Starbucks anyone?

You know those people who say Starbucks is sweeping the world? I'm here to say that's not true. In fact on my recent 22 hours drive from Denver to Santa Barbara we saw fewer Starbucks then I did in my two weeks in China, IN CHINA!
What a trip. We left Denver at 5:30 on Wednesday night with the snow quietly falling around us. My worry was that if we waited until morning then the snow would have already blanketed the city, where as by leaving at it was snowing, maybe we'd beat the storm. I was right. We drove for roughly 4 hours, 199 miles. It was dark and I was unfamiliar with the car so I went slower then normal. The roads were icy off and on and construction sites littered the highway. The great thing about cross-county or cross a few states is that you're typically only on one highway! We spent a better part of our trip on the i25.
We decided to stop (in what we thought was a booming town) in Trinidad. Which I found out from the desk clerk at our friendly Super 8 that Trinidad has population of 10,000 but is heavily visited by out of towners, for..... sex changes. Yes, we stayed in the Sex change capital of the USA! And in case you wanted to know, yes there were a few changers in our hotel!
With temperatures a brisk 20 degrees we hit the sack. We woke up the next morning at 6:00 and were on the road and in search of a starbucks by 6:30. We never found one. And trust me we looked. I even called a friend to google all the locations. Let me tell you, life without coffee is not a good life. Finally around 12 when we just couldn't take the road any longer we stopped at a Dennys for coffee and breakfast (I had a burger). We walked in and were surrounded by a meeting of the Red Hat Society. How excited was I to be around more really old ladies! After our lunch break we hit the road for another 10 hours. We drove though New Mexico with it's amazing adobe houses, red rocks mountains and lightly populated towns. What a beautiful state. Then we rolled into Arizona. I have to say that Flagstaff in the winter is amazing but not a place I ever want to drive though again.
Finally we hit Barstow and after 15 hours of driving I was spent. After a sleepless night we were on the road again. This time however we stayed right next door to Starbucks, the coffee house that is not sweeping the nation. Two states without a Starbucks and we drove right though towns!
Once in cali they were all over the place. Now I'm not a Starbucks girls but boy was it a sight for sore eyes.
Our final leg took us 3.5 hours with a touch of traffic. Home Friday by 12 to snuggle with the kitties and take a much needed nap!
Would I do it again? Only if I didn't have to get home. I would have like to made snow angels in New Mexico and visit the Indian shops in Arizona.
Of all the things I saw on my drive, welcome to California was the prettiest sight of all!
Peace