Cedar Falls, IA

I am in love with Cedar Falls, Iowa. I never expected to declare love for a city in Iowa. But here I am, touting the little glories of a small city in Iowa. It’s got a 24/7 donut shop. It’s got several breweries plus a dumpling shop that has dedicated its taps to Toppling Goliath, which happens to have a lager that I would give up candy for a day to drink. Which brings me to Stam’s Chocolate store, a place that exists in Cedar Falls and sells Marzipan Chocolates. The running options felt endless and we found ourselves motivated…

Geneseo, IL

Unique naming skills were not a talent of the founders of American cities. To me, Geneseo is of New York, is home to Pizza Paul’s, and is the location of one of the numerous traffic tickets I earned in my youth years. This Geneseo, which exists in Illinois, does not have a Pizza Paul’s and did not earn me a traffic ticket. I wasn’t even invited to a frat party where I definitely did not drink because I wasn’t yet 21. Joy. Baby turtle! Snek! This Geneseo was peaceful. It offered seemingly endless miles of canal-style gravel trail riddled with…

St. Charles, MO

We route through the St. Louis area for the Provel. St. Charles is close enough to St. Louis to be smothered in the stuff. St. Charles was riddled with Provel, in all of its superior to American cheese glory. Being decently lactose intolerant, I do try and take Provel breaks, although that goes against everything my heart tells me to do. Luckily St. Charles has some worthwhile non-Provel food options – mostly in the form of baked goods and sourdough bread from Mr. Meowski’s bakery. I should probably mention that Jake and I are in the midst of a marathon…

Evansville, IN

I don’t know how we ended up in Evansville, IN but it was fine. We called while in transit to snag a site at Burdette Park Campground which was quiet and had decent running access but also weirdly (for a county park) full of RVs that seemed to be there for the long term. As amateur fifth-wheel haulers, maneuvering through the campground was a bit of a butt clencher – but we did it with no scars to show. Burdette Park Campground Flourish Plant-Based Eatery While in Evansville we enjoyed our second tornado siren of the season. This meant we…

Louisville, KY

Our second stay in Louisville – this time with a lot less Derby and a lot more tornado warnings – was swell. After an uneventful first drag of the new house, we squished ourselves into one of the many tight campsites at Louisville North Campground. Louisville North Campground is in a great location for our desires; the proximity to several paths that can be used for running, accessibility to downtown Louisville, and its position in relation to a Torchy’s Tacos was clutch. It also abuts an active train track and is within eyesight of a highway, so our stay wasn’t…

Cincinnati, OH – So Long, Dyna

We have been manifesting a transition for half a year now. And by ‘manifesting’ I mean that I have been manifesting it just like you see the influencers on social media do while Jake has been working through the processes and details and phone calls to make it happen. I’m pretty sure that’s how manifesting works. We bought I manifested a new house! It still has wheels, but two fewer than our old girl. It still has slide-outs; one extra. It’s not got an engine, meaning we’re now a single-engine family. Still diesel though – wouldn’t want to decrease our…

Lexington, KY

As seen on TV – and now real life! Lexington Kentucky is the horse capitol of the U.S. The horse capitol of the U.S. is a place I want to be. The Kentucky Horse Park is a state-owned and managed public park dedicated to all things horses. It’s amazing and it happens to include a campground adjacent to the horse grounds. Dreams do come true. Our timing was a bit off for witnessing any horse-related events. Our timing was very good for our campsite’s back lawn to be a drive-through lights show. Looking out our bedroom window after dark was…

Olive Hill, KY

Sometimes we seek an area that promises nearly nothing to do. Carter Caves State Park in the off-season was promising in the realm of not much to do, but a whole lot of space to do it in. We crept through the back hills of Kentucky, taking the switchbacks that are rarely forewarned but are ever-present, at a sloth’s pace and arrived at Carter Caves late in the afternoon looking forward to a campsite with full-hook-ups and questionable levelness. While our site turned out to be more level than expected, the water to the campsite – and every campsite in…

Fayetteville, WV

Fayetteville, WV was an adventure. A full half of that adventure was driving Dyna up and down and around the narrow, sketchy roads leading to the campground we booked just outside of town. Upon arrival at the campground, we were greeted with a closed-for-the-season ropes course and an empty row of RV campsites up a few switchbacks to an overlook. The six evenings of quiet this campsite provided us eventually allowed my nervous system to return blood flow to my white knuckles. Our campsite at ACE Adventure Resort provided us access to an open Starlink cell, miles of dirt roads…