Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: Peppermint herbal tea

I know, I know, that's a pretty lame drink for Thirsty Thursday. I have an long mountain bike race this weekend, so I figured a small alcohol taper was a good idea. Of course this race isn't nearby which means ROAD TRIP! Well, its not much of a road trip, just a few hours north of here, but we'll still be loading the car full of bike stuff and dog stuff and food and assorted unnecessary crap and hitting the road.

In honor of our first trip in awhile, I thought we could revisit our big-ass road trip from last fall. In September I decided I'd had enough of the Dirty South, so Terry rescued Massey and I from Lousyana and we drove back to California. Four days, five states, four National Parks, and six burritos later, we were happily home on the left coast. It was the typical road trip--dodgy hotels, hole-in-the-wall cafes, sad little towns, and miles and miles of road. We took a ton of photos on the road trip (gee, that's shocking!), but I found a few that said "road trip" to me.

Every road trip needs good weather. Blue skies and fluffy clouds.

Road trips are always filled with dusty, rusty old towns seemingly fading with time.

Much of our route followed the old Route 66 across New Mexico, Arizona, and part of California. This sign was in Moriarty, NM...home town of one of my good friends.

More lonely roads and more lonely roadside views. The telephone poles below mark the old road bed of Route 66. The road is long gone, but the relic telephone poles still stand in Petrified Forest National Park.

Every road trip needs a good navigator...maybe next time we can find one who doesn't slobber on the windows.

And the navigator needs breaks to stretch the legs and patrol the surroundings for dangerous creatures. She's clearly on high alert here.

Its definitely not a road trip without sampling the local cuisine. We didn't find a girl on a flat bed Ford in Winslow, AZ, but we did find the Brown Mug Cafe! Great mix of Navajo and Mexican flavors. Incredible.

And every road trip needs a diner and/or drive-in stop...and the Astro-Burger Drive-In didn't disappoint! We've been trying to find a way to get back to Boron, CA to get more tacos!

Mmmm, yummy yummy in my tummy carnitas at Astro-Burger.

The quintessential piece of any multi-day road trip: lodging. Ironically, we didn't stay at any of these establishments. Guess I just had a thing for motel signs on the trip.

Lonely California desert.

And then, finally, our first glimpse of the beautiful blue Pacific. After a year and a half away that thick, foggy marine layer never looked so beautiful.