LONG STORY SHORT By Kristine McGowan As you might recall, Jason and I embarked on this 18-month road trip, in part, because we wanted to find a new place to call home. Now, 11 months in, we can say one thing for sure: We will not be moving to the Midwest or the Southeast. Don’t get me wrong. We spent the last six weeks bouncing between these regions, and we had a good time. We saw the Indy 500 in Indianapolis. We took a tram to the top of Gateway Arch in St. Louis. And we dove into deep-dish pizza in Chicago. But amidst all that, we were also being chased by severe thunderstorms almost constantly, and oh man—the humidity? Raised in the desert, I thought I learned what humidity was when I moved to Long Beach, Calif. Then those Midwestern thunderclouds laughed in my face. That said, the Midwest and Southeast didn’t topple off our list officially until last week. We’d just driven across Kansas, through hundreds of miles of fields so flat it seemed the sky had pinned them down beneath its thumbs, and we were entering Denver when something cropped up on the horizon: the snowy peaks of the Rockies. The sight put the biggest smiles on our faces. We realized then that we hadn’t seen a major mountain range in six weeks, not since we left the Smokies in April. I’ve mentioned before how time away from peaks can leave us feeling unmoored. The Midwest and Southeast may have kept us busy—not to mention well fed—but neither felt as welcoming as the Rockies rising to greet us. The West is our home. That feels certain now. We still have new parts of the U.S. to explore, but we won’t be looking to put down roots there. For that, we’ll look to the horizon. Where have we been?Chicago, Ill.  The Windy City lived up to its nickname, but no storms rolled in during our visit, so we weren’t complaining. Instead, we chowed down on deep-dish pizza and Italian beef sandwiches, crossed a White Sox game off our list, and caught up with an old Long Beach friend who’s called Chicago home for years. We still need to get to Wrigley Field, but we’ll do that when we revisit the city in September. Columbia & Kansas City, Mo.  Seeing old friends was our favorite part of the Midwest. In Columbia, we caught up with a couple we met in Grand Teton last summer, and they not only hosted us in their beautiful home but also let us use their washer and dryer to catch up on laundry. (We’ll be forever grateful.) After that, we headed to Kansas City to relive our high-school youth at the emo music festival, “Phase” Fest (i.e., “It wasn’t just a phase, Mom”). Yes, there was lots of angst. Mesa Verde National Park, Colo.  Like I said, we’re happy to be back in the West, and Mesa Verde National Park is one reason why. After drowning in the Midwest’s humidity, it felt good to dry off in the desert, particularly in a gem such as Mesa Verde National Park. During our tours of Cliff Palace and Balcony House, we climbed ladders, shimmied through narrow tunnels, peered over cliff ledges—and, of course, marveled at the ingenuity of the Ancestral Pueblo People who called this canyon home. Where are we going next?The next two weeks will look very different from our usual travels. After a brief stop in Phoenix, we’re heading home to Southern California for a weeklong travel break. (We’re even postponing our planned stop in Sedona, Ariz., to extend that break so we can perform some trailer maintenance.) After that, we’ll head up to Canyonlands National Park for a weeklong rafting trip.  90. Mesa Verde National Park & Durango, Colo. 91. Phoenix, Ariz. 92. Sedona, Ariz. 93. Canyonlands National Park via Colorado River In other news...We don’t have in-depth stories to share, but do we want to give you a heads-up about our next newsletter: Just like this one, it will also be late. (At least we’re letting you know ahead of time, right?) Two weeks from now, we’ll be rafting the Colorado River through Canyonlands National Park, with no cell signal to speak of. So we’ll send our next newsletter the week of Tuesday, July 2. Don’t worry about Catsby in that desert heat, though—we’re leaving her and the trailer with our folks in Southern California, where she’ll be nice and comfy while Jason and I get chewed up by rapids. 
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