Road Trip Food! by Jenn McKinlay

JENN MCKINLAY: Hub and I just did a short road trip to Tucson where I attended Left Coast Crime (more to come on that tomorrow). Now Tucson is only two hours away but we had to fill up the gas tank before we departed which means of course…snacks!!! Yes, even for a short road trip, I require snacks. I mean, what if you break down? You might have to live off that Cherry Dr. Pepper and Bugles for hours if you’re in a remote location. One has to be prepared.

Now Hub is an Arizona Sweet Tea, chili cheese Fritos, and beef jerky kind of guy, while I am a Hostess Sno-ball, Charleston Chew minis, and Dunkin’ coffee sort of gal. Yes, it’s shocking we managed to set aside these differences and marry, but here we are many years later. But on this road trip, I was in a pickle because I declared this March the month of no candy or processed carbs because I suspect I might have a sugar problem as in I love it but it’s unrequited. 

So, as I stood looking over my options at the convenient store (more accurately our local Circle K), I was stymied. Yes, I could have just bought water and called it a day but…road trip! I ventured into aisles I’d never seen before and ended up with a banana (they have fruit, who knew?) and a yogurt. Neither of these was as satisfying as my Sno-balls but I did not get colored coconut all over the interior of the car so I consider that a win.

All right, Reds, what’s your go to road trip snack? 

HALLIE EPHRON: Mini Mounds! You can buy them in bulk and eat them while driving. And tangerines. If one (or part of one) gets lost in the car while you’re driving, it won’t stink. And roasted almonds.

I made the mistake of not putting together snacks flying out of Key West a few weeks ago. I paid more than $6 in the airport for a pathetic 2 oz bag of stale trail mix. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Almonds. Definitely. I always keep almonds in my bag in case I might be starving (which happens all the  time on book tour, I’m not quite sure why, airport fast food is so unreliable unless it’s Dunkins or Starbucks, and I always seem to be out of food.) I also tuck away a plain bagel.

Almonds and plain bagels are good for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and go with wine and diet coke and coffee and  tea, so they are perfect no matter when.  And they are not too messy in the car–that’s why plain bagels, not sesame! 

RHYS BOWEN: We also completed that two hour road trip to Tucson–in the rain! Imagine, Arizona and it’s gloomy and raining. But I had brought snacks along so all was well: gluten free crackers and mini cheeses for Clare who is gluten free, Trader Joes cheese straws, cashews and pistachios and of course gummi bears. 

When I’m on book tour I always have a Kind bar, those tiny gouda cheeses, sometimes dried mango or preserved ginger… now I’m getting hungry thinking about it.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Hank taught me the trick with almonds, and now I keep a bag stashed in my glove compartment for hunger emergencies. But road trips demand FUN snacks, to my mind, as a reward for the chore of driving, driving, driving. I’ve always had a a soft spot for peanut M&Ms (the fact several of my kids don’t like them may play a role in this.)  And I’m crazy for Target’s Handful of Everything Trail Mix, which has, “a delectable blend of sweetened banana chips, mangos, pineapple, yogurt-flavored coated peanuts, chocolate chips, almonds, raisins, apricots, cranberries and coconut.” 

That last is the problem, as I will end up at my destination with a gentle layer of coconut flakes drifting across the drivers seat and the floor, as if I drove through show flurries. On the plus side, it makes my car smell slightly like a tropical resort, which is nice when I’m headed to Syracuse, NY in January.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I love Corn Nuts. What's not to like about risking breaking a tooth or two and swelling up like the Michelin Man from the salt? But they are so good.

Next would be Cheddar popcorn, or Fritos. You can tell I have a weakness for the salty stuff. But on my most recent road trip, my daughter and I stopped at Buccee's (heaven in a truck stop) and discovered to our dismay that they don't carry Corn Nuts! We had to settle for Buccee's famous roasted pecans.

LUCY BURDETTE: Oh Rhys, I love Trader Joe’s cheese straws–bought them for our last trip south.

But I usually make sandwiches–egg salad or tuna salad or turkey and cheese with pickles and potato chips. And then some kind of gorp and maybe fruit and cheese and crackers. We eat all the way up and down the coast!

And now, Readers, what about you? What's your go-to road trip food?

Hit the Road, Jack

DEBORAH CROMBIE: A friend of ours who lives in Seattle is setting off this week on a cross-country/no fixed destinations road trip with his college-age daughter. I can't blame them for wanting to get out of the terrible Pacific Coast heat, and when I contemplated road trips I had a huge rush of nostalgia. 

 

I spent a good part of my childhood summers in the backseat of a car. My dad traveled as a manufacturer's rep, and in the summers he'd find a good excuse to combine business with pleasure. Some of the trips were pure pleasure, like the year we drove from Texas to LA, then up the Pacific Coast Highway all the way to Seattle, then took the ferry from there to Victoria. On the way back home we hit Yellowstone, then Utah, Colorado, and Oklahoma. Other trips took us across the southeast all the way to Florida, or up through Kentucky and Tennessee to North Carolina. If there were ever reservations on these trips I don't remember them. I do remember many funky little motels, however. One of my favorites--I wonder if it might have been the famous Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona --had separate cabins in the shape of teepees.

 

 

I'm sure this is why I have such fondness for places like the Valley Ho in Scottsdale, and the Belmont Hotel in Dallas. I somehow doubt our friend's daughter has ever stayed in a small town motel, much less one with teepee cabins. I'm not holding my breath that she will love it.

How about you, dear REDS? Did you have cross-country adventures? Do you still feel the romance of the road? And would you set out with no reservations?

RHYS BOWEN: As I child I drove across Europe with my parents , stopping at weird and wonderful B and Bs and meeting such a variety of people. The biggest road trip I remember with our kids was when we lived in Houston and drove all over Mexico, spending Christmas in Mexico City. 

When John retired we drove coast to coast to promote my books, visiting small indie bookstores and once we drove coast to coast across Canada. That was fabulous. Now our biggest trip is twice yearly between our homes in CA and AZ. I’m no longer a fan of sitting for hours in a car!

 

DEBS: Rhys, I can't believe I left out Mexico! We made so many trips there when I was growing up, to Mexico City, Acapulco, Guadalajara (where my parents had a house for quite a few years,) Puerto Vallarta. Such wonderful adventures, although the old Pan American Highway was pretty terrifying. Here I am in San Luis Potosi, which was one of my favorite cities.

 

HALLIE EPHRON: I never took a road trip until I was all grown up and our Molly was nine months old. Jerry and I (who grew up in non-roadtripping Brooklyn) packed her up along with a tent and a camp stove and took off for a 6-week trip from Boston to Nashville and back. Camping, it turned out (big surprise), was not for us. But roadtripping was, and we’ve taken many since, eating our way from diner to diner.

Whenever I think of road trips I think of miniature golf. In just about every tourist town there was at least one miniature golf course and it was a great way to wile away the hours between dinner and bed. I was terrible at it and cheated. 

LUCY BURDETTE: Ha Hallie, we have RoadFood also and have eaten much BBQ and fried chicken on their recommendation. My father was crazy for road trips and camping and my mother went along with it all, with four kids and a couple of German shepherds. We had these big green army boxes on top of our station wagon--instead of suitcases. On one end my mom had painted “California or Bust!” Once we made it there, the boxes were turned around so they read “Hatteras, NC, just for the fun of it!” We pulled a pop-up trailer behind us, and my dad had built a big box for the way back with all the cooking supplies. It was called the “big box” and it weighed a ton. It sure was an adventure, though I wouldn’t do it again now:). 

 

 

RHYS: These memories have reminded me of several food trips we have taken: the latest all over The Maritime Provinces with the sole aim of seafood twice a day.

 

DEBS: Yum, Rhys. I'll sign up for that one.

JENN McKINLAY: My parents’ idea of vacation was the mighty road trip, so much so that the only state I haven’t visited in the contiguous United States is Wyoming. Not sure how we missed it. I’ve also, like Rhys, driven across Canada, which was equally spectacular.

 

I still love road trips and have taken many with my own family. I have found that sharing the bounty of a roadside barbecue stand, stopping at a tourist trap to see the largest ball of twine, listening to a book on tape, and marveling at the wonders found at random stops like Seven Arches in Moab make memories to last a lifetime. 

 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My folks didn’t do road trips; I suspect the constant moving in the military scratched that itch. Ross and I didn't do too many long roadtrips with the kids, but we did have one that was splendid. One summer I was invited to speak at the library on Mackinac Island; the gig included a weekend at The Grand Hotel for the whole family. We expanded the trip into a week plus: we went north to Montreal, then crossed Ontario to Sault Ste. Marie, camping and staying in cabins, came back to the US on the International Bridge and then spent a few days in Michigan’s Wilderness State park before finishing up with an amazing stay at the Grand Hotel. My kids still remember the trip - even Youngest, who was still in diapers, recalls the swimming pool on Mackinac Island!

BTW, Canadian friends, you have the BEST campsites in North America. Bar none.

  

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  My favorite part of our road trips was our family joke. Every time we would pack into the station wagon and head out on a journey, my father would stop at the end of our long driveway, and say: “How do you like it so far?”

And we would burst into peals of laughter. That brings back the sweetest memories.

We also had one incredibly memorable summer when my parents and a couple who were their friends,  bought some kind of crazy Fly -all-you-want pass on Frontier Airlines, which  let us go basically whenever we wanted, wherever we wanted out west. Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana. We went everywhere, and saw every mountain and saloon tourist spot and Pikes Peak and the Grand Canyon and The Tetons, and Glacier National Park,  absolutely every place.  This poor airline probably never could have imagined seven people in my family plus 4 people in the other couples family, flying around so much—, using Frontier as our personal (sort of) jet. I think they stopped at the pass option soon after. 

Does that count as a road trip?

 

DEBS: Hank, what a blast! Obviously you  came by your flying gene honorably!

 

Still chuckling over Lucy's Big Box!

 

READERS, favorite road trips? Or road trips in your future? 

 

On the Road Again by Paige Shelton

Jenn McKinlay: There is nothing I love better than a good road trip and Mary Higgins Clark Award Nominee (you had to know I was going to work that in, Paige) and dear friend, Paige Shelton, is here to tell us about one of hers! Welcome Paige!

Paige Shelton: I don’t know how we managed to pull it off, but back
when I was nineteen (1984), my best friend and I took off and saw the world, by ourselves. Well, it wasn’t the entire world, it was . . . east of Iowa. That’s the direction we wanted to go, and that’s what we did. 

When we were sixteen, we told our parents we were going to do it. We’re pretty sure they thought we were kidding, but we weren’t. I still remember them looking at us as we drove away, their expressions a combination of disbelief, worry, and certainty that we’d turn around in a day or two. We were gone for thirty. 

We had a CB radio. We had cassette tapes with all the Springsteen anyone could want. We camped out on Lake Erie. We slept in the car – got cleaned up wherever we could. We also had friends and family we stayed with on some nights. We drove and walked all around New York City. We saw Waylon Jennings walking into a studio in Nashville. We drove right into the middle of a shift change on a dock in Newport News. My goodness, we were lucky. We had one car issue, but a sympathetic mechanic (probably had a daughter or two) just took care of it and sent us on our way. We made friends with truckers and had meals with them. We never felt uncomfortable around them, and they welcomed us and watched over us. I wish I remembered the CB names we gave ourselves, but I don’t. I can’t even imagine us getting away with such a trip nowadays. I wouldn’t have let my son take a road trip with a couple of buddies when he was nineteen. The times have certainly changed. 

However, I still love a good road trip and try to take a couple every year. My husband and I even took one during the summer of 2020. We spent most of the time in his truck (a pick-up, not like the big rigs from the earlier road trip) or doing outside things as we traveled up to Omaha to see our son and his fiancé. We wore masks everywhere. Once we’re vaccinated to the max – Maxinated, I call it, we’ll still wear masks but we’re hitting the road again.  



I think my love for road trips started when I was a kid, as, it seems, our genuine loves typically do. We would drive to visit my grandparents in Missouri for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. My mom slept, but my dad and I sang. I know many old country western songs. Those were also the days when kids sat on their parent’s laps and held onto the steering wheel. I remember those curvy Missouri back roads well. It’s a wonder I’m still here. 

 Driving through Rolla Missouri was when I learned about Route 66. Though on June 27, 1985, it was declared to no longer be a U.S. Highway, there are still many parts that are preserved and can be seen if you veer off the nearby main roads, which are now mostly I-40 and I-44. I still take that back way every once in a while, and I’ve made some fabulous discoveries. My favorite is Arlington in Missouri. 

Arlington is an old train station and ghost town, near Jerome, Missouri, and it’s fascinating. Train tracks run next to the old station and then lead to a bridge over the Gasconade River. There are a few other houses around and I think it was also an RV resort at one time but not anymore. I highly recommend you take a look if you’re anywhere near there. I hear the bridge might be torn down soon. Oh, I hope not. 

Here’s a picture: 


Photo from: www.Hookedonroute66.com
 

Cool, huh? How about you? Do you have a favorite road trip, a favorite place to pull over and look at the scenery? I’d love to know about it. 

 The fabulous Jenn McKinlay invited to me to post today and talk about my upcoming Scottish Bookshop book, DEADLY EDITIONS.

Thanks to Jenn and all the Jungle Reds and readers. Forgive me for being so distracted by the idea that a road trip might be in my very near future, that that’s what I was compelled to write about. I would be thrilled and honored if you checked out the book though. It was a blast to write (Jekyll and Hyde and Scottish pubs abound). It’s book six in the series and it publishes April 6. See, that’s kind of like Route 66. Thank you!

A treasure hunt through Edinburgh gives way to a search for a villain terrorizing the city in the sixth Scottish Bookshop Mystery.

It’s a quiet, snowy morning at The Cracked Spine bookshop, when bookseller Delaney Nichols receives a mysterious visitor, a messenger. He presents her with a perplexing note: an invitation to a meeting with eccentric socialite Shelagh O'Conner, who requests Delaney’s participation in an exclusive treasure hunt. Delaney is intrigued, but also cautious: Shelagh, while charming in person, has a reputation for her hijinks as a wealthy young woman in the '70s. She was even once suspected for the murder of a former boyfriend, though ultimately cleared of all charges.

But Delaney is enticed by the grand prize at the end of the treasure hunt: a highly valuable first edition copy of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. The winner is also to receive the contents of Shelagh's vast library, and all participants will earn a large sum of cash.

The night after the first meeting of the treasure hunters, however, several homes in Edinburgh are robbed in a manner reminiscent of Shelagh's old tricks. And when a man connected to Shelagh is killed, suspicion builds. Except Shelagh herself has disappeared from her home, seemingly kidnapped by the villain.

Terror mounts throughout the city as Delaney attempts to solve the mystery, while trying to evade the killer's clutches. But it’s hard to know who to trust when around every corner, a new monster could be lurking.

 

Paige Shelton is the New York Times Bestselling author of the Farmers' Market, Country Cooking School, Dangerous Type, and Scottish Bookshop mysteries. She's lived lots of places but currently resides in Arizona. Find out more at www.paigeshelton.com

Road Tripping!

INGRID THOFT

In a few weeks, I'm packing up the car and going on a road trip.  Despite seeming like the quintessential American activity, the first recorded road trip was by Bertha Benz, wife of Karl Benz (yes, that Benz) in Germany in 1888.  The vastness of the U.S., however, lends itself to road trips, and I've had the pleasure of embarking on many during my life.

 The upcoming trip is with one of my favorite travel companions, my mom, and we're doing a quick four-night loop from Seattle to the Oregon coast and Portland and than back to Seattle.  She's not seen the stunning vistas of Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock, nor have either of us spent much time in Portland.

When booking the Portland hotel the primary requirement was proximity to Powell's bookstore.  What more do you need?  Doughnuts, according to my friend, who says I can't miss Voodoo Doughnuts, conveniently located close to Powell's.  The Dirty Old Bastard doughnut, which features chocolate frosting, Oreo cookies, and peanut butter does look enticing!

My mom and my family were my travel companions on a most memorable Thoft family road trip.  When we were young, my parents found the energy (I don't know how) to take us to the national parks during summer vacations, and one year, we were driving through Yosemite National Park when the engine emitted a deep rumble.  We pulled over, and the seven of us (my grandmother, Nanny, was with us) piled out of the car.

My parents checked out the situation under the hood, but the car wasn't going anywhere.  Luckily, a couple of hippies pulled over in their VW bus (this was the 70's) and offered us a ride.  We climbed into the bus, with it's distinctively grinding engine sound, and they deposited us at the park entrance.  This was before the days of roadside service; no one was coming with a replacement car.

Fish Camp: Okay, I'm exaggerating, but not much!

We couldn't find transportation back to our hotel, which was a few hours away.  My parents sought alternative accommodations, but it was high season, and the pickings were slim.  They finally found two rooms at Fish Camp, and yes, that's what it was.  Two rooms and single bar of soap were shared among the seven of us as we prepped for dinner at a local haunt.  Midway through the meal, my father left to accompany the tow truck driver to the garage to deposit our rental car.  The trip would have been uneventful, but the driver was drunk and took my father on quite a ride.  Apparently, the drive was like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and my dad held on for dear life as they sped along and weaved through the twisty roads near Yosemite.

After a fitful night at Fish Camp, we put our pants back on—getting ready for bed had entailed a wash with the bar of soap and the removal of our pants—and claimed the repaired car.  Like most road trip crises, Fish Camp made for a good story and lives on in Thoft family lore.  I hope that my trip to Oregon is less eventful, but that's part of the fun of a road trip:  You never know what might happen!

Have you taken a memorable road trip?  Is there a road trip on your bucket list?