Blog

Check out my blog posts for a good laugh, trip inspirations, travel tips and more. The blogs feature active, outdoor adventure vacation destinations with a focus on mountain biking, hiking, and golfing. Start your outdoor and adventure vacation planning here.

Start Your Pedals (Knoxville, TN)

Start Your Pedals (Knoxville, TN)

Ladies and gentlemen….start your pedals!  With a signature downhill mountain bike trail named the Devil’s Racetrack, bikers, race fans, and lovers of speed and adrenaline take note. The Racetrack is just one of many sculpted dirt highways in Knoxville’s...

Red = Adventure (Cuyuna  Lakes, MN)

Red = Adventure (Cuyuna Lakes, MN)

Like the mineral-infused red dirt in Cuyuna Lakes area, Minnesota, the color matches the personality of the people and the place. Red symbolizes passion, primal forces, energy, and adventure. It's an apt description for a community that has been transformed from...

Legends at the Lick

Legends at the Lick

Say, “French Lick,” and 80% will excitedly respond, Oh yeah, the hometown of Larry Bird! The iconic NBA legend did indeed play basketball at Spring Valley High School in French Lick, Indiana. Recently, I’ve learned there are even more impressive historical...

New Bern, NC – Coastal Hospitality

New Bern, NC – Coastal Hospitality

Big things come in small-town packages. New Bern, North Carolina is the shiny gem in a small velvet box - open it up and discover the appeal, both on the surface and underneath. The intercoastal and ocean views are the shiny gem exterior, but the friendly locals are...

Spring Thaw Pedal

Spring Thaw Pedal

Drip…. Drip…. Drip…. I am in my office, tapping keys to the rhythm of the snowmelt dripping off the roof and soaking into the saturated ground. The birds are back, too, even Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal. Their calls mix in with the drip, and a chorus begins, announcing the...

A Slow Southern Swing

A Slow Southern Swing

Faster is not better. Rushing through the process doesn't help either. Calm down, take a breath, and find a slower tempo…. before you address that little white ball. It's about technique and letting the club do its part. Want to improve your golf game and be happier...

Pedal Power

Pedal Power

News flash - people plan entire vacations around cool places to ride a bike! You've heard of ski-in-ski-out condos, but the new trend is bike-in and bike-out! Bike-centricity is the hot new amenity to type in the search box, and trail accessibility is the new black....

Michigan (The Great Beer and Bike State)

Michigan (The Great Beer and Bike State)

Trail usage is on the rise for runners, hikers, and bikers of all levels… especially the mountain bike niche. Dirt shredders and their two-wheeled creatures have come out of their homes from the COVID coop-up ready to roll. Trail builders, DMO’s (Destination...

Rugged Luxury (Michigan’s Upper Peninsula)

Rugged Luxury (Michigan’s Upper Peninsula)

Lake Superior whipped up a September gale and slowed the RV down considerably as we made our way across the Mackinaw Bridge, to Marquette then to Copper Harbor at the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Four important appendages (mountain bikes) were racked on the back of...

Poop in a Group (Backpacking the Manistee River Trail)

Poop in a Group (Backpacking the Manistee River Trail)

It was the first time in three years that we did not have severe weather to contend with on the annual nieces and nephews’ backpacking adventure. There were, however, plenty of other happenings that keep the drama and laugh meter high. We added another nephew to the...

Exotic Indiana

Exotic Indiana

As a travel writer, I get this question a lot: Where’s your next trip? Usually, it’s a quick top-of-mind answer, but now, my answers are nebulous and messy. “Well, we were planning a Lake Superior Circle Tour road trip, but we have to wait because the Canadian border...

Outside = OPEN (Learn to travel local)

Outside = OPEN (Learn to travel local)

Travel, road trips, and vacation planning have all taken a detour from our usual route. As May pushes into June and almost three months of the COVID Stay Home/Stay Safe order in Michigan, the travel pivot will continue. A staycation has become a bad word because we've...

The Little Red Riding Hood

The Little Red Riding Hood

Much like the Little Red Riding Hood story, Sedona is a village with beautiful scenery (a red rock riding neighborhood) to explore. However, beauty can also hold danger, a symbolic wolf…the advanced and rocky terrain. Riders will be lulled into gazing at the distinct...

Volcanoes and Vino

Volcanoes and Vino

The #9SuperFriends trip to Chile and Argentina was anything but traditional. We traded seasons: winter for late spring and Thanksgiving dinner and turkey for a gourmet dinner in the heart of Chilean wine country, the Maipo Valley. Piles of beef and fish were the...

Ride Like a Girl – Park City, Utah

Ride Like a Girl – Park City, Utah

I am a woman. I am a mountain biker. I am in a significant minority. I want to inspire more women to ride.I want the sport to grow. I want people to get outside, to be mentally and physically healthy and connect with nature.The Outdoor Industry Association shows...

Michigan Mountain Biking

Michigan Mountain Biking

Is Michigan one of the Midwest's premier mountain bike destinations? Yes, but only if you are willing to cross the bridge to the U.P. the much wilder peninsula. The U.P. is home to two IMBA (International Mountain Biking Association) ride centers, one in Marquette and...

7 Soggy Buns

7 Soggy Buns

We billed it as a "learning journey," so the kids would be exposed to backcountry camping, the kind where you hike in your gear and poop in the woods. We chose Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness with beach access to Lake Michigan just north of Ludington. Perhaps the excessive...

Fall for Duluth

Fall for Duluth

Michigan is often called the Great Lake state, and its residents try to selfishly hog the accolades of all five of the amazing inland seas of freshwater. The reality, Michigan is great and is bordered by four of the five: Lake Michigan, Superior, Huron, and Erie. Only...

In the Mitten, Bike Beerventures

In the Mitten, Bike Beerventures

The Holmes & Watson Beerventure quest continues. Admittedly after hitting the 100 mark, the next phase seemed daunting. Michigan craft breweries pop up like springtime morels and it seems improbable to make a dent in visiting the almost 300 in the Great Lake...

Tucson Two-a-Days

Tucson Two-a-Days

We started our trip on a reverse red eye flight, going from east to west from the Great Lakes to the desert. To reverse means to go the opposite way or to flip-flop. We did all of those things this trip to Tucson. We reversed time zones, embraced an opposite climate...

Colorado Family

Colorado Family

Families evolve and go through changes. I have an ex husband. I didn’t keep the last name but thankfully kept the sisters. Though we do not see each other very often, the sister-in-law relationship has remained in tact. I recently reunited with two of the Orr sisters,...

The Noog

The Noog

Christmas on the road usually brings some unique experiences. The sign said Bikers Welcome at Rumors Sports Bar & Grill and was open on Christmas. We were the wrong kind of biker but we went in anyway for a late dinner. As cigarette smoke drifted around in this...

Birthday in Bavaria

Birthday in Bavaria

It was Kim’s 50th birthday. She wanted to go the Alps. A trip was born that brought six friends together for a tour around Munich, revelry at Oktoberfest and epic hikes/bikes in the Bavarian Alps on the German/Austrian border. Looking back, the adventure revolved...

BIKEpack Detour

BIKEpack Detour

BACKpacking = Strap 30 pounds to your back and go hike/camp in the woods. BIKEpacking = Strap equal amount of poundage to either you and your bike and pedal into the woods. Sounds like an easy transition right? Except for the gear that needs to fit in exceptionally...