YAY! Seeing Tracy’s best friend, Dave, was our central goal for coming to the Midwest this summer, and with the virus we thought we might have to sacrifice the visit. It took a severe thunderstorm to get us stuck at the brewery where he and his wife were working for the day, but thank you […]
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What I Miss the Most
When I first started dreaming of life on the road, I was at the tail-end of about 30 years of being responsible for family members in various settings, from hospitals and nursing homes to my kitchen table early each cold morning before school. The idea of literally driving away from it all pleased me to […]
Love Me Two Times, Iowa
We’re back in Iowa—in Elkader, the small town where Tracy’s best friend and his wife live. We weren’t keen on visiting (hence the second take) because they’ve been dealing with all the decisions and stresses you’re faced with as small business owners these days (they own a brewery and tap room here). After Wisconsin though, […]
What We Do in the Heat
We’ve been doing three things in Madison, WI: hanging out at a distance with old friends, walking miles of park trails, and sitting in a stupor due to the heat. Sometimes we’ve combined #1 and #3. Peeps I so enjoyed a visit from were someone Tracy went to UWM with [that’s University of Wisconsin-Madison to […]
Tracy’s Social Hometown
We came to Iowa to hang out with Tracy’s people, and Iowa is continuing to deliver. Or, to overuse that Field of Dreams reference, if you show up with your weird new travel trailer, the friends will come! We’ve walked, driven, and biked through old neighborhoods here in Cedar Falls and its sister city, Waterloo, […]
Old Ties and Companions
The title here is from a Mandolin Orange song with lyrics that are quite melancholy, but the music and title make me think warmly about old friends, so it works here. The first time I drove up to Iowa with Tracy, I was overwhelmed by his high-school friends: their sheer number, how many of them […]
Grateful for Friends and Family during the Lockdown
We leave this campground in less than a week and have lots to take care of before then, but before we leave I want to thank local friends and family who’ve helped us out. They all think they’ve played small parts, but really they’ve made our new life possible. Laundry Sanctuary 1) Thanks to Mary […]
Trip down the Super Highway
A big thank you to my cousins Lisa and Robin for inviting us out to a family farm nearby for a much-needed day in the woods. I know, we’re already in the woods—but here in the campground we’re surrounded by strangers, whereas out in the middle of several hundred acres of farmland and wilderness, the […]
While We Wait
The country is opening state by state, which—terrible for the health of the people—in our little world is a mixed bag. Opening Consequences Lifting of restrictions is great for the owners of this campground: they’d just bought it in October and have been investing in fixing it since then, but with the influx of spring […]
