One of the best parts about taking a trip is reliving it after it’s all over. And boy, have we had time to reminisce about our cross-country drive along Route 66 since we returned home on November 30, 2019. (Our timing was impeccable, right?)

Now I get to relive it one more time—and share some road trip eats with you—in the July 2020 issue of Better Homes & Gardens.

Click the image below to see the whole story!

I wrote, illustrated, and photographed a feature story for the magazine that includes six recipes inspired by our Route 66 adventure.

As I wrote in the piece, I can’t think of a better way to see America than through its food. And our time along Route 66 proved my belief that the best food doesn’t need to be fancy or come from a hyped-up chef.

As we drove through eight states on our way from Chicago to Los Angeles, the dining options along the route were as varied as the scenery.

In some towns, there were only one or two places open where we could grab a meal. In the larger cities, we had to pare it down to what we could sample in an evening.

And though I packed my own cast iron skillet to cook meals under the stars, it was in the booths and at the barstools along the way that we deepened our connection to the road.

From the freshly battered corn dogs of the Cozy Dog in Springfield, IL to the griddled onion cheeseburgers of El Reno, OK to the ubiquitous prickly pear margaritas that are my standard order anywhere in the Southwest, these road trip eats represent the eclectic mix of “American food” on the route.

I couldn’t fit every single dish we loved into the piece, but these are some of the most memorable.

And over on Good. Food. Stories, I’ve got a bonus recipe for Texas-style chili cheese burritos inspired by the “All the Way to LA” burrito at The GoldenLight Café in Amarillo.

Oh, and that watercolor of us at the Grand Canyon featured in the story? It’s now framed on our wall, so we’ve got one more souvenir from the trip to enjoy for years to come.