Maps!

We’ve been working on an update to our map/tracking. We originally got a national parks map with scratch-off spots for each park, but it didn’t include the latest parks (missing White Sands, Indiana Dunes, and a few others). Plus the scratch-off functionality was less than ideal. The coating didn’t come off easily and sometimes took off parts of the map itself. We had seen a wooden laser cut version with trees for each park in one of the campgrounds we visited and recently decided to upgrade to this version. It looks very similar to the map we have on this site but it’s now on our wall!

We also added a travel map where we can pin the cities we’ve stayed in and kind of see an overview of our travels. We decided each year will have a different pin color, we’ll only pin locations we stay in, and if we stay at a location more than once it’ll be a special color.

At the moment the mounting is such that we’ll need to take down the national parks map on travel days, but we might eventually permanently mount it.

Other fun things we’ve been up to include getting whiskey and bikes! There’s a whiskey bar here in Tucson called Batch and they had several Ryes I hadn’t tried. My favorite of the ones I tried was the Journeyman Distillery, Not A King Rye. It’s a distillery in Michigan and we’ll try to stop by when we go to the midwest. They only release this particular rye on President’s Day, in honor of George Washington.

As for the bikes… I have not really biked since high school and even then I didn’t really bike that often. I started using rollerblades for transportation and never went back. Until now. When we started this journey, Scott was excited about getting bikes for us to use to explore rather than always needing to take Betty. We debated getting e-bikes, or pedal-assist bikes. We were thinking we might be able to use these to go to run errands like groceries while in larger stops. We probably won’t be using these for grocery runs, so mainly they’ll be for riding around to explore. During travel days they’ll need to be on the back of the fifth wheel (where there is a hitch), which always looks a bit precarious and adds more weight to the tail end, but that’s kind of the only option. eBikes are also heavier, so that was a consideration. There are some foldable bikes, even foldable eBikes, but Scott did a lot of looking at various models and we went to a bike store tried some out and took the plunge last weekend. We ordered two bikes, a hitch mount, and are working on getting locks and a cover. Tucson is a very bike-friendly city with a lot of specific trails and lanes for bikes, so it’ll be nice to be able to get around even when Betty goes to the shop for her hail recovery.