Fashion writer Johanna Björk continues her drive from New York City to Ojai, California, eating good food the entire way.

During the first part of my six day roadtrip across America, I made it through New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and about half of Nebraska, all without eating any junk food — which is harder than it sounds when you’re on the road. Over the course of the three days that lay ahead, the plan was to make it all the way to California, a mere 1,626 miles.

Day Four – Nebraska, Colorado
We woke up on the late side, which was probably due to several glasses of good wine we had at The Drover in Omaha the night before. The plan was to make it to Denver where we had friends to stay with. After a while of driving we saw a roadside sign advertising a “Museum of the Prairie Pioneer” and just had to go check it out. The Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer turned out to be a living history museum with a mix of indoor exhibits and outdoor built environments.

The Stuhr Building, designed by Edward Durell Stone

Yes, indeed, I am

The main building, designed by renowned architect Edward Durell Stone, is surprisingly modern. There, you will find exhibits featuring everything from old farm equipment to period-specific clothing. Across the way, the Gus Fonner Memorial Rotunda houses beautiful collections of Native American and Old West memorabilia reflecting the contrasting cultures of the Plains Indians and the early western settlers. After this, we took a walk through Railroad Town, which is a replica of an old frontier town, complete with storefronts, wagons and trains. Since it was a weekday, none of the buildings were open, and the only other visitors to the museum at the time was a class of school children. It was actually quite nice to feel like we had the place to ourselves.

The Log Cabin Settlement

Hanging out by the teepee

The Log Cabin Settlement is an interpretation of the 1850s-60s “road ranches” that were built (using Cottonwood logs) along the pioneer trails and served travelers heading west. The Pawnee Earth Lodge is a 38-foot wide replica of an 1830s lodge that would have been home to about thirty to fifty people. The Pawnee were once the most influential and populous of the native peoples of Nebraska, and their towns ranged in size from forty to two hundred of these earth lodges. Before leaving, I just had to go lay down inside the teepee for a while to stretch before the long ride ahead.

The Pawnee Earth Lodge

Thirty to fifty people would have lived inside one of these Earth Lodges

After a minor WordPress incident (I accidentally deleted most of a post on my blog trying to fix a spelling error using the WordPress iPhone app), a desperate search for wifi took us to the Coffee Cottage. Located right off the highway, in the midst of gas stations, fast food drive-ins and chain motels, is an independently run coffee shop (with free wifi), where the owner herself will make your cup of ice coffee for the road. That’s what I call a happy accident.

The Coffee Cottage

Original Pony Express Station in Gothenburg, Nebraska

We stopped in Gothenburg, Nebraska to check out the original Pony Express station, a small log cabin that once was a stop along the Pony Express route that ran from Missouri to California. During the period of about eighteen months when the Pony Express was delivering mail, a total of 183 riders did the route. They had to be “young, skinny wiry fellows not over 18” and “expert riders willing to risk death daily.” Orphans were preferred and the wages were $25 per week. The average weight of a rider was 120 pounds, and most of them were around 20 years old, but the youngest of them was merely eleven and the oldest in his mid-40s.

The Sod House Museum

An authentic replica of the sod houses built by early settlers in the region

On our way back to the highway, we made one last stop, at the Sod House Museum — an authentic replica of the sod houses built by early settlers in the region. Apparently, the museum is also home to one of the world’s largest plows (we managed to miss that one, somehow). Had we not already had our coffee, we would have definitely visited Lasso Espresso next door.

Lasso Espresso

After being on the road again for a while I got my very first close look (and smell) at a CAFO, a sad sign that all is not always as picturesque as it seems. We arrived in Denver a little before 9 pm. The friend that we were supposed to stay with for the night had suddenly become sick and we found ourselves using the Kayak and Priceline apps, looking for hotels for the night.

Driving past a CAFO

Gorgeous skies on the approach to Denver

Apparently, bed bugs are sort of an issue in Denver, and after finding several of the hotels we were looking at on bedbugregistry.com we freaked out and decided that instead of risking waking up with itchy skin we should spend a bit more on a hotel without bed bugs. So, we used a great app called Hotel Tonight, which lets you find deals on nice hotels in major cities for that same night. We ended up at a Hilton Garden Inn, so much for no mainstream motels. Oh well, sometimes you have to make tradeoffs.

Day Five – Colorado, Utah
Before leaving Denver in the morning, we stopped in at a Whole Foods to stock up on healthy stuff to eat during the day. I had been craving a green juice since we left New York, but to my great dismay, this location did not have a juice bar and I had to settle for an organic tea.

Snow-capped mountains

After four days of driving through the plains, the snow-capped Rocky Mountains in the distance was quite an impressive sight, and driving up through them was amazing. We were finally entering the Wild West. Going through the winding roads and tunnels carved through the mountains makes you realize just how amazing it is that people managed to build all this.

A gold mine

Gorgeous lakes

Red cliffs

The outskirts of Vail

We passed an actual gold mine, red cliffs, lakes and small skiing towns. When stopping for a bathroom break we lucked out and found what has to be the most spectacular rest stop in Colorado. There were stairs that led down to a small beach, where the Colorado River rapidly flowed by. I wanted to put my toe in the water but decided that it was probably not the best idea. Instead, I sat on one of the rocks for a while, admiring the splendor of nature’s beauty.

Watching the Colorado River flow by at the most beautiful rest stop in Colorado

Mountain pass

As we drove further through Colorado, the formerly green and red landscape turned all different shades of beige as the trees disappeared. When we entered Utah, a vast landscape of nothing but majestic mountains and canyons was spread out in front of us. It looked like a big storm was stirring up ahead and we decided to stop at the next town and find a hotel for the night.

Entering Utah

Dark clouds looming above the mountains

The nearest town, Salina, turned out to be about three hours away. It was kind of scary to drive through the winding mountain roads in the dark, with rain pounding the windshield. When we finally made it there, we looked up the cheapest thing on Kayak and found a small, fairly new motel. The people in the reception had never heard of Kayak, but were very sweet and honored the rate for us. For dinner, we had a big salad that we had picked up at Whole Foods in Denver that morning. I fell asleep watching a Storage Wars marathon on TV.

Day Six – Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California

It’s amazing how much stuff one can fit in a MINI

On the road again

Hitting the road again in the morning, we were once again mesmerized by the beauty of the landscape. Every time I put my camera down after taking a photo something new turned up. It was kind of ridiculous, in a good way.

Majestic mountains in the distance

…every way you looked.

One of the most spectacular parts was the drive through the Virgin River Gorge, which follows I-15 for 20 miles across the corner of northwestern Arizona and slices right through a scenic desert canyon.

The drive through the Virgin River Gorge is quite spectacular

Majestic canyons — just like a scene from an old Western movie

Entering Nevada, there was no sign to formally welcome us to this new state. There was, however, casinos, lots of casinos. The landscape became more desert-like and the temperature started rising — at one point it showed as 101 degrees Fahrenheit. As we approached Las Vegas, we saw more and more power lines converging in the distance. I guess it takes a lot of power to run all those lights in Sin City.

You pick: Sin or Salvation. Elvis or Jesus

As we approached Las Vegas, the power lines got larger and more plentiful

The strip was enveloped in a big storm cloud, so we decided, since we had both already been to Vegas, that we would find a raw food place to have lunch. I used Yelp to find a place, on the west side of town, called Go Raw Café. Located in a strip mall adjacent to a man-made lake in an upscale residential neighborhood, it was a bit hard to find, but the food was definitely worth it. The house salad was divine (and huge) and came with dehydrated crackers. We also tried the chips, salsa and guacamole (house salsa and guacamole served with flax chips) and half a Portabello Mushroom Wrap (marinated portabella mushrooms, veggies, kale, and “almond cheese” wrapped in collard greens served with house slaw). Such a treat. I also (finally) got a green juice for the road.

Big delicious raw salad

Raw Portabello Mushroom Wrap

Sipping a green juice outside Go Raw Café in Las Vegas

Entering California, you have to pass through an agriculture checkpoint, where they make sure that you are not bringing in any invasive plants or pests. I was worried that they would take my goji berries, but we were just waved through. Finally, we had reached California! It was getting dark and pretty soon we were stuck in LA-traffic on a five-lane freeway. How classic.

Traffic congestion outside of LA

Almost there — Ojai, California, my new home

Rolling into our new home in Ojai, it was pitch black outside. It felt great to have arrived, but I was also sad that the journey was over — 2,872 miles. Maybe some day I will do it again.

The post Roadtripping Across America: Nebraska to California appeared first on EcoSalon.

Love Heals “Freedom Deliverance”

In a perfect world, every piece of our jewelry collections would help plant trees or save an at-risk child from blindness or slavery.

Sound far-fetched?

Not if it’s Love Heals jewelry.

Based out of Ojai, California, the jewelry itself (necklaces, cuffs, bracelets, earrings) is gorgeously crafted  on an organic farm in a geodesic dome.

Love it.

Incorporating the ” influence of the surrounding bohemian spirit,” says the press release, the pieces are created exclusively from ethically sourced materials and antiques collected from the designer’s travels around the globe.

One might envision these same pieces being protective amulets, others, layered glory.

Regardless, we say, strand us up Love Heals. We’re your new biggest fan. We recently chatted up Co-President and Head Designer, Adriana Lovelace, to learn more.

Amy: I read that you create exclusively from ethically sourced materials and antiques collected from the designer’s travels around the globe. What are some of your favorite collected pieces and why did they strike you as worthy of purchasing?

Adriana: Buddhas and different healing talismans I found in a flea market in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand are some of my favorite pieces.
I definitely love hunting for antique materials the most. It’s so great to find pieces with great craftsmanship and techniques that are now prohibitively expensive and incorporate them in our work. I just came across some great enameled pieces that I will add to our line.

The Mercado Dorrego in San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina, is one of my favorite haunts. I always find great pieces there. It might be some traditional, gaucho, hand-carved piece of horse paraphernalia or some colonial relic – it’s always interesting. I found some devotional pieces in Montevideo, Uruguay; Brazil is great for gemstones and talismans. Of course, Paris and its flea markets, such as Porte aux Vanves and Clignancourt, are up in my scale. London has such great hunting grounds, too – Portobello Road is still great. I used to sell my jewelry there 35 years ago. Wherever I go, whether it’s Europe, South America or Asia I am always hunting, looking for that elusive object that is beautifully-made and has charm.

Do you think creating in a geodesic dome helps with creativity?

Our dome has some great windows that look onto the sky, trees, garden and the profile of the hills in the background. Because it’s round, it reminds us that in the beginning is the end, it all flows seamlessly.

It’s a challenging place to work from organizationally.

We follow the contour of the walls as much as possible for shelving and some work spaces and have a rectangular island inside. When it rains, we cover the computers with tarps. When it’s cold, hot, wet or whatever, the computer system might be down. It’s a constant reminder of the frailty of the human conditions and our lack of ultimate control. I appreciate it from that point of view.

Love Heals seems so organic and raw in its aesthetic (even inherent) beauty. Do you think that’s what draws women to it?

Love Heals seems organic because it is organic. My design processes are spontaneous. I am happiest working when I stay connected to my heart that extends to the rest of my life. Joseph Campbell said “Follow your bliss,” and that is the intention.

I like things that have a human imprint, that are not too perfect, finely-crafted yes, but not too shiny or new or glossy. I consider how a piece feels against the body, where it touches, what weight it has, how it moves when I move. Leonard Cohen says the light comes in through the crack and our work follows that understanding.

I think women love that sense of inherent beauty without fuss. It’s such a relief.

How did you enter into your partnership with Goodlife?

We worked with Goodlife initially but then decided to work directly with their tree planting partner named GreenerEthiopia so that we could be closer to the actual tree-planting work. We are discussing with GreenEthiopia sending a photographer once a year starting in 2010 to document new and existing tree growth and progress as we have made such large contributions.

You also contribute a percentage of money made to child slavery and child blindness organizations. Why do you think it’s so important to give back?

Giving back works from the most selfish point of view: It gives us great pleasure. The heart wants to share. It’s actually a wonderful luxury to have the possibility of giving a portion of our profit. We have been gifted in our lives and it feels so good to share. I think everybody wants that at some level.

I would add that part of our mission is to contribute to the movement of socially-conscious businesses. Specifically, we have been tying each purchase to tangible actions that do good in the world. For example, we now have a series called Vision which protects four disadvantaged children from blindness for the first five years of their life (when they’re most at risk) through our work with VitaminAngels.

We have another collection called Freedom, which saves a child from slavery in Sudan through our work with AbolishSlavery. Just in the last month that we introduced these two new series of work, we have been able to finance protecting over 300 children from blindness, and rescue over 70 children from slavery in Sudan. It has been an honor to be part of these projects and have such a meaningful impact on so many lives.

We are only able to do this work because of the support from our customers.

Love Heals family: Gunnar Lovelace (Co-President, Designer), Elisa Lovelace (Designer), Adriana Lovelace (Co-President, Head Designer).

The post Love Heals in More Ways Than One appeared first on EcoSalon.