The Jet Set Betties

The big week is finally here: the 49th annual Alaska Folk Festival has completely taken over downtown Juneau, and It Is Awesome. (Of course, we’re all going to be completely exhausted by Monday morning, but that’s another story…)

The Jet Set Betties have been practicing, and we’re feeling fairly ready for our debut on the big stage. The streaming service provided by KTOO is fantastic – great sound, great camera work. You can tune in for our set LIVE through this link – we’re scheduled for 7:30 pm AK time (11:30 pm Eastern time) on Saturday night (4/13). Things sometimes run a little late though, so check out the program below to see what’s going on before us. (And – of course – feel free to tune in ANY time to hear all sorts of amazing performances. You never know what you’re gonna get!)

We know we’ll get an audio recording of our set, but I’m not sure about video. If you plan to watch the live stream – and – if you happen to be savvy enough to know how to capture a video recording of it while you’re watching, please do! We’d love to have a copy of it (unless something goes terribly wrong and we completely embarrass ourselves, then we’ll just make you swear to delete it).

I’m not kidding when I say this has taken over the whole downtown. In addition to a revolving door of musicians on the main stage (which in-and-of-itself requires a massive amount of planning and management to pull off!), there will be an energetic lineup of dance bands for 5+ hours every night this weekend in another building, and at least 5 bars downtown have also been hosting live bands every night since Monday. Plus people pulling chairs together in corners all over town to start their own jam session. I was already tired on Wednesday morning, hahaaaaa.

It’s Peak Juneau though – so many residents and visitors are out and about, having a great time. What a wonderful time to be here.

We’re still here! What a time we’re having. Things have been pretty busy, largely with work stuff, but also some really great social events as well. I did land a second job – I’m working about 20 hrs/week at McGivney’s, a sports bar and grill right downtown. I get the Sunday daytime bartending shift, which tends to be pretty chill, and I’m waiting tables a couple nights a week. It’s a nice way to get out of the house and earn a little extra cash, plus it’s an intriguing new perspective on Juneau. My executive search job is also still going strong – in fact, my boss has been great at throwing me all sorts of interesting projects, so I’m definitely staying busy and engaged.

Meanwhile, Matthew’s boss is also keeping him on his toes. Sounds like every day is a new adventure in that office! I’ll leave the detailed updates for him to share, but I do have to brag on him for one thing: he “carried a bill” focused on making some meaningful improvements to the foster care system. As part of this process, Matthew rallied some young adults who were raised within that system to share their perspective and stories. The bill was given a hearing, and those kids gave some pretty powerful testimony. If you’re interested, you can watch that hearing here. (Hopefully the link takes you to the correct start time, but if not, just jump to minute 17:46. Their hearing lasts an hour and 20 min, but Matthew’s part and the testimonials are near the beginning, plus there’s some compelling additional testimony near the end, starting at 1:28:00.) It sounds unlikely that this bill will reach the House floor for a vote this session, but could be well-situated for consideration next year.

Through it all, we’re so fortunate and happy to be living with our dear friend Rhonda and her son Reed. Reed is also working for the legislative session, so evening conversation is spiced with anecdotes from “the hill.” Additionally, Rhonda works within the school district, which is undergoing some significant budget issues (as are most schools across Alaska, due to our governor’s reluctance to support public education), so we’re all trying to keep our ear on those headlines while not completely losing our minds. Lots of laughter though, too! And, as always, we’re trying to earn our keep by assisting with some projects around the house, like helping to finish the beautiful bench for their dining table.

And now for a brief commercial break for an important announcement from the Jet Set Betties: we’ll be performing a 15-minute set at the Alaska Folk Festival! This festival is incredible: something like 35 hours of 15-minute performances over the course of 7 days. (**head explode**) Somehow we managed to score a prime time slot: 7:30 pm on Saturday night (4/13). I guess that means we need to practice a little bit … but we’ll get it together and it will be super fun! We’ll confirm if/how it’s recorded and will definitely share that info with you.

Earlier this month, we had the occasion to observe my natal anniversary and launch my 50th year on earth. We used this as an excuse for a lovely series of social outings and delicious dinners.

Plus a few more photos that capture life as we know it these days:

We’re definitely looking forward to getting back on the road, and – in fact – we’ve made lots of plans and reservations for May-October. The route includes a quick Michigan <> Virginia loop, stops to see my family in the midwest, back to the west coast for July-Aug-Sept, then heading back to Michigan via western Colorado and New Orleans. So excited to reunite with Twyla and the Bettymobile for more adventures! Let us know if you can meet up with somewhere along the way – we’d love to see you!

We are officially through six weeks of the legislative session. According to a silly state statute, the Alaska legislature only meets for 90 days. The funny thing is, the Alaska legislature has never met for just 90 days. They always give themselves another 30 days. Mostly just to pass the budget. What does that mean for my work this session? Not sure. Maybe I’ll be needed for those extra thirty days, maybe not.

Here’s the story of a “regular” Friday:

8:00 am

Find out everything about deployment of one state’s national guard to another state. What state pays the costs, and if the federal government can intercede. Also if a national guardsman can remove their United States insignia during deployment. (This is in response to the Governor’s idea to send the AK National Guard to Texas, and my guy needs to be briefed before a meeting he is having in 45 minutes.)

9:00 am

Scrambling to get information about why ANCSA (AK Native Claims Settlement Act) and the state’s Natural Resources are at odds on this one.

10:00 am

Fellow staffer is printing out all the instances where a bill we are proposing to raise the age of consent will affect other statutes to prep for a Judiciary Committee hearing. I’ve finally received a bill we are putting forward regarding siblings in foster care for the legal department. Now I’ve got to get an official version of the bill printed on special paper hand delivered, then I will hand carry it to the Clerks office so it can be read on the House floor on Monday.

11:00 am

Rep Gray is on the House Floor. We watch from a television in our office. He gives a zinger of a Happy Birthday wish to one of his arch rivals on the floor. It gets hearty laughs.

12:00 pm

We watch our guy sitting through a tedious Dept of Law Finance Subcommittee meeting. I’m working on a response to a constituent who is upset about a Massage Therapist licensing issue and confirming the booking of State Senator Murkowski’s assistant to speak to my guy during their visit to the capitol next week.

Kayla sends some lunch to me from our homestay via courier.

I send a summary of what we’ve learned about deploying the National Guard to the only reporter/blogger who is covering that story.

1:30 pm

I staff the office while my coworker and Rep Gray sit in the Judiciary Committee. Our amendment to a bill to raise the age of consent gets voted down. At the very end of the meeting our guy throws some shade on his fellow representatives for not passing the amendment. He is chastised by the chair and gaveled out.

3:30 pm

In between meetings (Food Bank, ANCSA, etc) Rep Gray is managing the aftershock from the previous meeting. He’s getting calls and tweets of support, or non-support.

5:00 pm

The office gathers to go over strategies and plans for the next week. There’s a mountain of work to go with the foster care bill, and now we need to see if there’s a way to get the age of consent amendment written as a stand-alone bill before next week’s deadline.

5:30 pm

We all go home early.

And an entry into the new Desert Flowers series. From our favorite bar in Juneau, the Triangle.

Today marks the one year anniversary of when we hitched the camper (with paint still drying) to our car and set out on our 18,000-mile road adventure. But really, that day was just one of many milestones on our journey. There was September 1, 2021 when we boarded a plane from Sitka to Michigan with no real idea of when we would return. Or there is June 12, 2022 when the first cuts of wood for the Bettie Mobile frame were made. Or maybe we go all the way back to summer of 2017 when Kayla and Matthew first hatched their “four year plan” that led to this whole adventure in the first place.

We are now settling in to our new home in Juneau for the next three or four (or more?) months in Juneau, staying with dear friends who have a house right in the heart of the Capital City. Matthew has begun his new job as legislative staff to Representative Andrew Gray. In Alaska, the state legislature only meets for a few months, so Juneau, the capital, is inundated with politicians and their staff while the laws are being made. The actual number of days of legislative session varies. The law (optimistically) states that the work of the session will be done in 90 calendar days. But in actuality, that never happens. The legislature will vote to extend the session to 120 days. And if the legislative branch doesn’t pass a budget that pleases the governor, then session will continue to be extended until one passes.

Matthew’s job is only for the duration of the session. And, since he has been a government employee in the past, the days worked here will go towards vestment in the state system. We’ll get into the nitty gritty of his work once he understands a little better what it is – this is all completely new to him and promises to be a BIG learning curve.

The work will be hard – there are really no weekends or holidays for legislative workers – but hopefully rewarding. AND, when session is over, Matthew and Kayla should have enough money saved up for another round of adventures in the Lower 48!

We’ve really been looking forward to this time in Juneau. We have a number of lovely friends here, and we’re excited to spend time with them. Kayla is on the prowl for a second job to keep herself busy 3-4 evenings/week and to further bolster our bank account. We’re right downtown so everything we need is within walking distance (except for Costco, but there is a car available for an occasional big shopping trip). Plus, one of the perks of Matthew’s job is a reduced-rate membership for both of us to the downtown gym! It will be good to do all that walking and maintain a fitness routine (and they have a sauna at the gym, too!).

Juneau is currently a marshmallow world! We’re heading out now for a snowy walk to the gym, then coming back to make a fish pie and have a cozy evening with Rhonda and Reed. But as we settle into this new routine, we’re also reflecting on the amazing year we’ve had, and starting to make travel plans for this summer & fall.

Hello from Alaska, and Happy New Year! I hope you’ve all had festive and restful holidays, and feeling ready to embrace 2024. The past few months have really been a lovely time of reflection and transition for us — here are some updates.

We spent October, November, and early December in Michigan back at Iris’ lake house in Glenn. When we pulled in there on Oct 1, we had spent almost exactly eight and a half months on the road. The transition back to domestic life took some weeks of moving stuff around, tending to camper repair, and enjoying some long sleeps. Matthew went back to work in the kitchen at Guardian Brewery, and Kayla leaned in to her ongoing work as a recruiter. We celebrated Iris’ birthday and Thanksgiving; Iris & Kayla took a quick trip to Iowa to celebrate their dad’s birthday; and our dear friends Ed and David came to visit West Michigan for a weekend.

We went to Kalamazoo a few times (about an hour or so away, depending on how scenic a drive you choose) to get to know that city a little better. There’s a great brewery called One Well with lots of awesome pinball machines. They have Bride of Pinbot, which is one that Matthew has sought far and wide to find.

And, we made plans for a return to Alaska. As a reminder: Matthew landed a job working as a Legislative Aide in Juneau for the 120-day Thirty-Third Alaska State Legislature Second Session. You’ll get more details on that after he starts work on January 8.

Dec 16-17: We spent two nights in Chicago before we caught our flight to AK. We did some good city-walkin’, visited the Art Institute of Chicago, and grabbed some cocktails at The Berkshire Room, one of our favorite bars. Then we headed to one of our favorite restaurants, Quartino Ristorante. The next day we had a long journey to Seattle and on to Sitka, but got there in time for a lovely dinner to start our stay with dear friends Grace and Charlie.

We’ve spent the last two weeks catching up with friends, and also catching our breath. Getting the camper tucked away, figuring the logistics of getting two season’s worth of clothes, including — ugh — work clothes, and generally setting up another big transition took a psychological toll, apparently. We’ve been kind of wiped out!

Now we are preparing for the short flight yet big jump to Juneau, where we will tuck into entirely different lives than the ones we’ve been living for the past year. But we’re starting to plan our summer/fall adventures, hopefully to include a stop somewhere near you! Stay tuned – we’ll reveal our “plans” soon.

A new “desert flower” series, this one of bars.

Parting shot of the Arts Institute.

Sept 26: Time to move on. Next stop, Wilderness State Park, across the Mackinac bridge. That means we have officially left the Upper Penninsula and are now in the “Mitten” part of Michigan. First we stopped at the Mackinac City Library to do that traveling work thing – both Kayla and Matthew had Zoom meetings! Wilderness State Park is more of a parking lot campground. Our camper and car were rather prominently displayed. It seemed that just about everyone wanted to stop and chat about our Alaska license plates and/or teardrop camper. Friendliest, chattiest campground ever! We spend two days doing some lazy biking and mostly hanging out.

Sept 28: We packed up and headed to our last campsite for this leg of the journey – a state park right in the middle of Traverse City. We passed through Bliss, Pleasantview, Petrosky, Charlevoix, Torch Lake, and Elk Rapids to get there. Turns out we picked a really big weekend to be at this campground! It was the Traverse City State Park Halloween Hootenanny! (Our words, but you are welcome to use them, Michigan). Three days and nights of fun runs, trick or treating, costume contests, and a “Dance All Night” party that ends promptly at 9:00 pm. But the biggest event is the campground decorating. Clearly this is a thing that some folks return for every year, and they have escalated their efforts over the years. We saw many campsites that had one truck to pull their camper, plus another truck to pull a trailer full of decorations.

All the pictures below came from the campground.

Sept 30: Traverse City is where our dear friends Ed and David live. We spend a day touring the Leelanau Peninsula – home to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, Joe’s Friendly Tavern (a very fine burger joint), and Leelanau State Park, with its obligatory lighthouse and shipwreck museum.

Sunday, October 1: We wake up to thunder at 7:30 am. We jump out to pack the few things we still had outside, while groggy campers stumble about packing away their elaborate set-ups. Moved on to a nice brunch at Ed and David’s, then we hit the highway. We go through Interlochen, Grawn, Mesick, Baldwin, Hesperia, Nunica, Holland, and then at last Glenn, MI.

Kayla’s sister Iris has a sweet little summer cottage on a bluff looking over Lake Michigan. Dedicated blog readers will recall that when we first left Alaska in 2021 (and before we built the camper) we stayed here over the winter (brrr!). It is cozy and familiar, and a great place to rest from an 8.5 month traveling adventure.

Final trip mileage, from January 15 to October 1: 18,836.

Coming soon: our 3rd quarter report, and announcements about what’s next for the Betties! Stay tuned!

Sept 17: We headed out of the farm and pointed towards Houghton, Michigan. After Polonia we went through Shantytown, just missed Nutterville, through Doering, Gleason, Rhinelander, and Sugar Camp. We drove through Eagle River, where signs let us know that we were on the Chain of 28 Rivers, as well as the Snowmobile Capital of the World AND the Hockey Capital of of Wisconsin. Whew! On through Conover, Land O’ Lakes, and then crossed in the Michigan to pass through Watersmeet, Mass City, and South Range to quirky Houghton. We made camp in the city campground by the river.

The next day we spent several hours at the lovely Houghton Public Library, right along the river with great views. Like so much of this area, Houghton was once an important port and passage for lake vessels back in the heyday. Lots of old big brick warehouses and heavy pieces of rusting metal. Houghton has been rebuilding itself of late, and seems to have found a decent balance point. Having Michigan Tech as part of the town has to help. Oh, and Michigan Tech is crazy about their Broom Ball.

Houghton is also home to one of our favorite breweries, Keweenaw Brewing, located in a beautiful old building in downtown. Here’s the deal: they make great beer, lots of taps (ok, so far not different from a zillion other places) AND THEY SELL THEIR BEER FOR $3.50 A PINT! Yeah, you heard me right. We have no idea how they do it, but every hour is happy hour there, mate.

Sept 19: We spend the day touring through the Keweenaw Peninsula. There was a lot of copper mining here in the late 1800’s, so we see a lot of rusted metal and abandoned factories. Most of the small factory towns have some amazing school and church buildings that are still standing, though. We drove up and down the streets of beautiful Calumet, resplendent with lots of old buildings and history.

We wanted to find a new way back to Houghton, and Twyla showed us a shortcut. It started out ok, but then the asphalt gave way to dirt road, and then the dirt road gave way to more of a dirt path. Seems like Twyla wanted an offroad adventure. Things got a little sketchy, but we made it through!

Sept 20: We headed to Fayette State Park. This is a park that is “off the beaten path” in a part of the state that is already “off the beaten path.” What a place! We do some exploring that evening and are delighted we will be here for the next three days. Funny, when we booked this stint, we figured we would have some “just sit around the campsite” days, but we were busy exploring the whole time!

The park was once a mining town, with a school, hotel, and such. Many of the buildings are open for wandering. It is especially neat in the evenings, when the day tourists are gone and the park is left to the campers.

Sept 23: Time to move on to the eastern end of the UP. We drive through Mastinique, Gulliver, Newberry, then Paradise to lower Tahquamenon (rhymes with “phenomenon”) Falls. We have a fantastic site by the river – fairly removed from the other campers, though we figure it is about a 3/4 mile to the showers. That’s what bikes are for.

Sept 24: We went to the shipwreck museum at Whitefish Point, “The Graveyard of the Great Lakes”. Oh my goodness did we get to hear “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” a few times during that visit. Then we explored the park and dutifully saw some waterfalls.

Sept 25: Spent some time in Newberry where Kayla sought some minor medical care, then just a groovy day back at the campsite. Our camping meals are numbered, now, so we are focused on finishing what provisions we have.

Next stop, to the “Mitten” hand of Michigan. Stay tuned!

We left Minnesota on Thursday, Sept 14, and headed east into central Wisconsin. We’d made plans to meet up with Kayla’s cousin Karl and his wife Amy on Friday morning, so we spent Thursday night in nearby Wisconsin Rapids at Wood County Park. SWEET CAMPGROUND!! Too bad it was a drive-by. Even with our last-minute booking, we managed to get a site right on Wazeecha Lake.

Although we very much enjoyed our time in Minnesota and being “unpacked” for a while, it was really nice to be back in the Bettie Mobile. This would be the first of seventeen nights in a row that we’d be camping and sleeping in the trailer!

On Friday morning we moved on to Polonia, a small Polish community near Stevens Point, where Kayla’s aunt and uncle – Ruth and Milo Harpstead – had spent over five decades. (Please indulge me while I share some background about these special relatives!) Their primary residence was in Stevens Point, where Milo was a professor of soil science in UWSP’s College of Natural Resources. In 1974, they purchased a farm in nearby Polonia, providing a property where Milo could easily bring students for research. Among its unique features: it’s the glacial birthplace of an ice-walled lakebed; the remnants form a flat-topped hill that is considered one of the highest features in Portage County.

The farm was also a great place for Harpstead family recreation. Milo was a collector of antique cars and tractors, and spent lots of time restoring them and participating in car/tractor shows. The barn was his primary work space for these projects. Other parts of the property were rented out for farming Christmas trees and field crops. It was also a great cross-country ski destination.

After Ruth (older sister to Kayla’s dad) passed away in 2018, Milo continued to spend lots of time on the farm, and had lunch every day at the Polonia Cafe. In 2021, Milo donated 22 acres of the farm to the UWSP Foundation, ensuring its continued use as a field laboratory for the soil science students.

Through the years, Milo & Ruth kept a fairly strong presence with the Boettchers in Iowa, making frequent road trips to see Ruth’s siblings and nieces/nephews. They even traveled to Alaska for our wedding! Just in the last decade, we managed to cross paths with them several times in Iowa. They lived such an interesting life, filled with curiosity, adventurous travel, and generous volunteerism. All of this to say that Kayla felt pretty close to them and admired them both very much. And we were both completely entertained by Milo’s amazing stories. As we were making plans to pass through Wisconsin this week, we were really excited for the opportunity to meet Karl & Amy at the farm to reconnect with them and to learn more about these aspects of Milo & Ruth’s life.

After Milo’s passing last summer, the family decided to sell the farm. They’ve been working for months now to clean out the buildings and prepare them for new owners. What a project! Our visit with them coincided with one of Karl & Amy’s final trips to haul stuff out. The antique cars, tractors, and other collectables have been distributed among interested family members or sold, but a few key pieces were still there – such as a classic Oliver tractor that originally belonged to Kayla’s dad! He sold it to Milo sometime in the 70s and it’s been put to great use ever since! A highlight of the day was for Kayla to drive it around a bit. Check out this video and a few photos of our fun farm day:

In addition to walking around the farm and helping Karl & Amy load up their trailer, we got to have lunch at the Polonia Cafe and took a driving tour of some Stevens Point highlights, including a stop at UWSP. Karl had a quick errand with the College of Natural Resources, so we stopped by to see where Milo’s office and classrooms were. We bumped into a grad student who was managing some newly collected soil samples. At first she was extremely protective of them and really didn’t even want us to breathe on them, but when she found out that Karl is Milo Harpstead’s son, she pulled out her keys and gave us the VIP tour, complete with a closer look at some soil monoliths, which elicited stories from Karl about how they always had to collect soil samples wherever they went on family vacations.

Oh, by the way, another thing we learned is that the “d-word” is absolutely verboten. A bulletin board in the hallway was full of memes about this, here’s one of my favorites:

Karl & Amy had to head back to their home in eastern Wisconsin on Friday evening, but gave us permission to camp on the farm, which we happily did for two nights! It was perfect weather: tons of stars, a nice campfire, and we got to use all our “dry camping” equipment (like our awesome little “shower pig”).

On Saturday, we hopped on a rails-to-trails path and biked 8.5 miles from Amherst to Scandanavia, where we came upon Little Norway (go figure) – a perfect small town dive bar that happened to be serving up some decent beer and good sandwiches. The Wisconsin Badgers had just won, and an excited fan bought a round for the bar the moment we walked in the door! Oh, yeah, and the restrooms were for “Oles” and “Ingas”. Love it!

We covered quite a bit of ground over three weeks in Minnesota (Aug 22 – Sept 14)! Great times with family and friends, Minnesota State Fair, shenanigans in downtown Minneapolis and favorite spots in St Paul, and five fantastic days paddling in the Boundary Waters.

Deep and heartfelt thanks to Kayla’s sister and brother-in-law – Ione and Gary – for hosting us and letting us spread out in their basement. We tried to earn our keep by helping out with some projects around the house:

We got to the Minnesota State Fair, merely 8 days after we enjoyed the Iowa State Fair! We spent the day with one of our favorite Minnesota families: Laura, Gary, Lily, and Jack.

Highlights of other fun times around the cities, including seeing some old friends who just dropped in to the cities for 24 hours, to getting a seat for the Original Juicy Lucy at Matt’s Bar.

We also took at five night paddle trip through the Boundary Waters! We were guided by Kayla’s friends from way back in Holden Village Days Nils Dybvig and Michele Braley. Here’s the route for you BWCA Fanatics.

First we stayed overnight in sweet little Sandstone, MN with Nils family. Nils dad, Lee, has been guiding and paddling the Boundary Waters since he was 16. He had the canoe and Duluth Packs that we would need for the journey. The next day we headed to Ely, just on the edge of the Boundary Waters, so that we could get an early start the next day. And boy, the next day was HOT, in the 90’s, as we paddled and portaged to try to find our first camp. The forecast was for rain in the evening and next day, so we wanted to get ourselves set up as soon as we could. Unfortunately, even with limited entry permits, it was a very busy day on the lakes. The portages were backed up, and the close sites were taken. We ended up traveling twice the distance we intended to get to our first campsite in Lake Jordan. As forecast, the rain set in, and the next day was cold and wet. We elected to stay put and wait out the weather. It worked! The remaining days of our trip were sunny, clear, and much more tolerable temps.

Total miles paddled: 58
Portages: 13
Total portage distance: 2.6 miles (one way – we needed two trips to move canoes and gear at each portage).

OK, let’s address one quirky thing about portaging, maybe just in the Boundary Waters, maybe everywhere, I don’t know. That is measuring the distance of a portage in “rods“. A rod is an old English measurement, and works out to 16.5 feet – about the same length as a canoe. Maybe. Our canoe was 18.5 feet. But, for whatever reason, when we talk canoe portages, we talk rods. Our first portage out of the gate was 140 rods. Pretty serious, especially since our food barrel was completely full (and it was over ninety degrees).

What a trip! On our final day, we had a big paddle, then loaded up the canoes and car, then dropped off the canoe in Sandstone, then drove back to Burnsville all in one big day. Oh, and we had long hot showers.