Saving Time in a Bottle

relishing the life God has given us

Sandhill Crane Migration in Kearney

Weekend Trip to Kearney | Fort Kearny State Recreation Area & Historic Site | Sandhill Crane Migration | March 2021

Almost exactly a year ago, we found out that we would be moving to Nebraska. After the initial freak out and call my family, I googled “things to do in Nebraska,” and one of the first things to pop up was “watch the spring migration of the sandhill cranes.” At this point, I was all alone on an island and navigating those early days of the pandemic, and the idea of just road tripping to the middle of nowhere with Curtis and Charlotte to look at birds sounded perfect. Now here we are, one year later, and we were able to make that trip happen!

The sandhill crane migration in Nebraska takes place every year from around February until April, with mid-to-late March usually being the peak. Cranes spending the winter spread across the South of the US and Northern Mexico (including as far West as Arizona) and then migrate North in what is considered one of the last ‘Great American Migrations’ funneling through Central Nebraska due to the abundance of water and food on their way to Northern Canada, Alaska, and even Eastern Siberia.

We did a little research to make sure this year wasn’t completely off, and then planned a little weekend road trip to central Nebraska. We read that the cranes typically spend the days feeding in the fields, and then make their way over to the Platte river for the night around sunset. With this in mind, we decided to take our time driving out and back from Kearney, set up camp near the Platte river, and spend the sunset and sunrise watching the cranes.

We left Omaha on Saturday morning, driving West on I-80. We took the interstate to York, then exited and stuck to highways for the rest of the trip. Our first courthouse of the day was in York, for York County. This was the least exciting building for this weekend, but we still gave it the courtesy of a walk-around (mostly for Charlotte’s sake because we had been in the car for over an hour).

Next up, we took US-34 to Aurora and stopped to see the Hamilton county courthouse. We took another walk around the block, then continued to Grand Island. Here we saw what was probably our favorite courthouse of the day, however the sun was right behind it so I don’t have great pictures to prove it. At this point, we began taking US-30 to Kearney. When we were driving from Iowa to Arizona back in 2015 we had taken US-30 from Cedar Rapids all the way to Grand Island, and today we clinched another stretch from Grand Island to Kearney. The best part about avoiding the interstate today was that we were able to see some flocks of sandhill cranes feeding in the fields along the highway!

Once we made it to Kearney, we drove South to our intended campsite for the night in Fort Kearny State Recreation Area. We were fortunate to have such temperate weather for camping in mid-March, however this meant that the campsite was quite full — mostly full of RV’s, because we’ve learned that camping in state parks and recreation areas just means “see how many RVs we can pack into this small space for profit.” Case in point, almost every ‘primitive’ (read: without an electric hookup) was converted to an electric site over the fall/winter, a point commiserated by both the park staff and us. Oh well, we were just happy to have a $20 spot to set up our tent.

Since we were tired of driving at this point and just wanted to walk, we decided to walk a mile to Fort Kearny State Historical Park. We took a trail that ran along the border of the recreation area to a dirt road, which then led us to the fort. Along the way, we saw many more cranes in the fields on either side of us, and watched from a distance while they flew in small groups from one side of the road to the other. We became familiar with their cry, one that we would be hearing a lot more of throughout the night and the next morning.

Curtis: In the 1840’s, during the peak trans-continental migration of the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails (very few people cared to settle Nebraska then), the Government took a vested interested in defending and assisting settlers on their move West and established Fort Kearny (the ‘e’ in the town name was added later) in 1848. The fort became a major stop along the trail with small communities built up nearby and other, later trails deliberately making stops. The fort’s role was so much on the supportive side that a palisade wasn’t even constructed until the end of the Civil War and the beginning of hostilities with the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapahoe, and other Plains tribes during the Colorado War. And while the fort supplied and supported some of the cavalry fighting further West in Colorado and Wyoming, and provided a place of refuge for occasionally displaced settlers, it itself never saw action. Completion of the Union Pacific Railroad on the North Side of the Platte and a lull in hostilities against the Plains Tribes signaled the end of the Fort which was dismantled and closed in 1871. Today, under the Nebraska State Parks system, the land is platted out to show where the foundations of buildings were, and a mock palisade is built on the earthworks of the old palisade.

Jess: Back at the campsite, it was shaping up to be a rather windy evening. We made plans for how we’d view the cranes — we decided we’d stay close and walk over to the nearby pedestrian bridge over the Platte River for sunset. But because we didn’t know what to expect, we thought we’d get there over a half hour early in case the cranes came early, and to get a spot in case there were a lot of people. We made some canned soup for dinner, then hung out playing games in the tent until 6.

Up until this point, we were unsure of how we’d handle Charlotte while around the cranes. We weren’t concerned about how she’d react, because unlike us she doesn’t seem to care much about birds, but worried that the professional bird watchers would judge us for brining our dog. In the tent, she was sleeping all curled up in a ball on our pillows and we thought we could just sneak out, but as soon as she caught on to the fact that we were preparing to leave she got excited. It was then that she discovered, for the first time in her 5 ½ years of camping, that she could stick her head through the zippers and open the door. That’s when we decided we’d bring her — we could always bring her back if things didn’t work out.

We walked through the campsite to the pedestrian bridge, and confirmed that dogs were allowed on the ‘bird etiquette’ info board. We walked a ways down the bridge passed other people who were starting to gather here as well, and found a spot where we could be on our own. We sat here together for over a half an hour, waiting for something to happen.

Honestly, we didn’t know what to expect, we imagined that we were here to see the cranes fly over to the Platte and settle in for the night. We waited and waited, but the official time for sunset arrived and not much had happened. We could see large flocks of cranes far off in the distance to the East, but it didn’t look like they’d be coming any closer. We were starting to question whether we had made the right decision. Some people who seemed like locals pontificated to no one in particular that ‘Sometimes the birds just don’t come anywhere near you’. Sensible enough. So we left our chosen spot and walked a bit more of the bridge.

But shortly after sunset, flocks of cranes started flying over us. First it was small groups here and there, then more, and soon it was almost constant. We stood in awe and listened to their cry, over and over. In the end, that was probably a better crane experience than what we had expected — to watch the cranes flying over us with a beautiful sunset as a backdrop. We watched until it was nearly dark, then hurried back to our tent for a blustery night.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Charlotte did amazing while we were out there. She waited very patiently while we sat on the bridge, and as expected she did nothing that would have bothered the cranes or any other bird or bird watchers around us. My favorite moment was looking down as the cranes were flying over us, and seeing her alert with her paws against a railing, watching intently along with us. I’m so happy we were able to share this experience with her!

Summit Lake State Recreation Area

Hiking around Summit Lake SRA | Tekamah and Fremont NE | March 2021

As expected, our ‘false spring’ lasted a couple weeks before cold and dreary weather moved back in. On this weekend, it was predicted to start raining in the afternoon, so we decided to get out early and go for a hike. Curtis had noticed a listing on AllTrails that described a 5 mile loop hike around a lake, and since that’s been our go-to for Midwest hiking lately, we went with that. Today’s focus was Summit Lake State Recreation Area, a half hour North of Omaha, just West of Tekamah, Nebraska.

While we’ve enjoyed all the lake hikes we’ve done up to this point, this one unfortunately turned out to be somewhat of a bust. When Curtis first looked at the loop trail, he thought it would be mostly trail with a little bit of road walking, but it turned out to be the opposite. There were trails that meandered around the hills in the park, but there wasn’t actually a trail that went around the lake. However, we didn’t want to give up having driven up here for a 5 mile hike, so we decided to just go with it. We had brought our big backpacking packs in order to train for future hiking trips which gave a little additional challenge to our road walk.

Thankfully there were only a few fishermen here so we were basically all alone on our trek (read: less people to judge us for looking like a couple of lost backpackers wandering around). And the whole thing wasn’t a complete bust because the views of the peaceful lake and surrounding hills were quite nice. Really, we enjoyed most of our quiet walk, right up until the end where we ended up outside the park walking on a dirt road where the AllTrails “official” trail was telling us to cut through someone’s private property to get back into the park. Rather than be arrested for trespassing, we continued until we came to a road leading into the park. Overall we still got to do the 5+ mile hike that we came for, so that was good enough for us. Still, we wondered how this trail was listed as an “official trail” online, while other listings such as Iron Horse Lake and Willow Lake are not, and recommended changes to AllTrails as appropriate (always important in a crowd sourced database).

After our walk, we took NE-32 West to US77 to change up our drive home, and stopped in Fremont to see the Dodge county courthouse. We made it back home before the rain and had a cozy rest of the weekend home together.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

Northeastern Kansas Road Trip | Hiking in Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve | Cottonwood Falls, Marion, Junction City, Clay Center, Washington, and Marysville, KS | March 2021

On day 2 of our mini Kansas road trip, we awoke to the brisk morning air and a colorful sunrise over the lake. Curtis made dinosaur oatmeal on our camp stove (the Breakfast of Champions) and we packed up our tent, ready for another day of driving, courthouses, and some hiking.

We began today’s adventure by driving back through Cottonwood Falls, which is the county seat for Chase county. The experience we had here on this early Sunday morning was truly a county counter’s dream: empty streets, charming main road, a nearby park with a pedestrian bridge over the river with a small waterfall in view, and best of all, the cutest courthouse we’d ever seen. Experiences like this are exactly why we love our county-counting hobbies; how else would we have stumbled across this adorable little town?!

After our walk around Cottonwood Falls, we drove to our main focus of today, and the reason why this area had been on our radar: Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Throughout the last 7 months in the Omaha area, we have learned about prairie ecosystems and how the majority of the Midwest used to be made up of tallgrass prairie. Most of that land has turned to farms since the mid-19th century, but this area of the Flint Hills in Kansas is preserved and protected, giving a glimpse of how this country once looked.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve has almost 11,000 acres of prairie, with plenty of hiking trails to enjoy. Since we had Charlotte with us we were limited to the dog-friendly trails, but even then there were plenty of miles to explore. We hiked the 3 mile Fox Creek Trail loop in the East side of the park, and then another 2 miles through a recent prairie burn area. The latter half also took us past historic barns and a schoolhouse.

Walking through the burned area with the blackened ground surrounding us gave me flashbacks of backpacking Mauna Loa…though it was much windier here (which is ironic considering the trail to Mauna Loa was closed due to high wind while we were there). Despite the harsh winds, the weather was really quite pleasant. I think this was the best time of year for us to hike here with Charlotte, as I’m sure the summer months are much hotter with hardly any shade, though likely significantly more green. Without Charlotte, we would have been able to take other trails that had the potential to see bison, but we were happy with the hiking we were able to do this morning.

After spending most of the morning here, it was time for our long trip back to Omaha…made even longer by first driving further West to bag the next county over and see the Marion county courthouse. Following that, we began heading generally North and saw courthouses in Junction City, Clay Center, Washington, and Marysville before taking US 77 back into Nebraska. Each of the courthouses were more visually appealing than yesterday’s and we enjoyed each one, but once we returned home and looked at each of the pictures we realized that several of them looked almost exactly the same, to the point where I was second guessing which ones were different courthouses and which were just different views of the same courthouse. Oh well, that’s still better than plain old office buildings!

Thanks to this weekend’s trip, our Kansas county map is looking more full in the Northeastern corner, with only one ‘hole’ which belongs to Pottawatomie county. Of course, that one hole is now exactly what my focus goes to when looking at our maps, so I guess that means we’ll have to return sometime soon!

Topeka / Chase Lake

Northeastern Kansas Road Trip | Holton, Topeka, Lyndon, & Emporia, KS | Camping at Chase Lake | March 2021

The beginning of March brought warmer temperatures day after day, each day nicer than the next. Being born and raised midwesterners, we know that this is likely a ‘false spring’ and that we’ll still have some colder days and possible snow showers ahead. But we decided that while the weather was so beautiful, why not go on our first camping trip of the year to celebrate?!

Back in January we had actually thought about taking a trip to the Ozarks or somewhere further South over Curtis’ spring break (the gap week between his Masters classes), but gave up when his work schedule didn’t support that. As it turned out, we didn’t even need to travel that far South for pleasant camping temperatures! We instead turned to a trip itinerary we had planned for a weekend road trip around Northeastern Kansas.

We left home early on Saturday morning taking US-75 South. Because of this, we have now driven the entirety of US 75 through Nebraska! Our first stop was in Holton, KS, to see the Jackson County courthouse. We took a short walk around the town square. Usually it’s not hard to see which side of a courthouse could be considered the ‘front,’ but that wasn’t the case here. I snapped a few pictures of each side hoping something would suffice, then we got back on the road.

Our next stop was in Topeka. We parked a block away from the Kansas capitol building and went for another walk around the city. We’ve found that early weekend mornings are the best time to see capitol buildings and downtown districts. There’s plenty of open parking nearby, and there are hardly any people out so we’re able to get good pictures of the buildings. We took our time walking around and admiring the capitol from all sides, and then headed over to the county courthouse building a few blocks away.

At this point, the temperature was only in the lower 60’s, but Charlotte was already acting tired and slowing down. We accommodated for her slower pace and gave her water, but hopefully she’ll adjust to the heat quickly — she’s been going everywhere with us and has gotten so much exercise over the last 6 months, I hate to think of having to leave her home when we go for walks this summer.

Next, we made the short drive over to Brown Vs. Board National Historic Site. Unfortunately, the school/museum was still closed because of COVID-19, but the grounds were still open so we did another short walk to read the informational signs outside. The park centers around the building of Monroe Elementary School, a Blacks only school in Topeka during the years of segregation. And, in 1951, 13 parents from this school, under guidance, encouragement, and representation of the NAACP, filed a lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education, filing under the name Oliver Brown. Unlike the other 4 cases that would be joined together with B. vs. B. at the Supreme Court, instead of revolving around the fact that Black schools were inherently inferior in facilities, pay, supplies, etc. (as was the case in the former Confederate States), B. vs. B. ran on the platform that segregation itself was a detriment to school children. And, in 1954, the Supreme Court ruled against segregation in its entirety.

After walking and reading, we ended our short stay in Topeka and continued heading further South on 75 stopping briefly in Lyndon, KS for the Osage County Courthouse. Across the horizon and in the air you could see evidence of prairie fires, with even a couple visible from the road. Heading further South we finally started heading West on I-35 but got off shortly to see the Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge. We thought that, because it was approaching peak migration season for Sandhill Cranes in Nebraska (something we still intend to see later this month), perhaps we could get an early glimpse now. But, maybe because it was mid-day, maybe because we didn’t know where to go specifically, or maybe because we were dead wrong on the migration cycle, we didn’t see any wildlife to speak of as we drove around.

We returned to I-35 and continued heading west a few miles before getting off yet again to drive through Emporia, KS for our fourth and final courthouse for the day; this one for Lyon County.

We continued further West on US-50, by which time it was approaching late afternoon, and, since Charlie had been suffering the heat already, we figured we’d find a place to camp and just relax for the rest of the evening. We found a spot just South of the highway and West of Cottonwood Falls at Chase County Lake Park, a free use recreation area. We set up our camp, replete with four sleeping bags in case the thermometer dropped below freezing (we don’t think it did, but it was quite cozy).

With two or so hours left of sunlight we decided to walk the access road and cross the dam that formed the lake. Overall, the lake was pretty quiet, though enough people had the same idea as us on camping that someone was passing us by every so often. After crossing the dam, we followed a foot path to the spill way and found a natural spring and very mediocre waterfall (I’m sure it’s better after a rain).

On our way back to camp, we noticed a foot path leading off the road and up a hill. Still having plenty of time left, we followed it to the top and got a fantastic view of the prairie. The whole region is part of the Flint Hills, a prairie ecosystem known for its flint, shale, and rolling landscape (insert flat Kansas joke here). Because of this, except in certain areas, it is very difficult to farm, so the prairie is allowed to grow more freely than elsewhere in the great plains. The view from the top of the hill was incredibly open and stark. It’s hard to think of or believe that once, almost all the Midwest looked like this or something similar.

We returned to camp for some soup and games before calling it a night, listening to the neighborhood owl, Canada Geese, coyotes in the distance, and campground partiers (they called it a night by 8pm, thank goodness).

Lake of Three Fires State Park

Hiking in Lake of Three Fires State Park | Corning, Bedford, and Clarinda, Iowa | February 2021

After a brutally cold month, the last weekend of February was absolutely beautiful. We celebrated by checking out a new-to-us state park. It had been over a month since we’d gone somewhere new or worked on our county counting goals. Honestly, I’m thankful the weather gave us a reason to stay put and rest — summer will come soon enough and we’ll have plenty of time to pursue our goals!

For this weekend, we found another trail that would take us around a lake, and we planned a driving route that would take us to three new courthouses as well as a couple places of interest. We started off this Saturday morning by driving East on US-34 into Iowa, all the way to Corning which is the county seat of Adams county.

The streets of Corning were quiet when we pulled up to the courthouse. Charlotte took Curtis on a walk around the building while I took some pictures. Once they returned, we walked around the town park across from the courthouse. We then hopped in the car and drove to the birthplace of variety host Johnny Carson, and Curtis found a letterbox here.

Next we drove South on IA-148 to Bedford for our main focus of today’s trip: Lake of Three Fires State Park. We had seen on AllTrails that there was a 5 mile loop trail that circled the lake that would satisfy our craving to hike somewhere new.

Our only concern was that all the snow melt would make this trail a muddy mess, but that turned out not to be the case — the majority of the trail was still snow-packed while the ground around it was mostly clear, and we encountered minimal muddy sections. Other than that, it was a perfect day with blue skies and comfortable hiking weather. We didn’t see any other people until the end of our hike. We did see lots of animal tracks though — mostly deer and raccoon. If you’re interested, you can check out our trail recording here.

We then drove into Bedford for our second courthouse of the day. The courthouse was located in a cute town square with brick roads and colorful murals on the nearby buildings. At this point, we were both hungry and decided that ice cream sounded great. We saw a local place on Google maps that looked good, but it turned out to still be closed for the season — I guess not everyone believes in celebrating the first 60 degree day of the year with ice cream. What a shame!

Our last courthouse for the day was in Clarinda, in Page County bringing us up to 33% complete for courthouses in Iowa. This town was much busier, but we were still able to get a few good pictures and do a short walk around the courthouse. While leaving town, we made one last stop at the birthplace of famed Big Band Bandmaster Glen Miller for a letterbox. The museum was closed, so we just admired the house from the outside. We wrapped up the day by driving East on IA-2, then North on US-59 up to US-34 for the sake of a new stretch of highway.

Chalco Hills Recreation Area

February 2021

The month of February has been relatively uneventful for us. While December and January were fairly temperate (20-30 degrees) with a decent ratio of snowy-to-sunny days, this month has tested our “anything is possible when the roads are clear and you wear enough layers” attitude. We spent a good couple weeks struggling to even reach single digits above 0. Our lowest point was on Tuesday, February 16, when Omaha was apparently the “coldest in the nation” at -34 degrees (before windchill). Needless to say, our outdoors time that week was rather brief!

I will say that even with that weather, we didn’t reach the point of missing Hawaii. I mean, I’m starting to understand the appeal, but I wouldn’t trade the cozy and relaxing days spent inside our warm apartment, or the feeling of excitement when the temps finally make it back up to 30. Seasons, even in their extreme, are beautiful in their own way and I’m happy to experience each of them!

To make up for the lack of new adventures, today I’m sharing one of our favorite spots around the Omaha area to go for hikes. We’ve enjoyed it in both the fall and winter and are now eagerly anticipating enjoying it in the spring as well!

Hiking in Chalco Hills Recreation Area | Omaha, Nebraska

Chalco Hills Recreation Area is located on the Southwest side of Omaha. It’s a popular spot for hiking, jogging, biking, fishing, boating, camping, and more. We’ve enjoyed it mostly by walking the paved trail around Wehrspann Lake — depending on how we’re feeling, we either make a ~3 mile loop around the South end, or a 7 mile loop around the entire thing. The entire trail around the lake is paved and is plowed promptly after snowfalls so we don’t really have to worry about ice. And now that ‘mud season’ is upon us, we’re even more thankful for the pavement to keep us dry!

Out of all the lake trails we frequent, we’ve seen the most wildlife at Chalco Hills — mostly consisting of white tail deer, but also the occasional hawk, and once a bald eagle. Charlotte couldn’t care less about the deer as they run across the trail right in front of us. However, the first time we visited we came across a praying mantis on the path and she had some harsh words for it.

There’s so much that we enjoy about our life here in Nebraska, but our frequent walks around Chalco Hills and Walnut Creek are definitely the highlights of our weeks.

Willow Lake Recreation Area

Hiking in Willow Lake Recreation Area | Logan, Harrison County, Iowa | January 2020

On Friday, January 15, we had a ‘blizzard’ blow through our area. It only gave us about an inch or 2 of snow, but it was quite blustery all day causing what snow we got to drift. The weekend however was absolutely beautiful in the mid-30’s, so we knew we had to take advantage of it. We approached this weekend without any plans or inklings of what we wanted to do, so we turned to our new courthouse hobby and found that the county seat of Harrison County, IA was not too far away.

We then turned to AllTrails to see what might be in the area. A quick look at the Curated Trails showed that there wasn’t much, but AllTrails has recently (or at least we’ve discovered it recently) provided a tool that allows users to view the trail recordings of others. Naturally, there are plenty of ‘non-exciting’ recordings of people walking their dog around the block, but we have found it useful in finding smaller recreation areas that don’t necessarily appear right away on Google Maps or tourism sites.

Through this we were able to find a small county lake and park around the vicinity of the courthouse (as well as several other trails in the Loess Hills that we ultimately saved for later).

We psyched Charlie up and traveled across the river and up I-29 to US-30, which we took East to the town of Logan, and the Harrison Co. Courthouse. We took our pictures, and Charlie sniffed around much to the consternation of local dogs. While the outside of the building was ascetically pleasing, apparently the inside is even more so, featuring a stained glass cupola and floor to ceiling tapestries of Harrison Co. history. We’ve never really thought of going into any of the buildings we’ve seen (not the least because of COVID restrictions and safety), but maybe that will change someday.

From Logan we continued East on US-30 a few miles to Woodbine, IA where we took county roads to Willow Creek Recreation Area. When we arrived there were several ice-fishers packing up and a bridal photo op, so honestly pretty crowded for a January weekend. We road walked the snow-covered park road to the trail information kiosk to look at the maps. The snow was drifted throughout with inconsistent depth, so Curtis went back to the car to grab a pair of snowshoes.

We headed out to the North, vaguely following the shoreline in a counter-clockwise direction as the trails went up on exposed prairie hills. We were mostly following the tracks of one other person who had ‘post-holed’ his way through the drifts, which made breaking the trail slightly easier. Since no one else was around, we let Charlie run free, alternating between jumping between footprints, stepping right behind (and on) Curtis’ snowshoes, and making her own path. She didn’t quite understand drifts though, and would often start breaking a trail with maybe an inch of snow, only to find herself in over her head (literally) a yard later. We both agree that winter is likely Charlotte’s favorite season.

For the most part I was able to either follow in Curtis’ footsteps or the footsteps of others, but at one point, we reached the crest of a hill where the drifting had reached a depth of close to two feet. Curtis went ahead and did his best to pack down the snow sinking maybe an inch or two, but Charlie and I both had quite the difficulty getting through…next time we’ll bring both pairs of snowshoes.

The trail looped back around the shore of the lake, passing by some cozy looking cabins before returning to the car. We considered driving on some country roads through the Loess Hills, but decided against it in case they weren’t plowed.

Altogether, our hike around Willow Lake was 2.7 miles long. If you’re interested, you can check out our trail recording here.

Iron Horse Lake / Pawnee City

Hiking Around Iron Horse Lake | Pawnee City, NE | Seneca, KS | Hiawatha, KS | January 2021

Our first full week back in Nebraska since before Christmas was warm and pleasant, full of frequent walks around lakes, both old and new. The storm that had passed through the Midwest the week before left everything blanketed in snow and since we had spent so long outside of Nebraska, we decided to show our new home state some love by visiting a new county and courthouse for our weekend road trip.

We drove South along NE-50, retracing our route from our visit to Homestead National Monument. We watched as the snow on the ground slowly disappeared until was only in the shaded areas. After grabbing a letterbox in Tecumseh, we continued following NE-50 south into our new county and county seat – Pawnee City, Pawnee Co.

The town boasts the birthplace of Larry the Cable Guy and featured a billboard attesting to as much. We parked outside the Classical Revival courthouse for our standard walk about and picture taking. No sooner had we gotten out of our car when a man, also exiting his car, asked us point blank if he could buy ‘our dog’. We quickly and politely declined his offer and briefly answered his questions regarding where we got Charlotte, but broke off conversation as soon as we could. Who offers to buy someone’s dog knowing literally nothing about them? Needless to say we were perplexed and confused while we snapped our pictures.

After grabbing another letterbox (attempting, let alone finding, two letterboxes in Nebraska is worth noting at this point) we continued further South along NE-50 to Iron Horse Trail Recreation Area. This lake is administered by the Nemaha NRD and had a $5 day use fee.

We hiked the 2.5 mile loop around the lake. Despite us being the only people for miles around, the first mile was anything but quiet. A considerable flock of Canada Geese was resting in the middle of the lake, and they made quite a noise. Groups of 20-50 birds would take off, fly low right over our heads only to return 4-5 minutes later, honking the whole way. I suppose if a park is going to be loud, it might as well be with natural noises.

We eventually put some distance between our geese friends and us and rounded the back end of the lake. Up until this point, the trail had been clear except for small patches of snow, but as we hiked down the Southeast end we hit a patch of ice a couple hundred yards long right along the trail. We all had our own ways of dealing with the slipperiness and made it past without slips, spills, or incident; Charlotte didn’t even notice. No reason was given for the naming of the park, and we didn’t see any evidence of railroads, but we found it enjoyable all the same.

Back at the car, we were faced with driving straight back home, or driving home with a slightly longer detour. Naturally, we opted for the one that would yield more county courthouses. We drove the remaining 4 miles along NE-50 to the Kansas border and into Nemaha County.

We continued South a few more miles to Seneca, KS for the courthouse before turning East along US-36 to Hiawatha, KS for our final stop of the day: Brown Co. Courthouse. We drove this route 7.5 years ago when we were first moving to our apartment in Tucson, AZ. Though we weren’t avid county collectors back then, that trip is still in all of our maps, sometimes you just have to revisit.

After getting pictures and walking around downtown Hiawatha, we drove back home via US-73 and US-75. Before today’s trip, we were skeptical that we could make a road trip to Pawnee County very interesting, but we were pleasantly surprised with the hike and the back roads driving — as we always are. I’m thankful we have goals that motivate us to get out of our cozy apartment and go visit new places!

Christmas 2020 – Iowa

Christmas 2020, part 2 | Iowa

After spending Christmas 2019 completely alone, the past 5 Christmases far from home, and going through all the challenges 2020 presented, all we wanted was to celebrate the holidays with family. Because of the pandemic we weren’t able to see all of our extended family, but we definitely didn’t take getting to spend time with immediate families for granted!

Curtis had about two weeks off from work, and since my family lives inside his liberty radius, we crashed at my parent’s house for the last week and a half of December. My parents were more than accommodating, giving us way too much food and driving us all over for daily outdoor adventures. The days we spent there were so relaxing; I couldn’t think of a better way to end such a crazy year!

If you’ve been reading our posts over the years, you may remember that Curtis and I have only one tradition of doing a puzzle and watching our favorite Christmas movie, Die Hard, on Christmas day. Well, my mom remembered that, so she rented it for us so we could keep the tradition going! Everyone was such a good sport about watching such a violent movie. 😉

Top – Benton County Courthouse; Bottom – Iowa School for the Blind

Besides celebrating the holidays, we went on a lot of day trips with my parents. The day after Christmas, we drove a half hour Northeast to Vinton, the county seat of Benton County. We enjoyed a walk around the courthouse and town square, then over to the Cedar River where we took time to read the informational signs about the flood of 2008. On our way back, we stopped at what was once the Iowa School for the Blind, but is now a place that teaches people to teach blind people. My dad has been painting images of significant buildings around Iowa, so we took some pictures for a future painting.

Over the following days we also went on some hikes in Wickiup Hills and Morgan Creek areas. During the time we were there, a big snowstorm came across the Midwest and we got about 6 inches at my parent’s house. Curtis and I were very excited because we had brought our snowshoes and had been waiting for a snow like this! We took Charlotte to Seminole Valley and went for a long loop hike to the Cedar River and back. There were tracks from one other snowshoer, but we were on our own for the afternoon. Charlotte had a blast dashing through the snow and bouncing between holes left from snowshoes.

After a week full of puzzles, games, and constantly being amused by the dogs, New Year’s Eve arrived. We celebrated with sushi take out from our favorite restaurant, Oyama, and had a chill night in. On January 1, we started off the year with one last day trip together with my parents. This time, we drove to Jones County to see the courthouse in Anamosa. The courthouse was pretty typical for an Art Deco building, but it turns out the penitentiary just behind the courthouse is very ornate and architecturally appealing. After that, we went for a short walk in Wapsipinicon State Park and got lunch from the General Store in Stone City.

On January 2, it was time to return to Omaha. We said our goodbyes right after lunch and began the drive home. This time, we took US-30 to the town of Jefferson, stopping to see courthouses in Tama and Story counties. After another stop in Jefferson for the Greene county courthouse and the 4 o’clock carillon bells, we drove South on IA-4 and West on IA-44 to our last courthouse of the day in Guthrie county just before sunset. From there it was a quick jump on I-80 and we were home in just an hour and a half.

Christmas 2020 – Michigan

Christmas 2020, part 1 | Michigan | Written by Curtis

For the Christmas and New Years season we decided to visit both sides of our family and spend time with them for the holidays. We have been essentially quarantined to just ourselves and Charlotte for most of the fall, so we felt that we could safely make the trip with minimal risk to others. On the Saturday before Christmas we packed our bags for a 2 week trip and left home around 7AM.

Living in Bellevue presents us with the opportunity of taking a different route to Michigan than simply I-80, or at least through Iowa and West Illinois. This time, we opted to drive straight across Iowa via US-34 end-to-end (and yes we do track those statistics as well). We had previously nabbed most of the courthouses along this route during our Thanksgiving travels, but we were able to grab the last courthouse in the line with Des Moines Co. in Burlington, Iowa.

Then we crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois and our first new county of the trip with Henderson County. A quick jog North of US-34 to the town of Oquawka got us the very quaint accompanying courthouse. We met back up with US-34 in Monmouth, IL for our third and final courthouse of the day with Warren Co. Then we drove and drove and drove following US-34 back up to I-80 and our normal route around the South side of Lake Michigan. Some day we’ll figure out a way to not follow the lakeshore in order to get into Michigan, even if it takes an entire extra day of driving to do so.

My family was glad to see us, considering we hadn’t seen each other since the derecho this past August, and that hardly counts given the circumstances. An added bonus was that my sister was at home following her first semester of college.

That Sunday, we decided to take a letterboxing trip up to a new-to-us county and drove North to Stanton, MI and the Montcalm Co. Courthouse. We looked for some letterboxes in town before heading south a short distance to some nature trails behind the Montcalm Community College. The weather was very mild for being a day before the Winter Solstice and there was only small patches of slush on the ground, but we enjoyed walking through the woods with Charlotte and my parent’s dog Sweets. We were fairly successful in finding letterboxes before having to call it a day and head back home.

Our second full day with my family was spent making and decorating Christmas sugar cookies and listening to Christmas music. In the afternoon, we decided to get some exercise and take the dogs for a walk around Sessions Lake in nearby Ionia County.

The weather was again very mild in the upper 30’s and lower 40’s so our walk was very pleasant and largely alone. Along the east end of the lake we heard and saw some form of waterfowl flying overhead. They were distinctly not Canada Geese. Later back at the car, we saw white birds on the lake, so we think they might have been swans, perhaps trumpeter swans based on the call. Also along the trail we saw a juvenile raccoon cross the path, but fortunately neither dog took much interest. Sweets set a much faster pace than Charlotte usually does, so we were done in no time and on our way home, but not before swinging through Ionia to see another Michigan Courthouse.

We spent an additional day and most of Wednesday morning with my family celebrating Christmas (albeit a day or two early). It’s hard to believe, but we have not been able to celebrate Christmas (or most holidays for that matter) with either of our families since 2015 (and even then, we celebrated a few weeks early as we were moving across the country).

On Wednesday afternoon, we packed up the car and said our goodbyes. We retraced our route back South through Michigan and around Chicago. We had thought about taking other highway roads and stopping for courthouses, but it started raining and we decided we were losing the sun too fast to get good pictures, so we stuck with the quickest route and made it to Iowa in time for dinner.

Connect

subscribe

Affiliate Links

We occasionally post affiliate links to products we use. If you make a purchase through a link, we may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.

Privacy Policy

We do not collect information from you as a reader. If you leave a comment or subscribe, we will have your email address. We will never sell or disclose your email to anyone else.

Categories

Archives