The Jet Set Betties

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.

Welllll … we’ve been full of good intentions to catch up on our past stories, but days and weeks just keep rolling by! We just came back from a LOVELY 5-day trip to the Boundary Waters, plus we’ve had a really great time in the Twin Cities the past few weeks. So stayed tuned for stories and photos from these adventures, coming soon(ish). But for now, let’s go back a little further:

We had a lovely time visiting family and friends in Iowa, Aug 8-22. First, a little over a week in Kayla’s hometown of Storm Lake, where we had time with Dad and Nora, plus Kayla’s brother Kevin and sister-in-law Kristi.

We also had the chance to take in the Albert City Threshermen and Collectors Show – FANTASTIC small-town festival, showcasing the history of midwest farming, and providing machine & engine collectors to show off (and trade!) their stuff. The highlight for us was a steam-powered tractor – check out these photos and a video of the steam tractor:

One of the highlights of the weekend is the “A Year of Farming in a Day” where various machines from horse drawn to modern take turns harvesting, threshing, and then plowing the field. Can you imagine driving a steam powered tractor?

We also explored the area a little bit beyond Storm Lake, including Correctionville (named for surveyor’s correction line), the coldest spot in Iowa, and the world’s largest popcorn ball in Sac City.

Plus, after departing Storm Lake, we spent a couple quick days in Ankeny and Boone with dear friend Bridget and her family.

AND we went to the Iowa State Fair! Fantastic! I think it was about 167 degrees outside the day we went – all the animals had personal fans, and all the humans looked SO HOT. But it was a blast. We especially loved the 4-H projects – among these photos is a kid’s quest to learn whether he could cook a steak by slapping it. Ha! We also grabbed a good seat for the llama limbo – check out a quick video of that silliness below.

Our last day in Iowa, we hopped on a really fun excursion with Rail Explorers – a unique opportunity to ride a specialized “railbike” and pedal your way along the rails. They’ve established these tours in 5 places across the country, one of which is Boone, IA. The highlight of the tour was the 750′ crossing of the 156′ high trestle bridge. Here’s a photo of us on our railbike, plus a cool video of us crossing the high bridge. Be sure to watch to the end of the video – you’ll really get a feel for the ride!

Our post-Portland “plans” evolved through several iterations during the month of July. We always knew we would point toward the midwest when we were done housesitting, but what route we took and how long we’d spend getting there was up in the air. For awhile we were building a route to include several key highlights: the wonders and beauty of eastern Oregon and southern Idaho; Yellowstone and the Tetons or maybe Bozeman; Wyoming ranch/rodeo life; Devil’s Tower; Sturgis; Black Hills; Badlands; the Corn Palace; etc.

But then we thought about how crazy-busy those popular parks would be, and how hot/stormy it could be, plus it turned out the weekend we thought about being in Sturgis was the weekend of THE Sturgis Rally (um, that’s a hard NO!). PLUS if we moved a little faster, we could have the possibility of overlapping in Iowa with Kayla’s brother and sister-in-law.

So, we decided to push through with few stops, but still avoiding interstates. And we had a LOVELY drive – a little bit of US Hwy 26 in Oregon, and then Hwy 20 all the way from Boise into Iowa, just 15 miles south of Kayla’s hometown. We left Portland on August 3; spent two nights in Sisters, OR (including bonus time with dear friend Natalie in Bend); one night in Boise (and went to a AAA Boise Hawks baseballs game); one night in Dubois, Wyoming; one night in Valentine, Nebraska; and then – Voila! – we were in Storm Lake!

Friends, we spent 37 days in Portland, Oregon (1). It was nothing that we had planned too far in advance, it just sort of happened, and it was a great thing!

While we were on the road, a teacher couple reached out to us from one of our housesitting sites inviting us to stay in their house while they traveled to Ireland and Turkey with their seven year old son (2). The charges were two classroom guinea pigs (Jerome and Winston) and a street cat they rescued from Turkey named Inci (3).

We hadn’t planned to stay put in one place for so long, but we thought, “it’s summer time, and the out-of-doors could get pretty hot, and hey, Portland sounds like a fun town to really explore!”

Plus we could commit to the McMenemin’s Passport.

There are currently 64 bars, pubs, and/or restaurants that make up the McMenamins empire. It started in Portland, with a brewery and pub in Portland. The enterprise was so successful that in the 1990’s the founders were able to buy and restore a dilapidated “poor farm” from the 1950’s into a hotel, brewery, and concert venue. That led to other historic renovations, and that led to the sprawling map of old theaters, mill sites, churches, and schools that center around Portland but stretch to all corners of Oregon and even into Washington.

So for $35 you can buy a Passport. And then visiting each of the 64 bars, pubs, and/or restaurants will earn you a stamp. And then when you get enough stamps to fill a page, you might get a t-shirt or some free tater-tots or something. And then if you get all the stamps from each of their places, you are invited to a Cosmic Tripster party at one of their hotels in September! How much fun is that?

We have about half of our Passport stamps, so it looks like another extended visit to the Portland area is inevitable.

Another big event of our time in Portland was the Porch Fest, of course, which we detailed in the previous post. It was also FABULOUS to have Kayla’s sister Iris and nephew Jon out to visit for a few days (4). Here are a few photos from our adventures with them:

Besides the big events, though, it was great just to be in one place for a while, getting to know the rhythm of daily life in a vibrant city. We loved Otto’s Sausage Kitchen, and getting ice at Eric’s – nearby convenience store where they are always pumping out dance music on their impressive sound system. We loved jumping on our bikes to get around the neighborhoods, having easy access to the MAX light rail for a quick trip downtown, and being able to walk over to Gino’s in Selwood for a nice dinner out.

On a somber note, one night Inci went out for the night, just as she had for every other night (remember, she’s a Turkish street cat – I think this is what they do) but did not return in the morning. It is likely she ran into trouble with a coyote or owl – they are out there, even in the city. It was a super sad feeling to have that happen, and worse that it was on our watch, but our world-wise teacher couple understood that she was living her best life, and things are ok.

Many MANY thanks to: Jill and Desi for giving us the opportunity to spend this time in their neighborhood; Bill & Poppy for allll the hospitality, music, and sweet friendship; Iris and Jon for coming to visit; cousins Jon & Tenley for taking the time to reconnect with us; college friend Jamie and her sweet John (so many Jons!) for hanging out with us a couple times; and the good people of Milwaukie for being so gosh-darn hospitable! Already looking forward to our return.

Footnotes

(1) Well, really we mostly stayed in *Milwaukie*, which is the next city south of Portland, but the house was a block from the Portland border, so we won’t dwell on technicalities.

(2) They were traveling teachers back before their child, and wanted to take him to their old haunts.

(3) Pronounced “In-Jee” a Turkish word for “pearl”.

(4) Dedicated readers of this blog may recall that just a year ago, Iris was embarking on a very scary journey with Stage 4 endometrial cancer … we are all over-the-moon to report that she responded extremely well to treatments and surgery and is back to work and travel and gardening!

Whoa, it’s already been three weeks and over 1,600 miles since our Porchfest gig! But it was such a highlight of our time in Portland … indulge us as we share with you.

As you may recall, we accepted a 5-week housesitting job in Milwaukie, OR – a south suburb of Portland (and a small town in it’s own right). When we were talking with the homeowners to learn about them and their pets, they found out that we aspire to be musicians and mentioned that we should sign up for Porchfest while we’re there. So we did!

The Milwaukie Porchfest ran for 3 Friday nights: July 14, 21, and 28. We signed up to perform on the 21st. This gave us the chance to bike around on the 14th and 28th to see how other performers were doing it.

It’s organized by the Milwaukie arts council, and they sure do a nice job. It was so easy to sign up, and they took care of everything from keeping the website updated (with a handy map of all the participating locations) to providing us with a lawn sign and door hangers to warn the neighbors we’d be making some noise.

We also had to gather and assemble a couple of critical pieces of gear we had left behind: namely, some sort of drum kit. Kayla plays drums like Animal on the Muppets – which is hilarious and manages to keep some sort of beat. She had long fantasized about having a kick drum made out of a Samsonite suitcase. Thanks to Facebook marketplace, local pawn shops, and a little handywork from Matthew and our friend Bill, that dream came true!

We invited our pals Bill & Poppy to join us for part of our show, which gave us the chance to really work some specific songs out with them. Also, Kayla’s amazing nephew, Jon, came down from Seattle for the weekend and also joined the band on his bass! We had a blast rehearsing and performing with them all – those extra-talented band members definitely made the show.

But the real show-stopper was Bill & Poppy’s dog, Riley. This photo says it all:

He sat up there like that for the entire time Bill & Poppy were up there!

All in all, we managed to put together a TWO HOUR concert! And it went really well, overall. So good for us to have a deadline for dusting off all our instruments and justifying the fact that we’ve carried all this stuff around for thousands of miles. We had about 50 people stop by and check us out; some stayed for one song, others stayed for an hour. We had a few special guests who watched the whole show: Kayla’s sister Iris came from Michigan to visit for the weekend, plus Kayla & Iris’s cousin Jon lives in the Portland area and came for the concert.

I’ll wrap this up with a few more photos and a couple of short videos. It was such a fun experience, and a great way for the Jet Set Betties to take a deep dive back into the music.

Hi friends! We’re still here! All is well! Sorry for the long silence – we’ve settled into a nice routine in Portland and the weeks have just flown by! We’re going to work on a couple of blog updates over the next few days – this one will tell the story of traveling from Utah back to Oregon last month; then we’ll put together a couple posts to share about our fun times in Portland over the last few weeks.

Let’s travel back in time …

Sunday, June 11 (immediately following the music festival in Utah): It is time to put the canyons in the rear-view mirror. Kayla and Matthew are starting to long for trees, and shade, and maybe a break from the relentless and stark beauty of the canyons. We knew that after a weekend of Festivaling in the dust we would want a clean room and a shower, so we’ve booked two hotels as we push across Nevada. Our first destination is Ely, NV.

We leave Torrey and hit the highway. Kayla asks, “did something weird just happen?” and Matthew says “nah.” Ten miles out we pull over for gas to discover that we hadn’t latched the galley hatch, and it was fully open. Horror! Miraculously, nothing had flown out of our back end. The hatch had shifted horizontally on its hinge, but we were able to get it realigned and it shut just fine. How did we get away from that mistake without a disaster?!?! *whew* Learning from this lesson, we now check the galley hatch seven times as part of our pre-flight checklist.

From Torrey we move through Loa and Richfield, and then get on Highway 50 (the loneliest road) through Scipio, Holden, and Delta, UT. Just outside of Delta we encounter our first big thunderstorm. We’ve been watching the dark clouds ahead of us, not sure if our winding highway would lead us through it or around it. Sure enough, we are going through. It starts as heavy rain, but as we approach the center of the storm, it turns to hail. We watch the outside temperature go from 73 degrees to 37 degree in minutes. (You read that right: a 36-degree temp change in mere minutes!)

At the border of Utah and Nevada we encounter another storm strong enough to take us off the road. We find a little service station and get the car under a roof before the big hail hits. Incredible storms! We finally get to Ely around 4 PM, get a pizza, and camp out in our hotel for the night.

June 12: After Kayla’s morning meeting, we hit the road for a big day of crossing Nevada. We stay on Highway 50 pretty much all the way to Sparks, Nevada (basically a suburb of Reno) where we enjoy an evening in a casino hotel. A note about our casino dinner as written in our road journal:

Delicious Margaritas and a plate full of regret at one of the casino restaurants. Bizarre, soulless world of new age digital “slot” machines.

June 13-15: Our first stop was a county park in Sparks, where Kayla settled in for a meeting, and Matthew began to reorganize the Betty Mobile and started a de-dustification process that will last for weeks.

We take the winding Red Rock Road north out of Reno and over the pass into California. Along the way we see…locusts?…swarming sections of the road. They were huge!!

Highway 385 takes us to Susanville (awesome lunch at the Lumberjack Cafe!), then 36 west, 32 to Chico, and 99 to A9 (just east of Corning) to Woodson Bridge State Recreation Area.

What a great spot for what we needed! The campground was dense with trees, and right next to the Sacramento River (though no easy access to it). We will spend three nights here, fully unwinding from our four-plus weeks of desert camping and constant moving about. Still, after two nights of hoteling, we are so happy to be back in the Bettie Mobile. We skip dinner and go right to sleep.

Kayla has been assigned to a new work project that is keeping her pretty busy, so these are big work days for her, while Matthew continues the de-dusting of our vehicles, prepares some pretty delicious camp meals, and makes friends with the campground hosts.

June 16: By noon we’ve packed up and are ready to head north. We jump on I5 straight to Ashland, OR for another, longer visit with the delightful Sandy Burd. We’re pretty exhausted, and grateful for a little quiet time, showers, and excellent conversation over a simple dinner with Sandy.

June 17: We spend a lovely sunny day in Ashland, enjoying the parks and outdoor restaurants and a cool evening, solving all the world’s problems with Sandy.

June 18: A lazy chatty morning and then it is back on the road! Our drive today was really criss-crossy, beautiful, and fun! We take I5 just for the first part – through Roseburg and Sutherlin – but then we leave the interstate and have a lovely drive through rural Oregon. Hwy 138 to Rochester Bridge Road, and over a covered bridge.

Fun Fact: Covered bridges were covered so that horses wouldn’t freak out about crossing over water!

Then to County road 23, Metz Hill Rd, Cty Rd 29 to John Long Road, briefly on I99 North then Hwy 38. (Side note: The little town of Lorane is particularly charming.) Finally, we take Territorial Hwy to Richardson Park on Fern Ridge Lake, where we land for another three-night camp. The lake is lovely, and the campsites are huge. Perfect!

June 19-20: The campground is just outside of the city of Eugene, so we spend our afternoons exploring the city, and usually spend some evening time biking/walking around the campground and lake area. Very peaceful, lovely campground – highly recommended!

**There’s another thread connecting these Oregon spots that we’ll talk about more in a future post. The headline is that there is this brewery pub chain called McMenamin’s and they have brewpubs all over Oregon, and they have these Passports where we earn stamps (and prizes) for visiting all their places and we’re trying to visit as many of their establishments as possible this month. Our stops in Roseburg, Eugene, Corvallis, and Salem all included some time in McMenamin’s pubs.**

June 21: Moving on to Corvallis. Territorial Hwy, with quick bit on Hwy 36 to Cheshire, then Applegate Trail back to Territorial Hwy to Monroe, 99 West to the Corvallis airport, then a few more quick turns until we arrive at the Benton County Fairgrounds RV Park – our home for the next couple of days. We were too early to check in, so we drove a little further into downtown Corvallis. Kayla conducted an interview inside the Bettie Mobile parked near Central Park while Matthew found some A+ sandwiches at Old World Deli. After checking in to our campsite, we hopped on our bikes, found a quick and easy path into town, and enjoyed some food and drinks at … where? That’s right: McMenamins!

June 22: Massive day of work for Kayla, starting at 6 am at a coffee shop! Finally done at 2:00, we hop on our bikes again and take a long ride through town, next to the river, and through Willamette Park. We found some beers and tacos (at a NON-McMenamins! Notably: Taco Vino, which was super cool!).

This campground gets a C- for amenities (small spaces, no shade, marginal showers, terrible wifi) but an A for location (just a block away from a bike path that goes straight into the OSU campus and throughout the town). It’s a really interesting set-up though: it’s basically on the grounds of the county fair, so the 4-H and livestock buildings were right next to our bathrooms (they were empty of fair items, but in a testament to Benton County’s entrepreneurialism, they clearly rent out a lot of these spaces as boat/trailer/vehicle storage during the non-fair season).

June 23: On the road again! We pass through Salem (McMenamins!), then continued to Bill & Poppy’s house near Sherwood. Surely you remember Bill & Poppy, the musical friends we visited back in March? So lovely to be with them again. They’ve just returned from a bluegrass festival, so all of us are pretty tired. We have watermelon gazpacho (!!!) for dinner and call it a night.

June 24: Laid-back day, exploring Wilsonville (home of historic Boone’s Ferry) and playing some music.

June 25: We head out to McMinnville, where we’re going to have a McMenamin’s hotel experience! Fun (but HOT!) afternoon/evening: highlight was drinks on the Hotel Oregon’s rooftop bar. And the hotel itself is a super-cool renovated historic building.

June 26-28: We head into Portland, where we’re borrowing Bill & Poppy’s condo in the Sellwood neighborhood for a couple of days while spending some time with Jill & Desi – the people we’re going to be housesitting for – and meeting their three pets. Jill, Desi, and their son Rio are all delightful, the house is in a charming neighborhood, and we’re feeling even more excited about spending the next 5 weeks here.

Thursday, June 8: We move just a few miles, from the campground in Torrey onto the grounds of the Fort Desolation Festival. We are one of the first to arrive, and so Matthew takes the opportunity to try a time lapse sequence of all the campers setting up. He had purchased a bargain tripod at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago expressly for this moment. Two seconds into the movie, the tripod collapsed and broke. And that was that. Is there a lesson in there somewhere? I don’t know.

The first day of music was just two acts: Pixie and the Partygrass Boys (Bluegrass) and White Buffalo (Good ol’ Rock and Roll). Besides the main stage, the Festival has two smaller stages: one close to the main stage where local acts fill the time between the main stage music, and a late-night stage in the campground. Pixie played the late gig.

June 9: A much bigger day of music, starting at 4:00 pm. This is the day that Matthew and Kayla are most excited about. On the docket: Parker Milsap (Rock and Roll) Madison Cunningham (Alternative – the most dangerous music of the Festival), Houndmouth (Rock and Roll), and Shakey Graves (Holy Cow Rock and Roll). Madison’s music is amazing – her music serves her lyrics, so her songs go everywhere – no Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus for her.

We walk back to our campsite between each act, sometimes for food, sometimes for beverages. Kayla figures it is a half-mile walk each way, so we put in at least four miles of trudging through the dust.

Saturday, June 10: The final day of the Festival. This is when the Big Acts are playing, which for Matthew and Kayla are mostly less exciting than those that came the day before. On the docket: The Brothers Comatose (Bluegrass), Jamestown Revival (yay! A band we fell in love with when we saw them live a few years before. Americana), Morgan Wade (Country), Ben Harper (uh, rock? He’s a tough one to put in a box).

Kayla and Matthew took this day a little easier – we outright skipped Comatose (though, make no mistake, we could hear them plenty well from our campsite). Jamestown Revival had us in the front row, and put on a great show. We enjoyed Morgan Wade over cocktails at our campsite, and then trekked back to catch Ben Harper, but mainly from the food truck section.

The food trucks were tucked into a corner of the festival grounds. One truck served corndogs, and that was it. Everyone we passed who had a corndog was clearly in some sort of ecstatic fervor, and the line was always long. But Matthew was determined to get one. Guess what? He got THE VERY LAST CORNDOG. I mean the last one. He got his corndog and they closed up shop.

It did not disappoint. MT will probably never have another corndog, because there is no need. Once you’ve been to the top of the mountain, ain’t no reason to climb another. He even wrote a fan letter to The Corn Dog Company and said he would proudly wear one of their T-shirts if they sent him one.

While campers kind of had the VIP access to the festival, it was open to the public. Folks were pouring in for Ben Harper, and I’m guessing the crowd for his act was twice the size of anything the night before.

On the way to the Ben Harper show (or really, on our way to the food trucks) we caught the final act on the local’s stage. This stage made us feel pretty sad for the musicians all week. It was a Progressive Insurance Skee-Ball game, like you might find at a county fair, that the musicians climbed up on to perform. It was set up right at the entrance/exit to the main festival, so stopping to watch the musicians immediately put one in the way of everyone else. Tough gig! This final act, though, had folks actually stopping to take it in.

To cap off the evening, Jamestown Revival came back to play on the Late Night Stage. They really brought a crowd, which made things awkward as midnight approached. The band was having fun, the crowd was having fun, but I guess since the stage was in the campground, there was some concern about noise. The festival organizer came out to make a deal that the band would play one more song, but without amplification. Everyone got real quiet for a special final song before we all called it a night.

Pronounced “Es-Ca-Lant” apparently.

Trip Odometer: 12,347

Wednesday, May 31: After some solid provisioning in Grand Junction, we took a beautiful drive across I70 and through three small towns in the canyonlands of Utah: Torrey (we will return there later), Boulder (elevation 9600), and finally Escalante for five nights at The Canyons of Escalante RV Park. The drive took us through so many different landscapes: sand castles, red rocks, aspen forests, even snow at the higher altitudes.

Escalante (population 798, elevation 5,820 ft) puts us right in the heart of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

June 1: Lots of working during the heat of the day, but then a swell hike along the Escalante River to a natural bridge. There were dire warnings of mosquitos, but we only wound up feeding a few.

June 2-3: Not much on the agenda except a little driving around on the 2nd, but on the 3rd we take a teeth rattling drive down Hole In The Rock road to the Devil’s Garden. We’ve noticed this tendency all across canyon country to give things a hellish connotation: Hell’s Backbone, Devil’s Pocket, etc. For fun we begin naming other feature’s this way, for example, Devil’s Coatrack, and Hell’s Port-a-Jon. Devil’s Garden was super-cool: definitely a highlight of our whole trip so far!

June 4: Escalante is right next door to Bryce Canyon National Park, so we enjoy a long day there.

June 5-6: We travel the 65 miles from Escalante to Torrey, Utah for three days of exploring before we check into the Fort Desolation Festival. We take our time getting there and setting up. The next day is working and provisioning, nothing too exciting. We do play a little music and draw a little crowd for that.

Our single-file setup in Torrey.

Wed, June 7: Into Capitol Reef National Park in search of a hike to an arch we’ve been told about. We miss the turn off for the hike at first, and wind up taking a lovely off-road drive through the canyons. Eventually we find the trail and enjoy some uphill climbing at high altitude on a hot day.

That takes us up to our big Adventure Camping and Music Festival, which deserves its own post. Stay tuned for some pictures of something other than rocks! Oh, and there will also be pictures of rocks.

The cottonwood trees were in full swing. So many seeds that they piled up like snowdrifts.