Drawn the Road Again

Category: Highways and Byways

  • Lone wanderer

    Lone wanderer

    I just got back from two and a half weeks of wandering in California—and by the time you read this, I’ll be on the road again, after just a few hours at home. The pre-trip scramble is never the most fun part of traveling, but I know that the trip ahead will have plenty of…

  • Sealed with a kiss

    Sealed with a kiss

    I’ve never done Highway One in the summer, so I’ve never seen it the way most people do—choked with tourists and traffic. I prefer to see the coast highway in the winter, where the only teeming hordes to contend with are those of the pinniped variety. The elephant seal breeding ground on the Big Sur…

  • California or bust

    California or bust

    As it turned out, I didn’t get to do a whole lot of traveling last year—which was a bit of an adjustment, especially compared with previous years. It’s looking like 2015, though, is going to be another big travel year—which to me feels more like normal life. Tomorrow morning I’m hitting the road again ……

  • Colorful courtyard

    Colorful courtyard

    Today is one of those rare sunny fall days in my town—as sunny as it was the day I was in Albuquerque a couple of years ago. But in the Northwest, bright weather at this time of year means a wicked cold front—which has me missing the warmth of sun-baked adobe today.

  • Wild goose chase

    Wild goose chase

    Wawa is the Ojibwe word for “wild goose”—a fact the town of Wawa, Ontario would prefer you didn’t forget. And just to make sure the lesson hits home, there is a veritable flock of giant geese waiting to welcome you. I just hope these guys don’t get the notion to fly south for the winter—then…

  • In the pink

    In the pink

    Some of my favorite roadside attractions are the ones that are totally incongruous with the surrounding area (like finding a blue whale in the middle of Oklahoma). Unless, that is, I’m wildly misinformed, and Iowa is actually chock full of elephants…

  • Feeling blue

    Feeling blue

    I’m not sure if kids used to find this guy diverting or terrifying, but the Blue Whale of Catoosa is still just as memorable as he must have been in his heyday. This spot was once a roadside swimmin’ hole along Route 66. These days it’s just a roadside monument, but that’s okay—it’s not like…

  • Orange you glad

    Orange you glad

    Apparently these giant orange stands (which are actually ducks) used to be so common along the old Pacific Highway that by the time you got thirsty on your journey, you’d have arrived at the next one. There are just a handful remaining today, and I was extra lucky to discover that this one was actually…

  • Kings of the road

    Kings of the road

    Well, if I’m going to spend all this time talking about roadside attractions, I would be remiss if I didn’t include the legendary Muffler Men—guardians of gas stations, presidents of photo ops. If you’ve ever taken a road trip, you’ve probably seen at least one of these guys along the way. These behemoths started appearing…

  • You know the drill

    You know the drill

    Well, I suppose if you’re going to have roadside attractions, you might as well devote some of them to the road trip idea itself. And if you’re going to do that … well, I guess it follows that somewhere there’d be a monument to petroleum, nectar of the road trip gods. And at 76 feet…