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Raven and Chickadee Artwork
 February 3, 2023

Turning The Page

We pulled out of the driveway last Friday, after a nostalgic final wander through the house that my parents built 40 years ago and that has been our home for the past three years. For a few minutes, I was immersed in a cascade of memories, made more poignant by the knowledge that we would […]

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Categories : Musings
 January 10, 2023

Moving Forward

Happy New Year, dear friends! I was reading over my New Year’s post from last January (The Sacred and the Profane), and I can’t come up with anything better than that. Mary Oliver’s beautiful poem about mindfulness and the hilarious sentiment about bucket lists holds just as true this year as last. And honestly, I […]

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55 Comments
Categories : Musings
 December 10, 2022

A Relaxing Week In Delightful Madison, Wisconsin

In my last post, I left you and myself with the delusion that the transition from our home on the bay in Florida to our new tiny house in North Carolina was going to be relatively painless. Well, our buyers reneged, just before the inspection. It turns out that the woman was overwhelmed by the […]

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57 Comments
Categories : Travel, Wisconsin
Tags : Chazen Museum of Art, Frank Lloyd Wright, Lake Farm County Park, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Olbrich Botanical Gardens, Taliesin
 November 23, 2022

It’s Been A Whirlwind

The past three weeks have been grueling. Preparing a house for sale is never fun, but it’s especially terrible when it comes on the heels of a four-and-a-half month road trip. As I mentioned in our last post, we were not anticipating selling the house right now. We barely got the trailer unloaded before we […]

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Categories : Musings
 October 31, 2022

Big Changes Ahead

I‘m curled up on our comfortable sofa with my coffee, enjoying our expansive view of the bay, listening to the cheerful song of the Carolina Wren and the wind as it rustles through the palmettos. This has been my morning routine for almost three years now, ever since we found ourselves unexpectedly transplanted to the […]

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Categories : Musings
 September 12, 2022

The Fraught Life Of Abraham Lincoln: Springfield, Illinois

I realized a few days ago that it’s been more than a month since I’ve posted a blog. As I’m writing this, we’re in Michigan, with a fabulous view of Lake Huron and Mackinac Island. This has been an excellent summer, filled with all kinds of adventures in the beautiful Great Lakes region. And we […]

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Categories : Illinois, Travel
Tags : Dana Thomas House, Illinois State Capitol, Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Lincoln Museum, Lincoln Presidential Museum, Old State Capitol Illinois, Sangchris Lake State Park
 August 4, 2022

St. Louis: The Arch Is Cool, But There’s So Much More

Towering 630 feet over the city of St. Louis, Gateway Arch rises gracefully from the banks of the Mississippi River. There is a timeless quality to the sleek, stainless steel design—it perfectly embodies the spirit of exploration, just as it was meant to do. The arch is, undeniably, the iconic symbol of St. Louis. But there’s […]

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Categories : Missouri, National Parks, Travel
Tags : Babler State Park, Balkan Treat Box, Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, Dred Scott, Forest Park, Gateway Arch National Park, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis Zoo
 July 18, 2022

Hot Times In Huntsville And Memphis

When we left Florida in mid-June, we knew that a heat dome was headed our way, and that we were going to be driving straight into it. We briefly debated rerouting our trip. But there wasn’t anywhere within a reasonable distance where we could escape the heat. “How bad can it be?” we asked each […]

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Categories : Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Travel
Tags : Dixon Gallery and Garden, Huntsville Botanical Garden, Memphis, Monte Sano State Park, Tom Sawyer RV Park, Waterfowling Heritage Center
 July 6, 2022

The Long Road To True Equality: Montgomery, Alabama

I grew up in the Jim Crow South, when segregation was the law of the land. Although I was a child, I have clear memories of “white” and “colored” drinking fountains. On a bus trip downtown—I was less than five years old—I remember a Black woman being told by the driver to move to the […]

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Categories : Alabama, Travel
Tags : Gunter Hill campground, Legacy Museum, Montgomery, Montgomery capitol, National Memorial for Peace and Justice
 June 18, 2022

A Brand New Adventure (And The Challenge Of Leaving Home)

As of last Sunday, we’re on the road again. We’re heading north to Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, which is pretty much all-new territory for us. As always, it required supreme effort to break free of the gravitational pull of home. It doesn’t matter how much planning we do, or how far ahead we start the […]

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Categories : Adventures With The Kitty, Musings, Reality RV
Tags : Three Rivers State Park
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Welcome to our blog!

Eric and Laurel

If you enjoy hiking, biking, kayaking, birding, art, music, quirky towns, good food, and good friends—you'll enjoy traveling with us. Join us as we explore the backroads of North America—we love company and comments!

~Laurel & Eric

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
~Mary Oliver

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Recent posts

  • Turning The Page
  • Moving Forward
  • A Relaxing Week In Delightful Madison, Wisconsin
  • It’s Been A Whirlwind
  • Big Changes Ahead
  • The Fraught Life Of Abraham Lincoln: Springfield, Illinois
  • St. Louis: The Arch Is Cool, But There’s So Much More
  • Hot Times In Huntsville And Memphis
  • The Long Road To True Equality: Montgomery, Alabama
  • A Brand New Adventure (And The Challenge Of Leaving Home)

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Raven & Chickadee © 2023 | Photography by Laurel Vukovic & Eric Setterberg
Website by Michaels & Michaels Creative, LLC
 

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