A Summer to Remember in 2024
2022
Nicole Anderson
2023
Nicole Anderson
Nicole Anderson
Another summer in the RV has wrapped up, and as is tradition, we are recapping our Summer to Remember goals. Youtubers Keep Your Daydream started Summer to Remember as a way to keep track of the goals each family member wanted to accomplish during the summer. They printed a list and checked things off as they went along in their travels. They now share a list template with their followers every year, so we can fill out our own goals. We first participated in 2021, before we hit the road. Since then, we have had two "summers to remember" in our full-time RV life. Now, we're adding our third, and arguably most challenging yet.
As we create these lists year after year, we notice some patterns. No matter where we are, certain activities seem to recur (ahem, "rock an alpine slide"). We do, however, like to add new items to our list, too, particularly ones that are fitting for where we are traveling that year. 2024 was interesting. We started off in places we had never RVed and ended in our hometown in Massachusetts. This gave us the opportunity to embrace both ends of the spectrum of RV life: The novel and the nostalgic. Here's what we came up with:
You will see that we went all in with some hefty active goals and then balanced it out with some yummy eats. Then we added some unique activities as well as some RV-centric activities. So how did we do?
Thank you, thank you!
Let's begin with our travel route. We always begin our Summer to Remember on the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend and end on Labor Day. Oddly, this year we both began and ended not in our RV! On Memorial Day Weekend, we were getting repairs on our RV and staying in an Airbnb in South Haven, MI. On Labor Day Weekend, we were visiting family on Long Island sans RV because, well, you know.
We left Michigan on May 31, when we picked up the RV and drove to Illinois, and soon after, Wisconsin. Then we looped up to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, then back down to the Lower Peninsula. Here, we first stopped outside of Traverse City and then ventured over to the east coast, along Lake Huron. Then, we left Michigan and made our way towards New England, stopping in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, before reaching Vermont. Lastly, we traveled down to Massachusetts, our home state, where we bopped around between some campgrounds and our home-base at my parents' house. We ended with our Labor Day Weekend trip to Long Island.
Check off a new state RVed
We checked this item off early, as soon as we reached Wisconsin. That became state #41. After this, we hit Michigan in our RV for the first time. Prior to this, we only had done Airbnbs while our rig was in the shop. Though we still counted it as a "state RVed" two years ago because we stayed there during our RV travels, it was always a technicality, until now. Then, in a surprise to many, we RVed Vermont for the first time. Despite being so close to home, we had only passed through with the rig. This time, we stopped and camped for a while, making Vermont state #42 on our list. You can see our full States RVed map here.
Wisconsin and Vermont became our 41st and 42nd states RVed!
Celebrate Pride; Chicago deep dish; Eat cheesy deliciousness in Wisconsin
Once we resumed travels in our rig, we planned our route so we could hit a couple of Pride celebrations. It's hard to time our travel route with specific events, but finding Pride events along the way was a new and exciting way to welcome June and immerse ourselves in the local communities. We got a taste of a smaller celebration in Rockford, IL and then later attended Milwaukee PrideFest. Even though we couldn't bring the pets to these celebrations, we made them feel included in their own special way.
We complemented the Rockford celebration with a visit to Giordano's for some deep dish pizza. We couldn't pass it up while we were near Chicago! We could get technical here and say we ate stuffed pizza and not deep dish, because they are in fact slightly different, but we don't get that detailed. It's Chicago-style pizza, it's got the crust, it's got cheese to boot, and therefore, we're happy. Also, Giordano's > Lou Malnati's. We already know we'll get some hate for this.
With cheese on the brain, we entered America's Dairyland, expecting to eat hundreds of fried cheese curds. Turns out, even we can get sick of cheese curds. Who knew? So after getting them at a few places here and there, we had had enough. However, our first true quest for cheesy deliciousness brought us to Mullen's Dairy Bar in Watertown, WI. We came for the cheese but stayed for the ice cream. The MVP of Mullen's was definitely my fluffernutter ice cream, sporting HUGE chunks of soft, chewy Nutter Butter pieces. But isn't it just a tad ironic that the best thing we ate here was an ice cream flavor that paid homage to our home state, which we still maintain has better dairy than Wisconsin?
Macro-shot of a cicada
We figured since 2024 was all about the mass cicada invasion, we might as well make this a checklist item – something to remember the year by. We saw tons of news stories about people getting swarmed all over the Midwest, but us? Nada. Zilch. We think we were just slightly ahead of the emergence, until it caught up with us in Illinois. Even still, we had only one hike where we heard the cicada buzz and decided to look for them. This was the only time we saw some, and even then, it was only a handful. That's all we needed for macro-shots, though! I even got a shot of a fully intact exoskeleton. I fiddled with some Lightroom presets to really up the artistic nature of the photos. They're most definitely a mood.
Fun summer beverage
Given my barometric pressure and humidity reaction issues, staying hydrated was a big deal this summer. Our goal was to create some fun, healthy mocktails, ideally using local ingredients. First up was a black raspberry jam infused sparkling water with muddled mint leaves. We got the mint and jam in Door County. Finding delicious sugar-free jam is always a win for us, and Koepsel's Farm Market delivered. For a special summer treat, we topped our mocktail with some raspberry sorbet.
After traveling through cherry territory in Wisconsin and Michigan, we'd be remiss if we didn't make a cherry mocktail! Here is our cherry rooibos tea with tart cherry juice.
See Pictured Rocks from the water
The biggest destination on our summer itinerary was Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. We had never been to the Upper Peninsula nor had we seen Lake Superior. Even though we had our issues with the area, there is no doubt that Pictured Rocks is absolutely stunning. We took a sunset boat cruise, and while we couldn't get as close to the rocks as a kayak tour, we got to see the gorgeous formations and tons of waterfalls. The area had had so much rainfall that the waterfalls that are usually dried up by summer were still flowing. We think this video captures the essence of Pictured Rocks perfectly.
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Nicole Anderson
Ride the rails
We added this item to the list before we had solid summer plans. We thought about finding a scenic train ride, but then I had the idea to look up rail bike rides in a few of the areas we'd be hitting. We had done a rail bike ride several years ago in Rhode Island and had a great time. Plus, it's a unique way to get some exercise. Up until recently, rail bike companies were few and far between, but the trend is growing. We found a company outside of Traverse City and decided to hit the rails!
Unfortunately, it was another humid day and we felt like we could be pedaling our ebikes to get some of our 100 miles done, but at the end of the day, it was probably good to switch it up and do a different activity. That's always the thorn in our side when we undergo 100-mile challenges. However, if we wanted to get technical, we could also say that we "rode the rails" on a couple of our ebike rides because we did hit up a couple of rail trails! In Pennsylvania, we rode the Knox and Kane Rail Trail, and in Massachusetts, we rode the Whitney Spur rail trail.
Run a 5k
This was another activity thrown in to break up the monotony of constant hiking and ebiking. As part of the Cherry Fest, different organizations hold group athletic events, and we joined the yoga class, bike ride, and 5k. We're terrible runners, but it was a good shock to our muscles. Plus we got cookies and cherry treats at the end!
Fun Harvest Host
For some reason, we always think we will have more Harvest Host overnights than we actually do. This probably has to do with the fact that camping in summertime means lots of crowds, so we plan our travels ahead of time. This leaves little flexibility. We looked for potential Harvest Hosts after we left Door County, but we found a more viable option at a riverfront county park. After that, we wouldn't have an overnight free until we headed east toward New England. We always have issues finding a good overnight stop along the Ohio Turnpike. There are the rest areas that barely fit us and a Cracker Barrel, but otherwise, we're looking at Harvest Hosts around Cleveland. Avoiding the city is always appealing, and so we ventured a bit south and stayed at a horse stable about 40 minutes west of Akron. It wasn't the "fun" Harvest Host we were hoping for, but the horse pastures were pretty and we got to meet the horses. We could have booked a riding lesson, which would have upped the fun factor, but we promised ourselves a horseback riding embargo this summer.
And that was our only Harvest Host all summer! We suppose we already hit our quota earlier in the year.
Pretty view off the patio
We had a similar issue with our patio, in that circumstances didn't quite align for us to take full advantage. We had so many days of disgusting weather, and then when we finally hit a nice day, we prioritized getting outside. After all, we did have 100 miles of both hiking and ebiking to accomplish. The biggest problem with our patio is that we do not have a setup where we can leave our ramp door down. We've brainstormed countless ways to remedy this, but no solutions have been the right one. This forces us to put the ramp back up whenever we need to leave the rig or go to sleep. We need to keep our belongings and our pets safe. When we were at Watkins Glen State Park in New York, we definitely prioritized hiking, but we did have one patio day. One of my colleagues came to visit and we just love a little gathering on the "back porch!"
We really went all-out with our setup here, too, adding our sun shade (which later in the evening turned into a rain shade). We didn't have a technically "pretty" view off the patio, but we did have a sizeable backyard.
Our only other patio days happened when we were at Wompatuck State Park back in Massachusetts. Again, a time when we were prioritizing our 100-mile challenges, but we also had some gorgeous weather and couldn't pass up a couple of leisurely work days. The good thing about this campsite is that we had hiking trails that left right from our campground, so we did a hike in the morning and then put the patio down for the rest of the day.
This was also the week that we bought ourselves our very first outdoor rug. It fits on the patio perfectly!
Once again, not a quintessential "pretty" view, but the sun shining through the tree branches and glistening on the pine needles? We'll take it!
Hike Mount Greylock and Moose Hill
Not only did we challenge ourselves to hike 100 miles in the span of the summer, but going back to MA meant we wanted some of those miles to come from local trails. Mt. Greylock is the highest point in the state, but we had never hiked it or even been to the summit before. This ended up being our most challenging hike of the summer. It was quite a welcome back to our home state!
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Moose Hill in Sharon, MA is one of our favorite hikes in southern MA. It's just challenging enough with some elevation gain and a variety of terrains, plus the network of trails is quite large, allowing us to go as far as we want without repeating sections. We also get some good views and almost always see deer. We hadn't hiked Moose Hill in a while and knew it would be a great place to gather up some miles. We clocked 7.5, making our Moose Hill excursion the longest hike of our challenge.
Rock an alpine slide
Despite being bigger fans of mountain coasters than alpine slides, adding this to our summer list has become a thing. In 2022, we made two valiant attempts to get on one of these nostalgic plastic sleds, but weather and a temporary mountain park closure forced us to surrender. Last year, we redeemed ourselves with a ride down Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana. This year, we set our sights on Bromley Mountain in Vermont.
Bromley Mountain, we say? Strangely, both Anthony and I have horror stories about this place, from long before we met. I've told him the tale of my childhood friend getting thrown off the sled and scuffing up her arm really bad. Anthony has told me his similar story about flying off a sled himself back in the day. But it wasn't until planning to go to Bromley Mountain that we realized, this was the location of the death trap! We both knew the accidents happened in Vermont, but Vermont has a few alpine slides, and we never knew that both accidents happened on the same slide. After some deductive reasoning, we were also pretty sure they both happened on similar parts of the course, on the same track! This would be an interesting ride, for sure.
On the ride up, we watched all the sledders take their lives in their hands. Some whizzed on down, obviously not knowing what was ahead. Others, who had most certainly done these tracks before, took their time. We had never seen such a stark contrast in rider speeds!
We opted for the intermediate track, and after successfully finishing our moderately-slow descent, Anthony and I reconvened and both remarked at the same time, "We know where the accidents happened!" They were on that track, right at an awkward curve which is now adorned with signs telling people to slow down.
Knowing how notorious this alpine slide can be, our victory tasted a little bit sweeter when we checked it off our list.
Publyk House and Hornstra ice cream
We had been waiting patiently to RV Vermont for years, and there is no better way to celebrate checking off a new state than with one of our favorite restaurants in the country, The Publyk House. We recapped our delicious dinner in our Bennington post. Then, we headed back to Massachusetts, and that meant a much anticipated stop for ice cream at Hornstra Farms. In previous years, we used to wonder if Hornstra would maintain its top spot on our list of favorite ice cream anywhere, but we always said we needed to RV Wisconsin first. Well, now we have, and we stand by our opinion. New England dairy cows have the best moo.
In addition to ice cream, Hornstra has a lovely little farm store
Sing karaoke
A return to old haunts wouldn't be complete without karaoke night in Boston, one of our favorite pastimes.
Try something new
The great part about RV life is that we try new things all the time, so it's never something we need to seek out. Instead, we stay mindful of the opportunities when they arise, and we find greater appreciation for them in the moment. Last year, we absolutely loved our firsts: A cold plunge/Kneipp Walk at a natural hot spring, my first time sleeping in a tent, and our first rodeo. This year, our favorite "first" was this unique experience:
Yes, that is the beloved Sister Bay Roofing of the Goats parade. It happened so early on in the summer, but as we paraded down the street behind the guests of honor, Anthony said to me, "Well, we're definitely trying something new!"
We had a lot more new experiences as we made our way back to New England, and then in New England, "RVing Vermont" was new in itself. But, just as we started our summer trying something new by attending a goat parade, we ended our summer trying something new, too. Well, it was more Lily's check mark than ours.
That almost sums up our Summer to Remember in 2024, but there are two more items left to discuss, and they were the two that took by far the longest to complete. As part of our summer goals, we challenged ourselves to 100 miles of hiking and 100 miles of ebiking within the 3 months from Memorial Day to Labor Day. It might sound easy, but not when we need to contend with weather, work, and overall busyness. But, we can always count on these types of challenges to bring the stories, and we're sharing them in our next post.