After finishing our hike, it was time to meander across the US. Here are some highlights of our travels!

Before leaving the state of Vermont, our timing worked out that we could visit Bonne and Alan, friends from the 80’s. Alan was one of our trail angels on the Long Trail. Alan’s family has had a homestead for many years near Killington, Vermont called Pico Pond.

It was built in 1892 and has had quite the number of visitors.

There were some historic names mentioned in some of the writings. we could have spent several hours reading the journals.

And a lot of catching up with our friends.

Next stop was Massachutes, where we visited our friend Doug Lowery. Doug worked with us at NOLS and now works for the Audubon Society there. Our timing worked out and we were able to join a bird walk

Moving south we pulled into the home of Cynthia and Rob Korkuch. They are the parents of Beth, Ryan’s partner. The activity for the evening was to join them for a sail on their sailboat.

It was a fun early evening sail, watching the sun set.

Back to Pennsylvania, where we visited relatives again and picked up our new inflatable canoe.

Got to help out with the Beaver Bagel Market.

Can’t wait to try this out in the water.

Several days later we did as we headed out on its maiden voyage with Cindy and Marc.

It weighs 10 pounds and we can carry it in a backpack!

Marc also shared with us the wonders of the monarch butterfly as we watched one emerge from the chrysalis stage.

It landed on a flower and continued to stretch out its wings!

While helping Cindy in the garden, this eft showed up.

We got to celebrate Marc and Cindy’s wedding anniversary with a bike ride at Lake Erie.

Heading towards Ohio, we stopped in for a short visit with Brad.

And then drove to say hi to Brads Parents

Sandra and Delmar

One reason that we wanted to buy an inflatable canoe was so that we could go for a paddle when we saw a lake,

This lake was special! Fish lake in Marcellus Michigan. Don’s grandparents had a cottage here and Don spent a lot of summers here when he was younger.

We had also spent some time here when Ryan was younger, helping to put an addition on the the cottage. There were a lot of memories! We spent several hours paddling the lake,

And driving thru the town of Marcellus

The town almost looked like it did when Don would visit in the summer.

Next stop was Warren Dunes on Lake Michigan. Marc had given us some Monarch Butterfly chrysalis and they started to emerge when we were here.

Right before they emerge, one can see the color of the wings thru the outer layer

All of the chrysalis that Marc gave us emerged and we watched them fly away.

Since we were camped at Warren Dunes, it only seemed appropriate to go climb them and run down!

Since we were in the area, Don wanted to check out a favorite bakery of his childhood, called

It was just a hard decision to figure out what we wanted.

Time to visit a family cemetery

And visit a high school friend of Don’s

We are now heading to Escabana which is in upper peninsula Michigan. We want to visit a brother of a neighbor that lives close to Ryan and Beth in San Diego.

Karen and Charles are active volunteers in an amazing museum. They gave us a tour and wow we were impressed.

We found a great campsite on Lake Michigan and ended up staying here for a couple days. There was a nice road that we could ride our bikes out to a park. The amazing event of the days here was the discovery that this was a place for the monarch butterflies to gather before they cross Lake Michigan on there way to Mexico. We had thought that we might have missed them, until we met a butterfly counter. He said we should check back tomorrow because rumor was that the butterflies were heading here.

Having been made aware of the life cycle of the monarch with Marc, we were excited to see this place.

On the bike ride back to our campsite, we noticed a lot of Monarch butterflies heading to the point. We plan on returning there tomorrow to check it out.

We woke up to pouring rain and decided that there would not be any butterfly action today so we headed into Escabana and met up with Charles and Karen. They gave us a tour of the museum that was outstanding. Then Charles took us out to eat at one of his favorite restaurants. A highlight is always meeting such nice people. Tomorrow the weather is forecasted to be sunny so back to the plan to get up early and head to the park.

We arrive to the park just as it is getting light. Wow! The butterflies are here and some of the trees are covered with them.

We walk around and can’t believe what we are seeing. As the sun rises the butterflies begin to dry their wing.

More people arrive and as we talk to some of them, we realize that we are quite fortunate to see this event. Some of the local people tell us that that have lived here for many years without seeing something like this,

There is a women with a net who is catching some of the butterflies and tagging them,

Maybe someday someone will find this butterfly and tell the story of its journey.

We were hoping to see the migration of the butterflies across the lake, but the wind direction wasn’t right so after a couple of attempts, by a small number, most returned to the trees for another day.

Time for us to move on. For the next week our days are usually about a half day of driving and the rest of the day is spent in hiking or biking. We are finding some great campsites. We even managed to use our little red canoe at some of them. Fall is happening here in northern Minnesota,

We spent a couple days in this area visiting the very well done Grand Portage National Monument Lots of exhibits to learn about the area.

Due to lack of people we had our own guide to walk us thru the exhibits.

Our next destination is Ely, where we hope to spend a couple of days doing some paddling.

We pull into a Campsite on Kawishiwi Lake. The campground is closing in a couple of weeks and there is no services so the campsites are free. We find out though that there is a service project at the lodge there and there is indeed electricity. What a find! Beautiful, on the lake and we can use our heater at night.

Can’t help but smile when we look at our view.

We visit the Outward Bound School where we worked in the 70’s

And then spend a couple of days doing day paddles. Not sure when we will be back, but it is on our list. The Boundary Waters/Quetico is magical.

Continuing west, we arrive at Badlands National Park. There is fresh snow along the sides of the road. Fall or maybe winter is approaching. At least the sun is out and as we drive to a campsite we are entertained by a family of prairie dogs.

A herd of buffalo also graze by the road.

Always fun to see these animals, but hard to remember stories of their slaughter.

Nest stop was a drive by of Mt. Rushmore before we headed to Wind Cave National Park

This time of year, the campgrounds are pretty quiet so it was easy to find a home for a couple of days in the park.

We were warned to give the buffalo a wide berth when hiking in the area. They have been known to charge and usually the human is not the victor. We did several hikes here and did see some buffaloes that we were glad did not investigate. us.

Time to move on and check out a campsite in The Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. We have been here before and like to stop if it is on our way. We pull in and are greeted by a very nice camp host. This place is free and has an amazing amenity. A hot spring pond, large enough to swim in and a shower that is heated by the hot springs. We were given some information about good places to hike and ride our bikes. Looks like we will be spending several days here.

Riding our bikes back to camp, we came upon this view.

Back on the road, we traveled to Crater Lake National Park. The first snow had fallen and it probably won’t be long before the road is closed to the visitor center.

Always great to take in the view on a sunny day.

Heading west we take a day to explore Silver Falls State Park

This photo is actually taken on the back side of the falls.

Our timing is such that we can help move Jeff into his new home that he has purchased. Our van becomes a moving van as we take numerous trips from his downtown Portland Apartment to his new house.

With that job comp[leted, it is on to San Diego, where we are going to give our van to Ryan and Beth for them to take on a trip to Utah. We arrive and they leave the next day.

Definitely a van on the move, We hang in San Diego for several weeks as usual doing home projects. and enjoying some great cooking by Ryan

A highlight of this time in San Diego was joining with Beth and her family to go experience the magic of the Valle de Guadelupe in Baja California Sur. We spent several nights in an Air B&B nestled in the vineyards.

Beautiful days and fun people made up the adventure.

We visited several different wineries. And had an amazing nine course meal.

Back to cookie making before we head north to house sit cats at Jeff’s house.

Looking at the weather report it was a you need to go now so we loaded up and headed north before some of the passes closed down due to weather.

Deciding to avoid some of the passes in Northern CA. we head to the coast and pause for a day to go hiking in the Redwoods.

The highway took us north along the Oregon Coast. We alway appreciate the fact that the Oregon Coast is public property. Lots of day use and state parks are plentiful

Maybe someday we will hike the Oregon Coast.

It is back to Jeff’s to watch the cats while he and Emily head to Hawaii with Jeff and Beth.

And so ends the year 2019 as we sleep it away!