Glacier National Park, MT

Words. I can't even. Pictures instead:

Into Montana

Columbia River, Central Washington

St. Ignatius, Montana

Flathead Lake, Montana

I can't tell you how good it feels to be on the road again. To be not working. To be able to relax a little. To see some of the most scenery ever.

We started the day early. The climb into Snoqualmie Pass through the Cascades was a little foggy, but the instant we crested and started going downhill, the sun came out. Central Washington is flat and rolling, much like Oklahoma (but not quite as green). All the rest areas we stopped at had fantastic views. Idaho was mountainous and forested and the interstate got much twistier at that point.

Once we got off I-90 in Montana, we began the trek up 70-mph two-lane back roads to Kalispell. We passed some ridiculous mountains (how did I miss St. Ignatius the first time I drove up here? I've never seen a more beautiful small town) and Flathead Lake, which is a prime vacation destination and so was full of slow-moving people.

We grabbed dinner at a joint called Moose's Tavern, which was a strange combination of bar and family pizza joint. With sawdust on the floor. Never fear, though: the pizza was excellent and the beer was cheap. We lingered for a couple of hours, playing Uno.

My stepson is having a fantastic time. We spent most of the day talking and laughing in the car, everyone exclaiming over the scenery. In a few minutes I'll wake everyone up and we'll go to Glacier National Park, then continue down central Montana to spend the night in Livingston.

Two thoughts: when I made my solo road trip four years ago, I couldn't imagine doing it with another person. Now? I love having a driving buddy (my husband). We work very well together in a car, and it's so awesome to be able to share the experience with someone.

Also, I realized my favorite thing ever is this. In a car, driving, pretending I'm an outlaw. Seeing the sights, driving fast, paying for everything with cash.

Next stop: Glacier!

On the road again

It's hard to believe it's been four years.

Four years ago, almost to the week, I was road-tripping through the same part of the country that we'll be road-tripping through all of next week. Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas.

I had been laid off from my job in New York, spent a few fruitless weeks searching for work, and decided one day that if I couldn't solve the problem, I could at least make the problem irrelevant for a while. I took off on a solo, ten-week, cross-country-and-back mother of all road trips. I covered 19,000 miles--all of the continental U.S. states, plus brief forays into Mexico and Canada--and reconnected with the man I would marry less than a year later.

It was quite a trip. As soon as it was over, I packed up all my stuff in New York and drove it back across the country to San Diego, where I moved in with the aforementioned almost-husband. And then started this blog.

When we moved here, to Seattle, I wanted one of our first vacations to recreate the upper Western part of my solo road trip. I drove from Seattle to Glacier National Park, down to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, across Wyoming to Rapid City, SD and the Badlands. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip; incredible scenery, very few people (outside Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore, anyway), and amazing driving. My husband hasn't seen many of the places we'll go next week, and my stepson hasn't seen any.

So, I'll be blogging it all again. In the meantime, here are my thoughts from 2009, when I was seeing it all for the first time:

Driving from Seattle to Glacier
Glacier National Park
Jackson, WY
Rapid City, SD
Badlands

And hey, some pictures!

Food for the family road trip

I've been on a lot of road trips (as you know), but this will be my first family road trip; my 13-year-old stepson will be along. Also, the road-tripping is the vacation this time; rather than driving straight through to some far destination, we'll be meandering through Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas, spending several hours each day driving, but also stopping to eat, sleep, and see things.

But we're still trying to keep this economical. Thanks to our Prius, we can cover close to 4,000 miles on $300 in gas. We'll stay in the nearest Motel 6 each night. My annual National Parks Pass (last year's birthday present from my parents) means we can skip paying admission at all the national parks we plan on visiting.

Which just leaves food. We can eat at least two meals a day out of the cooler in the backseat, stocked with sandwiches, fruit, homemade cookies, and road-trip staples like beef jerky and trail mix. We'll have a couple of picnics in the great outdoors. Dinner will be eaten in an actual non-chain restaurant each night.

I've written about road food before (and here), but with a kid along, we'll need more kid-friendly fare.

How do you go about stocking a cooler for minimal expense?

1. Buy bottled water on sale, and freeze the bottles. These will be the ice for your cooler; they can be refrozen each night (thanks to the microwave-fridge that comes with each room at the Motel 6) or drunk as they melt. In a pinch, the hotel can provide ice for the cooler. Refill empty water bottles and Camelbaks each night in the sink.

2. Sandwiches and wraps. I'll buy a loaf of bread, some sliced turkey and cheese, a package of large tortillas, and a big box of salad greens at Costco. Add a small jar of mustard and a jar each of peanut butter and jelly and sandwiches are taken care of. The salad greens will go inside the tortillas, along with bacon and some shredded cheese, to become wraps. (And a much-needed source of greenery.)

3. A variety of other stuff. I made two batches of chocolate chip cookies. Costco also provided apples, bananas, beef jerky, granola bars, and the base ingredients for some homemade trail mix (nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips). In addition, I packed some dried fruit, a small bag of baby carrots, a box of cereal, a bag of pretzels, and some crackers.

4. Caffeine. This can be slightly tricky, depending on how you feel about cheap truck stop coffee. Normally tea is the basis of my road trip caffeine; hot tea bags are cheap and easy to pack, and I can throw one into my refillable mug every morning and top it off with free hot water at the nearest gas station. Ditto iced tea bags--throw one into the Camelbak, add water, done. But my husband is a coffee drinker, and I'm getting back into drinking coffee myself. So we'll need a way to get decent coffee while on the road--that's not from Starbucks or a gas station.

I think the way to solve that problem is with iced coffee. I can make two large Thermoses of good coffee before we leave home, and doctor them up with cream, simple syrup and an orange peel. Then each morning we'll fill the Camelbaks with free hotel ice, add the coffee, and away we go. I'm not sure we'll have a full ten days' supply  in those two Thermoses, but I can go back to drinking tea when it runs out and my husband can drink gas station coffee for a couple of days.

Regardless, if we're carrying our own coffee and tea supplies, and our own food supplies, we'll never need to buy anything at a gas station that isn't gas.

So breakfast can be wraps, fruit, and iced coffee; lunch can be sandwiches and more fruit; and there will be an infinite variety of snacks.

Other things we'll bring with us, rather than buy on the road:

Sunscreen and bug spray
A couple bottles of wine (for picnicking purposes)
All the Camelbaks, water bottles, Thermoses and travel mugs (no need to buy any beverages, ever!)
Guidebooks from the library
Tissues, paper towels, wet wipes, and Febreze (for the car)
Laundry detergent and quarters (just in case)
Silverware (rather than buying plastic)
Stamps (for postcards)

Prepping the car for a family road trip

I've taken a lot of road trips in my life, but this is the first one I'll be taking with a kid. Visions of National Lampoon's Vacation (and The Shining) keep going through my head.

More on that later. Today: getting the car ready!

What your car will need for a family road trip vacation:

1. A wash, inside and out. Clean out the pockets and glove compartment while you're at it.
2. A check-up. At the very least check the oil and tire pressure.
3. Cleaning supplies. A box of tissues, a roll of paper towels, some wet wipes, some Febreze, trash bags.
4. GPS, phone charging cords, iPod cords.
5. Speaking of iPods, cue up a good playlist. Or some books on tape.
6. Road atlas and guidebooks.
7. A blanket. Good for picnics and for naps. (And a pillow.)
8. Umbrella, flashlight, emergency kit (one of those kits with flares, jumper cables, and a first-aid kit), and a roll of duct tape.
9. Make sure your insurance, AAA membership, and spare tire are all in good shape.
10. Quarters, for parking and tolls.
11. A bottle of ibuprofen or aspirin.
12. Depending on the age of your kids, games, drawing supplies, and/or a deck of cards.

I'm also throwing in some extra totebags.

Next up: what to put in the cooler!

Egg drop soup

I love fast, easy, three-ingredient things.

Since we're going on a ten-day road trip next week, I haven't been buying a lot of groceries. The fridge will be empty when we leave, but until, it's slim pickings. I still have quite a lot of eggs, though, and egg drop soup is faster and easier than a souffle.

Basically all you need is good broth, eggs, and cornstarch. You can fancy it up with soy sauce, fish sauce, ginger, scallions, all kinds of stuff as laid out in this article in The Kitchn, reprinted below:

(I used only homemade broth, eggs, cornstarch, and a little soy and fish sauce. And it only took like four minutes from start to finish.)

4 cups (32 oz) chicken or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 to 4 large eggs
Salt or soy sauce

Flavoring Extras - Use one or all
1/2" fresh ginger, peeled and cut into rounds
1 stem lemongrass, bruised
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
2 star anise
6-8 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons miso

Soup Extras - Use one or all
1/2 block (7-8 oz) extra-firm tofu, cut into bite-sized pieces
8 oz mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 bunch baby bok choy, thinly sliced
4 spring onions, thinly sliced

Pour the stock into a saucepan and place over medium-high heat. Put the smaller flavoring extras you're using into a tea ball or spice bag. Add all your flavoring extras to the saucepan with the stock. Turn down the heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes. Scoop out all the flavoring extras with a slotted spoon. Taste and add salt or soy sauce as needed.

Add any soup extras to the stock and simmer for five minutes. Save some scallions for sprinkling on top of the soup at the end.

Scoop out 1/4 cup or so of the stock and whisk it with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in a small bowl. Whisk this back into the stock and let it simmer for a minute or two until the broth no longer tastes starchy.

Whisk together the eggs in a small bowl with the remaining teaspoon of cornstarch. Make sure your soup is at a bare simmer. Holding a fork over the bowl (see photo), pour the eggs slowly through the tines. Whisk the broth gently with your other hand as you pour. Let the soup stand for a few seconds to finish cooking the eggs.

Serve immediately, topped with thinly sliced scallions.

Chocolate pudding

Mmmmm, pudding.

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 2/3 cups milk
4 beaten egg yolks
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

In a heavy saucepan combine sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch. Add milk. Cook and stir over medium heat til mixture is thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Gradually stir about 1 cup of the hot mixture into the beaten eggs. Return all of the egg mixture to the pan and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla. Pour pudding into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Do not stir! Chill.