Friends, the Great Blogger Road Trip of 2026 has been epic. But it can't last forever. Let's have our last hurrah before Kyria and I head home.
Day 13
Start: Pierre SD
End: Lincoln NE
States Traveled In: South Dakota, Nebraska
Ohio License Plate Sightings: none
Things We Did: Had an epic walk in lovely weather around Pierre, toured the capitol, and drove to Lincoln
Eats: eggs, sausage, and potatoes from the hotel breakfast bar, car cooler sandwich, and wings for dinner (Kyria got ribs and I traded her a wing for a rib). Plus an unpictured salad and an unpictured beer flight.
Media Consumed/Road Trip Activities: we started listening to You With the Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate (it's good but also a very tough listen), about half of the Hamilton soundtrack, and various podcasts. We knocked back another two episodes of UK Traitors at night.
Best Thing: the morning walk in Pierre, which included our self guided capitol tour
2nd Best Thing: whoa, Lincoln is a hoppin' city! Was not expecting that. We had a nice walk around after dinner.
Worst Thing: there's no getting around it, even with two of us driving is starting to get very monotonous. The scenery is SD was beautiful, and Nebraska is much less so.
2nd Worst Thing: You With the Sad Eyes is a tough listen.
Day 14
Start: Lincoln NE
End: Ottawa IL
States Traveled In: Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois
Ohio License Plate Sightings: none, but we saw a truck with a Nebraska license plate that had a business name and address from Ohio.
Things We Did: Toured the capitol, ate lunch in Omaha and drove by Warren Buffet's house afterward, and started the official drive home. As retired people we are usually off the road by 6:00, but this day we were in the car until 8:00 (still six hours of driving total).
Eats: hotel breakfast and a rueben smackdown for lunch. We both had half of a reuben sandwich for lunch with a starter course of rueben eggrolls. Dinner was the 2nd halves of our sandwiches eaten in the car.
Media Consumed/Road Trip Activities: random podcasts, and two episodes of UK Traitors at night. Challenge accepted: we will finish season one before Kyria and I part company.
Best Thing: The capitol.
2nd Best Thing: lunch in Omaha
Worst Thing: the capitol tour! Being in the building was amazing, the tour was less so. The other members of the tour were a high school class celebrating their 55th reunion. I've been on plenty of tours with grade and middle school classes, and the difference between kids and adults is that the kids have always been well behaved and don't talk while the guide is speaking. The tour guide was very passionate, but she brought "grade school teacher" energy that wasn't a good fit with the vibe of the former high school class.
2nd Worst Thing: none! I was expecting the drive to be as tedious as the day before, but the time moved.
Day 15
Start: Ottawa IL
End: Birchwood HQ
States Traveled In: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio
Ohio License Plate Sightings: none in Illinois, many in Indiana, many in Ohio lol
Things We Did: morning hike at Dayton Bluffs Preserve near the hotel, drove to Birchwood HQ, had dinner with Hubs and Doggo.
Eats: hotel breakfast, odds and ends from our snack stash for lunch, and a chicken sausage/roasted broccoli/roasted potato bowl for dinner (one of my standard dinner staples that I can whip up on short notice).
Doggo wasted no time in claiming her seat at the table.
Media Consumed/Road Trip Activities: Podcasts! We knocked back a few episodes of The Moth, the Acquired episode on Ikea, and some random travel hacking podcasts. We ended the evening with another episode of UK Traitors.
Best Thing: We're home!!!
2nd Best Thing: the morning walk at Dayton Bluffs
Worst Thing/2nd Worst Thing: The inevitable end of the journey is in sight. We have another day to chill at Birchwood HQ before Kyria leaves for her next adventure.
Thanks for hanging out in semi-real time for the Great Blogger Road Trip of 2026!!! Let's plan on meeting up in a few days for another post with the overview of the trip, more of an explanation of how we planned it, superlatives, and a photo dump.
P.S. Kyria's side of the story is here
P.P.S. if anyone needs us today, we'll be on the couch finishing season one of UK Traitors.
You're home! What an epic adventure for the two of you.
ReplyDeleteYou With the Sad Eyes is already on my TBR. I love memoirs, but the fact remains that most memoirs are sad because most people that write about their life story are processing something traumatic! Will report back once I've read it.
I'm on the fence about finishing You With the Sad Eyes. It's very good and I feel like I "owe it to her" to hear the rest of her story, but there was so much tough stuff in the book. TBD.
DeleteSo, I have questions about the Ohio plate sigtings. Did it have to be on a private car or did it count if it was on a tractor-trailer?
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to hear you both made it back to HQ!
Any vehicle counted!
DeleteAll good things must come to an end. What an epic trip you had!
ReplyDeleteIt was an epic trip! Thanks for coming along virtually.
DeleteI can't believe it's over! Best thing: getting to know you better! Worst thing: changing locations every day. But what locations they were! My favorite part of this section was probably Lincoln. Even the capitol was beautiful, despite the school group!
ReplyDeleteLincoln was such a fun town.
DeleteIt's not over until season one of Traitors is over!!! Maybe we'll even start season 2 before you leave.
I heard Catherine of SBL say the Applegate book was a tough listen and that she wished she read it with her eyes. I am curious about reading it, though, but would read it in print.
ReplyDeleteWhat an epic trip! I’ve been to the SD state capitol and thought it was very pretty. ND’s is probably going to fall towards the bottom of your list. It looks like a dated apartment building or something. Yawn.
I think that print might be better. She went through some tough stuff, and I feel like there is a bit of extra heartbreak in hearing her read her own words.
DeleteCapitol wise the SD building > ND building, but there are other factors. ND is very elegant inside, and the tour was much better. It's tough to rate these capitols!
Man, I don't know how anyone could top this trip. Way to go, Kyria and Birchie!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sarah!
DeleteWhat a great trip and a great telling about the trip. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteReading these recaps reminds me what a vast and wonderful country we live in! I mean, except for the parts that suck, but that’s mostly people. You sure saw a LOT, and I’ll bet you’re happy to not be in a car all day for a while.
ReplyDeleteIt's mostly people, and they live everywhere so you might as well go out and see the country and get to appreciate all of the wonderful things that we have.
DeleteCan confirm that I am happy not to be in the car right now;-)
What an epic journey! I know it feels so good to be home (and not moving while sitting down).
ReplyDeleteGorgeous capitol dome there--wow! And I can't believe that there were so few OH plates along the way there and back. WTF?
I haven't had a Reuben in ages. Now it sounds so so good, and that marble rye would make fantastic toast for breakfast.
I can't remember the last time that I had a reuben either. It's too easy for them to fall off the radar.
DeleteAnd so the BirchieMobile finally made it home!
ReplyDeleteAfter all those miles, I completely understand the “we’re home!” being the best thing of Day 15. Although having one more day of chilling at Birchie HQ before Kyria heads off on her next adventure sounds like the perfect way to end it.
Looking forward to the planning details!
The day at home watching Traitors was definitely a part of the trip!
DeleteWoo hoo, you're home!!!!! What a fantastic adventure! Thanks so much for "bringing" your blog readers along for the ride.
ReplyDeleteI love that you and Kyria are so compatible in terms of food and media. The Reuben smackdown sounds like fun (even if I am a not a Reuben connoisseur, I can appreciate it). Your tour with the chatty, interrupty reunion class sounds like a delight.
Thanks! It was a wonderful adventure.
DeleteThis bloggy road trip looks pretty epic! WOW, just WOW! Nice way to chronicle the sights & highlights :-)
ReplyDeleteIt really was!
DeleteThat really was an epic, awesome road trip! I loved reading about it and being a small part of it! I can imagine that Doggo was very happy to have you back. I hope you have a nice rest, and then I can't wait to read more of the details of this trip!
ReplyDeleteThe trip was amazing. The sights are nice, but it was really about the people. And steak and strawberry shortcake...the only thing that was missing is the ability to teleport Doggo up to the ranch so that she could "help" Chip keep the cows in line.
DeleteHa, yes I can imagine that driving through Nebraska and Illinois wasn't quite as interesting and picturesque as some of the other states you were in! As awesome as the trip was, I"ll bet it felt good to be home again with Doggo.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to the next post. How did you guys come up with this idea? I want more details!
More details are on the way! I just need to catch up on puppy kisses and snuggles.
DeleteYou guys had such an amazing trip with so many fantastic meetups and a lot of sightseeing. Did I miss how that joint adventure came about?
ReplyDeleteYou didn't miss the details, I haven't gotten around to writing them yet. Stay tuned!
DeleteI was surprised by Lincoln too! A great surprise! So much going on there and a lovely downtown.
ReplyDeleteWhy I am not surprised the septuagenarians were acting up.
Welcome home!
So it wasn't just me, Lincoln really was that good.
DeleteOnce a person reaches septuagenarian status they do what they want!
What an epic road trip! It probably felt good to be home, though.
ReplyDeleteAnd UK Traitors! I love it. The seasons following season 1 are also great, and they have an EXCELLENT version of Celebrity Traitors. Just know you can text me your Traitors UK thoughts at ANY TIME and I will listen. lolol
I will take you up on the offer to be on standby for Traitors. Just a heads up that you might get some play by play texts from me when I get to the season finales. Kyria and I made the mistake of googling one of the participants in season 1 and we got a big ol' spoiler on the winners. But knowing who didn't mean that we knew why/how so it was still fun to watch it play out.
DeleteYou were in Omaha! That's where Reg goes to school. Tank graduated last year and we were thrilled when Reg landed there, because even though it's far away - we enjoy Omaha. I'm so curious about where you lunched while there. Did you know Omaha is known as a foodie town? I think I had my first 'bowl style' dinner at the Twisted Fork. It was amazing.
ReplyDeleteLook at sweet Doggo, no doubt happy that you were home. All in all, it sounds like an epic trip. I've enjoyed living vicariously through your posts.
I'd love to spend more time in Omaha. The only thing is that the street layout felt weird. We ate at the Crescent Moon Ale House, which was recommended to us by Kyria's cousin who used to live there.
Delete