As we meet new friends along our journey, most people are curious to know how far we’ve made it in the last two years living in the Turtle. And when they hear the answer, nearly all of them are surprised to discover how few states and provinces we’ve added to the list.

In case you’re wondering, here it is:

• Oregon
• Washington
• Idaho
• Montana
• Wyoming
• South Dakota
• Colorado
• New Mexico
• Oklahoma
• Utah
• Arizona
• Nevada
• Alaska
• Texas*
• British Columbia
• Alberta
• Yukon

* I can’t decide if we should count Texas since we just crossed through the panhandle, which—on a side note—we learned is actually referred to as “West Texas”. Hm. Anyway, we were just there for a few days and never really got into the state so it feels like cheating to add it at this point. I’ll get back to you on that one.

Looking at the list, it seems like a lot of places to have spent time in two years, especially considering what my list would have looked like a few years ago living in Portland! But we’ve found that many full-time travelers move much more quickly than we do, and the fact that we haven’t even crossed over into the eastern half of the United States is perplexing to them. We’ve talked to people who drove from one coast to the other in a week! Which is perfectly fine—especially if your vehicle gets good gas mileage—but that’s just not our travel style. The Turtle is aptly named. We move slowly. And we like it that way!

First of all, there are just a staggering number of incredible and beautiful and strange things to discover in every area we go. The more slowly we move, the more things we get to experience. Some of our favorite places have been little surprise spots we’ve stumbled across and loved so much we just stayed. Secret lakes, rivers, overlooks and canyons that we’ve had all to ourselves, and that we could have easily just driven by if we hadn’t taken the time to turn off the beaten path to explore.

Secondly, we don’t get good gas mileage. I think you’re not surprised. So the less we drive, the less money we’re spending. We might as well stop to smell the roses so that we can prolong our trip.

And lastly, we haven’t made it far because we keep getting opportunities to hang out with family! There’s always something going on and now that we have the chance to be more present, we’ve really been enjoying family time as if we were neighbors. So as we’re driving around, if we hear of an upcoming event, we just head that way.

After spending a few weeks of fun visiting Andy’s family in Great Falls and then my family in Bozeman, the last of the family stops (for now) was a visit to Andy’s sister Maggie’s house in Spearfish, South Dakota. His mom Genie was getting knee surgery there, so we stopped by for moral support and to lend a hand where we could, and if a lot of fun was had together in the meantime, so be it.

Genie’s knee surgery was scheduled for birthday, so we celebrated ahead of time with a formal dinner. Andy prepared another fantastic feast, with his scrumptious stuffing and a second turkey.

Andy’s niece Ellie can plan a party like nobody I’ve ever met before, and she’d already picked out the perfect cake to make. (I’d advise saving the date for her to plan your party now; by the time she’s old enough to begin working, she’ll be booked for a lifetime already.) Maggie baked the cake and made the icing, I iced it, and Ellie and I piped the flowers. Her brother Will came home and soon he and Andy were even hard at work piping flowers too.

Maggie set a lovely table, and Andy’s turkey came out perfectly.

It was really shaping up to be a good party! Everyone got dressed up and we got a few photos to show that we do in fact clean up pretty well.

It was a lovely party!

Genie had her surgery, and it went well. As she recovered, we all enjoyed our time together.

Gracie and Scout played outside in the sunshine regularly.

Andy made some turkey noodle soup.

And it was delicious!

He also worked on this car part. Before meeting Andy I didn’t realize that an appropriate adjective for car parts could be “pretty”.

A few days later, it was Andy’s birthday! We surprised him with a Lego-themed party, which I’d been wanting to do for a few years now, but this location was ideal since Will and Ellie have extensive Lego collections and are also nice people who are wiling to share their Legos.

Ellie blew up exactly 70 balloons. And lived to tell the tale.

Since Andy is not fond of sweets, I made him his second-annual mashed potato and gravy birthday cake, which he deemed satisfactory under the authority of his Lego crown.

As everyone else in the group is normal and does like sweets, I also make a proper birthday cake for the rest of us. I planned a little surprise for Will during Andy’s surprise party, which was a challenge to remember which secrets to keep from whom, but somehow we pulled it off. When he came up to visit us in Alaska this last summer, we’d talked about having Baked Alaska at some point, but it never happened. So for the birthday cake, I tried making a Baked Alaska for the first time and was lucky enough that everything went according to plan and it turned out great. And tasted delicious too!

Second Party was a success.

Whose dog is this?

A few days later it was time for the third party of the trip—Thanksgiving dinner. Ellie brilliantly repurposed the sign she’d made for Andy’s birthday, and added the most impressive and charming little Lego turkey! Andy and I both assumed the other had helped her with it and laughed out loud when we learned that she did it completely on her own.

It was our third turkey feast in under a month, so we felt very spoiled and happy about it. Andy’s turkey roasting skills only improved each time, and the holiday dinner was his best showing yet! Once Thanksgiving day had passed, we’d gotten so accustomed to having parties that we kept the good times rolling with other activities, such as:

Face taping.

Bowling.

Hanging Christmas lights.

Festive drinks.

More fancy dinners. (Andy dry aged a steak and cooked it sous vide! Truly the best steak I’ve ever had. He’s something else.)

Recess.

Grocery shopping.

Perfecting more car parts. (Bonus points if you can identify the part.)

Pizza eating.

Christmas train maintenance.

General shenanigans.

We felt lucky to begin December with sunshine, but soon the cold weather did finally set in. It just so happened that our trip was coming to a close anyway, as Genie had recovered enough to return to Great Falls.

So as winter descended on Spearfish, we left in search of sunshine, and to add another state to our slowly growing list: California!