In late June and early July, we spent 3 weeks in Lake City, MN doing projects for our good friends Tony and Georgia Zugay. We also helped their daughter and her husband, Dawn and Tony Mendoza, with projects at their house in St. Paul, MN. It stood to reason we should also offer our help…
MFI drafted a rough travel plan after we entered Canada in July. Her plan identified tentative stops between Winnipeg and Santa Fe. I never questioned any of her choices until we approached Wyoming in late August. She explained, “I want to take you to see the prison in Laramie.” Years ago, she had done an…
Originally, I wanted to stop in Scottsbluff, NE because I thought my grandmother, Dorothy Dunbar Bunner, was born and raised there. I figured we could dig into local records and visit the cemetery where some of my relatives might be buried. Then I texted cousin Cheryl. She’s always been my go-to contact on things related…
I captured the feature image above as we approached the Black Hills from the east. In my view, it perfectly represents why the Lakota Sioux called them the Pahá Sápa. The Pahá Sápa were considered sacred by native plains tribes, because they had for centuries provided tribes a place to pray and sustained them with…
Our original plan had us traveling to Regina (rhymes with Vagina), SK next, but we thought a city called Moose Jaw sounded even funnier than Saskatoon and was just as satisfying to say, so we detoured there. We believed the name must have something to do with a moose or a jaw or both, but…
Honestly, we stopped in Saskatoon, SK because the name sounded so cool. It had a nice ring to it, and frankly we enjoyed repeating it. We imagined the name was a First People’s word. We were only partially right! The word is derived from the Cree, Mis-Sask-quah-toomina, their native word for the fruit berry which…
Saskatoon was our next planned extended stop after Winnipeg. The most direct route there was to take Trans Canadian Highways 1 and 16, but we preferred a more country route, which took us north along Lake Manitoba, and had us cross at a spot called The Narrows. This sounded much more interesting, so we drove…
Entry into Canada almost went without a hitch. The officer interviewing us at the border was polite, but when he heard we were carrying eggs from the U.S., he denied entry. He smiled, directed us to another officer who helped us do a U-turn, suggested we dump the eggs in the nearest trash bin, and…
One night campground layovers are a thing of the past. Who needs that kind of tight, challenging schedule and the stress that comes with it? We’ve evolved to staying for a minimum of three nights, driving no more than about 230 miles (300 max) between overnight stops, taking non-interstate routes whenever possible, and camping in…
Tony Zugay let us know that his oldest daughter Dawn and husband Tony Mendoza could probably use our help. So when we coordinated our visit to Lake City, we also contacted Dawn and planned to spend the following week in St. Paul to help them out as well. Unfortunately, our plan didn’t quite unfold as…
