More time for what you love
As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, we, like so many others, are spending maybe a bit more time than we typically might reflecting on the many blessings we have received this year. It has thus far has been quite a bit different than last. This, in itself, is something to be thankful for. Change, while sometimes difficult, has helped us become more aware of our environment, ourselves and our place in the world, and the diversity outside our usual realm, and that is something to embrace!
Another thing we’re quite thankful for is the opportunity to see/experience new places. The ever-changing landscapes are something we regularly marvel at (well…perhaps Jason and I more than the kids, but hey…maybe they internalize!). From the lush Midwest, to the steppe-highlands of the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Idaho, and then to the lush, green beauty of the Pacific Northwest, the stark contrast of each region is truly a wonder. Sometimes, in the course of one short travel day, we get to experience the difference in scenery in a VERY short amount of time. As we do, we stop and take note of the different terrain, trees, and temperatures. Taking the time to do this is like taking several deep breaths. It grounds us and reminds us of our place, while helping us to teach the kids to notice, really notice, the natural wonders we are privy to on a daily basis.
We are also thankful for YOU! Our family, old friends and new, and the truly beautiful and helpful people we have met along our travels. It’s been so wonderful to connect with cousins and friends in Wyoming, past roommates and co-workers in Seattle, and now family in California. We’ve also appreciated the cards, packages, and emails sent from friends and family in Michigan…they have been a wonderful connection to you back “home” as well. Our new friends include those we’ve met working on farms (our WOOFing friends). You guys have been awesome…opening your homes to us and sharing meals, your knowledge, and new experiences with us. We feel so lucky to count you among our new friends! We’ve also met a couple of families, taking the same type of unconventional adventure with their families. One family, in particular, the Fethers, have connected with us, sharing travel details, meals, and some great adventures and memories. Their friendship came at at time (back-to-school) when we were truly missing friends. We are thankful for our new friends too!
Today, at our campsite in Tehachapi, California, we are at 4000+ feet elevation. It is snowing and much colder than we expected when we made our travel plans a couple of weeks ago. We are here to visit the Block cousins and celebrate our first major holiday in our home on wheels. We are especially thankful today for heat and electricity, an opportunity to relax and catch up (writing, laundry, and even SHOWERS!), the beautiful view of the snow-kissed Tehachapi Mountains out our windows, and the warm cups of tea by the fire that are helping to keep us cozy in The Beast.
We’ve seen more, opened our eyes to life outside of West Michigan, and remembered to take time to connect with both old friends/family and one another. This is what I’m most thankful for, and I daresay my other half would say the same. Blessings to all on this Thanksgiving week! We certainly have experienced our share on this journey.
With the start of public and private schools all over the country, we thought we’d take the opportunity to share what learning looks like for Liam and Ella this year while we’re nomadic.
Liam and Ella are studying 6th and 5th grade materials respectively while traveling with us. We started slowly, in early August, with purposefully tasking the kids with age-appropriate learning. People have asked us what we’re using for curriculum/learning materials. This is not a quick answer! 🙂 We are using Life of Fred and Saxon books for math, and are using some materials online from Khan Academy in order to ensure the kids meet Common Core math standards. We are also using some grammar workbooks, which the kids don’t love, but help them learn tough grammar concepts. Do you know what the plural of oasis is (without looking it up)? Neither did we as parents! A learning moment for all of us right there!
Sometimes, the longest hikes can leave you with memories you will never forget. Recently in our travels, we stayed with my dad’s old buddy Pete, who is now a Yellowstone Park Ranger.
Since Pete was letting us stay with him, he suggested that we go up to Observation Peak, and spend the night. We set off on Thursday afternoon and began the 5.6-mile hike.
After a few miles of walking through trees, and tall grass, we took a break and filtered some water at a creek. After making it past meadows, lakes, and over large hills, we reached the peak. We got to the top and set up camp. Ella and I, climbed on rocks, as the adults set out air mats, and cots. We ate dinner in the light of an oil lamp, which consisted of a meal of Mountain House (dehydrated food) lasagna, and pad thai. After dinner, we brushed our teeth and looked out at a huge lightning storm on the horizon. We looked up and saw the stars, shining clearly in the black night. Then we curled up in our sleeping bags, for a good night’s rest.
Breakfast greeted us with granola, and biscuits and gravy. (Mountain House of course.) We left the peak the way we found it, chopping wood for the next fire, erasing any trace of coming, and packing up our trash. Then, we started the long walk back home. The downhill was really hard on our hips, mine, especially because I didn’t have a proper backpacking backpack. We took a few breaks, every once and a while shouting, “Hey bear!” just in case. At the junction, we took the Dunraven Road Trail and made it back home for a relaxing evening. Overall, the hike was really nice but harder for me and Ella, though the view was amazing and worth all the hard work.
So…we made it to Minnesota! After leaving the Upper Peninsula (after an extended stay) and visiting northern Wisconsin, we felt it time to move on. Wisconsin offers SO much more that we didn’t see, but having been in the state before and its relative proximity to Michigan, we decided chances were pretty good we’d be back for more good times in Wisconsin!
Earlier in our adventure planning, Jason and I had learned about WWOOFing from fellow bloggers and new acquaintances, and we were excited about the potential for learning new things, new skills, and meeting new people. WWOOFing is an acronym for Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Simply put, it means visitors are linked up to farms where they can learn about organic practices through participation. Host farms offer experiences, some sort of accommodation, and usually food in exchange for helping hands that the visitor (aka us!) provides. We signed up a couple of weeks ago and decided to look for a family friendly farm, somewhere near US-2 headed West. We plugged in our criteria (RV friendly, kid-friendly, shorter length of stay for our first experience) and up popped The Honeyberry Farm, in Bagley, MN. We contacted the owners, Jim and Bernis and had a response within an hour. Yes…they’d love to have us work with them!
We arrived late on a Tuesday afternoon to a wonderful reception of homemade vanilla ice cream adorned with long, tubular blue-ish berries. This was our first introduction to honeyberries, one of the many berry varieties grown, harvested, and packaged on The Honeyberry Farm. They were delicious! That evening, we were also introduced to currants and gooseberries as well. Our duties over the next few days ranged from helping harvest, shake, and package black currants, weeding the vegetable garden, labeling jars for jellies and syrups, picking and blending honeyberry varieties for seeds, pitting tart cherries (and helping make pies), and gathering vegetables from the garden. Jason additionally helped by creating a simple trellis for tomato plants, mending a screen door, and helping Jim get an antique tractor engine running.
The work was indeed work (some made difficult with the hot temperatures and persistent mosquitoes), but what tempered this was the many things we gleaned from the experience and the newfound friends we made in Jim and Bernis. In our down time, the pair was willing to give us personal tours of Bagley, recommend recreational opportunities and sights in the area, chat about personal beliefs and goals with one another, and share meals and DESSERTS together. The value of this is so much more than we had hoped for!
Liam helps Bernis prepare dessert 
Berry Flip with honeyberries…delicious!
Another very cool thing about our time at Honeyberry Farm, was that Bernis was keen on helping Liam and Ella enter produce, flowers, and herbs into the Clearwater County Fair. She sat down with the guide, had the kids write down items they could potentially gather from the farm (and the quantity required for judging), and patiently worked with both to get registered and their items to the fairgrounds, in their proper buildings, by the specified time. The outcome was favorable for both kiddos! When the time of judgement had passed, both Liam and Ella came away from the experience with several ribbons for their floral arrangements and fruit and berry entries. We can’t say enough thank yous to Bernis for this experience. The Clearwater Fair was well-organized, the people who volunteer their time were extremely pleasant in all of the busyness, and we enjoyed the barrel racing, animals shown, and general light-heartedness and positivity we encountered.
Liam, Bernis, and Ella display their ribbon-winning produce at the Clearwater Fair
Our five days passed rather quickly. Jim and Bernis were very flexible and offered us more time with them and/or time to just hang out on the farm and enjoy the area. While it was quite tempting, there are places we would like to visit before the snow starts to fly, so we decided to part ways. Not, of course, without enjoying a final meal together, complete with a berry dessert. Would we work on Honeyberry Farm again? As they say in this region, “You betcha!”
Mined, a long time ago, the Adventure Mine, Greenland MI, is certainly a place you may want to see. Take tours through the mine, and if you want a challenge try rappelling down some of the shafts. Be like a real miner, rappelling down, and having a pasty lunch, down in the mine. See the bats flying around the cave. Turn your headlamps off and light the candle. Walk up slopes, and through puddles. See props from a movie filmed in the mine. The possibilities are endless! The structure was built, when 1.1 billion years ago, lava flows covered this area, and hardened, to create a strong bedrock.
Each lava flow buried the previous one, and many layers of basalt were formed. The stack of lava flows, basalt, and sandstones were pressured by the moving of the tectonic plates and formed a bowl shape. After the lava eruptions were finished, and the sandstone and basalt hardened, large quantities of copper were deposited, where they filled large voids where water was flowing in. But the copper only filled the top pores of the lava flows, so miners only ever mined there. As said before, it was bent from pressure, and that’s why the lodes were slanted at a 45 degree angle. Some people think that the copper was in the lava flows to start with, and then the copper solidified with the lava. THAT IS WRONG. The copper was deposited after the lava had solidified. The mine opened in 1850, and the miners were off! Some people only made 10 cents a day, and the miners made about a dollar a day. Their only light was from a candle, and the scary thing was when a water droplet fell on your candle and extinguished your flame. You didn’t want your boss to find you like that! There was not a ton of fatalities in the mine, but they sure wanted to watch their step. You can still see the stopes, and drill scars in the mine.
Overall, the mine is neat, lots of things to do and see. Plus, the mine area has 7 miles of bike trails, and hiking trails. They even have a bike race that goes through the mine! To go to the actual mine, you get to ride in an old military vehicle, called a Pinzgauer! A movie has been filmed, in the mine, and is available in the gift shop. The Adventure Mine is a cool place to go and is fun for the whole family!
This past week’s heat wave in the Midwest prompted us to rethink camping options. With temps and humidity also affecting the Upper Peninsula, we decided to consult forecasts and choose the coolest spots we could get into last-minute with “The Beast.” As is typical in Michigan, cooler temps were forecasted closer to Lake Superior, so we decided to delay moving into Wisconsin and stay for a few more days in the Keweenaw Peninsula.
After a night in Baraga (Baraga State Park), we drove up to Calumet, MI, for the Calumet-Keweenaw Sportmen’s Club Kids’ Fishing Tournament at Swedetown Pond. Both Liam and Ella partipcated for a couple of hours, in search of some seemingly wily fish. After plenty of practice casting and an exercise in patience, both kiddos ended up catching a bullhead. These were turned in, exchanged for a prize, and then re-released. As a pleasant surprise to us, all participants (and parents attending) were treated to a hot dog lunch, complete with sides, and kiddos who participated were each also given a goodie bag with sweet treats inside. All in all, the morning outing was a definite success, despite some reservations by our two cherubs in the parking lot upon arrival!
Jason had promised the kids we would stop by Houghton’s “Chutes and Ladders” park on the return trip back to Baraga. We have visited this gem on a couple of occasions, and the fun factor for the kids is paired with a great view of the Portage Lift Bridge, the Portage Canal, and the city of Hancock across the canal. While the kids were playing, Jason and I walked the City of Houghton RV Park, behind the playground. The hosts were out, but Jason took down their number and later called asking about availability for a night. We knew this would be a longshot, as it’s a popular park and it appeared full. Well…Jim called us back a bit later and said we should play the lotto, as he had a cancellation for the next night on a waterfront site. We were elated! Waterfront, walking and biking opportunities, and grocery shopping possibilities within a stone’s throw from our campsite. Additionally, we only needed one night, as we had booked 3 nights thereafter at the Hancock City Campground (also on the Portage Canal).
The Canal gave us a cooler breeze over the next few days, though the heat is again building here in the Western U.P. Our extended stay also allowed us to bike the MTU campus and tour a few buildings, explore Mount Arvon (the the highest natural point in Michigan), hike to Hungarian Falls, take in a pizza at Jim’s in Calumet, take an evening drive via the “Covered Road”and visit an abandoned railroad trestle in Redridge, see a movie at the historical Calumet Theatre, visit a used bookstore/coffeeshop in Houghton (The Bookworm…great coffee!), and visit the very interesting/educational Visitor Center at the Keweenaw National Historic Park. As a bonus, we also got to have dinner with the Schwaller family at our campsite in Hancock one evening. We’ve been busy (and pretty tired by the end of the night) which may help explain the delay in our posts. Also, internet available for uploading is harder to come by (not that we mind!). Fortunately, we’ve been able to again appreciate new experiences in the U.P. and remain cool as cucumbers during this heatwave. We hope friends and family have been keeping cool too. Maybe you too have found respite by a lake?!
After leaving Zeeland on June 29th, we moved “home” to my mom’s place, east of Hart, where I spent my childhood. We used their RV parking spot in the shade, complete with hookups and a view of the gardens, fields, and the woods I grew up in. We were able to spend time with family over the 4th of July holiday, see the Silver Lake fireworks, attend picnics, go hiking, and go sailing with friends.
We also utilized this time to complete several projects that otherwise would have been nearly impossible on the road. Both the truck and 5th wheel received new brakes and bearings, and the kids’ room finally has a desk, bookshelf, and a ladder for Ella. Liam learned how to get his hands greasy!
The kids spent much of their time in the creek with their cousins Easton and Bailey, building forts, exploring the woods, and poking at the campfire with sticks, logs, paper, and the occasional marshmallow. They reminded me very much of me and my sister at that age.
Prior to moving back to Hart, We’d already started calling the 5th Wheel “home”. For me, it was surprising how quick the transition was to identifying a temporary location as such – but being back in Hart for two weeks made calling “home” home even easier.
-Jason
Our adventures have just begun. The house is sold, we moved into “The Beast” (40 foot Dutchman Komfort 5th wheel), and have been working on projects in/on the Beast while visiting with family and friends. We’re going to try to share fun content from our travels, which shouldn’t be too difficult! What may be tougher is sharing the “real” moments…introverts like us find this challenging! Nevertheless, it’s important for us to be true to ourselves, family and friends, and we will try to avoid glossing over the difficult and uncomfortable moments in efforts to be genuine.
With that being said, packing and leaving our home of 13 years was terribly difficult. The memories created, improvements made, and neighbors/friends we love were hard to part with. Saying “goodbye” and “see ya later” caused emotions to swing back and forth several times a day for the last few weeks leading up to our departure. Once we actually pulled into Dutch Treat Campground (where we stayed for 10 days), that anxiety gave way to excitement about the local park, recreation opportunities at the campground, and seeing friends and family before we leave Michigan. Spending time with my sister and niece, parents, Ella’s friend, Ava, the Miedemas, the Berry family, several of my friends/co-workers and Jason’s co-workers has been a blessing we hadn’t initially planned on. Not only have they offered hugs, advice, and many laughs, they have offered verbal support. All of the “That sounds awesome,” “We’ll keep in touch via your blog/email,” “We wish we could do that too,” “I brought you wine/something I made/something for your camper,” sentiments, have helped us transition and reminded us that wherever our house may be, it’s only really truly a home when we share it with others. At the end of the day, we all get by with a little help from our friends.