Saving Time in a Bottle

relishing the life God has given us

February 2022

Highlights from February 2022 | Omaha, NE & Council Bluffs, IA

As born and raised Midwesterners, we have always thought that February was the worst month — it’s when we’re so tired of winter, but the cold and snow are unrelenting, giving only tiny teases of spring before dumping more snow and plunging back into bitter cold. This year, that wasn’t the case — this was the most beautiful February I’ve ever experienced, excluding my winters in Southern areas of course. It was honestly funny to me how snow would pop up in our forecast a few times, but each time the storm ended up going South and we continued to have beautiful weather. I can tell that I’m stronger this year than last year, and just the thought that this could again be our last full Midwestern winter for a while has also made me want to relish the colder days more.

That being said, this was another good month for us personally. We received some answers about our future and made some big decisions. We always talk about how we don’t feel like “real adults,” but having to make decisions for ourselves rather than having the military tell us what to do feels like a big step in the “becoming a real adult” direction. As time goes on, we’re starting to get a better idea of what we want in the future and where we want to end up, and it’s so exciting to start to take small steps in that direction!

Anyway, all that is still a ways off, so we are still striving to live in the moment and enjoy our days in the Midwest. Here’s what we were up to in February, besides hiking 10 miles on the Wabash Trace Trail:

  • We enjoyed all the beautiful weather with lots of walks outside, usually to our favorite lakes, but this month we branched out and visited another one for the first time: Lake Cunningham on the North side of Omaha. Like our other favorite lakes, there is a paved path that goes around the entire thing, which was actually completed last summer. We walked the entire 7 mile loop around the lake on a brisk and windy day, and while we enjoyed it and were glad we did something new, we like our other lakes on the South side of town better and also weren’t crazy about the longer drive.
  • We had two game nights with our friend group where we continued our long legacy play through of Betrayal. We have about 3 games to go before reaching the end!
  • We spent many afternoons in Glenwood at the Makers Space — follow Curtis’ progress on his wood topographic map on his Instagram account, @squatchis, or search the hashtag #woodtopomap. I like to go along to hang out, work in a different environment, or sometimes go for walks in the nearby park.
  • I finished 7 books this month — my goal for this year is still going strong! I enjoyed all the books I read, but my favorite was “Our Woman in Moscow,” a historical fiction by Beatriz Williams.
  • We returned to one of our favorite spots to hike in the Loess Hills, Hitchcock Nature Preserve North of Council Bluffs. It was a warm and sunny day in Omaha, but we arrived to find it was more overcast and windy in the hills. We still braved the cold and went for a nice loop hike. While there wasn’t any snow on most of the ground, the North-facing slopes had some tightly packed snow that made walking up or down on them more treacherous. On our way home, we stopped at the Lincoln Monument and enjoyed the views overlooking Omaha, and saw the Black Angel statue and other monuments in the nearby cemetery.
  • Curtis finished another class in his master’s program — only 3 to go!

Besides all that, we watched as things unraveled overseas and found ourselves in that now familiar spot of wondering how this will impact Curtis’ job and any future plans we might make. We hope & pray for peace, and are trusting God that everything is under control and will all bring Him glory.

Wabash Trace Trail / Shenandoah to IA-2

Section Hiking the Wabash Trace Trail | Shenandoah to IA-2 | February 2022

This month, we returned to the Wabash Trace Trail for another section from Shenandoah to Iowa highway 2. We parked again at Sportsman Park, and began our hike with a little road walk to reach the continuation of the trail in Waubonsie Park. Shenandoah is one of the relatively larger towns along the Wabash, but the trail just passes across the North end before continuing Southeast. We followed Fourmile creek for a little ways until it ended, and then continued our walk through the countryside.

Being a warm and sunny day (nearly 60 degrees!) we saw more people out, especially closer to Shenandoah. Curtis continued his search for either antlers or telegraph insulators, and was actually successful at finding some insulators, including one that was still 80% intact! (Most were just fragments because, as Curtis put it, “It turns out that the way they get on the ground is they fall.”)

We ended up walking nearly 10 miles round-trip that day. Most of the sections we have left will be longer like that, and at least an hour away to drive to, but whenever we get the motivation to make the drive and the hike, we are always glad we did. It satisfies our desire to walk somewhere “new” and to be continuously working on a larger trail/goal. Since the trail is all mostly flat, it doesn’t take too much effort physically or mentally, and we know we can always accomplish the small section set before us. We always end up talking about goals, plans, and memories, and while walking the quiet path it’s easy to get lost in thought dreaming of our future plans that are slowly starting to take shape. These moments walking through the Iowa countryside will always be ones I look back to fondly when I remember our time living in Omaha.

January 2022

Highlights from January 2022 | Omaha & Lincoln, NE

January was a pretty good month for us this year, despite the fact that we felt like we were living in limbo waiting to hear back on some career-related news that would determine how this year (and beyond) would play out. That made it difficult to make goals and plan out our year, but instead of letting that consume us too much we focused on making small improvements to our lifestyle and implementing healthier routines. The month as a whole was pretty mild winter-wise by Midwest standards — we only had one snow storm (aside from the one on New Year’s Day in Iowa) and were able to get outside every day.

Here’s some of our highlights from the month, aside from hiking 18 miles on the Wabash Trace Trail:

  • We finished watching all of Seinfeld on Netflix — after years of seeing parts of episodes here or there, usually on TV while staying at hotels, we finally decided to watch it all from beginning to end. It was fun to branch out and watch something different than usual, but it was even more fun to resume our continuous binging of Arrested Development when we were finished.
  • I realize the irony of mentioning that we implemented healthier routines this month and then kicked off a recap post with talking about binge watching TV shows, so I feel the need to follow that up by saying that we have become more disciplined about being screen-free for an hour before bed, and I personally have made a goal to read more this year, and I managed to finish 3 books this month.
  • We made several trips over to Glenwood to the Maker’s Space, where Curtis made a lot of progress on his wood topographic map of the US.
  • After a long time of scouring Craigslist for backpacking gear, Curtis finally found a great deal on like-new things we’ve been wanting to upgrade. I guess that means more backpacking is in our future!
  • We walked around our lakes multiple times a week, including Walnut Creek, Shadow Lake, sections of the Papio Trail, across the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian bridge over the Missouri, and around the neighborhood daily.
  • Another goal for this year for me was to make salads more often, and find ways to make them interesting and with more variety. This was a major success and “big salads” (spoken like Elaine from Seinfeld) are now part of our regular favorite meal rotation.
  • In an attempt to combat rising inflation, we’ve been utilizing different apps to make shopping trips more enjoyable (though to be honest, Aldi is my favorite store ever and grocery trips there are always enjoyable). The main ones we’ve been using are Ibotta and Fetch Rewards for groceries, and GetUpside for gas. (If you want to check any of these out, here are our referral codes that will give you & us a reward when used: Ibotta: bdwkxgq Fetch Rewards: V5JDAE GetUpside: JESSICA23386)

On one weekend, we took a day trip to Lincoln to visit the University of Nebraska State Museum. This was something we’ve wanted to do since visiting Agate Fossil Beds National Monument last spring, and the Ashfall Fossil Beds when we first moved here, and it made for an enjoyable couple hours spent perusing the exhibits. We were initially interested in it because of the fossils that had been taken from Agate and brought to the museum, but the real highlight of the day was in the mammoth/elephant exhibit, where we learned that elephant fossils have been found not just in the Western part of the state, but in 90 out of 93 counties in Nebraska!! Not only that, less than 1% of the state has been carefully explored for fossils, meaning there are so many more out there, and there is a 1 in 10 chance that any Nebraskan has a mammoth fossil buried under their house! These fun facts and mammoth skeletons that had been found here were worth the price of admission on their own. The only downside was that this exhibit was the first one we visited, and nothing else in the museum could live up to that (I jest — the whole thing was enjoyable, I’ve just always loved elephants). After our time in the museum, we walked around the campus and ended up walking all the way to the state capitol before returning to our car and heading home.

Wabash Trace Trail / Imogene to Shenandoah

Section Hiking the Wabash Trace Trail | Imogene to Shenandoah | January 2022

In January, we were able to continue our walk on the Wabash Trace on two different weekends, completing the section between Imogene and Shenandoah. We had low expectations for how much we would be able to do this winter, expecting to deal with snowy and icy county roads or freezing temperatures and wind-chill. However, both of these weekends were comfortable enough temperature wise, and we only had one snow day in the middle of the month. In fact, the last weekend in January had highs close in the 50’s, so it was perfect weather to be out enjoying the Iowa countryside.

The first section that we hiked was 8 miles round-trip from Imogene to 150th Ave. That day was cloudy and in the 30s, but as long as we were moving we stayed warm enough. Since the trail is mostly lined with trees on either side, we had a barrier from any cold winds. The scenery was significantly less colorful than the last time we were here in October, and there was a thin, patchy layer of snow that lay only on the trail. Because of that, we were able to see more tracks on the ground than we have before, which told us that while we were alone today, the trail had seen plenty of traffic recently…mostly from birds with very large feet. We were certain they were from turkeys. The most eventful part of the morning came when we spotted two turkeys just off the trail that took off flying, then I looked ahead and saw an owl take off from the branch it was perched on and swooped right at me before dodging up and towards another tree.

On the last weekend of January, we went out for a second walk, a little longer and a lot warmer than the first. We drove to Shenandoah and parked near the trail in Sportsmans Park off of IA-48, then walked North on the trail until we reached the point where we had left off a few weeks before. We saw one other jogger on the trail that morning, and about a dozen deer on our way back. Along the way, Curtis wandered off the trail often looking for deer antlers or telegraph insulators, thinking they’d make for fun ‘souvenirs’ from our trek. He wasn’t successful today, but we still have plenty of miles ahead of us to keep looking. Another interesting part of today was actually seeing train tracks next to the trail in Sportsmans Park. The entire trail may be a rail trail, and we may have seen plenty of abandoned train cars littered along the way, but this was the first time we had seen any tracks.

This hike turned out to be two miles longer than we had thought, so we ended up walking 10 miles that day. My feet were pretty sore after (it’s been a while since we’ve hiked 10 miles in a day!) and Charlotte seemed pretty stiff the next morning, but we had to complete that section at some point and that day had been perfect for it weather-wise.

It was on that day that I learned from a mural along the trail that the Wabash Trace Trail is actually the longest trail in Iowa. Clearly that’s not the only reason we’re hiking it — it only has to do with proximity to our home in Omaha — but I guess that will be fun to say once we finish it. We also realized that once we finish the trail, we’ll technically be able to say we’ve hiked it twice, since all our walks are out-and-back. But the part that I’m most excited about is just the fact that we’ve now been able to enjoy it in all four seasons!

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.

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