Regular Joe's Guide

OK - where were we before I was so rudely interrupted by my official job? Ah yes, we were munching on burritos. And we were sporadically choosing locations from our last vacation a week ago.

On this day, we were taking the drive on I-5 south from Medford, Oregon back to the San Francisco Bay Area. I had done this trip in reverse way back in 2002 - at that time I had a 2 week business trip from San Diego to Seattle, with one week at my satellite office in Pleasanton. But Mrs. RJG wasn't with me, so this would be her first time to experience. The trip from Medford to Redding, through the Mt. Shasta and Shasta Lake area, is beautiful. One of the more attractive Interstate highway routes you will ever encounter outside of I-70 in central Colorado. Redding is either the gateway to the beautiful Shasta area -or- boring agricultural land depending on which way you're going.

As you may have read here before, the RJG has been to all 50 state capitals at one point or another (having ga…

And while on the topic of burritos, how about I cover off on a couple of those California chains I referenced?

If you've never had the pleasure to drive the 101 north out of San Francisco via the Golden Gate bridge, then it's surely something you should strive for one day. I've done it dozens of times in the past, and I never get tired of it. Over the years, we stayed in various areas in and around Napa and Sonoma. In the last couple of years, we've made Windsor our base camp for exploring the wine country, specifically the Russian River Valley. There's a very nice and newish Hampton Inn there, with well stocked grocery stores and restaurants nearby. And a State Park with running trails, which is perfect for the RJG couple, as we need to run off all that wine, beer, and food! And Windsor avoids the hustle and bustle of Santa Rosa just to the south - so it's truly an ideal retreat. On this trip, we drove by many wineries, but we didn't stop this time and do…

Last visit: October 2015

December 28, 2017 update: This location has now closed. We know of one still open not far from Love Field airport. If we visit another Jimmy's, we'll be sure to update this post and move forward.

As I write this in July of 2015, Burrito Jimmy remains our favorite burrito place in DFW! We go often since the Las Colinas Beverages store mentioned below has become a regular destination for the RJG when he seeks new beers to try (also now closed).

I was looking for a new place to stock up on craft beers, and noticed that Irving has a cool new store called Las Colinas Beverages. Since it's on the other side of the Great Divide, Mrs. RJG and I decided to make the area a lunch destination. After lunch, the plan was to drop her off at the TJ Maxx (apparently this location has far more stuff than the usual) and I would drive a few miles south on MacArthur to the beer store. Now we haven't been to Cavalli since last year, but I had remembered they were clo…