God Is in the Barren Places

Maui's famous road to Hana was everything I thought Hawaii would be: verdant rainforest, waterfalls, vistas of undulating coastline and azure ocean, bright tropical flowers and hidden swimming holes. 

Yes, that was nice. But it was the road that stretched beyond Hana that swept me off my feet. 

Here was the inverse of everything that had come before, a barren and empty land of rocky soil, the occasional windswept tree, and very little evidence of human presence other than the rutted road. There was almost no living thing out there - just gold, grey, brown, and sun-bleached stones. It was like I had eternity all to myself. 

Portland Sidetrips: To the Coast

Don't get your hopes up: The Oregon Coast will never be
this sunny for you. 

The first thing you should know about Oregon's western edge (and this is true even in the height of summer) is that it is the “coast” – not the “beach,” the “shore,” or the “sea.” You do not lay on a beach blanket or play in the surf. Instead, you admire the raw beauty of the coastline before heading indoors for some clam chowder.

The second thing you should know is that the entire shoreline is public - there is no such thing as a private beach in Oregon. You are entitled to wander wherever, whenever, you want. This also means that there are state parks up and down the coast where you can rent a yurt or cabin right next to the beach for $30 a night (b.y.o.bedding). 

The third thing you should know is that the coast is easy-peasy - just a day trip away from Portland (though I recommend a full weekend). If you head due west from Portland on Highway 26, you dead end into the coastal highway, Highway 101, in just under 1.5 hours. But where to go from there? Here are the highlights, from north to south.

Embracing the Obvious

Driving east on our way to Boston, we detoured briefly to Yellowstone - that quintessential national park teeming with families and RVs, where campsites are packed in tent-to-tent and the lodges are booked up a year in advance. We entered the park through the popular northern gate, making our first experience in Yellowstone the hordes of families at Mammoth Hot Springs - like Disneyland, but with steam vents.

Like many of our generation and temperament, I disdain the obvious. I do not follow well-trod paths; I like to feel original, to have "real" experiences when I travel (by which I mean, experiences not clogged up with other tourists). In an ideal world, I like my trips to be just un-mainstream enough to provide me with decent anecdotes for yuppie dinner parties. Yellowstone is as mainstream as it gets. 

But here's the rub: places are usually popular for a reason. Sometimes the collective does know best - consider, for example, crowd sourcing and (more often than not) juries. What Yellowstone lacks in obscurity, it makes up for with super-amazingness.

Land of Cuisine-ary Opportunities

Back in Europe, many of our friends insisted that the U.S. has no food culture, no cuisine.  I beg to differ.  In fact, there is only one sense in which I will concede they were right: America doesn't have a cuisine, it has cuisines.

From the crab cakes of the Chesapeake to the unparalleled flavor of wild NW salmon, our cross-country drive last October was in large part a culinary sampling of the United States. Often we relied on the advice of our local foodie friends, like Alithea in Austin and Jason in San Francisco. In the vast in-between parts of the country, however, our primary map was Roadfood, a down-home food guide compiled by Jane & Michael Stern.

Calling it out at the Beacon Drive-In

Roadfood took us to the Beacon Drive-In in Spartansburg, South Carolina, with orange formica booths, pulled-pork sandwiches, gallons of sweet tea, and colorful order "callers" ("And make that hot, hot, hot ... like me.").  There were stops at Marvin's for fried chicken in Montgomery and the Wheel Inn outside of Los Angeles for real roast turkey and mashed potatoes.  And of course, while in California, we made the mandatory pilgrimage to In & Out Burgers (slightly disappointing, but then again it was 10:30 in the morning).

The Chiles of New Mexico

Several of our food adventures merit special mention.  The biggest eye-opener of the trip: New Mexican cuisine. Neither Jeff nor I had previously understood that New Mexico has its own unique style of cooking, based heavily on New Mexican red and green chilies. Unfortunately, we only had one real meal in New Mexico, at Nopalito's in Las Cruces (310 S. Mesquite St.).  I also unfortunately lack the vocabulary to describe what made this so good. Think Tex-Mex for the general contours, but with fresh house-made ingredients, intense and complex flavors, and the gentle heat of the smoked chilies permeating throughout.