Drawn the Road Again

Category: Off the Beaten Path

  • Greetings from the Best Coast

    Greetings from the Best Coast

    Greetings from the [Quarantined] Coast! Hoping this finds you safe and well, and staying home to help “flatten the curve” of the virus that is suddenly everywhere at once. Here in Washington we’re sheltering in place—and as fate would have it, today I am celebrating (from home) the release date of my newest book! Greetings…

  • Today’s the day!

    Today’s the day!

    Today is the “book birthday” of The Best Coast: A Road Trip Atlas! After nearly three years of work and a solid decade of research, I can’t believe this day is here. I am so excited to share this labor of love with you, and I hope you’ll love it, too. With 99 hand-drawn maps,…

  • Fields of gold (or pink, or orange…)

    Fields of gold (or pink, or orange…)

    Obviously I have a thing for standing in a field carpeted with flowers and busting out the ol’ watercolors—because not only does it crop up (no pun intended) again and again on this blog… …but it’s also a recurring theme in my new book. The fun part, of course, was traveling to all these flowery…

  • The Best Coast

    The Best Coast

    While I’ve hinted at this several times on social media, and even shown some snippets of my process along the way, mostly I’ve been sitting on my hands lately, trying my best to keep mum while I wait for time to tick by. And now the waiting is almost over, and it’s time for the…

  • Seaside splendor

    Seaside splendor

    You already know that San Juan Island is perhaps my favorite place on earth, and the California poppies that grow wild at Cattle Point are just one of the many reasons why. I actually started this sketch on an earlier trip, and came back to this spot exactly one year later to finish it. And…

  • Heckuva hick

    Heckuva hick

    This post is part of an ongoing series called 66 Fridays, which explores the wonders of old Route 66. Click on the preceding “66 Fridays” link to view all posts in the series, or visit the initial overview post here. Unlike Bill Johnson’s in Phoenix or Frank’s in San Antonio, the Missouri Hick is still…

  • The tourist trade

    The tourist trade

    This post is part of an ongoing series called 66 Fridays, which explores the wonders of old Route 66. Click on the preceding “66 Fridays” link to view all posts in the series, or visit the initial overview post here. One of the grandest Route 66 traditions is the souvenir shop—or as it is more…

  • Faux-tem poles

    Faux-tem poles

    This post is part of an ongoing series called 66 Fridays, which explores the wonders of old Route 66. Click on the preceding “66 Fridays” link to view all posts in the series, or visit the initial overview post here. If you travel any length of Route 66, you can expect to see some fake…

  • The long detour

    The long detour

    I spent nearly all of April breaking in my new car with a 6500-mile road trip up and down the West Coast. I’ve done many similar trips in the past, but this one had a completely different feel to it. And that’s because the severe drought—which for more than seven years had parched California and…

  • Four-wheeled farewell

    Four-wheeled farewell

    If you’ve been reading here for awhile, you’ve seen this picture before—and others like it. My car, Wild Blue, has made many appearances here over the years, because she’s as much a character in my stories as any place I’ve visited. In fact, she’s sometimes the star—though even when she isn’t, she’s never far from…