Saving Time in a Bottle

relishing the life God has given us

Christmas 2021

Christmas & New Years | Time with Family in Iowa & Michigan | December 2021

After returning home from Arizona, we had less than two weeks at home before leaving for the rest of the year. We mostly spent that time working, Curtis took his final for his latest course and worked in the shop in Glenwood, and we went for a few walks at parks and went to the zoo. The weekend before we left, our apartment complex gave away a catered to-go dinner — something they do for us every few months. Just one of many reasons why we love our apartment so much! We’re so glad we decided to rent while living in Omaha, especially with how much we’ve been gone this year. (If anyone is ever looking for an apartment recommendation in the Omaha area, feel free to reach out to us!)

The weather is what really kept things interesting during our weeks at home. We had our first snow of the season a few days after getting back from AZ, but that all melted within a day or two and a few days later we had highs in the 50s and one day as high as 73 degrees — the highest temperature ever recorded for Omaha in December! That day brought a lot of excitement though, as I’m sure many of you have heard about or also experienced, since it was a major storm starting in New Mexico and going all across the Midwest bringing extreme winds, tornadoes, thunderstorms, wildfires, and ended with a snow squall in Northern areas. I was nervously refreshing my phone for NWS updates that day waiting for the storm to arrive.

Curtis came home early and we went for a quick walk before it was supposed to arrive. While walking, we picked up some Christmas ornaments blowing away and a gutter that was rolling down the street. We made it home and played games to distract ourselves as the sky grew darker and the storm rolled in. The greater Omaha area & surrounding counties had around 22 tornadoes and some areas reported a max wind speed of 81 MPH — but somehow we ended up in this small pocket of the storm that only had 55 MPH winds. We were very thankful to be safe (and again, thankful to only be renting so we don’t really have to worry about storms that bring damage)! After that storm, the weather turned cold again, but we didn’t see any more snow until after Christmas.

Which brings us to the holidays! Curtis’ last day of work was on the 20th, and we left the next morning to go to my parent’s house in Iowa. We made a stop in Amana to pick up some Ackerman’s wine to share throughout the weeks, then made it home in time for a late lunch.

We spent the next few days in Iowa with my family, mostly hanging out at home but also went for some walks, and met a friend for lunch one day. On Christmas Eve, my dad’s family came over for a few hours and we got caught up with all of them. That evening, we continued our tradition of watching Die Hard and doing a puzzle (thanks to my parents for putting up with this 2 years in a row!)Then for Christmas day, we drove over to my Nanna’s farm for the day and enjoyed two delicious meals, way too many desserts, and lots of time together. We also watched the Packers game — admittedly Curtis and I aren’t very into sports, but we can get behind watching the Packers because an extended family member on my mom’s side plays on the team. He made a touchdown and the Packers won, so it was a great game!

The day after Christmas, we made the drive over to Michigan to spend a few days with Curtis’ family. We lucked out with having decent weather for driving both there and back later that week. There was no snow on the ground when we arrived at his family’s place, but the next morning we woke up to 2″ of snow, and it ended up snowing almost every night after that, so Curtis’ morning routine was to shovel every morning while we were there! He also brought his chainsaw and did some work chopping up fallen trees from the same storm that hit us while we were there.

We spent a few days at home with his family and playing with our nieces and nephew, and also went out for a few walks around different parks. On our last day in Michigan, we drove with Curtis’ sister Claire to visit his paternal grandparents an hour away. We enjoyed catching up with them and Curtis’ cousin who we hadn’t seen in a long time, then ended the day with grabbing pizza and going to Lake Michigan with Claire.

We returned to Iowa in time for New Years Eve, and enjoyed a quiet night in doing puzzles, watching Seinfeld, and of course listening to Taylor Swift’s song “22” at midnight to welcome in 2022. The year started off with a major snow storm, bringing around 8″ of snow to my parent’s place! Thankfully all the roads were clear by the 2nd, when we had to return to Omaha for Curtis’ work to resume on the 3rd.

While this still wasn’t quite a “normal” Christmas and we didn’t get to see everyone we would’ve liked, we were so thankful to have good health and be vaccinated so that we felt safer and more comfortable visiting with grandparents. It’s also really hard to believe that less than 2 years ago (in early 2020) I was so excited about living so close to home for at least the next 2 Christmases, and now in what feels like a blink of an eye both of those Christmases have passed. Who knows where we’ll be and what we’ll be up to over the holidays in 2022, but for now I’m so thankful for all the memories made with family at home!

2021 in Review

When reflecting on 2021, the most obvious thing that stands out to us is how much time we spent traveling. Each month is remembered by where we were going; time was measured by how many hours we spent in the car; it was the year we counted counties and not days. And besides that, it was a year full of experiencing ups and downs and being more present with family, rather than missing them from afar. In so many ways, 2021 was the year we’ve been waiting and working for. We never would’ve guessed when Curtis received orders to Nebraska that it was as if the Navy was handing us a life we’ve dreamed of, and the answer to many prayers we’ve prayed. People still ask us if we miss Hawaii, and we answer “No” faster than the words leave their lips. How could we miss our life on a small, restricted, congested island when our life on the mainland is so full of both driving for hours in any direction, and full of sharing life with people we love?

And while we are so grateful for the life God has given us here, beneath all the exciting things that happened lies heartache from loss. 2021 was the year when I lost my first grandparent, Popa. I was so blessed to have 28 years with him in my life, to learn from his example of serving others and faithfully loving his wife. Losing him so suddenly put things into perspective, reminding me that all we’re doing on this earth is temporary, and makes me long for eternal life with Christ. Because of all this, the year feels bittersweet — while we were able to do so many things we’ve wanted to do for so long, we did so carrying this grief.

In light of that, I would like to focus this post on all the positive things that happened this year, so we can remember the happier moments. Let’s begin!

We kicked off this year at my parent’s house in Iowa, after a fun few weeks of celebrating the holidays with both families, and after so many years of spending Christmas far away. We returned to our home in Nebraska refreshed and ready to start a new year. For the first few months of 2021, Curtis was working from home for the majority of the time, so our days consisted of spending lots of time together, shopping at Aldi and making meals together, and walking around our favorite lakes in the Omaha area. On the weekends, we would drive a little further to go for hikes at state parks in Eastern Nebraska and Western Iowa. January gave us a balanced mix of snow days and warmer days, and we would end up walking around 25 miles every week.

When February rolled around, the temperature dropped to the single digits and negatives, so we spent a lot more time inside. Curtis’ brother Joel visited us, Curtis had a short work trip, and we made lots of trips to Glenwood, IA where Curtis works in a Makers Space. He built a pair of Adirondack chairs for our balcony, which were completed just in time for warmer weather to arrive.

He was also able to get vaccinated against COVID, and a few months later I got the vaccine as well. We were thankful to feel safer during our travels throughout the year, and be able to visit family with less worry that we were spreading the virus. We are very thankful for good health all year round, that our jobs haven’t been affected by the pandemic, and to have found a friend group who is equally cautious to play games with in a safe way. Once everyone started getting vaccinated, Curtis had to start actually going to work more regularly. But in comparison to the schedule he used to work while with the submarine, it’s really not that bad. Most days he goes in at 7 and is home by the early afternoon.

Winter/Spring 2021

The beginning of March brought our first 70 degree days of the year, and we celebrated with our first road trip of the year, a camping trip to Kansas at the beginning of the month. Highlights of this trip include seeing the Kansas state capitol building, camping for free at a peaceful lake, hiking in Tallgrass Prairie, and finding our favorite courthouse to date in Cottonwood Falls. Later in the month, we took another weekend trip to central Nebraska to watch the Sandhill Crane migration, one of the “must-do’s” for anyone living in Nebraska. While at home in Omaha, we discovered the Wabash Trace Trail, a 63 mile long bike trail that goes from Council Bluffs to the IA/MO border, and made it a goal to section hike the whole thing.

We started April by visiting my family over Easter weekend, and finally getting to visit with my Nanna and Popa after several months apart. The memories made this weekend are now bittersweet, but we are so thankful we were able to get together. The next few weeks were spent back in Omaha, section hiking the Wabash and hiking in the Loess Hills as Curtis and I prepared for our first ever backpacking trip.

The week that my Popa passed was undoubtedly the worst week of the year, and the weeks following were equally hard, but a bright spot during that time was more time spent with family and supporting each other. I’m also so inspired by how strong and resilient my Nanna has been through this horrible time. She has always been a good example to me of making the most out of life and living each day to the fullest, and she has continued to do so even after the trials given to her this year.

Backpacking the South Dakota Centennial Trail

Following that hard week came a week we had been anticipating for over a year: our first ever through hike and longest backpacking trip we’ve ever taken: the South Dakota Centennial Trail. While completing the trail is a highlight for our year, it’s hard for me to look back on that trip and remember how I was feeling. It was challenging physically, mentally, and emotionally, but it was also in a way exactly what I needed at that time; to be away from the world to process my thoughts. We also learned a lot about long distance backpacking, and hope that we can carry that new knowledge and experience over to future backpacking trips. My favorite memories from that trip are walking through prairie dog cities, watching sunrises and sunsets, walking along blue lakes and summiting peaks, reaching the top of Bear Butte, and eating lots of Culvers after finishing.

Once we were finished with our trip, I spent some more time in Iowa with family while Curtis went on a work trip. We returned to Omaha halfway through May and finally started taking our new kayak out for paddles around our favorite lakes. We’ve been saying we need a kayak for years, and I’m so glad we finally got one! The three of us made so many fun memories on the water this year, in Omaha and on vacations. We took a road trip over Memorial Day weekend to Northwest Nebraska, and enjoyed visiting state parks, camping and hiking in not-so-popular areas, and summiting Panorama Point, the highest point in Nebraska.

Family PNW Trip 2021

June began with us finally getting an annual pass to the Omaha Zoo (the best in the country!) and we’ve enjoyed many visits since then. Halfway through the month, we joined my family on a big road trip to Portland and Tacoma to see siblings, and visited several national parks on the way home. Our favorite parts about this trip were seeing family (of course!), waterfall hikes, experiencing Yellowstone for the first time, and seeing 3 bears (and 4 for me 😉 )

We returned to Omaha in time for 4th of July. It was getting too hot to make Charlotte walk several miles around the lakes, so we took shorter evening walks around our neighborhood and hung out at parks. We hosted Curtis’ parents for a few days, showing them around some of our favorite spots in the greater Omaha area. At the end of the month, Curtis had a work trip, and he managed to get permission to drive so we could turn it into a fun anniversary trip together. This has undoubtedly become the best part about his job — being able to turn these 4 day work trips into 10 day semi-funded vacations! For this first trip, we traveled to Dahlgren, VA, and despite being adamant about not liking the East coast, we managed to have fun and fill this trip with lots of exciting stops. The best parts were summiting 3 state high points (Indiana, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia), hiking in Shenandoah, and kayaking in New River Gorge.

Summer 2021

After arriving in Omaha at the beginning of August, we spent 11 days at home before taking off on another adventure: Hiking, camping, and kayaking in the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. Highlights of this trip are hiking to the Lost Twin Lakes, kayaking on Park Reservoir, waterfall hikes, finding possibly the best camping sites of the year, and seeing 4 moose!

We spent a few more weeks in Omaha before hitting the road yet again at the beginning of September, this time with a big goal completion: visiting our last 8 counties in Iowa! We had fun zigzagging around Iowa highways, seeing roadside attractions, and visiting my Grandmother once we had completed our mission. At the end of September, we turned another one of Curtis’ work trips into a fall vacation and drove up to Montana. Our favorite parts of this trip were visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park, walking along the Missouri River in Great Falls, and camping in the mountains.

Fall 2021

In October, we took another trip to visit Curtis’ sister’s family in Minnesota, enjoy the fall foliage, and see my family in Iowa. We summited two more high points (Minnesota and Wisconsin), camped and kayaked around remote lakes, and fell in love with the Superior lake shore. After that, we spent just over a month at home for the rest of October and most of November — the longest we’d been home since January-February! Fall in Omaha was later and lasted longer, and we got back into our habits of walking and enjoying the milder weather and fall colors.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family, then set off on one last work trip of the year — returning to one of our favorite places, Tucson, AZ! The whole trip from beginning to end was so enjoyable, but a few notable things are finishing visiting every New Mexico county, seeing so many friends in Tucson, and reaching two more high points (Oklahoma and Kansas), bringing us to 8 for the year and 25 total (+DC)! We even camped on our way down and back, and thanks to that we can say we camped every month this year from March to December!

2021 State High Points

Winding down in December, we had just under 2 weeks at home before leaving for the rest of the year to celebrate Christmas with both of our families. After so many years of spending Christmas alone, we were so grateful to get to see almost everyone and for good health during this time.

In between all those trips, Curtis has continued to work on his masters and now has only 4 classes left. He makes frequent trips to the Makers Space in Glenwood where he has been using a CNC router to create a topographic map out of wood of the US — someday he’ll write a post about it, but if you’re interested, you can see his real-time progress on his Instagram account, @squatchis. I have continued to work for NeverThirsty, and am so grateful to have a job that I can take on the road and work around Curtis’ varying schedules. The site sees an incredible amount of traffic and receives many questions every week about the Bible and salvation. Planning and preparing for our road trips and then editing pictures and writing blog posts after has become a job within itself, but I’m looking forward to taking a break from that at the beginning of 2022 and trying to remember what we do when we’re at home for longer than a few weeks at a time. Charlotte continues to be the perfect little adventure dog and brings so much joy to our lives, and is always motivating us to get outside to go for walks.

We still love our apartment, and we aren’t tired of Omaha yet — though I suppose that it helps that we were gone so much this year! We still have a list of museums and other attractions that we haven’t visited yet, a few more counties and courthouses to see, places we want to kayak, and a lot of walking left on the Wabash Trace Trail before we move.

Saved the best for last: Charlotte collage 2021!

Which brings us to 2022: we’re back in a familiar place where we have no idea what we’ll be doing or where we’ll be living a year from now. And while that feeling is exciting, it’s a little different this time because we have to make the decisions rather than the military telling us what to do. We should be getting some answers in early 2022, which isn’t too long to wait, but it means that when our families asked us what we’re doing next year, we didn’t have a definitive answer. And that’s ok — we know that God will open and close doors and will lead us in the path He has chosen for us, just like every other year. He knew we needed this time in Omaha to be close to family, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Happy New Year friends, thank you for reading and supporting us, we hope God blesses you all richly in 2022!

Counties visited in 2021 — Map made on mob-rule.com

Travel stats for 2021:

  • Visited 500 counties together (532 for Jess) in 27 states
  • Visited 287 new counties (a new record!)
  • Saw 187 courthouses
  • Spent 121 days traveling
  • Camped 44 nights
  • Visited 25 National Park administered sites
  • Saw 9 state capitol buildings
  • Summited 8 state high points (and revisited 1)
  • Saw 5 Whispering Giant statues
  • Completed visiting counties in 2 states

View our other Year in Review posts: 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013

Black Mesa & Mount Sunflower

Clayton, NM to Omaha, NE | Hiking Black Mesa, Oklahoma’s Highest Point | Visiting Mount Sunflower, Kansas’ Highest Point | December 7-8, 2021

After an eventful start to our last night of camping, we ended up sleeping very well in the back of the Subaru, and awoke to a beautiful sunrise the next morning. We repacked the car and made sure everything was accounted for, and readied ourselves for a day full of hiking and driving.

We had a long hike about an hour or two away planned for this morning, but that didn’t stop us from first going for a short walk at Clayton Lake State Park. There was a half-mile trail that advertised dinosaur footprints, and since we had never seen any of those before we couldn’t resist. The footprints themselves weren’t even known about until after the lake had been formed and the spillway for the dam cut out. Then, after a particularly rainy season, the spillway flooded over and scoured out the last layer of sediment covering the footprints. Surveyors inspecting the damage after the storm were able to distinguish the discovery and paleontologists were called in.

The small area (about the size of a small house footprint) has several hundred footprints from both herbivore and carnivore dinosaurs, as well as worm paths and holes. It was pretty cool, but we don’t know how anyone could have looked at it and known ‘those are dinosaurs’. Except for a couple, the footprints just looked like rain filled depressions. But we’ll let the experts tell us what’s up.

After that, we got back on the road, taking county roads Northwest headed for the Oklahoma panhandle. As we drove, we saw more historic signs and tracks for the Santa Fe Trail. But even more exciting was seeing our first ever bobcat in the wild, running across the road ahead of us! This has been such an exciting year for animal sightings!

We zigzagged our way over to Kenton, OK then went North. Our main hike for today was to Black Mesa, the highest point in Oklahoma. It wouldn’t be too difficult of a hike, but longer than any of our other hikes on this trip at 8.5 miles round trip. Thankfully the weather today was just as beautiful as it was last week when we drove through the area — sunny, but cool and windy, which was good since this was a very exposed hike. We packed up some water and snacks and set off on the trail.

The first two and a half miles were mostly flat, and we set a good pace and managed to keep Charlotte focused on the trail. After that we began our ascent up the mesa, which slowed our pace a little but still wasn’t too strenuous. The path was wide and easy to follow the whole way up, and there were benches at each mile telling us how far we’d gone. Once we made it to the top of the mesa, we had another mile of flat trail to walk to reach the official highest point. Soon enough, we saw the obelisk in the distance, and were there before we knew it. Curtis found the letterbox, Charlotte, found some good smells, and I managed to bring them all back to get some pictures. The hike back down was all easy and went by quickly — a very easy & pleasant hike all around for high point #24!

We made it back to our car in just under 3 hours. We were pleased with how quickly we were able to complete this hike, but I was a little nervous that we wouldn’t be able to fit in our two other planned stops before sunset at 4:30, Mountain time. We got back on the road and went North into Colorado and the Comanche Grasslands before hitting US-160, then North on US-385.

The other two stops we wanted to make today were at Sand Creek Massacre NHS in Southeast Colorado, and then the Kansas high point on the CO/KS border. Watching the clock, I was doubtful we would be able to fully see Sand Creek and make it to the high point before dark — which seemed important to me so that we could get good pictures. I checked Google Maps again to do the math and realized that Sand Creek was also on winter hours, which meant closed today since it was a Tuesday. Whoops, good thing I checked before we went out of our way! Instead, we simply drove through Colorado and got a few pictures of courthouses on our way through.

We took US-385 to US-40, then went East and entered Kansas. Not long after came our turn for the high point, which was a 12 mile drive North on a gravel road. I had Google Maps to help find it, but there were also signs directing us there. We were thankful that the past week had been dry in this area, because similar to the roads leading to the Nebraska high point, it can be rather slick to drive after it rains. We arrived at Mount Sunflower at 4:15 — just in time to get a few pictures before the sunset. This officially makes 25 high points — we’re halfway there!

Our day ended with driving another hour and a half to Goodland, KS where we finally gave in and stayed in a hotel for the night. It may not have been the coldest night of our trip, but it was still windy, and there were no listings on Free Campsites that were on our route and meant for tent camping.

The next day was our last day of vacation, and a full driving day back home. The fastest route would have been around 6 hours, but we had a row of unvisited counties along the Nebraska/Kansas border that we needed, so it ended up being an 8 hour drive. It definitely felt long and not super interesting, but we drove through each one and got pictures of every courthouse, and now we only have 2 counties left in Nebraska and 8 courthouses. It will probably take another trip out West to get them, but finishing the state while we still live here is definitely within reach! We made it home by 5 that evening, unpacked and cleaned out the car, and went for an evening walk with Charlotte to try to readjust to the cold. This was such a good trip, and a great way to end a year of adventures!

El Morro & El Malpais National Monument

Tucson, AZ to Clayton, NM | Hiking Round Mountain in Globe | Camping in El Morro National Monument | Hiking in El Malpais National Monument | Finishing New Mexico Counties | December 5-6, 2021

After saying our last goodbyes to Mitch & Emily, we left Tucson early Sunday morning heading North on AZ-77. Today’s drive would only be about 6 hours and would feature highways we knew and loved through gorgeous Arizona scenery. While leaving, we drove past our old street and the place where we first met Charlotte — we have nothing but happy memories from this place! After leaving the city, the roads were nearly empty and we sat in silence and enjoyed every part of this drive.

We made our first stop in Globe a few hours later, and got out to go for a three mile loop hike around Round Mountain Park. It was sunny and warm, but not too hot for a walk. Curtis found a few letterboxes and we enjoyed the surrounding views and the sunshine.

After that, we began driving Northeast on US-60, and eventually drove through the Salt River Canyon. We had always enjoyed this drive, but I had forgotten how great the views were. After that, we continued up to Show Low, and then took AZ-61 through St. Johns and on to the New Mexico border.

Our plan was to end the day with hiking in El Morro National Monument and then camp there, but our plan was thwarted once again by the winter hours for National Park sites. We arrived right at the cut off for hiking the one-mile loop trail, and it wouldn’t open until after 9AM the next morning which was much later than we would have liked on a full driving day. And the main attraction of this site, a large prominent cliff with the names and ‘graffiti’ of centuries of travelers, was only accessible via that trail. We would have to pass on this hike for this trip, but thankfully we were still able to camp here. They have a nice, free, first come-first served campground, and once again we were the only ones camping here for the evening, for some reason. We had such a nice night there, so we’ll save this idea for another trip to the Southwest and next time actually make time to go for the hike.

We managed to stay warm enough overnight, and awoke on Monday morning and packed up the car, only to turn it on and find the thermometer reading 17 degrees. That was probably close to the lowest temperature we’ve dealt with while camping — but who knows how cold it actually is throughout the night.

We continued East, crossing over the Continental Divide, and entering into El Malpais National Monument. El Malpais in Spanish means ‘the badlands’, but unlike the other badlands we’ve seen this year in Nebraska and the Dakota’s, these badlands weren’t broken erosion plains, but a volcanic cinder field and lava flows of a fairly large fault region along the divide.

One of the prime things to see in the area is the Bandera Cinder Cone and Ice Caves, as well as lava tubes throughout the park. But Bandera and the ice caves are privately administered and were closed for season (plus they don’t allow dogs) and the lava tubes were also undergoing a management review, and off limits for the time being. But dogs are allowed to go hiking, so we naturally took advantage.

We stopped shortly after crossing the divide at the El Calderon nature trail and followed the trail out into the cinder fields. We passed the mouths of several lava tubes and could definitely tell and trace out some lava flows, though it wasn’t as stark and barren as Mauna Loa. At the end of the trail we climbed to the top of a small cinder cone – El Calderon – and enjoyed the views of the taller cones and mesas surrounding this odd location. Who knew there were volcanos in New Mexico?! I guess it makes sense on some level.

We had the option to make a larger loop of the trail, and even pick up the Continental Divide Trail for a mile, but opted to hurry back to the car. While our final destination for the day was only 6 hours away, our chosen route to nab the remaining three counties in New Mexico added an extra 2 hours. But of course, that didn’t stop us from grabbing our NPS stamps in Grants, NM once we hit the interstate.

Once on I-40 we drove straight East into Albuquerque then took I-25 North for a couple miles before getting off again and heading back into the mountains. Our route took us through several of the Pueblos on the upper Rio Grande – particularly the Jemez Pueblo. Almost every pueblo was closed to visitors because of Covid – but that didn’t prevent the views from being any less beautiful. We followed NM-4 up the Jemez River which quickly became a beautiful red rock canyon. At the top of the canyon we found ourselves on the edge of a wide Caldera Valley that makes up the Valles Caldera National Preserve, another NPS site. We considered stopping, but time was not on our side today – we like to call these scenic drives ‘samplers’ so that we know where to go the next time we visit an area.

We eventually came to the check point for Los Alamos, New Mexico’s smallest county and a potential post military place of employment. We didn’t stop to see any of the historic sites, but just kept rolling along back into the Rio Grande Valley. We followed NM-68 North following the Rio Grande which eventually becomes constrained by a pretty narrow canyon and offers opportunity for kayaking or rafting. Again, to think we dismissed New Mexico so quickly while living in AZ.

This route got us our last two counties of Rio Arriba and Taos, making New Mexico our seventh complete county state. In Taos we picked up US-64 heading East over two mountain ranges and featuring views of Wheeler Peak, New Mexico’s highest peak. We wouldn’t be getting that one this trip – the campgrounds in this area were all closed for the season!

Our original plan had us ending the night near Raton, NM so that we could visit Capulin Volcano Wednesday morning. But as before, the trails and things to see wouldn’t open until later than we would have liked, and we already had a fairly big hike and much more driving planned. So we pressed on passed sunset and continued driving almost completely to the Oklahoma border before stopping at Clayton Lake State Park. To no one’s surprise, we were the only campers out that night and we quickly set up camp and had our dinner before snuggling down for another cold night…that is until the wind picked up.

Our site selection probably wasn’t the best, and our tent has an unnecessarily large cross section, and so we found ourselves exposed to pretty gusty winds and by 10PM they were only getting worse. We decided that it was only a matter of time before the tent stakes would come undone or something would pop out of place, and then the only thing holding down the tent would be us. So it was a case of getting out of the tent now when we were ready, or later when we weren’t. Curtis left the tent and emptied the back of the Subaru of all our gear and threw it in the front seats (except the kayak, which was heavy enough to sit outside – we got a lot of use out of that this trip…). Then we carried all the bedding to the back of the Subaru where Charlotte and I made our makeshift beds while Curtis went back and wrestled a tent to the ground. Surprisingly, nothing was broken or lost during the move, and the car was probably just as warm and a fraction as loud. It was a pretty abrupt ending to our camping adventures for the year, but it’s nice to know the Subaru is a nice alternative when we need to car camp!

December 2021 in Tucson

Arizona Trip 2021 | Our Week in Tucson | November 29 – December 5, 2021

Our week in Tucson was packed with catching up with friends, going for short hikes, and reminiscing on the memories we made there 6-8 years ago. We always knew that whenever we had the chance to return together, we would need a whole week just to be able to see all our friends and still feel like we had a chance to experience the beauty of the desert. For this reason, we decided to take several days off following Curtis’ work days so that we could make the most of our trip here, and still take our time driving home.

Both Tuesday and Wednesday were full work days for Curtis, so Charlotte and I hung out at the hotel during that time working (me), napping (Charlie) and going for short walks around the hotel. In the evenings, we were able to get together with two different couples we’ve kept in contact with over the years: on Tuesday evening, we met up with Jon and Debbie, friends we met through letterboxing events that now live in the area. We enjoyed dinner with them at the Original Trident Grill near the university, chatting about travel adventures and their experiences section hiking the Arizona Trail. On Wednesday evening, we had dinner with John and Rachel, whose church we attended when living in Tucson and who I still work for. They treated us to a delicious meal at Vivace, and since we were up near the Catalina foothills we drove up early to watch the sunset.

When Thursday came, it was time to check out of our hotel. Our friends Mitchell and Emily had graciously invited us to stay with them for the rest of our visit. We had a few hours to kill before heading over to them, so we decided to go for a short hike. I usually let Curtis pick out hikes or letterboxes and am typically down for anything within reason, but today I knew exactly where I wanted to go: All I wanted was to be immersed in the Sonoran desert, surrounded by saguaros and everything else that grows there, enjoying the beauty that is so unique to Southern Arizona. Tucson Mountain Park seemed like a good place to go for that, and there happened to be a letterbox series there that we’ve been waiting years to find — the “Who Let the Dogs Out” series by our friend Jodi, AKA FamilyTreeShaker. The series is based on dogs she has met, and she had planted one for Charlotte with a cute basset hound carve, so obviously we had to go find it! I’ll admit I don’t enjoy letterboxing as much as I used to, but our hike reminded me why we used to enjoy it, and we both agreed that boxing in the desert is so much better than anywhere else.

We were successful both at finding the boxes, and at feeling immersed in the desert. Over the years I have forgotten about all the little details that make the Sonoran desert beautiful, and it was fun to be reminded of so many of those things on this walk. I also couldn’t get over how the Catalina and Rincon mountains looked from this angle, how they stand so tall over the land surrounding them, and seeing the many canyons of the Catalina foothills.

When we made it back to the car, we tried unsuccessfully to get Charlotte to drink — she was much more interested in something left behind in the parking lot that smelled good to her. We finally got her attention when we brought out leftovers from the night before, and the three of us enjoyed those while sitting in the shade.

After that, we drove over to Mitchell and Emily’s for the rest of the day. We had lunch with them and another friend Andrew, and then spent the afternoon playing a game that Andrew created. That evening, Alex and Kathy came over and we enjoyed catching up with them over tamales and card games. Being able to see everyone was a wonderful and humbling reminder that we have such great friends here. Somehow we can go away and come back years later and pick up right where we left off. We’re not sure how we managed to find such a great group, but we’re so thankful for each of them. The night flew by, and saying goodbye was harder than we imagined — we hope that it isn’t too long before we’re all together again!

The next day began with Curtis, Charlotte, and I driving over to Curtis’ cousin Gen’s house. She has a small acreage in Tucson with a cute house and an amazing view of the city and surrounding mountains — we were a little envious as she showed us around! We decided to go walk the washes in Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, followed by visiting one of her favorite wineries called Rune Wines and then sampling some mead at the Meading Room. We enjoyed catching up with her, hearing about her SAR work, and exchanging hiking and backpacking stories and gear recommendations.

We had some time inbetween visiting with Gen and dinner with Mitch & Emily, so we drove over to visit with our friends Pat and Jack for a couple hours. We always enjoy hearing about their travels, and about the unique goals they have, such as locating and creating a database for all historic post offices in Arizona. Since moving away from Arizona, they are actually the friends we have seen the most over the years because of their prolific travels — we’ve seen them in New York, Hawaii, and Virginia this summer when we both happened to be at the same place at the same time. We aspire to be like them someday, and look forward to seeing where our paths may cross next!

That night, Mitchell treated us to his tri-tip steak, and we planned out our hike for the next day. After throwing around lots of ideas, we ended up deciding on Slavin Gulch Trail in the Dragoon Mountains. Curtis and I had never hiked in this range, though from a distance I was always interested in these rocky mountains that looked similar to Texas Canyon, a highlight along I-10, and Chiricahua National Monument. However, when we lived in Arizona, Mitch always told us there were tiger rattlesnakes there, and that kept us away. Well, let me just say that if there are tiger rattlesnakes there, it is worth the risk!

We left early on Saturday morning, and it was cold enough to warrant wearing a jacket (it’s crazy how fast we adjusted to the heat after a few days in AZ after working so hard to acclimate to the cold this fall…). We drove about an hour and a half until we came to the trailhead. The hike was 6.8 miles round trip, and the trail gained about 1200 feet of elevation. The hike wasn’t too challenging even for us Midwesterners, but I was thankful we ended up choosing this hike over other higher and longer hikes suggested. The scenery was incredible throughout the whole hike and was well worth the effort. We made it up to some remains of an old mine, where Emily and I relaxed and chatted while the guys went looking for cool rocks and Curtis scrambled up higher to check out more of the mine. The hike back was easy and uneventful, and I was especially thankful that the only wildlife we saw was a tarantula.

We wrapped up our week with meeting Gen and her boyfriend Dan for dinner and drinks. This week flew by, and before we knew it it was time to repack the car and begin our long drive home. Thanks to all our friends for making this a wonderful week and return to Tucson, we hope it won’t be too long before our next visit! We love this city and the people there so much, as it remains our favorite place we’ve lived. We still think it would be a pretty near perfect place to settle down…but as of right now, we just aren’t ready to settle down. But we know our path will always bring us back to the desert!

VLA, Continental Divide, & The Catwalk

Socorro, NM to Tucson, AZ | Driving through the VLA and over the Continental Divide | Hiking the Catwalk in Gila National Forest | November 29, 2021

We awoke on Monday just knowing that today would be a great day. We only had 6 more hours of driving to reach Tucson, and we had a few exciting stops planned. For the remainder of our trip, we would be following the route through the Gila Mountains that Curtis took alone when driving to Iowa in May 2013, two months before we would get married. He knew this would be a scenic and enjoyable drive, and not as tedious as driving around all the twists and turns through the White Mountains on the US-191 in AZ. 

After breaking camp and repacking the car, we exited Water Canyon, enjoying the views we had missed by arriving after dark. We resumed our drive heading West on US-60, and soon entered Catron county, which was a new one for me.

The first “attraction” that we drove through this morning was the VLA, or Very Large Array, an enormous Radio Telescope built by the National Science Foundation in the ‘70’s. It is comprised of 27 antennae on tracks 13 miles long. The signals from each of the antennae is combined through an interferometer, making the entire site one of the largest telescopes on earth. We actually were able to see one of the antennae up close when we lived in Tucson, as a spare antennae was transported (in an incredible shipping feat of ingenuity) to the top of Kitt Peak.  We stopped near an informational sign so Curtis could get a letterbox. He recounted things he remembered learning about this area, as well as other college memories as an astronomy student, and conspiracies about the VLA and the Plains of San Agustin (part of the Roswell Alien Incident was VERY loosely linked to an archaeological study in the Plains, and the construction of the VLA was deemed a cover up).

After that, we went West on NM-12. Our next stop was at the Continental Divide, where we stopped for another letterbox and a short walk on the CDT. We didn’t walk too far, joking that we didn’t want to “spoil the trail” for ourselves should we ever decide to through-hike it. (Curtis says that’s not on the top of his list for right now since so much of the trail is road walking, especially in New Mexico.)

We continued following NM-12 through the Gila Mountains, then took US-180 to NM-78. This drive was just beautiful as we followed the San Francisco River and through Gila National Forest. There were even some fall colors hanging on here — we thought it was fun how we’d managed to stretch the fall season out for over two months, starting in North Dakota and Montana in September, Minnesota in October, and Nebraska all the way down to New Mexico in November.

At this point in our drive, we were within 4 hours of Tucson — which to us today means that this would be within a potential “weekend getaway” radius. And yet, for the entire 2 years that we lived in Arizona, we never even thought of coming out here for camping or hiking. In retrospect, we realized how little we camped while we lived in Tucson, or even in South Carolina, and how our style of travel has changed over the years. Maybe New Mexico wasn’t a priority back then, but we were now seeing exactly what and how much we were missing out on. New Mexico is actually a beautiful state, as it turns out, and to think we used to make fun of it just because to us it wasn’t as beautiful as Arizona, and we only knew it as one of the states we had to drive across to get back to Iowa.

Nothing we did today could remedy the fact that we now knew we had missed out (and were still missing out) on so much beauty within these mountains, but we did have one hike planned to at least enjoy what we could and make some more memories on this drive. In the town of Glenwood, we followed signs heading East leading us to the trailhead for the Catwalk. The amount of signs pointing us in the right direction and the large parking lot made us think that this is a rather popular hike, but since we were here on a Monday morning there was only one other car here. We gathered some water bottles and began our walk along the river.

The trail started out as an easy dirt path following White Water Creek, a tributary of the Gila River, and as we walked further back the canyon walls came in closer. We then came across the “catwalk” — a platform that took us through the narrow canyon walls over the water. The area was originally a mining town for the gold and silver rich Mogollon Mountains (a sub-range of the Gilas). Water from up the canyon was piped down in large pipes to power the mill at the base of the canyon. These pipes were suspended above the flowing stream on a precarious network of bridges and spans known as ‘the Catwalk’. The original catwalk was a victim to time, but was resurrected in the 1930’s by the CCC, but after the 2011 Baldy Fire, flooding swept away the CCC’s efforts. The new setup is very accessible and appears durable. Charlotte was apprehensive at first about walking on the metal grating while seeing rushing water underneath her, but she quickly overcame her fear and led us confidently through the canyon. We walked back as far as we could until we came across a trail closure, then turned around. The hike was about 2 miles round trip, easy and very enjoyable — we can see why it would be popular!

Finally, it was time to enter Arizona! We counted down the mile marker signs as we approached the state line, and when we arrived we got out and took some pictures. We made it! Well, we still had 3 hours to drive, but just being back in one of our “home states” filled us with happiness. We drove AZ-78 to US-191, taking it to Safford. As we drove out of the mountains, we started to see other mountain ranges to the West that we recognized. After driving through so much unfamiliar territory in New Mexico, it felt almost comforting to see mountain ranges that we knew so well. After getting gas, we drove South to the I-10 and took that all the way to Tucson, with smiles on our faces the whole way there.

When we arrived, we got settled in to our hotel and picked up In-N-Out for dinner. We had so much planned for our week here, but we were thankful to have tonight to take it easy and relax after our drive. We’ve moved around the US quite a bit, but we’ve hardly ever revisited cities we’ve lived in after moving away. There was no denying that we were so happy to be back here, and we were quickly being reminded of why and how much we love the desert.

Fort Union & Pecos National Historic Site

Dodge City, Kansas to Socorro, New Mexico | Visiting Fort Union National Monument and Pecos National Historic Sites | November 28, 2021

On Sunday morning, we awoke in our tent and tried to put off the moment we had been dreading all night: coming out of our warm sleeping bag cocoons and facing the brisk late November air. Curtis turned on the propane heater, and it certainly helped make it easier. We packed up as quickly as we could and then hopped in the car. At 7:30AM, the temperature read 26 degrees. Were we crazy? We got back on the road and continued our journey heading Southwest. Things would only get warmer from here!

Since we had chosen to pass on Fort Larned, today’s drive would take us from Dodge City, Kansas, to Socorro, New Mexico. According to Google, this drive should only be 8 ½ hours, but we found a way to make it longer and occupy as much of our day as possible. We continued on US-56 all the way to the Kansas border and into Oklahoma, entering the last of the counties in the panhandle we had yet to get. One of our plans for our return trip the next week was to hike to the Oklahoma high point near the OK/NM/CO border. So far, the weather this morning was warming up and turning out to be a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky. We started wondering if we were making a mistake by not hiking to the high point today — sure the weather was perfect right now, but that could easily change in just a week. I checked the 10 day forecast and saw no precipitation predicted…and since it just worked out better to hike it on the way back, we decided to take the risk and save it for later. Instead, we carried on with our plans and entered New Mexico. The scenery was becoming more and more desert-like and we were remembering just how much we love the Southwest.

Now, this was Curtis’ 10th time making the drive between Iowa and Arizona, and my 9th. We’re proud to say that we’ve never driven the same route twice. Sure, we’ve repeated sections, and we have a few favorite highways along the way, but each trip has been a little different, and none of them have been solely on interstates. Because of our many routes across New Mexico, we had covered many of the counties and only had 5 left. For this trip, our plan was to finish the state by hitting the two we needed in the Northeast corner on the way down, and the last three on our way back. To do so, we left US-56 for NM-120 where we successfully drove through one of the hardest counties to enter, Harding county. (Fun fact, we report our counties to the Extra Miler Club every month along with all the other members, and we were only the second ones to have visited this county this year!) After an enjoyable detour on a very narrow and empty county road, we got on the I-25 and continued on to our main attractions for the day.

Since crossing into Kansas in Kansas City, we’d been following the general course of the Santa Fe Trail across the plains. This 200 year old trail was originally conceived in 1821 to connect the new Louisiana Purchase with the Northern commercial center of the newly independent nation of Mexico. Wagon trains brought trade goods and supplies across the great prairies for the better part of the 19th Century leaving behind wagon ruts that can still be seen today. In 1846, Colonel Kearney (for whom many places in the West are named such as Kearney, NE), led a bloodless expedition along the trail to take Santa Fe and secure New Mexico as American Territory during the Mexican-American War. As America spread westward, the US Army developed a network of frontier forts and garrisons (Fort Zarah which we had driven by the day before among them) and to supply them, built Fort Union at the crossroads of two branches of the Santa Fe Trail. Even more wagon loads of supplies now made a stop at this central Quartermaster Supply Depot through the 1860’s and ‘70’s, before continuing on to Santa Fe or returning to the Missouri.

Fort Union, sitting among the plains at the base of the Rockies, acted as a small city of logistical supply while the Army quelled the remaining tribes of the West. But with the creation of the Santa Fe Railroad, the overland wagon route became obsolete. And with the end of the frontier wars, the need for dispersed garrisons, let alone a supply hub, also became obsolete and Fort Union was abandoned in 1891. Today, it is protected by the NPS and similar to Fort Bowie, all that remains are some of the adobe and brick walls.

We wandered around the fort reading signs and playing PokemonGo, largely to ourselves, enjoying the distant snow capped Rockies and the pleasant afternoon warmth before getting back on I-25 and continuing further South West towards Santa Fe. But before we crossed into the Rio Grande Valley, we made a second stop at Pecos National Historic Park.

The beauty of New Mexico, which we failed to realize while we lived in Arizona, is that, in addition to the mountains, rocks, and natural landscape, New Mexico has very old history. Santa Fe was founded in 1607, only 42 years after Saint Augustine in Florida. But even before European peoples started living here, the Pueblo people lived in New Mexico (Acoma Pueblo, which we would drive by on our return home, has been continuously inhabited since 1144 CE). Related by culture and people, the people who inhabited the upper Rio Pecos Valley had likely been there in the 1100’s as well. The inhabitants were visited by the Spanish Explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado on his expedition to discover lost cities of gold. Allegedly, seeking to have him killed or simply lost, they convinced Coronado that the gold was to the East among the endless prairies of Kansas. The pueblo became part of the New Spanish empire, rebelled against that same empire, and were again its subjects. Eventually, the pueblo was abandoned in the mid 19thcentury and its residents migrated to the Jemez Pueblo to the West where there descendants live today.

Today, the pueblo sits on top of its hill, adobe ruins, kivas, and the remains of a Spanish church lie testament to the history. To the West where I-25 crosses into the Rio Grande lies Glorietta Pass where the Confederacy’s attempt at taking the West from the Union met an end. But really most interesting to us was that the Ancestral Puebloan culture – also called Anasazi; the people who built not only Pecos Pueblo, but also Mesa Verde, Wupatki, Walnut Canyon, even Canyon de Chelly and most all the ruins between the Colorado and the Rio Grande, didn’t necessarily ‘disappear without a trace’, but simply relocated based on changing climate and eventually became the Puebloan Peoples of New Mexico and Arizona like the Hopi, Zuni, and Jemez (notably not the Navajo – separate people group). While this idea is still contested, it has come a long way in explaining and supporting these people groups in their communities.

Once we were finished, we got back on the road for a few more hours of driving before finding a place to camp for the night. We drove through Albuquerque as the sun was setting, and loved how the mountains to the East lit up in red. We continued on down to Socorro, then exited the interstate and began driving West on US-60.

After searching through free campsites, I directed us to a free site in Water Canyon that was a few miles South of the highway and about 6800′ of elevation. Most of the road was well maintained until we reached the national forest and drove up the final stretch to the campsite. Once again, we found it empty and while it was still colder than we would like, it was a little warmer than the night before. Curtis set up the tent while I walked Charlotte around, trying to convince her to stay close to our site because I remembered something about mountain lions in a review for the campground. We enjoyed hot soup for dinner, a fantastic view of the night sky, and a mountain lion-free evening camping in the canyon. It wasn’t until the next morning that we realized there was snow on the cliffs surrounding us.

Thanksgiving 2021 / IA to KS

Thanksgiving 2021 in Iowa | Beginning of Arizona Trip 2021 | Iowa to Kansas | November 24-27, 2021

In my last post, I alluded to another work trip that Curtis had at the end of November that we had spontaneously decided to turn into one last road trip for the year. After all our driving this year, we were feeling travel fatigue and maybe wouldn’t have gone on this trip had it not been such a special location. That place was none other than Tucson, Arizona — the city where we had made our first home as a married couple, where we made so many memories from the first 2 years of our marriage, and where we still have so many dear friends that we’ve managed to stay close with despite years of living far away. It had been over 5 years since the last time we were there together, and exactly 6 since we had last lived there. We were a little concerned about what driving across the plains and higher elevations could be like weather-wise in December, but knew that spending a week in the desert and with friends would make it worth the drive.

But before we would begin our drive to the Southwest, we first drove Northeast to go celebrate Thanksgiving. It was a priority for us to spend the holiday with family since we live so close now, and don’t know if that will always be the case. We left on Wednesday afternoon once Curtis was done with work, and arrived just before 8 that night.

The only pictures I have from Thanksgiving at home — Spot Archie photoboming in the third picture

My mom did a fantastic job hosting Thanksgiving this year, making all of our favorite dishes and plenty of desserts to go around. We enjoyed spending the day with my parents, 3 of my siblings (+ one significant other), and Nanna. We stayed until Saturday morning, doing fun activities such as walking the dogs and playing PokemonGo at the park with my parents, hearing all about Joel’s new job and big move coming up, discussing the new Taylor Swift album with Sarah, and talking about future plans and another new job with Gina.

Time flew by, and Saturday morning came way too fast. We had breakfast, packed up the car, and said goodbye to my family — but it wasn’t too difficult knowing we’d be back in less than a month! There was actually some freezing rain that morning, so we left a little later than planned just to give the weather and roads a chance to warm up.

We drove through Iowa and made our first stop at a rest stop on the MO/IA state line. There was a short trail there, and Charlotte was thrilled to get out of the car and sniff around for a bit. Then it was back on the road. We drove through Kansas City, taking different routes than we have previously, which gave us a couple new counties. From there, we took I-35 to Emporia (also a new route for us) and then exited on US-50 and took KS-150 to US-56 for the rest of the evening’s drive. Our other stop for the day was in McPherson, where we parked near the courthouse and walked around the nearby park.

Our original idea was to camp at a Fort Zarah State Park, which was a small roadside park just East of Great Bend. That way, we could go and visit Fort Larned National Historic Site first thing in the morning. However, we realized two things at this point: First, it was around 5PM and the sun was beginning to set, which meant we’d be sitting in our dark tent for the next 14 hours. And second, Fort Larned was on winter hours, and wouldn’t open until 8:30 the next morning. As much as we wanted to see it, we realized that with all the plans we had made for the rest of the trip, it would be smart for us to drive further tonight and cut this one out of our itinerary. As we would later find out, a lot of smaller national park administered sites have limited winter hours and even stayed closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This and the limited hours of daylight would prove to be a challenge for the rest of our trip.

I quickly checked my other saved campsite ideas, and we chose one North of Dodge City another 2 ½ hours away. We got back on the road and continued driving as the sun dipped below the horizon and the last light faded away. Driving in the dark through the Kansas countryside, and then passing through small towns lit up with Christmas lights made me incredibly nostalgic for the days when we used to live in AZ and made the drive home for Christmas a few times. The biggest difference between us now and us then was that for this trip, we actually brought our tent and made plans to camp rather than drive straight through the night, or just pulling over at a rest stop and sleeping in the car for a couple hours. It made more sense then to get home as fast as possible, but I liked our plans this time more that allowed us an extra day to drive and full nights of sleep lying horizontally!

We arrived at our chosen campsite in the dark and set up our tent in the empty campground. While the limited daylight and NPS hours were a downside to off-season traveling, we lucked out with finding empty campsites every night, and most nights were free! Tonight we camped in Ford County State Park, which was right on a lake. The temperature dropped into the 20s that night, but we stayed warm and cozy in our tent with extra sleeping pads to keep us off the cold ground, extra sleeping bags and blankets, and a propane-powered space heater – we may be crazy camping this late in the year, but at least we’re prepared.

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!

Lake Superior Shore / Timms Hill

Fall Foliage & Family Trip 2021 | End of Vacation – Minnesota-Wisconsin-Iowa-Nebraska | Timms Hill | October 13-17, 2021

We awoke on Wednesday morning in our tent at the rustic campground, pleased to find that once again it hadn’t rained on us that night. We packed up our belongings, then went to watch the sunrise over Wilson Lake. Today’s plan was to make the drive over to Wisconsin, which would be around 4 hours of driving, but we decided to allow ourselves to stop more along the Lake Superior shore since it was so easy to find trails at any of the parks along the way.

Our first stop was at Temperance River State Park, which we had driven through in order to reach our campsite the night before. We began with walking out to the coast to see where the river emptied out into the lake, then we hiked another mile through the park, saw more waterfalls, and briefly followed the Superior Hiking Trail again.

Next, we drove to Tettegouche State Park a little further along the coast and went for a 2.5 mile loop hike. We started by hiking the Superior Trail, then took a spur trail up to Red Pine Knob where we had more views of the colorful trees and inland lakes. We retraced our steps and started heading North over to High Falls. There were a lot of stairs in this section and limited opportunity to make a loop, so once we came to the bridge over the Baptism River we opted to turn back around rather than cross and descend more stairs only to have to climb them again. We also skipped the spur to Two Step Falls for that reason — as much as we had enjoyed our time in Minnesota, we knew it was time to move on.

It finally started to rain as we continued our drive South — but only briefly, so we were able to make one last stop at one of our favorite places from our honeymoon: the Split Rock Lighthouse. We obviously couldn’t tour the lighthouse or museum with Charlotte, but we specifically remembered a spot on the coast where we had enjoyed beautiful views of the lighthouse high up on the cliffs, so we went in search of that spot. We didn’t have much trouble finding it, or at least somewhere close enough, and so we went out for a short walk on the rocks along the coast.

Our final stop in Minnesota was in Twin Harbors, the town where we had stayed for a couple nights in the Two Harbors Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast. We drove by just to see, reminisce, grabbed some pictures of the courthouse, then grabbed lunch and continued on our way to Duluth.

In Duluth, we took US-53 South into Wisconsin, and in Minong we took WI-77 to Hayward. After leaving Minnesota, the fall colors disappeared, leaving only dull and dreary views along the way. It seemed like in Wisconsin, we were either past peak or nowhere near peak colors. This made us thankful we had stayed longer in Minnesota and enjoyed the colors up there to the fullest. I think in general the fall colors were later this year than years passed — but temperatures were also still warmer, so we couldn’t complain!

Since there weren’t any fall colors, we focused on our two main goals while in Wisconsin, and decided to save all the other ideas we had for a later trip. Our first stop was in Hayward at the library, where Wisconsin’s Whispering Giant stands. We got our pictures and the letterbox, then continued on our way. Our next stop was — no surprise — the state high point, Timms Hill, East of Ogema. Here we found the only fall colors we would see in the whole state — the whole park was lit up by orange leaves, which was a big change from all the shades of gray and brown we had been seeing throughout the rest of our drive. Maybe it was the slight change in elevation.

We parked in the lot and made the short hike up to the highest point, then the three of us climbed up the tower together — it had a nice wide staircase that even Charlotte was comfortable walking up. It was super windy at the top though, so we snapped some pictures and hurried down. This was our 23rd state high point, Charlotte’s 18th, and our 6th for 2021 — making this year our best year for high pointing!

To end the day, we drove to Mondeaux Hardwoods State Natural Area and found an empty campground that was still open. It happened to be right next to the Ice Age Trail — a trail we’re not particularly interested in, and I made sure to remind Curtis to continue focusing on the Superior Hiking Trail instead. The campground was right on a lake, but we didn’t feel comfortable kayaking here because it was cold and windy. Curtis found the perfect place to set up our tent at the base of a hill where it wouldn’t be in the wind, and we settled in for what we were sure would be our last night of camping for the year.

On Thursday morning, we packed up our tent for the last time, and began our drive South. Today’s drive was only 6 hours long, from our campground to my parent’s house. We planned our route based on what would give us the most new counties in Wisconsin, and only made two stops in Iowa. Our favorite part of the drive was from La Crosse to Lansing, IA — We enjoyed driving along the Mississippi River and seeing all the islands in the middle and bluffs on either side of the river. When we crossed into Lansing, Iowa, we stopped at Mt. Hosmer Park for a letterbox and to enjoy the views. After that, we made one more attempt at a letterbox, a couple of courthouses, and then finished the drive to my family’s.

We spent the weekend with family, enjoying our normal activities like walks with the dogs at different parks and getting Tomaso’s Pizza, which has become a favorite of ours when we’re in Cedar Rapids. My sister’s homecoming was also that weekend, so I was able to see & get pictures of her and her boyfriend all dressed up for the dance. On Sunday afternoon, we said our goodbyes and drove back to Nebraska — it was so nice to end our trip on a more relaxing note by hanging out with family, and that made easing back into normal life much easier. We settled in back at home for what we expected to be a quiet rest of 2021.

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