The Jet Set Betties

[Editor’s Note, to those of you who receive our updates via email: we inadvertently had the wrong title on our last dispatch when we hit the “send” button. The post about our travels across Hwy 2 is correctly entitled “The Hi-Line”, and THIS is the “We Live Outside” post. We apologize for the error.]

It’s a frequent question at a lot of restaurants during nice weather: “Would you like to sit inside or out?” But, as you know, dining outside is not such a novelty for us, and especially with these hot temps, we’ve definitely been opting for indoors and a/c! This blog chapter will share more about our outdoor livin’, Twyla’s brain condition, and an exciting night with a motorcycle club.

July 7: Olympia & Centralia
Odometer reading = 5,112

Today we’re celebrating 17 years of married times! So grateful for all the adventures and sweet harmonies all these years have provided us. We have a nice morning with Terry and Mary, then bid them adieu. Our non-interstate route takes us on Hwy 18, 276th Ave, Hwy 169S, Hwy 164, 410W, 165S, 162W, Orville Rd, Hwy 7, 702E, 507, and 510W! Beautiful views of Mt Rainier along the way. We stop in Olympia for lunch … guess where? McMenamin’s Spar Cafe of course! Continuing on to Centralia, we follow old Hwy 99 to Tenino, then 507 S. It’s NINETY-FIVE DEGREES outside, and for that reason alone we’re glad we’re staying at the McMenamin’s Olympic Club hotel. Not a whole lot else going on in Centralia, so we settle in for full McMenamin’s treatment: drinks, shufflepuck, dinner, and an internet connection to watch The Bear.

July 8–10: Cape Decision State Park (Long Beach, WA)
After some work meetings and provisioning, we hit the road again. Pointed south to Chevalis, then west on 6 to Raymond until we hit good ol’ Hwy 101. The temperature finally started to drop – the predicted high temp on the coast today is 70 vs 97 in Centralia/Seattle!

We arrive at Cape Disappointment State Park with plenty of time to set up the camper and take a bike tour of the whole campground. Windy! And blissfully cool. Sweeping Pacific Coast landscapes including cliffs and lighthouses. Oh yeah – and the real special part about this place is that it’s where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. In fact, it got its name because in 1788, English explorer John Meares made a wrong turn and found this bay instead of the mighty river he was looking for, and was …. well … DISAPPOINTED.

We have a lovely few days in this dynamic place. We’re in the “D” part of the campground, which initially seemed somewhat removed from the action, but in reality, it was also protected from the relentless wind, we had a nice deep campsite so we felt like we could spread out and have some privacy, and we’re really close to the cute little store. Kayla managed to string together enough cell signal and public library time to get some work done, and we had enough time to set up the tent and stretch out a little bit. Nice adventures, also: we biked about 15 miles of the Discovery Trail, which winds through the grassy dunes along the shore, and we popped into the towns of Seaview and Long Beach. We visited both lighthouses (the Cape Disappointment lighthouse was supposedly a quick 1/2-mile hike, but we weren’t prepared for the steep incline!) and enjoyed the amazing views. We also biked to Benson Beach one evening and let the ocean wind blast us for awhile.

The Long Beach peninsula was once America’s largest producer of farmed oysters, and they’re still crankin ’em out – there are piles of oyster shells along the roadsides and everywhere you look. We took a drive to the northern-most tip of the peninsula, all the way to Oysterville, thinking that would be a great place to have ourselves a few oysters. But NOPE – closed on Wednesdays, go figure. The other oyster lead we had was to someone’s house, where they were selling a few things out of their garage and oysters were priced at $3.50 each! NOPE! We found some delicious shrimp tacos down the road instead. The town of Long Beach reminds us a little of the Outer Banks in North Carolina, but waaaaaay less busy.

While we’re at Cape Disappointment, our beloved Twyla is starting to act a little funny – she’s not sure she wants to let us remote lock/unlock the doors anymore. We have a way of manually unlocking them, but it sets off the car alarm and we have to be ready to immediately shove our key into its slot when we get the door open.

July 11-12: Cannon Beach, OR
We jump back on Hwy 101 and cross an amazing bridge into Astoria, OR. McMenamin’s Gearhart Hotel is en route to our next stop, so we stop in for lunch and stamps. Definitely a country club vibe here, and another cleverly-apportioned property. There’s a full restaurant plus one small bar within the main building, but the real treat is the Sand Bar, a little shack nestled next to the 9th tee and paired with a fun little putting course.

Back on 101, we head to Cannon Beach and pull into our spot for 2 nights at the Sea Ranch RV Park. Haha, what a goofy place. Small sites, ridiculously small bathroom/shower areas, a community dishwashing station crowded between the women’s restroom and someone else’s campsite … but it’s literally across a small bridge from downtown and a quick bike ride to beach access. Plus, they have really good internet throughout the campground and we’re able to catch up with The Bear.

Over the course of our 2 days here, we walk the main beach and admire Haystack Rock of course, but our grand adventure was a big bike & hike to Ecola State Park. We biked up to the main lookout (only a 1-mile distance, but close to a 700-ft incline = OOF!) and thought we could catch the trail to secluded Crescent Beach from there, but some landslide potential makes that part of the trail off-limits. We bike back down about halfway and find another unmarked trail to the beach where there are only a handful of people. We set up our chairs to have a snack and enjoy the view, then walk the beach before we hike back up and enjoy the all-downhill return to the campground. Quick dinner, more Bear, then zzzzzzz…..

July 13-14: Kalama, WA and camping with a motorcycle club
We retrace our path back to Astoria, then head east on Hwy 30 to Rainier, then south to Kalama. Why on earth is Kalama our destination? A McMenamin’s Hotel, of course! But we can’t afford those lodge prices, so we have a spot booked at Camp Kalama RV Park. As we pull toward our campsite, we see a large gathering of people in the center grassy area of the grounds and a stage being set up. We reach the row of our site, and the whole area is packed with Harley Davidson motorcycles, and those who ride them. Our pull-thru spot is right in the middle of this group, and the entrance and exit are both blocked by Harleys. We pull up and get out of the car, and within seconds Ray-Ray, the leader of the pack, is by our side and hollering “Who’s bikes are these?!” Turns out the Alky Angels (a club of sober bikers) are gathering here tonight, and Ray-Ray is the president. They’re all super-friendly and invite us to join them, but we’re desperate for a shower (we’re back in temps of upper 90s again) and we have six stamps to get at Kalama Harbor Lodge, so off we go!

Kalama is kind of a strange, sad town. It looks like it was once a busy industrial waterfront for ships on the Columbia and a busy train depot. Just up the river bank there is a cute little downtown just outside from all that activity. But when they built I-5, they put it right along the train tracks and basically severed downtown from the waterfront. McMenamin’s Lodge is right on the river, and it’s another fun spot to explore, with one outpost 1/2 mile north of the main lodge, and another one 1/2 mile south. We have fun watching the ship traffic, as well as the people.

When we get back to the campground, the Alky Angels are gathering for their late-night AA meeting, but all is quiet until about 8 am, when the Harleys start revving up and pulling out.

Update on Twyla: she has been increasingly slow to start, and continues to be inconsistent with the locks. We’ve determined the battery needs to be replaced – but with your VW Touareg, this isn’t as simple as stopping at Napa and swapping it out. Nope, those German engineers decided the best place for the battery is under the driver’s seat, so it’s a bit of a production. We managed to get an appointment at a shop in Portland for Monday, so we just need her to start about 8 more times. But sure enough, she won’t start on Sunday morning in Kalama. Fortunately we’re surrounded by helpful folks, so we get a jump and are on our way.

Our Seattle friends Jenny & Mickey are down in the Portland area for their son’s baseball tournament, so we stop in Beaverton to have brunch with them. Always a hoot to see them! Twyla managed to start after brunch, and we continued our journey to Sherwood (south of Portland), where we’re crashing at Bill & Poppy’s house for a few days while they’re up at a bluegrass festival in northern WA. We’re SO GRATEFUL to have a place to unpack, do laundry, and spread out for a little bit. We continue to have troubles with Twyla – also grateful to B&P for letting us borrow their Jeep for jumpstarts and temporary transportation while Twyla gets her brain transplant.

July 15-16: Twyla has surgery, and we wander the suburbs
After another jumpstart, we get Twyla to Hillside Imports. Thinking this will only take a few hours, we take a Lyft to one of the suburban McMenamin’s we haven’t been to yet, and then a city bus to another one. (One of the great things about McM’s is that there’s good internet at all of them, so we can work and catch up on blogging/correspondence while we’re killing time and getting stamps!) It isn’t until 4:00 that we learn Twyla won’t be discharged until TOMORROW (uggghhhhh) so we grab some groceries and another Lyft back to Sherwood. Bill’s Jeep comes in super-handy the next day for us to go pick her up. We spend another day in Sherwood: Kayla works her job and Matthew catches up on some camper projects.

On the 17th we head into Portland and have been here ever since – but this is plenty enough for now, we’ll save our city stories for the next post. Thanks for reading all of this! We love hearing from you and hope to connect soon.

In this installment we bring our heroes across Hwy 2 alongside the Great Northern Railway (aka “the Hi-line”) — from the northern prairies across Montana and into the Pacific Northwest.

Current situation: Greetings from a very warm Portland! We’ve been enjoying many a fun restaurant and pub in this great town over the past week, with a priority on air conditioning. (Yes, there are many McMenamin’s in the mix as we continue our quest for passport stamps, but we’re also seeing friends and trying to patronize other venues and types of cuisine!)

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Dear Reader: we left you in North Dakota three weeks ago (!!), so let’s pick up the story there.

June 26: Odometer = 3,967
After our close encounter with the bison, we packed up and departed Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The minute we left the park, the environment changed dramatically. Instead of the quiet 2-lane highways through ranch/grasslands we’d become accustomed to across the Dakotas, now we have brand new 4-lane highways packed with large trucks, and a landscape of massive fracking operations: rows of earth movers, derricks, pipes, and barracks for workers. The boomtowns of Watford City and Willistone were sights to behold: strip mall cities to support the drilling operations, with gas flares burning alongside the highway and above the city buildings.

As soon as we cross into Montana, Highway 2 returns to the two-lane, rural road we expected. Although the Dakotas and eastern Montana are pretty flat, there’s something special about the prairie landscape and small towns.

Fun fact about Highway 2 (and once again connecting with our pal Teddy Roosevelt): a large portion of Hwy 2 follows the old Theodore Roosevelt International Highway – an auto trail organized in 1919 to connect Portland Maine with Portland Oregon. This route was also built to parallel the Great Northern Railroad. Indeed, we had train tracks and many trains running alongside us during our travels. And you know what? More trains means less semis on that road. Win, win!

The Great Northern, was – of course – the brainchild of Canadian/Minnesotan railroad director James J. Hill, who had a dream of building a railway to the Pacific Ocean, where he could establish a substantial trade industry with Asia. Hill’s labor strategy was to build small towns along the route where workers could live, and in order to entice a European immigrant workforce, they gave these towns familiar European names: Malta, Dunkirk, Havre, Zurich, etc.

We get as far as Fort Peck, MT today, and camp at the “downstream campground”. Very nice! Big cottonwood trees and lots of grassy areas, spacious sites, nice bathrooms, sweet bike path around the area – all for $25! The Fort Peck dam is one of the largest projects from the New Deal era, and still the 2nd-largest earthen dam in the world. Similar to the towns along the Highline, Fort Peck was built to house the New Deal dam workers and remains a sweet little piece of history. (Apparently this area also has one of the world’s biggest concentrations of dinosaur fossils, but we didn’t look into that.)

June 27: Rain is in the forecast so we pack the trailer accordingly (we get a bit of seepage in our lower storage hatches when we drive through rain, so we stuff some towels right inside the doors to soak it up). We hop back on Hwy 2, traveling through Glasgow (trains, stockyards, rodeo); Hinsdale; Saco (it appears the entire town is for sale); and Havre, where we stop for lunch at the homespun Lunch Box Cafe. We also grab some gas and groceries. It is really gross outside: rainy and windy and only 54 degrees (a HUGE change from 3 days ago when we were sweltering in Sturgis at 96 degrees!).

Back on the road, through Shelby (stuck in the 50s with great vintage signage!), Browning and Starr School (both looking pretty grim and depressed), and Eler (where we’re at 5,000 ft and climbing). And then – all of a sudden, after driving through flat lands for days – BOOM! Mountains!

It’s still rainy and terrible outside as we pull into St Mary, a sweet little spot that serves as the East entry point to Glacier National Park. The weather inspires us to go check out “town” and have a beer, then we cozied up in the camper and shut out the wind and rain for the night.

June 28: Still pretty rainy. We hang out in the camper most of the morning – Kayla worked a bit, and we did some more future planning. Rain finally let up a bit in the early afternoon – we venture out to Many Glacier, intending to take a short hike, but it was really crowded and the rain picked up again, so we went back to the campground. The weather finally broke late afternoon and turned into a gorgeous evening. We had delicious grilled burgers and a stroll around the campground.

June 29: Sunny! Blue Skies! Checked out of the campground, left the Bettymobile in the Visitor Center parking lot, and set off on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Gorgeous views! We saw a bighorn sheep and an adolescent bear! Had a nice pull-off at Sun Point for a little stroll and a nice vista. But, like most National Parks these days, it was pretty crowded. Limited parking at the handful of trailheads, resulting in people making their own rules and walking along the roadside. Crazy cyclists also made for some stressful driving, especially as they were pushing their way up the steep hills near Logan Pass. There are still PILES of snow above 6,000 feet.

We picked up the Bettymobile and moved on to our next spot: Rocky Mountain Hi campground, just north of Kalispell. We have a couple of hours to rest and continue drying things out, but soon it’s time to go visit one of Kayla’s old college chums: Mark McCrady! Mark and Kayla were in the St Olaf Band together all four years of college, but hadn’t seen each other in over two decades. Truly delightful to see him and Kari again, hear about their sweet life in Whitefish, and spend some time in their lovely home.

June 30: Raining again! But we caught a break in time to pack up, and fortunately avoided rain for our whole drive. We made a great stop at Kootenai Falls, between Libby and Troy – nice hike to see amazing river rapids and falls, plus a swinging bridge across the river. Matthew is ready to move to Troy and become a white water kayak guide.

As we pulled into Sandpoint, ID, thunderstorms were rapidly moving in. We had just enough time to park the trailer at Springy Point Campground and jump back into the car before it started POURING. We went to Utara Brewing Co for shelter, and then Arlo’s for pizza. The storms moved on, and we caught a lovely sunset from our campground beach. Pretty nice campground – sites are small and close together, but there are lots of trees, a beachy area, and clean facilities.

July 1: Of course we’re moving through these lovely areas too quickly, but we have an appointment in Snoqualmie tomorrow night, so we push onward. Leaving Sandpoint, we stay on the south side of Pend Oreille River all the way to Priest River, where we reconnect with Hwy 2. We stopped in Newport WA, where Kayla took a couple of meetings in a municipal park while Matthew got groceries. The hills and rivers of ID have given way to scrubby, treeless ag land in eastern WA. To save a few miles, we take WA 292 to Springdale and 231 to Rearden, then hop on 2 again all the way to Leavenworth. Just past Waterville, Hwy 2 cuts through rocky hillsides and curves continuously until we run into the Columbia River, the beginning of the Cascade Mountains, and all the fruit farms of the Wenatchee Valley. Plus – WOW – Leavenworth! A Bavarian village through and through. We didn’t take time to stop, but we had no idea something so German lurked in the Cascade foothills.

We camped in Lake Wenatchee State Park. Spacious sites, although we were surrounded on both sides by families with rambunctious (and hilarious) tykes who became fast friends and our site became a busy path for them to visit each other. Fun for one night – would have been annoying for two. Lots of mosquitos in the campground, but the steady breeze by the lake was perfect for an evening sit.

July 2-6: Kayla had a meeting and was grateful for good cell service (and that the children had all cleared out for some lake activities!). At noon we hopped back on Hwy 2 and crossed Stephens Pass. Beautiful day for a mountain drive! Upon our arrival in Snoqualmie, we were greeted enthusiastically by Terry and Mary. It was only 15 months ago when we first met these two delightful humans — our Portland friends Bill and Poppy introduced all of us last April and the six of us had one fantastic evening of music jams and conversation. Fast forward to this year – they heard we were traveling back through the area and invited us to stay with them for a few days. So sweet and generous! We knew we would have lots of fun conversation and great musical times together … and sure enough, we did! It was marvelous to get to know them a little better, and we really enjoyed swapping “tasty tunes” (as Terry would say) and sharing harmonies with them. We’re already looking forward to the next time we can get together.

We snuck into Seattle for a couple of days – many thanks to Sitka friends Grace & Charlie who let us crash at their condo again! We were able to check in on nephew Jon and have a couple of easy-going city days with him. We spent the evenings on the condo’s roof patio – a beautiful view of Seattle Center, glorious relief from the 90-degree heat, and a neat vantage of all the suburban fireworks on the horizon.

We’ll leave it there for now – our next post will share stories of our week on the coast, diagnosing Twyla’s brain condition, and adventures camping with a motorcycle club. Before we close, we missed this awesome bison photo from our last post:

5000+ miles

On July 4 we officially crossed the US, Chesapeake to Pacific. We settled into Seattle for two (relatively) quiet days after our big push across continental divides. This comes after nine days of drives and one-night stops across the South and North Dakotas, Montana, and Idaho. This kind of travel brought us to some memorable places, but also begins to create a pattern where it becomes difficult to discern one day from another. Each day is wake up, make coffee, make breakfast, pack up, drive, have lunch, drive, set up camper, explore a little, have dinner, go to sleep, repeat. It leads to questions like, “How many states ago did we buy this sausage sitting at the bottom of the cooler?” and “Wait, we were having coffee with the buffalo just three days ago?” (more on that later). This kind of travel also doesn’t lend itself well to keeping touch on the ol’ blog, so again our apologies, dear readers. From this point on we will be easing our foot off the gas, covering less distance, and enjoying more time in our places. First we need to get the Betties out of Minneapolis and into Seattle! Here we go!

June 12 – 18: Minneapolis, MN

Odometer 2200 miles

We spent a week at Ione (K’s sister) and Gary’s place just outside of MPLS. We endeavored to help them with a basement restoration project, and we had a gig planned with niece Sophia’s band the Mill City Caravan. We also had a surprise for Gary – we helped fly young Jon from Seattle into town for Father’s day, and to join the band!

It was such a treat to sing four part harmonies and play some tunes with some amazing musicians in a real live band! Many thanks to Mill City Caravan for letting us crowd onto their stage!

June 19 -22: Storm Lake, IA

We had a brief stop in Storm Lake to visit Kayla’s dad. And, hot out of the Twin Cities, we had a lunch gig at the senior center.

On the To-Do list if for Matthew to rebuild Coleman stove. After carefully disassembling it and cleaning each part, he irrevocably broke it while trying to put it back together. Sigh. There wasn’t time to solve how to fix it, so we said the serenity prayer and moved on.

June 23: Mitchell SD and the Corn Palace!

Odometer 3184

Our ride to Mitchell turned out to be more by the skin of our tires trhan we knew at the time! There’s been heavy rain in the midwest for the past several days. Though our departure day is beautify, rivers are swelling across the midwest. We are turned around by the overflowing Little Sioux river just outside of Storm Lake, so we take an alternate route to cross the river at Correctionville, and then again on I20 at Sioux City. Later we learn that these passes were closed due to flooding just hours after we crossed those bridges! Whew!

In Mitchell we buy a new propane stove and then head to the World’s Only Corn Palace. From our journal: “a a hilarious combination of high and low art.”

June 24: Sturgis SD

No time to revel in the Corn Palace for another day, we have ground to cover. We drive through Woonsocket, Hunkpati, Ft Thompson, and Pierre (which had a nice library for a meeting Kayla needed to take) to finally reach Sturgis, home of the Sturgis Motorcycle rally. Let’s steal from Wikipedia here: Attendance has historically been around 500,000 people, reaching a high of over 700,000 in 2015. The event takes place over 10 days and generates around $800 million in annual revenue. In 2020, the rally provided 21% of the city’s annual revenue.

So, this is a town that is primarily built around a 10 day motorcycle festival. Far out. There are many facilities that are clearly designed to handle very many motorcycles and their drinking riders, including the campground we stay at, right the interstate. The temperatures are getting up in the 90’s, and we are dead beat tired, so we rent an air conditioned “cabin” for not much more than what it would have cost to park the trailer.

June 25: Roosevelt State Park ND

Alternating between bright yellow fields of canola, ranch land, and bad land, we followed Highway 2 north through Redig (while on the map, it consisted of three houses, one broken corral, and 100s of old vehicles parked on a grassy hillside), Buffalo (pop. 346), Ludlaw, to just across the line to Bowman, ND where the local diner had rodeo on the television, and then finally to the lovely Theodore Roosevelt State Park.

What a lovely park! The campsites are dry, but served by a wonderful, fully plumbed restroom with a great shower. The sites are by a wild meandering section of the Little Missouri River. There’s a 14 mile drive through the park to an overlook into the canyon, which we drove as the sun was setting. The park was mercifully cool, and we had a great night’s sleep.

The next morning we decided we would take a one-mile hike to “prairie dog town” with our morning coffee before breaking camp. We walked along a narrow brushy canyon path. The town lived up to its name, with plenty of those little critters popping up. When we had our fill we started the hike back when we saw two bison cows meandering the opposite direction on the path. We moved off the trail a bit and watched them go past. But not very far. Just past us they found a nice hollow where they began wallowing around in the dusty sand. OK, well, they were occupied, so we thought it was best just to scoot on past, but then, around the corner comes a bull. This guy clearly saw us between him and his two ladies, so we again move off the path. Only Mr. Buff needs to strut his stuff, so he takes his time moving down the path, huffing at us like a steam locomotive, before taking his place next to his two ladies, who are still kicking up a dust storm with their hooves in the air like they don’t care. But it is clear it is time for us to make our move down the path and out of the park.

Sometimes Life can be a tidal wave that sweeps you up, roils you around a bit, and then unceremoniously dumps you on a beach somewhere. Maybe that’s the case here – and maybe we haven’t even landed on the beach just yet!

It’s been a month since we left Juneau, and despite our best intentions, this blog has been existing in an electronic purgatory since we landed in Michigan on May 14. We’ve come up a few times for air (sticking with that tidal wave metaphor) to add to this post, but if we don’t wrap this up and click “send” today, we are gonna forget half of what’s gone down in the last two months!

Here we go!

We have so many stories to share since our last post, but in short: Folk Fest was a hoot! A week later, we hiked 7 miles to witness the dissection of a sleeper shark. Then there were more wonderful times in Juneau with friends and music and beautiful spring, to say nothing of the craziness of the last weeks of legislative session.

On May 14 we flew to Michigan. Spent 10 days reuniting with Kayla’s sister, Iris, warm weather, and the Bettie Mobile. We endeavored to help Iris with a couple of property renovations as a thank-you for harboring our camper and car while we were in Juneau. Like any project, it took a little more work than we thought, but the results were worth it!

May 25-26 we made tracks to Matthew’s folks in Virginia, hitching up the camper and heading over the Appalachians to the east coast. We spent about 10 days there, getting involved in some other projects and reconnecting with the Turners. Throughout it all, Kayla’s work has been plenty busy also, so there have been plenty of interviews and Zoom meetings in the midst of it all!

June 8-9 we drove back to Glenn, MI, and then we had 24 hours to “settle in” before our next excitement. Our dear friends Ed & David arrived in Glenn on Friday night; and on Saturday afternoon, Kayla’s sister Iris and their two nieces Hannah and Emma arrived for a weekend of good food and deep belly laughs. What a joyful weekend it was!

Then we did a flurry of re-packing (sorting through everything to determine what gets stored for the next 6 months vs what we take with us) and finished some camper projects (it would be so nice not to have to work on the Bettie Mobile as we travel this year!).

We pulled out of Glenn and headed toward the Twin Cities on the 12th where we’ll stay for a week. Highlights of our plans there include a floor-laying project and a Jet Set Betties gig with Mill City Caravan at the Acadia Cafe on June 16 (including new songs we’ve barely practiced! How exciting! Hahahahaha I’m sure it will be fine!!). Special feature of this gig is the opportunity to perform with Kayla’s niece Sophia and nephew Jon. If you’re in the Twin Cities, be sure to stop by!

Coming up after the Twin Cities is a quick stopover in Iowa to see Kayla’s Dad, and then, at last, the proper beginning of our next road trip.

Matthew still intends to write a separate post to share more about his four months working for the state legislature.

Speaking of, here’s our itinerary as far as we can see for now:

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.