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 reached his goal of kayaking 1,000 miles of the river. Seriously. One-thousand miles. He paddled a large part of the upper Mississippi, but he never […]
Author: Shelly
Former nomad, currently adjusting.
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 whole point of it. I got it done though, and I’m hoping no one but me can see the mistakes and all the details […]
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 Forest camping area we stayed in last year at Black Lake. They’re both small, no hook-ups camping loops on lakes dyed with tannin from the surrounding deep forest. Which is wonderful. […]
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 Bridge that spans Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Our campsite is at the Tahquamenon Falls State Park, this time in the rustic campground (no hook-ups and no […]
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 paddock by their barn instead of at an actual business, but thank goodness for small farms and small businesses like this one. We didn’t go for an […]
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 elated! Why, is that, dear diary? Because this empty bedroom is in my son’s summer apartment, and I had a sleepover with him last night. Yes, that could […]
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 with me. I’ve posted before about the cyclical week at a state park, as well as what it’s really like on the road, and […]
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 fall. I’ve arrived just a few days after he’s moved here; he’s starting his research work with the Ice Cube neutrino detector now, so we’re camping near his summer […]
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, once again, we’re uncharacteristically booking it down the road. We’ve headed from Iowa to Illinois to Indiana to Michigan. Our First Fairgrounds Stay I hadn’t thought about […]
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. Back when I wanted something colorful and flowing to offset my first humble (but significant) tattoo—the black-lined geometry of my family-shared Star Trek insignia—Tracy told me, “I know […]
