2022 – Is one for the records. Sid and Arthur took us from our winter campground in Millington TN through 13 states and two Canadian Provinces with 32 campground stops, 5979 miles. Check the blogs!!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

            Last year we wintered at NAS Millington in the Memphis TN area. Our goal was to choose an area with mild winters while we catch up on things like dental appointments, etc. And, it turned out to be a pretty quiet winter save for an ice storm which had us watching nervously as ice chunks fell off the tree above our Airstream. We were very lucky. Relatively close to Dallas, we did a quick drive to see Jon for his 40^th birthday in March! 

             When you dive into our blogs you’ll see and incredible array of projects and touring. We started with a stop in Litchfield IL to see our long-time friends Andy and Pam Ritchie. You can actually blame their marriage on us. Long story short back in 1982, Wittmack made 4 trips to the Army MWR in Vogelweg Germany to get info and phone number and query Pam if she’d be willing to go out with our Navy friend Andy. The story is far more colorful, but it will cost you a bottle of wine to hear the whole thing!

            After chipping in on Ritchie projects, we headed off to Des Moines where Bunner spent two weeks helping son Chad while Wittmack headed to CA to be our niece’s assistant for the long-awaited birth of their son Kayden Jaxson (KJ), Wittmack’s brother Steve’s first grandchild. Tears of joy all around on that one. But back in Des Moines there was drama the morning Randy awoke to Sheriffs wondering if he’d heard anything from the next trailer. Evidently the neighbor decided on a weapon assisted departure from this world. Details in the blog. Wittmack is still feeling guilty that we weren’t able to add time to visit her Des Moines cousin. Sadly, we were pinching ourselves on time having already bought tickets for a scheduled lake crossing.

Up to Bryon IL to brother Larry’s house. Among the projects there, Wittmack demoed her finesse in hooking up a 3-way. A 3-way light switch. (What were YOU thinking?). The BunMack team painted niece’s kitchen cabinets (shoot us if we agree to do that again). Then off to brother Marty’s house in Kenosha. We did a pretty good job rejuvenating a rag tag bathroom into a pretty 

nice one. Flooring, a little gyp work, painting and a new light/fan install. We did squeeze in a couple day trips. One to Wittmack’s birth town, Oshkosh WI. The other to tour Lambeau Field in Green Bay. Wow.           

The next “leg” was our scheduled crossing of Lake Michigan on the SS Badger replete with Sid and Arthur below decks in the hold which had housed many train cars back in the day. Wittmack had done this crossing as a 9 year old on a family trip. Bunner was like a kid in a candy shop. Very fun experience even though it was pretty chilly and even rainy for a good part of the trip.

            A couple of overnights in Michigan before landing for some quality visiting to the UP. Neither of us had spent notable time there. We visited Whitefish Point Park where over 200 shipwrecks of steamers and tankers are memorialized. Notably the Edmond Fitzgerald. How devastating. Then on to the Tahquamenon Falls (who knew?) and the Jam Pot. The Jam Pot is the store run by the monks in the monastery in the Keweenaw Peninsula. And, we will never forget The Old Swing Bridge Roasters in Ontonagon. Run by a husband-and-wife team, Don and Donna have the little town of Ontonagon immersed in the fine art of coffee roasting.

            On to Lake City MN helping our friends Georgia and Tony Zugay with the install of a wood ceiling. Then to St. Paul to help their daughter’s family with some paver repairs and some closet reconfigurations. 

            After a brief stay in Grand Forks ND including a visit to Fargo so we could say we did, we were off to Canada. Winnipeg was our first stop. We were absolutely stunned by the Museum for Human Rights. Please read the blog on this one. We followed by driving through the narrows for a stop in Dauphin. Turns out that Dauphin (pronounced like Dolphin) was having their 57^th annual Ukraine Festival. Holy Smokes, Batman. There were many freshly arrived Ukrainian refugees to this town that Ukrainians had been settling in since the late 1800’s. Most of the town is bi-lingual.
            After a couple stops we ended up in Saskatoon. Did you know that Saskatoon is an edible berry? And very tasty! Turns out that the berry is all the excitement we could find there. Visited a modern art museum that left us scratching our heads.

Please note that for the first time in the history of our Christmas letter, we are bleeding into a second page. That’s what 13 states and nearly 6000 miles will do to you.

            Leaving Saskatoon we ventured south to Moose Jaw. Curious about where the name came from, we learned it is from a similar sounding First People word that means “by the little river”. The actual pronunciation is longer and more complicated, but the anglicizing of it shortened it to Moose Jaw. Pop. 34000 it boasts many tunnels which housed the horribly treated Chinese workers who only survived by dwelling in tunnels under their businesses. But, seems that Al Capone had a thriving speak-easy and gambling biz going on there. With a direct train connection to Chicago, Moose Jaw brought the boss some serious bucks, it seems.

            We wanted to visit the Bad Lands in SD and in doing that we ventured to see the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre. For all the history surrounding that, we were ashamed for the park services that the battle site is a near totally unmarked field. We spent nearly an hour talking to two Ogalala Lakota Natives. A husband and wife who both grew up on the reservation. We all agreed that we would have no idea where to start if we were to offer reparations to the Lakota nation. How can we give back the pristine streams? The herds of Buffalo? The bountiful forests? Between this couple and what we learned of the Assiniboine Lakotas in Canada, there were many different methods, for example, of herding and capturing Buffalo! Again, wow.

            In the same area is Keystone, SD the location of Mount Rushmore. With all the reading we’ve done over the years, there was still so much more to learn. We did not know that there is a vault built into the mountain behind the monument that contains the original drawings of the intended monument. We did not know that the monument was to have been more of portraitures of the presidents, but the sculptor’s death ended the project. We only learned that we’re seeing Lincoln’s fingers below his face.            Cheyenne WY is the gateway to Laramie where there is an old prison from the days when you went to prison for hard labor. Years ago Wittmack had gone there when there were still piles of rocks in the prison yard where prisoners were made to break the rocks with sledge hammers day after day, paying restitution for their crimes. This particular prison at one time housed Butch Cassidy (but not the Sundance Kid….)

            Onward to Colorado Springs (are you tired yet?) Another branch of the Zugay family dwells there. Kristi and her hubby Will Hartman and their three amazing boys needed our help. So, we obliged. Wittmack tuned up some electrical issues and Bunner painted. And painted. And painted. For good measure we fixed a door and framed out a future door. Took a day off and spent a great time with lifelong friends, the Uhlik’s. Life is fun for Ms. Fix It and The Pool Man!!

            A journey through the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve yielded some of Bunner’s more amazing iPhone photography (see the blog). And leaving there, we experienced Arthur’s first flat tire. We were proud of ourselves for conquering that one!

            Santa Fe was our goal. We think we may want to ultimately wind up there. Free ski-passes for seniors!! We spent two weeks driving to all the ski resorts in the area. The couple next to us in our campground were ski-instructors from Purgatory in Durango CO. Returning from our visit to check-out Taos we detoured to a second route which took us across the Rio Grande River gorge. We didn’t know THAT was there!! We wandered around downtown and went to the Georgia O’Keefe museum. 

            Ready to return to Texas for the winter, we stopped in Wichita Falls where Bunner had an amazing hike in the Palo Duro Canyon – aka the Grand Canyon of Texas. That part of Texas is known as the Llano Estacado (the staked plains). Dead flat as far as the eye can see. Then out of nowhere, the earth cracks open and there is the canyon. Nature is pretty stunning.

            Embedded in Carrollton Texas for the winter we were overjoyed to celebrate the wedding of our son Jon to Katherine, his long-time partner/fiancé/mother of grandsons Logan and Max. Katherine orchestrated a simply beautiful wedding attended by all four of Bunner’s brothers and many treasured family members and friends.

            We hope this inspires you to go through our blogs. (Bunner puts a lot of pictures in!!) See the details of our adventures. Next: Western USA!! For 2024: Alaska!!

            We wish you all the Merriest, Happiest, Safest, Healthiest Christmas and most Prosperous New Year!

                Love, the BunMacks