Oswego to Omaha / September 2024
Driving from Oswego, NY to Omaha, NE | Family Time in Michigan & Iowa | September 2024
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed all our travels out East this year — spanning all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and everywhere in between! But deep down at heart, we still believe that West is Best, so we’ve been eagerly anticipating our chance to finally get West of the Missouri River this year. At the end of September, all the stars finally aligned: Curtis had over a month off before his next assignment, and we had a family wedding to attend in Colorado! And so, as soon as Curtis’ assignment in Oswego, NY wrapped up, we hit the road to begin our drive West.
And I do mean as soon as he was done — he got back from work at 5, and I already had the van packed and ready to go, so all we had to do was check out, return the rental, and pick up dinner, then we were good to go! We only drove about an hour and a half that first night, just so that it would be an hour and a half less of driving the next day. Since we had enjoyed staying in Brockport, NY on the Erie Canal so much in August, we decided to stay there again on our first night on the road. We arrived after dark, the canal lit by the full moon, and had a picnic outside before crawling into bed. It was another pleasant night here, besides a street sweeper coming through in the middle of the night.
The next day, we drove another hour West to the Canadian border, and crossed into Canada for our third time this year. Sadly all we would be doing today was driving across, though we of course found a way to stop and grab Tim Horton’s.
We took the most direct route across the Ontario peninsula, then crossed the Blue Water Bridge into Michigan. The crossing thankfully didn’t take as long as it did for us last spring. As of August 1, there are now more rules regarding pets crossing into the US — none that would impact us significantly since Charlotte is already microchipped and always up to date on vaccines, just another form to fill out and show when crossing the border. Or so they say…they definitely noticed her, but didn’t ask for any proof of said form or vaccines or anything. Maybe they just need more time to implement that system. But we were thankful for two easy crossings today!
Once back in the states, we picked up some pizza from Jet’s and brought it to Curtis’ Grandma’s house, where we enjoyed lunch and a few hours of conversation and a sunny afternoon walk. After that, we finished up the last few hours of the drive to Curtis’ parent’s home, where we spent the rest of the week. We got caught up since our last visit in May, visited Curtis’ other grandma, and went on a letterboxing/hiking adventure that ended with us being rained on. Curtis was in a baking mood that week and made us a pizookie and two different types of bread.
When the weekend came, it was time to continue our pilgrimage West, so we said our goodbyes and got on the road. We drove 7 hours (our longest driving day of the trip) to my parent’s home in Iowa, and were reunited with my family after 4 months apart. We only spent two nights here this time, since we knew we’d be back for more events and appointments after our time out West.
We spent Monday morning playing with our niece and nephew, then said our goodbyes to continue on to the next leg of our journey. Today’s drive was one that is very familiar to us: 4 hours from my parent’s home to Omaha, NE! We’ve technically driven through twice since we moved away in October of 2022, but this would be the first time we would stop and see friends and visit a place close to our hearts. The drive went by smoothly, and we arrived in Omaha feeling a big mix of emotions: nostalgic for both the place and that time of our lives, comfort from familiarity, thankful for everything that this place was for us…but also the knowledge of everything we’ve been able to do since leaving. Now that we’ve experienced the freedom that comes with living on the road, we don’t know if we could ever go back to the people we were that were so content while living here. One thing we were certain of though: we were thankful to be reunited with friends and to pick up right where we left off, with great conversation and a night of playing games!
