Minimalist Road Trip Vacation

I love to travel, but when 2017 arrived the purse strings and I didn’t expect to go much further than Indianapolis, for a summer wedding to be held in the state capital building. (It was beautiful! See the dome!)

In early spring when I was out walking, it occurred to me that surely I could manage at least a couple of small trips this year without breaking the piggy bank. There were two places I needed to go: Texas, to visit my cousin Dan, and northern Illinois, to see Beverly, whom I’ve known since third grade.

That very day, I got a phone call. Dan, only 60 years old, had died of a massive heart attack. I had put the trip off for too many years, not having enough money, time, and organizational inclination all at once. He and I had become such friends in the last couple of decades. He read my books, and encouraged me. We talked about real Mexican food, pursuing authentic lives, and every other possible topic. I miss him.

As you can imagine, it didn’t take me long to contact Beverly. She and her husband invited me to stay for a long weekend, and gave me some dates. Here’s a bit of serendipity for you–Beverly and family have lived near Woodstock, IL (where the movie Groundhog Day was filmed)  for about 30 years, and a college buddy of my son moved to Woodstock a couple of years ago.

Do you love road trips? For me this was the best kind–I was a passenger! Yep, my son and daughter-in-law made arrangements with their friends, and took time off work, so the three of us could travel together. Once we got to Woodstock, Beverly picked me up, and the kids had their own vacation with their friends.

In planning our time together, Beverly asked what I would like to do. I had a list of three things: take the train into Chicago, visit my godson and meet his new wife, and meet up with another girlfriend. Beverly is a can-do kind of gal, and set about making these happen.

The first morning, we got iced coffee (yum!) at the local Starbucks, and went to the depot. (It’s actually even cuter than this if your photographer doesn’t cut off the corners of the roof.)

I’ll skip the long version of why, but we ended up spending the day at Lake Geneva instead. It was glorious!

We walked a bit of the shore path, took a boat tour of the lake (yikes! enormous homes!), and strolled through the town and its darling little museum. I took several photos of this lovely church.

Saturday, we attended the Woodstock Farmers Market, which is held around their picturesque town square. The entire space was full of vendors. I bought bars of homemade soap, and a little block of local cheese that could travel back to southern Indiana in a cooler.  There was even live music coming from the band stand!

We met my godson and his wife for lunch in the Public House, a delightful restaurant that’s in the former jail building.

On Sunday, Beverly and her husband drove me to New Glarus, Wisconsin, where we met our other friend and her husband. Pizza! Beer! Laughter! And another cute little town to explore.

By Monday evening, the wonderful vacation was over, and we three Southern Indiana travelers were back in our respective dwellings. I love my simple life, and my studio apartment. I think I love it even more when I come back home to it.

My Summer Road Trip

A couple of weeks ago, our family of five embarked on a road trip from our home in Ottawa to the east coast of Canada (the map at the bottom shows our approximate route). It was our first long-distance trip with our three girls, ages 10 and 6, and we were keen to show them the ocean and hopefully create special lifelong memories.

After a two-day drive across Quebec and New Brunswick, we stopped at my in-laws’ cottage near St. John, staying three nights. We took day trips in the area, exploring the picturesque Bay of Fundy with its rocky beaches, seaside caves and breathtaking shoreline vistas, and swam briefly in the St. John River (before a rainstorm drove us out of the water). In and around St. John, we visited the local zoo, the New Brunswick Museum, and the famous Reversing Falls.

Next we headed to Nova Scotia, stopping along the way at Hopewell Rocks, where at low tide you can walk on the ocean floor among rock formations sculpted by tidal erosion. This was something I’d wanted to do for years. It was our last day of sunshine before the weather turned gray and drizzly.

On our first day in Nova Scotia, we visited the fishing village of Peggy’s Cove and its iconic lighthouse, and enjoyed a fresh seafood meal at the nearby restaurant. Later, we drove up the coast to Halifax and spent an hour exploring the wharf. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to do anything else in the city.

The next day, we drove to Annapolis Royal and toured Port-Royal, an impressive replica of the French settlement built there in 1605 and destroyed by the English is 1613. In a wigwam just outside the settlement, a Mi’kmaq woman taught the kids to play drums and sing a traditional Mi’kmaq song. She gave them each a hand-painted rock to take home.

On our last day in Nova Scotia, we drove to the beach at Lawrencetown, and although it was too cold for swimming, we waded in to let the ocean waves surge over our feet. Then it was time to start the three-day drive home.

Travelling with young kids wasn’t easy. While my husband and I were exhausted every night, the kids were too keyed up to go to sleep, and consequently they were difficult to rouse in the morning. We had to stop frequently for food and bathroom breaks, or to stretch our legs, or whenever they spotted an ice cream sign. I don’t want to see another McDonald’s for a good long while. But we all enjoyed the trip and the kids won’t ever forget all the new things they saw.

Summertime, and the Living is Easy…

Well, I can dream, right? While this summer has been anything but easy, it has been fun. During June and July, my husband and I drove 7000 miles, visited 19 states, and took thousands of pictures. We drove the Blue Ridge Parkway (for book research and stock photos), Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park (more pictures), up through the Smoky Mountains and down to the Indian village (more book research), and back home to Texas on the first trip in June.

On this first trip, we hiked parts of the Appalachian Trail, hiked down (and back up, OMG) to waterfalls, saw black bears, and fell in love with the Smokies.

We thought that was it until Fall, until our daughter decided she’d had all she could take of Boston and needed us to come get her (and her third floor walk up full of boxes). So we took off again, this time taking a different route that took us through the Ohio Amish country, past two Great Lakes, through the Allegheny and Adirondack mountains, across Lake Champlain, and through the White Mountains, to the Maine coast.

On this trip, we fell in love with the Amish country (and the food!), swam in a waterfall pool in Ithaca, NY, took the ferry from New York to Vermont, and photographed the Portland Head Light (the world’s most photographed lighthouse.)

I’ve now visited 39 of the 50 states, and hubby has visited 48. So, of course, we now have a goal to visit all 50. And Canada. We’ve been to Mexico, so once we visit Canada, we’ll have the North American continent covered.

We’re hoping, finances willing, to travel this fall to California, up the west coast to Washington, and across the northern states as far as the Great Lakes, and back down, catching a few more states we haven’t visited along the way. Then next summer, we’ll finish off the lower 48 we haven’t seen, and make that trip to Alaska and across Canada.

I love traveling with the hubby. He’s extremely knowledgeable about so many things, so every trip is a learning experience. And more fodder for the books yet to be written.

Have you ever taken a major trip? What’s your favorite destination and favorites stops along the way?