out there, Doritos Locos …
Fun fact: Wisconsin drinks 1/3 of all the brandy Korbel makes: “Wisconsin is our number one state,” says Margie Healy, director of public relations for the California-based Korbel. “We export 385,000 cases a year, and 139,000 go directly to Wisconsin. That’s one-third of our total …