Back on the open road, I took off some time from work this summer for a little vacation time. My husband and I drove from our home in SoCal to his parents’ home in Indiana for his little brother’s wedding.

We set course at 08:00 on a Saturday morning and we made our way east. We traveled from San Diego and across the purple mountains of Anza-Borrego. We marveled at the dunes near El Centro and cruised our way northeast through Arizona. We stopped in Phoenix for lunch. That night we stayed in Arizona’s “painted desert” near Chinlé. We stayed on the Navajo reservation in a real hogan. If you have never stayed in one, a hogan is typically a circular structure with a wood stove in the center. The central oven acts as a heat source as well as for daily cooking. Its chimney reaches through the center of the roof.

There are usually one or two small windows and one entrance and exit. Inside the single entrance and to the left, there is a kitchenette complete with a couple basic cabinet cupboards and even a couple of feet of countertop space. There is a set table with four chairs. In the back center is a made, quilted bed. Although the simple structure is complete with finished walls, a ceiling, and functioning doors and windows— it does not have one thing— flooring. Did you think I was going to say toilet? You are right on that, too. The toilet is a drafty outhouse. Albeit quaint, I slept a lot better in this hogan than I did this time last year in the Oljato-Monument Valley cabin; and my husband must have, too, because he was tickled pink in the morning as he raked the hogan floor on our way out. It was a pretty awesome experience.

We traveled through the rest of Arizona’s stunning painted desert and we meandered our way through the majestic red rocks of New Mexico until we reached Santa Rosa for lunch. New Mexico is gorgeous but it is also very hot in the summer. We kept it moving and made our way deep into Oklahoma. That night we stayed in Oklahoma City in guest house apartment on a farm just outside of OKC. It was a lovely apartment above the garage. It was fully furnished and everything was labeled. I think I noticed labels in our Airbnb last year when we were in the midwest, too. It was a great space and we both got excellent rest!

The next morning, we traveled on through Oklahoma and into the “Show Me State.” We stopped in Springfield, MO, for lunch. I think Springfield took us both by surprise. It was very pretty. It appeared to be a more pedestrian city and there were a lot of small shops and interesting restaurants. We arrived during their Pride weekend so it was awesome seeing so much LGBTQ+ allyship and celebration in Missouri. There sure are a lot of highway hatred signs in the midwest, so it is easy to forget that does not mean that those hateful religious billboards represent the residents there— at least not all of them. We made it to Indiana that evening and stayed at our first hotel of the trip. We stayed with Tyler’s family at their homes in their respective guest rooms the rest of the week. Hoosier hospitality is real— at least it is with Ty’s family.

To be continued…