now that we were in a new location, more central to all the parts of the park, with electric hookups to keep this sweet pup cool while we were gone for long periods of time, we had a lot more options for possible hikes and things to do. and with the kids all rested up […]
ruby
teddy roo’s. petrified forests and the rest.

well. we had one big day in the south unit of teddy roosevelt national park (plus a few evenings), and one big day in the north unit. our third day was spent entirely on running a few errands (haircuts, car wash, post office, lunch) in nearby dickinson, nd. the kiddos and doggo were thankful for […]
from MN to (WI to MN to WI to MN to) ND.

before we left the twin cities, and minnesota altogether, i was determined to squeeze in one more activity. derek had to work all day before he could make the journey to meet us in fargo, so we had quite a bit of time to kill. i settled on driving a little out of the way, […]
twin cities, partially explored.

our next stop on our epic (not so)post pandemic summer road trip was the greater minneapolis-saint paul metropolis, where we had four days booked, with big plans to do lots of things. but, on our way in, some of the same brake issues from the way out of chicago resurfaced, so we would end up […]
devils lake state park

when we realized we had a two day layover in wisconsin in our schedule, i reached out to some friends we met on the road who have recently settled in the area, to see if they wanted to meet up and/or if they had any hot tips for things to do. they answered yes and […]
chicago. day one.an old house, a museum, inside out pizza.

our drive from indiana dunes to chicago wasn’t all that far, but it was pretty stressful, as most folks who have driven in chicago traffic will attest. we parked the rv in a parking lot and then piled into the car to rush over to our first activity, a scheduled tour of the robie house, […]
indiana dunes miscellany.

we booked four days at indiana dunes, which may have been excessive, but worked out nicely in the end. the campground was pretty nice and actually had showers, so we timed one for our arrival and one before we departed for a few days of boondocking. our campsite was spacious and amongst a zillion ferns. […]
indiana dunes. miller woods hike.

so, the thing about indiana dunes is: the hikes in the sand are pretty exhausting. and it just so happens that it was also unseasonably scorching hot while we were there. so, i planned only shorter-ish hikes that also happened to give us access to refreshing lake michigan. for our sort of epic last hurrah […]
intro to indiana dunes (national park!)

after our day in cleveland, we drove along the michigan/indiana border to indiana dunes national park, which is scattered along the southeast “corner” of lake michigan. it’s a relatively new national park, and i’m not sure i feel like it qualifies, but no one has asked me, so we just went along with things and […]
cleveland rocks! (but mostly because of “a christmas story”)

after our time in batavia, we headed west, all the way to erie, pennsylvania (whomp whomp), where we spent the night to be closer to cleveland, where we had mid morning plans. we planned to stay at a walmart, but when we arrived and noticed no other rvs, we inquired within and learned that this […]