Wabash Trace Trail / Strahan to Imogene
October & November at Home | Section Hiking the Wabash Trace Trail from Strahan to Imogene | Fall 2021
After returning home to Omaha, we thoroughly unpacked and cleaned our car, stored our camping gear in the garage, did laundry, put away our luggage, and settled back into our normal routine. Out of all the things I was excited for about being at home, the thing that made me the most happy was being able to go to the store and buy groceries knowing we’d be home for longer than two weeks!
During our weeks at home, we worked, Curtis started his new class, we went for walks, went to Glenwood, I tried to get ahead on blogging, and Curtis continued working on woodworking projects. We rewatched our favorite “spooky season” shows on Netflix: Haunting of Hill House, Haunting of Bly Manor, and this year added in a new season by the same producer, Midnight Mass. The peak of fall arrived here, a little later than I remember it happening last year, and overall the temperatures were above average. We had one afternoon of flurries, but nothing stuck around.
Over the last two weekends in October, we continued on our mission to section hike the Wabash Trace Trail. It’s getting to the point to where we have to drive about an hour to reach the next trailheads, which means we have to put more effort into our walks than we would like. But I’m glad we mustered the energy to go on these weekends to enjoy the fall colors along the trail. On Oct. 23, we first drove to Strahan where we had left off last July in search of a place to park. There wasn’t anywhere that we felt comfortable parking, so we instead drove further East and did our walk in reverse. That day, we walked just over 7 miles, and so the next weekend we drove to Imogene and parked at the trailhead there, and walked 6 ½ miles to where we had parked the weekend before. The part I remember most about that day was how Charlotte seemed spooked throughout the whole hike, and was either constantly stopping and looking back, or was doing her nervous fast-paced walk. The only thing we could figure was that it was Halloween weekend and there was a ghost following us. 😉
I turned 29 at the end of October, and we celebrated with sushi from a nearby restaurant that we hadn’t been able to try because somehow they were always closed whenever we wanted to order. Then on the following weekend, we went out on a little date. I had won a giveaway on Instagram and one of the prizes was a gift card to Jams, a restaurant in downtown Omaha, so we went out for brunch and to walk around town. I had the coconut chicken & waffles and a hard iced coffee, and both were amazing. Afterwards, we went to the Joslyn Art Museum, which was free and gave us a break from the cold. We wrapped up our afternoon by going thrifting and buying new pants…since we hadn’t done that in 5 years (since living in New York!) and had just about worn out everything we had. What can I say, we’ve simply been too busy living on the road this year to care about clothes or shopping!
Curtis had a work trip at the beginning of November, and I wasn’t allowed to come along — but I was fine with that this time. The weather was beautiful that weekend, and Charlotte and I enjoyed a relaxing time at home together. Soon after, there were rumors of another trip he’d be taking the week after Thanksgiving. Our initial reaction was that we shouldn’t drive, it would be a further distance than both of the other work trips, and there was a higher chance we’d have to deal with winter weather across the plains. Then Curtis emailed me one afternoon and said the trip was official, and would I rather drop him off at the airport super early in the morning, or late in the afternoon? Or did I have any interest in going? We decided to look into what we could do on the drive there and back, and before we knew it, we were planning another vacation. More on that, coming up next!
