Hello there! It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen you.

I have spent the winter hibernating — reading, binge watching TV and video games like nobody’s business, cooking more food than I could possibly eat, and likely working way too much. But what else is new. I am just about to begin another venture westward and wanted to chronicle the past few months in a quick zip before I get to it.

In the Fall, I took a trip with a friend and put another few thousand on the car. It was only a month-long trip, with stops in Michigan, my beloved, before meeting up with her in Santa Fe and rolling up the million dollar highway.

Outside of the Southwest, Michigan is definitely my favorite spot in the country, the UP in particular. It’s sleepy, cool, and peaceful. I stopped there on the way home earlier in the year hoping to catch the aurora, missed it entirely, and had one of the most harrowing nights in my car that I have ever had. But I made it, and vowed to return, as I hadn’t been there since my inaugural trip. It did not disappoint, and I spent a week rockhounding on the shores of Lake Superior, cruising on a lake tour, and walking around Mackinac Island.

Mackinac Island is a short ferry ride to a crystal blue dream. There are no cars on the island so you have to hoof it everywhere — on foot or by carriage. There’s plenty of walking trails, and you can go see Arch rock, which is funny now having seen the arches in the Southwest. Despite the looks of the water, it’s cold as fuck, so no swimming unless you’re into that kind of thing.

From there, it’s a short rip up to the UP, or Upper Peninsula of Michigan. You have to drive over the Mackinac Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the Western hemisphere.

I made a stop at Log Slide Overlook where I did a hike up the dune to look down on Lake Superior.

From there, it was just a few more backcountry roads till I got to my favorite spot, Lake Superior Overlook. There’s plenty of places to pull up on the lake and hit the shores, and this is one of a zillion. But I kept coming back, despite my failed camping attempt earlier in the year — it has some magic to it, and there’s a ton of rockhounding to be found on the shore there. The big deal is Lake Superior agates, as well as Yooperlites.

I hung around in Munising, worked the week, and took a hop on the Pictured Rocks Cruise line to go see the national lakeshore.

I also grabbed a local delicacy, whitefish and poutine. Liked it so much I came back the next day and got the same exact meal again, haha. Also got some slammin’ baked goods at a farmer’s market.

I returned to my spot and did some more rockhounding.

Later, I met up with a bunch of boomers who were celebrating their mom’s almost-90th birthday by rockhounding at night for Yooperlites. These are stones that light up under black light, and they had an extra flashlight! I joined yet another family gathering to go stumbling across the beach in pitch darkness. A+. I don’t have any photos, but here’s what the stones look like.

On my drive southward, I hit up Hell’s Kitchen in Minneapolis on the advice of a Fresno friend, and had a little bit of everything recommended. Poutine, ham & pear crisp sandwich, Mahnomin rice porridge, a Midwestern Old Fashioned, and their peanut butter which tasted disgustingly like peanut brittle and was a colossal waste of money, lol.

I kept going and hit up Ashfall Fossil Beds in Nebraska. Basically, America used to have hippos. And rhinos and shit. And like a million horse relatives. Crazy, right. And a volcano up in Idaho blew its stack and covered the US in a ton of Ash. So there you have it.

Unstupidly, it’s a really neat dig site and the folks there are super passionate about talking about it and educating the public. I would totally recommend checking it out.

I stopped in Colorado to drive up Pike’s Peak. Great time as usual.

I stopped at Great Sand Dunes National Park for a quick photo op and kept it rolling.

I drove down into New Mexico and stopped at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge on my way into Taos. Then had a bangin’ meal.

Bought a chili ristra in Santa Fe which then proceeded to leak a million tiny wormy grubs into my bed. Thank God I am already a disgusting person or I might have lost my mind.

From there onward, my friend joined me and we had a grand old time.

After Santa Fe, hit up Bandelier National Monument, an old Native American settlement.

We also visited the nearby hot springs where I did not disclose to my friend that a black widow spider was right next to her while we yapped to some local.

We drove Northward on an extremely harrowing drive to Durango, Colorado, where we took the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge railway. It was an exhausting day and I fell asleep on the train. My very tactful friend made the acquaintance of two boomers with whom we had Himalayan food for dinner in town. A+ day.

Next day, it was the drive up the Million Dollar Highway into Ouray, with stops at Pinkerton hot springs. The fall foliage was in full effect with the aspens popping. We had amazing treats at Mouse’s in Ouray.

Next on the docket was a stop at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. A great stop, although it had started to thunderstorm. We finally had to leave when I felt my metal bracelet start vibrating and emitting a high pitched sound, which I did not find to be favorable during a thunderstorm. ?!?!

A quick trip through Moab on our way up, over, and out.

And our babygirl got to see another national park, Capitol Reef. We did the Hickman’s bridge hike and saw the petroglyphs.

And, one more hot spring at Red Hill.

After all this I ran home. And spent the entire winter hunkered down. I cooked so much food, and hit the couch so hard. Caught a few shows. Slept a ton. I made beef bourginon 5 times. Cut all my hair off.

It’s been a delightful season. Whenever I come home, I work so much, which is lovely. I really, really like to work in-person as opposed to virtual. Seeing people in real life keeps me sane and grounded. I have also enjoyed some much-needed couch time. I put a few hundred hours into RimWorld, and watched more TV and movies than I might have ever had in my life. I spent a ton of time with friends, catching up.

It’s been a long and miserable winter in some regards, too. Whenever I am home for a season, I spend so much time catching up on doctor’s appointments, and go to two or more a week since I am chronically ill. On top of my ongoing rap sheet, I was just diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease last week, and also scheduled my consultation for double jaw surgery come April. There’s lots of stressful news and tearing up alone in my car in parking lots, and lots of existential dread and body horror. Sometimes I wonder why I am even here. It’s a lot.

I’m still here, though. I got through the winter and I survived the news and feel pretty OK, despite. I feel so grateful to have my health (?) and still be able to do these trips and explorations. I am feeling gratitude for my resilience, although I’m gonna need someone to feed me horrifying pureed foods when I am wired shut from the jaw surgery. Any takers? Can we put taco bell in the blender? What about beef bourginon?

I’m taking care of the ol’ chariot too. My Prius just hit 227,000 miles on it and it’s riding like a dream. I get some new shoes on her and gave the EGR cooling system and intake manifold a look-see and determined that that was the likely culprit for what felt like a transmission shudder that I mentioned in the Fall. My mechanic said it’s all good to go now after cleaning out all the carbon; the EGR was not the problem but the intake manifold was so caked up that only a few of the ports were getting any airflow at all.

I’m considering seeing a Prius specialist mechanic in San Diego to determine if it’s truly all good or if I will have to drop a new block into my car rather than spend $40k on a new model I don’t want.

Quite frankly, I’m a Gen 3 darling.

I am headed out on the road in just a few days’ time. No telling where I’m going but I’m sure to hit up the greats. On my list are:

• Sonoran hot dog (please, I am begging you)
• Moab as per usual
• Michigan UP, Lake Superior
• Colonial Williamsburg (guess who snagged themselves a season pass)
• Carlsbad caverns? Finally?
• & I’m gonna see about a Grand Canyon mule ride. It’s a bit early in the season.

All my best to you!