Category: Roadside Attractions

  • 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…

  • You’re gonna need a bigger boat

    You’re gonna need a bigger boat

    Towards the end of the design process for my new book, the design team at Sasquatch Books and I were putting together all the odds and ends that make up the cover, both inside and out (you’ll find a behind-the-scenes look at the front cover on my studio blog). One of the last elements to…

  • 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…

  • Major beef

    Major beef

    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. The Mother Road has no shortage of good steakhouses, but nothing quite matches the spectacle…

  • Hog wild

    Hog wild

    San Antonio is home to another defunct barbecue joint—but while I’m sad I can’t buy a pulled-pork sandwich here, I’m more interested in the building itself. That’s because this here pig…is actually a duck! Now if only there were a duck-shaped duck that actually sold barbecued duck…that would be a find.

  • 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…

  • Wigwam-a-rama

    Wigwam-a-rama

    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. Route 66 wouldn’t be Route 66 without its bevy of American-Indian cultural appropriation kitsch. The…