From Mass To Wisco: Living Rad on the Road
The last 10 months have been nothing short of amazing! In this short span of time, we have lived in New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. We also explored and visited every other state in the Northeast along the way. We have explored places we never thought we would see and discovered places we never knew about. The whole time, we knew the day would come when we would be leaving the East Coast—and we have finally come to that moment. Amity has accepted a job in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. This means we have to pack our lives into our car, say “goodbye” to Massachusetts, and set out westward toward Wisconsin. With a travel plan that includes Niagara Falls, Indiana Dunes National Park, and whatever else we can find along the way, we’ll do our best to make the three-day drive to Wisconsin more of an adventure than a move.
Mile: 67,140
Quote of the Blog: “The difference between successful person and others is not lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” - Vince Lombardi
Song of the Blog: “The Great Discovery” - The Movement
Before we could leave Massachusetts, there was one last event I had planned for us. One of my new favorite bands, The Movement, was playing at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Barnstable on the Cape—and it just happened to be the last night we were in town! Our morning started in Boston, as we had just dropped Briley off at the airport. We quickly drove back to Wareham and finished packing and cleaning, which I had already gotten a big head start on. This process has become pretty routine for us, as this is the 10th time we’ve moved in less than three years. Once we had the house cleaned up and the car dialed in, we headed onto the Cape for the last time.
Not far from the concert venue is Barnstable Brewing. We figured we could have a couple of beers before the show. The beer was good, but we were only able to get one since they were hosting a private event and we had to leave. That meant we were going to be at the venue pretty early. The benefit to this was getting good parking—and this was a big deal here! Whoever was in charge of the parking really dropped the ball. They didn’t park people in rows, but instead parked cars bumper-to-bumper and blocked everyone in. We happened to be third from the front and on the side next to a road, so we weren’t completely blocked in like others.
The venue itself is pretty small, which made the concert that much better! There isn’t a bad seat in the whole place. The stage sits at the bottom of a bowl-style venue and rotates 360 degrees while the bands are playing. We’ve never seen a venue like this before. The concert was great! This music is very meditative for me and has helped me through some of our darkest days in the last year and a half, so seeing them live was so fulfilling. Tribal Seeds opened for The Movement and were equally as good! The venue had a really cool element: if you just walked down the stairs, it would take you right to the stage. Amity walked down at one point and got to stand right next to the band while they rocked out! So cool! This was a great way to end an amazing time living on the East Coast. When the show ended, we got back to our car quickly to make sure we could get out of the parking mess. Being near the end and on the side gave us a quick exit. Back home for our last night at Swift Beach.
We didn’t need to get out of town right away in the morning, so we were able to make sure that the house was detailed and we were all packed up. Before leaving Wareham, we stopped for one last coffee at the Blue Footed Boobie Café. This was a good one, and it will be missed! The first leg of the journey was to get to Niagara Falls, New York. It’s a 7.5-hour drive, but we got stopped on the interstate for almost two hours because a semi-truck’s trailer caught fire and shut things down. This wasn’t a big loss for us, as we had already planned to wake up bright and early the next day to explore around Niagara Falls before the next leg of the drive. When we finally got to our hotel and checked in, we first needed to get some food. The only spot I could find open that wasn’t fast food was in the Seneca Niagara Falls Casino. This sucked us into a little slot play before we walked down to see the falls at night. It was crazy to see how dead the New York side of the falls was compared to what we could see on the Canadian side. At night, the falls are lit up with colors, but from Prospect Point, we couldn’t see much. We were about to walk out to another spot, but then a random rainstorm pushed us back to our hotel for the night.
The next morning, we both needed to go on a training run. This turned out to be one of the most amazing runs I’ve ever had. We both worked our way down to the edge of the Niagara Falls Gorge and found some trails to run along. We each ended up finding some incredible places to see the waterfalls along our run. Even though we didn’t run together, we kept seeing each other at the same scenic spots. Goat Island was by far the best place to see the falls from the New York side. Running up to that spot was humbling and demanded that we both stop, gawk, and take as many pictures as we could. Being able to stand at the top of Bridal Veil Falls and look straight down was unreal, and the views at Horseshoe Falls were the best! This run ranks in our top three best places to run on our journeys. Once we got back to the hotel, we got cleaned up and made a plan for the day. We decided to do a little less driving today and spend some time walking over to Canada to see the falls from the Canadian side. We had to dig our passports out of the car before heading out for coffee. I think they had to go to Costa Rica to get the beans to make our coffee it took so long, but in the end, we got our drinks and head out. To get to Canada, you walk across the Rainbow Bridge. It turned out to be one of the best vantage points to see the falls. It was also surprisingly easy to just walk into Canada. Just like that, we turned this trip into an international adventure!
The Canadian side of Niagara Falls is quite the place—and definitely a bit of a tourist trap. With the vibe of Branson, MO, and way more people, we did a little walking around to see the falls from the Canadian side. This has to be the best place to see the falls at night. We then walked into the town area of Niagara Falls, Ontario. We ended up getting a Canadian beer at Niagara Brewing Company. Pretty funny that we’re just sitting in Canada right now—never saw this one coming. We didn’t have a ton of time, so we quickly made our way back across the bridge and into the United States. The next plan was to put in another 7.5-hour drive to get to South Bend, Indiana—home of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. This would put us only five hours away from Fond du Lac. Back in the car and off to the Midwest. We made a quick detour up to Lake Ontario to check off the first of three Great Lakes we’d be seeing on our drive to Wisconsin.
The drive to Indiana was a breeze. We passed the south end of Lake Erie before crossing through two new states—Ohio and Indiana. This means we’ve now traveled through 31 states since we started this adventure, and Wisconsin will make 32 once we get there. We pulled into South Bend pretty late at night. We found a great hotel downtown with several breakfast spots nearby, which made the next morning a little easier. We were able to wake up and walk down to breakfast at a spot called PEGGS. The wait tested my patience, but it was worth it. A classic college-town breakfast joint that you probably couldn’t get into on a game day when Notre Dame is in session. Once we were all fueled up, we got back in the car and drove down to the Notre Dame campus to do a little sightseeing. We had to see the football stadium, which was absolutely huge! The brick-style architecture reminded me of Central School in Whitefish, but the sheer size of it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. Makes us both want to come back in the fall for a football game!
Next up on our stops for the day was Indiana Dunes National Park. This is a national park we hadn’t heard of before, but it’s awesome! It has 15 miles of pristine coastline along the southern end of Lake Michigan, surrounded by natural sand dunes and forests. It was the perfect day for a little beach time. We found some parking and got into our swimsuits to enjoy ourselves. Walking up to the beach area had a very tropical feel. It definitely didn’t feel like we were in the Midwest—and it definitely didn’t feel like we were walking up to freshwater. The beach was amazing, but the sand was HOT! I probably added a couple more calluses to my feet walking from our towels to the water. We didn’t swim much on the East Coast for several reasons: first off, the rip currents are gnarly. Next, the saltwater is gross—and I’m not a huge fan. I’ll swim in it, but it’s not my favorite. Finally, sharks! We are so happy to be away from shark-infested water. Cape Cod has so many sharks, it’s crazy! We never felt totally comfortable in the water out there. This was one of the best side quests we’ve had on our road trips. Nothing like cooling off with a good swim in the third-largest lake in North America—especially with views of Chicago in the distance. Absolutely beautiful. After we felt like we’d done what we set out to do, we got back in the car for the final leg of the drive.
We quickly left Indiana, passed through Chicago, and made it through Illinois. Driving into Wisconsin felt surreal. We had talked about wanting to check out this area of the country for so long—and now we’re here! While we were driving, I looked up what kinds of “tourist traps” were close to the highway we were on. I immediately told Amity to take the next exit, but didn’t tell her where we were going until we pulled into the parking lot. She instantly knew what we had found: the Mars Cheese Castle! We’d discovered this place while researching another job location in Wisconsin. It’s exactly what it sounds like—a castle full of cheese! We have several friends from Wisconsin, so we’ve long known about cheese curds and cheese whips, and we had to get some. One of the best parts of this place was the endless samples. We tried all kinds of cheese. My personal favorite was the 18-year aged cheddar. If it hadn’t been $20 for 4 ounces, I would have bought it. We ended up going with some classic dill and cheddar curds, plus some delicious mozzarella cheese whips. Before checking out, we walked past their beer display, which featured endless options from New Glarus Brewing. This is a Wisconsin-only brewery—you can only buy their beer in the state. Amity’s Uncle Rick and his wife Lisa have long had a love for this beer and always had it at their house, so we had to get some. There were so many options that we were reading them all over when an older man working there offered us some samples. He walked us over to the full-service bar inside the Cheese Castle, stepped behind the bar, and poured us some of their Spotted Cow Lager. It’s their flagship beer—and we had to get some. Nothing is more Wisconsin than making an impulse stop at a roadside cheese castle to stock up on curds, whips, and New Glarus. I think I’m going to like this state!
Pulling into Fond du Lac, we were pleasantly surprised with the town. Our initial impressions were that it’s a little more than just your run-of-the-mill Midwestern town. It sits on the southern end of Lake Winnebago, and there’s a really nice park just over a mile from our new rental. We got there early in the day, so we were able to unpack, make a store run, and do a little exploring. Amity had to start work at her new clinic the next morning, so we had to make it an early night. We’re happy to have made it to Wisconsin. It feels weird saying that, but there are a ton of things on our list to do and see—from Green Bay to Lake Michigan and up to Door County. We have a lot ahead of us. Plus, as we’ve learned in our travels, some of the best parts about our new homes are the things we had no idea about when we first moved there. Now that we’re here, it’s time to get our lives back in order and make a quick adjustment to our new home. Here’s to the next few months of Living Rad Wisco Style!