Category Archives: On the Road

Summer Plans

The official start of Summer might still be weeks away, but in our little corner of the world, big plans are afoot! I’ve often said that in my ideal world we’d be someplace warm for the winter, but up in Vermont for the summer. We’ve figured out the “warm in the winter” part (well, it’s mostly warm here in Lindale in the winter), but the summer in Vermont presented a little more challenge. Since our cabin is a family property and used by three generations of Dwinells, it was not available for us to just hang out there all summer. (Though truth be told, we’d be more than happy to do that!) So we signed up for May (when there’s not such a demand since most of the kids are in school) which gives us the honor of opening up the cabin. Gary gets the water system up and running, while I’m inside tackling the dead fly bodies, cobwebs, and any other surprises that be waiting for us!CabinSpring2026 We truly love The Cabin in May, when the trees are just beginning to wake up, and the beautiful ‘bones’ of our landscape are visible! Our niece, Christiana, who lives nearby in Bradford, was up last week (it’s always good to make sure the road is passable and things are generally in good shape!) and she sent along this picture –

I am so ready to be there!!

So that takes care of most of May. We head to Ohio over Memorial Day weekend to watch granddaughter #3 graduate from high school and spend a week or so with our Columbus (area) crew! Looking forward to lots of beautiful family chaos there!
In June, we’ll be back in Vermont, staying at our niece’s house in Bradford while she enjoys some vacation time. We’re calling it ‘housesitting’ – but it’s such a blessing for us to be able to stay there. A huge perk of June is that my sister and hubby will be at The Cabin for a couple of weeks during that time! Pretty sure we’ll be able to get in some good sister time!

July was presenting a bit of a challenge, but we put a little ad in the local whatever (you know – Responsible 70-something couple looking for short-term rental…willing to do renovations, etc.) and that did give us a couple of options. But it was actually the time-tested “friend of a friend” connection that found us this sweet three-bedroom cottage to rent for July and part of August. And the location is excellent – less than 10 miles from The Cabin!
Bonus for being in the area in July is that both of our Ohio families will be at The Cabin during the month.  So we can spend time with them, but not crowd them. (Plus, we get to go home to a flush toilet. Just sayin’!)

We’re pretty excited about these Summer Plans! We’ll be stopping to see friends and family in the coming and going travels, so let me know if you want us to try and stop by!  We are very thankful that these plans have come together so very nicely, and we will once again avoid a Texas Summer.  (I’m sure it will happen sooner or later, but not this summer!)  We leave TOMORROW!! Today is worship, lunch with friends, final loads of wash, and wrapping up the packing.  Leaving your home for four months in the Texas heat requires many boxes to be checked. And really lovely neighbors!

Which brings me to my final point. You know I’m excited about spending the summer in Vermont. All of the above plans are answers to prayer. But our little Texas neighborhood has certainly found its way into my heart, and I will miss the dear folks we have come to love here.  Truthfully, we will miss our little nest and the community around it.

I’ll try to keep up the blogging (sporadic though it may be) throughout the summer. But I’m also bringing my sewing machine, so we’ll see how it all works out!

I think the dryer just beeped – better get back to it!

As always – thanks for stopping by –
Steph

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.  Proverbs 19:21

March Madness

And just like that – we’re looking at April!! Phew – it’s been quite the March around here! Here’s a quick summary of some of the beautiful madness that colored our March!

It started with a drive to Ohio.
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Thankfully, we were fully stocked with coffee and mini-donuts, our favorite morning road food!

Since it’s a solid two-day drive, we’re always delighted when we can stop and see good friends just outside of Nashville.
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It’s always great to spend time with John and Rosie – and by taking this route, we get to see them twice! Sweet!

The primary purpose of this trip was to watch two of our grands performing in a show choir competition. What’s Show Choir, you say? It’s a group of 30-40 incredibly talented high schoolers performing themed Broadway-quality musical numbers. We’d watched a couple of performance videos and were excited to see them in person! Since it was a competition, is was a long day, but incredibly fun to watch each school perform. Of course, the most fun was watching OUR kiddos!
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Our Maddie is a senior, so this was one of her last performances – so glad we were there!
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Here’s a link to the performance. The whole video is over 4 hours, so I’ve set it to start at hour 3, which is when their group performs. The other groups were also fabulous, but I’m happy to report that our team won the grand championship! Yay!!

Since that Saturday was jam-packed, our other two days together were more low-key! It was so special to see almost ALL of the Ohio clan (Hayley was in Cincinnati and couldn’t make the trip) right smack dab in the middle of winter!
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Not the whole M-ville clan in our group selfie- it’s really hard to keep everyone home!
But we did snag a quick shot of the Gahanna gang before we set off for home.
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Four Days of driving.
Three days with family.
Totally worth it!!
We had only been back in Texas for a day when we got a call that Lara (back in Ohio) had taken a bad fall and torn up her knee. She’s a single mom, works full-time, and does a great job managing her busy life. But this brought just about everything to a screeching halt. And so I took a good look at my schedule and started looking for flights to Columbus. Yep, one week after I returned from our Ohio Road Trip, I turned around and flew back!! By the time I arrived, she was doing much better, and a doctor visit while I was there confirmed the good news that surgery wasn’t needed. Phew. She can work from home, is managing quite well, and can even handle driving as long as it isn’t a great distance. I was able to help with a couple of house projects she was working on, tried to stay on top of the kitchen stuff, and managed to keep the laundry under control. Definitely support staff! We all got to spend an afternoon with the M-ville crew, and even got a good visit in with Hayley (the one who couldn’t make it the weekend before!) But the best part was being able to spend some good quiet time with Lara. It was a week well spent! (And I may have to work that into an annual trip to see all the Columbus Conrads (all 11 of them!). But let’s skip the messed-up knee next time, OK?)

I arrived back in Texas just in time to celebrate Josiah’s birthday this past Sunday. They came from Waco for the day, and we fed them waffles, experienced the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler,
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and then enjoyed burgers on the deck, along with a couple of good games with the kids. Oh, and the boys loved exploring the neighborhood in the golf cart!  What a special day! (But sadly, not very many pictures! I’m really slipping these days!)

Our March Madness was all Very Good Madness, indeed! Any month that I can hug ALL of my children, their loved ones, and all twelve of the grands – well, that’s the kind of madness I’m really good with!

And so we turn the calendar page over. April will bring its own brand of busyness as we prepare to head north at the end of the month for the summer!  The plan is starting to take shape – and I’ll share more of that in the days to come!

Thanks for stopping by  – hoping your March was filled with as much joy as ours was!

Steph

A Gentle Good-bye

Maybe it’s because she hasn’t moved more than 100 yards in the last year.

Maybe it’s because it was quite the job to empty her and get her cleaned up.

Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten used to putting something on a shelf without having to worry if it will fall off when we move to our next spot.

But since the primary reason saying good-bye to our faithful 22-year-old Lizzie was not as hard as I expected it to be is because God said, “Time for Retirement Part II. Wait until you see what I have planned for you next!”

And if I start to lose sight of how blessed those years of travel and ministry were,  my 38 picture books and 2537 blog posts will help me remember all of the fabulous places we’ve been to, all the beautiful people we’ve met, and all the ways we’ve seen God working around the country.

So even as we said that gentle goodbye to our well-loved home for these last 20 years, we wait with eager anticipation to see how God will use us as we settle in to this next chapter.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Steph

PS – After 20 years of full-time occupation,  Lizzie is also moving to some light-duty work! Her new owner will be using her just for vacations and outings – I think next up is Daytona in February.  Sounds like he’s putting the “Recreation” back into RV category!

 

 

Filling in the hole

During our 20 years traveling this continent, we’ve spent the night in 48 states and eight Canadian providences/territories.  It’s been amazing. Really AMAZING! But one state we never even stepped our toe into was North Dakota. As we headed west on Our Sofa Surfing Summer trip it seemed like the perfect opportunity to rectify that oversight!
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I knew we weren’t going to get to see the whole state (and I’m fully aware that there is some fabulous stuff over on the west side), but we were able to experience some of the eastern North Dakota treasures!
Like Fargo –
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We did a walk-about of the downtown
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and loved the quirky quaintness of it!
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Fargo
The next day we ventured a further west,
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with our sights on Bismarck, the state capitol.
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It’s a little late in our travels to start trying to get to each state capital, but I’m glad we stopped at this one! Instead of the more familiar (to us anyway!) dome style, this was built in 1931 in an Art Deco tower style. There was lots of symbolism in the interior of the building

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and a pretty great view from the top floor, too!
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I’ll be honest here – at this point of our Sofa Surfing Summer travels, we were both running out of tourist gas. So although we knew there was LOTS more to see in North Dakota, we settled for a capitol tour, a great lunch and a quick drive through town before we turned our truck south. Some final impressions of North Dakota?
The Great Plains are expansive!
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There are oceans of sunflowers (ND is a leading producer of sunflowers!).
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And when you least expect it, the field is populated with bison instead of cattle!
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North Dakota – we didn’t do you justice, but at least we can say we’ve been there!
Just one state to go, and quite honestly, I’m not sure Hawaii is on the docket anytime soon.
But now to find that North Dakota sticker…

Thanks for coming along!
Steph

Westward Ho!

The journey continues – next up was Wilmar, Minnesota. We were stopping to see some long-time (and long-time since we’d seen them) SOWER friends, Bill & Carole. They graciously opened their guest cottage (aka their motor home) for us and we enjoyed  two nights of good conversation and rest! Those catch-our-breath days were so needed! In fact, there were very few pictures taken between a fuzzy picture of the Minnesota state sign when we crossed the border

and then a quick selfie as we bid a fond farewell!

But they did take us on a lovely drive through their corner of the world, which combined farmland and beautiful lakes, but you’ll just have to take my word on that.
There was this one sign that caught my eye when we were entering a busy limited access highway –

I’m used to seeing those buggy signs (and buggies) on two lane roads in many different areas of the country, but I must confess I was a bit alarmed that I’m being cautioned to watch for buggies on a four-lane highway!!
Oh my – wouldn’t that be a sight!

(picture courtesy of ChatGPT!)

Our Minnesota sojourn was quiet but quite lovely!! I do wish I’d taken more pictures, but my heart still remembers fondly our time there!

Next up – the missing hole in our travel map!
Till next time!
Steph