Banjo: a Good Dog in a Bad Situation
Readers ask for more Banjo, so here’s a Banjo story that’s not particularly epic or even travel-related, but those Banjo-lovers out there might enjoy it. You... Read more.
Our Own Private Mountain
Instead of heading north in Montana, we picked just a little west, into more mountains for elevation. We’re outside a tiny town called Elliston, which is near... Read more.
Lessons from Isolation
Tracy says it’s been ten days only that we’ve been camping without cell signal, and in truth it’s not been more than two consecutive days, since we’ll drive... Read more.
Waterwheel Tiny House Update
I’ve done so much work on this one since I last posted about it that I thought it deserves its own post. This way people who don’t give a darn can skip it... Read more.
Dodging Forest Fires in the Belt Mountains
We’re not in Oregon dodging that colossal fire—we’re still in Montana. How can you top the Beartooth? Our plan is to head north, cross Glacier National... Read more.
Beartooth Highway
According to Destination Red Lodge, Beartooth Highway is “the most beautiful roadway in America.” Maybe “roadway” is the operative term here, being used... Read more.
Glacier Lake Trail in Wyoming
We drove away from the campsite one morning along the same road we’re camped on that follows the main fork of Rock Creek—all the way up the canyon to the source... Read more.
Moose or No Moose?
We’ve been camping in the Beartooth Mountains in Montana for five days so far, with no cell connection unless we drive out to town. So I’ve written this and... Read more.
Montana at 7,500 Feet
We’ve just driven into Custer Gallatin National Forest, which is in the Beartooth Mountains in southwest Montana, home of the highest peak in Montana: 13,000 feet. ... Read more.
Waterwheel Tiny House Start
I don’t know if this is a good use of my time or not. I constantly chide myself that I’m not spending my downtime productively, like researching more about where... Read more.
Prairies and a Petrified Forest
Goodbye North Unit of Teddy Roosevelt’s Park I’ve been looking forward to getting out west for a year and three months now, so, in a way, this place has been... Read more.
Teddy Roosevelt’s North Dakota
We’re camped right outside the Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit, which is in western North Dakota. This isn’t pure badlands like in South Dakota;... Read more.
Banjo Fords the Mississippi Headwaters
You guys know that Tracy used to take September off work to kayak a different section of the Mississippi each year. He moved on to major lakes only after he’d... Read more.
Impossible Tiny House Finished!
This one was torture. The detail work was so small and fiddly that I didn’t want to work on it late at night when I couldn’t sleep, and that was the... Read more.
Solitude at Moose Lake
We wanted a longer break from civilization, and we got one, involuntarily. But still welcome! Moose Lake is in northern Wisconsin, actually in the same National... Read more.
Rhymes with Phenomenon
We finally entered the UP of Michigan via the exciting route (last year we came up through Wisconsin, which is beautiful but not as dramatic), crossing the Mackinac... Read more.
Old Farm, New Plan
On our way to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, we stopped at a little family farm we’d found through Harvest Hosts. This one’s a bit like parking in some stranger’s... Read more.
Dear Diary,
Saturday, June 26, 6:00 am I’ve just woken up on a someone else’s mattress on the floor of an empty bedroom in an apartment I don’t know. And I’m... Read more.
Full-timers v. Weekend Warriors
Here’s a special post for you guys who’ve put up with all my Friends and Family Tour posts that have nothing to do with traveling. Thank you for hanging in there... Read more.
Art on the Way to Physics at Michigan State Univ.
In case you’ve missed the million times I’ve worked this into conversation, my son, Finn, is entering the doctoral program in physics at Michigan State this... Read more.
Backtracking to Michigan
Our tour around Iowa to visit Tracy’s peeps has (sadly) ended, but now we’re backtracking east to Michigan to visit Finn in his new digs at grad school. So,... Read more.
My Weird, Wonderful, New Tattoos
This is Molly, family to several Iowans in this blog and now-owner of Creative Images in Des Moines. She is personally responsible for my mini tattoo obsession.... Read more.
Banjo’s Big Day + Reunions and Sookie on the Water
When our days are this full with friends and special events because we’re in a town where we know people, I have a hard time organizing this blog. You’d probably... Read more.
Iowa all over the Place
Iowa is a big state (to me at least, with its big sky and vast farms), but we always manage to hit several towns when we’re here. Below are shots from Elkader,... Read more.
Our Own Field of Dreams in Iowa
The set field from the movie, Field of Dreams, is near by; in fact Tracy used to enjoy visiting it, but now we hear buses of tourists stop there. Here, in the city... Read more.
3 Days, 670 Miles, a Casino and a Brewery
From when we left the Airstream factory at 5:00 pm on Friday night and headed to Iowa (we’ll pull into our destination campground around noon today, Sunday), we... Read more.
Back to the Mothership
As I mentioned in my post almost exactly a year ago when we were here in Jackson Center, Ohio, there’s only one Airstream factory in the world, and this be it.... Read more.
Casino Parking Lot Drug Drop
We’re booking it from Maryland to Ohio for an Airstream Factory appointment, so we picked an easy place to stay for one night—an option we knew about but hadn’t... Read more.
Introducing Sookie the Barbie Kayak
I don’t know where to start with this one. Do I start with my first kayak, which I impulsively bought on the side of the road and shoved into my Prius C, then... Read more.
Standing Ovation for Friends & Family Tour
We’ve had so many highlightable moments in the past few days that I’ve split my post into two. This is the people post. Next up is the kayak post. I understand... Read more.
