Weekend in St. Joseph / Week in Iowa
When we arrived in Michigan at the beginning of August, our intention had been to stay through the weekend before having to go to Curtis’ next assignment. But through a series of events, we ended up staying almost a month. During that time, we were able to see all of Curtis’ immediate family, celebrate the life of his grandpa, visit with both grandmas, see many more relatives, and still had time for an impromptu road trip to visit the Upper Peninsula and finish visiting all 84 of Michigan’s counties. August slipped away into a moment in time, and when September arrived it was time to wrap up our time here. As it happened, I had a cousin who was getting married in the St. Joseph area over Labor Day weekend, for which most of my family was coming up to spend the weekend, and we still had free time to join them. So on Saturday, we made the short drive over to Southwest Michigan, and were reunited with my family.
We spent that weekend at an Airbnb in the country, right between cornfields and a vineyard, not too far from Stevensville. Once again, having our van came in handy because we brought our own bed with us! We enjoyed spending Friday afternoon and most of Saturday relaxing at the property, walking through the vineyard and hanging out near the pond.
On the night before the wedding, we went “bowling with the bride” at Peat’s Cider Social, a local cidery with its own bowling alley and arcade. The next day, the wedding was held at Watermark Brewing in Stevensville. There was a beautiful ceremony celebrating the couple and their love and commitment to each other, followed by a lively reception. The next morning, we had brunch with our relatives and enjoyed catching up with them. As a huge bonus, the Airbnb owner offered to let us all stay at their property for one more night, which gave us more time to enjoy walking around St. Joseph, relaxing, and watching the sunset over Lake Michigan — the perfect way to wrap up our month in this state!
The Tuesday after Labor Day, we packed up and hit the road again, this time driving back to Iowa with my family. There had been even more changes to Curtis’ fall work schedule, and we needed this week to do some chores, make new plans, and of course spend time with family. Curtis preformed a few van maintenance tasks, the biggest being installing a mount so we could carry a spare tire around. That’s right, we drove nearly 14k miles all around the country this summer WITHOUT a spare. I’m very thankful to be free from this little anxiety now! We also went through our storage unit and pulled out some cold weather clothes and more blankets for our van, knowing it will likely grow much colder over the next couple months before we’re able to return to Iowa.
During the week, we also spent lots of time with my parents, and saw each of my siblings in the midst of their busy fall schedules. I also spent a morning with my niece, who can now finally say my name! On one evening, my parents were hosting a dinner with several couples that we used to attend Bible study with and who had greatly impacted our lives, and we were very thankful for the chance to see them after many years apart.
As for coming up with new and improved Fall plans, we were originally supposed to be in Illinois again in September, but that got cancelled, and in its place Curtis was scheduled for a week of training in Wilmington, NC, followed by another assignment on the East Coast for the month of October. Initially we thought we didn’t want to go back to Wilmington again after just being there in July, and especially because it’s now hurricane season, so we considered just having Curtis fly down and Charlotte and I stay in Iowa. But then we started doing what we always do — looking at maps, planning hypothetical trips, and before we knew it we decided to just do it anyway. This is the life we signed up for, so why not make the most of it? And so after a week in Iowa, we said our goodbyes again and prepared for another trip down South. The way we see it is that someday we may settle down, hopefully somewhere out West, and will never want to return to the East coast again. So we should get as many counties and see as much as we can out there right now while we’re being paid to travel in that direction!
