As you might know Tim and I have been pet-sitting as a way of traveling across Europe. It takes us to places that we normally wouldn’t visit because they are off the beaten path. They are not your typical tourist destinations.

We, (mostly I. Yeah, 98.7% I) get a furry baby pet fix through pet-sitting.

It has been such an amazing experience to drop in and check off all our favorite boxes. Like meeting cool people, refilling my joy meter with animal friends, while still being free of the responsibility of veterinary costs, food and supply costs, etc. I told Tim I feel a little guilty because it’s like having my cake and eating it too.

We are currently back on the Thames River, sitting for Sara and her four hearts. We got this sit by word of mouth when we were on this island two weeks ago. Sara is a neighbor of Misha, literally they are right across the alley from one another.

Let me introduce you to Knuckles, Custard, Archie and Dora:

They are all super sweet with all their own personalities. (Of Course)

Knuckles is a little Rascal. You can tell he is mischievous and a troublemaker. (But he’s so little he can only get into a little bit of trouble). He is also the most animated, and he looks like an Ewok or a teddy bear. He would rather play than get lovey attention like his siblings.

Dora is the shyest and most dainty. She is so tiny and such a sweet heart, she probably weighs all of a pound. Maybe a pound and a half.

They all have these amazingly long tongues that hang out of their mouths and off to the side. I don’t remember seeing such a characteristic before.

I’ve settled into this routine of giving them their meds twice a day, then feeding twice a day, a short walk to the courtyard to sniff around and potty. In between meds and feedings they just laze about and vie for my rubbings and attention. Except Knuckles. He just hangs out and I love watching him as he dotingly licks their faces, sniff their butts; it’s a dog thing I know but it’s sweet to be a part of it.

And here are Salsa from Nivå, Denmark; Misha from Shepperton (Thames); and Chuk from Bury St Edmunds:

Did you ever play the game “Hot Lava” as a child? Tim and I recently played that game while staying in our last hostel for three nights in London.

But first, let’s catch you up - We have been traveling by train since we decided to pivot off the Gudbrandsdalsleden Pilgrimage trail. We locked in a few pet sits in the UK, mostly because they were available and the ones we wanted on mainland Europe fell through. So off we went with our newly purchased Eurail Global Travel Pass on a train adventure to England.

We started on June 6 from our Airbnb in Kongsberg, Norway with a trip to Gothenburg, Sweden where we stayed two nights at a really nice hostel. I love the feel and sense of welcome of the smaller towns in Sweden and the Netherlands. I am aware it is a cultural difference but it has a feeling of a friend reaching out giving us a big welcome hug.

The next day was many hours by train to Hamburg, Germany. We only had a quick overnight stay in a hostel near the train station. For the first time since we’ve been here I was acutely aware of eavesdropping on two ladies sitting across from us. (I could eavesdrop because they were speaking English.)

On June 9, we arrived in Antwerp, Belgium. This happened because we had spun the empty bottle on the floor and said to each other “Where shall we go next?” We found a sweet flat to rent for five days and even though the kitchen was the size of a throw pillow, (or was it a postage stamp?) we made it work - pasta and oatmeal only need water and a burner.

This studio was a “Rare Find” or a perfect gem (pun intended) in the heart of the historic district of Antwerp (home to the Shane Co.) We entered through a charming coffee cafe to access the door to the stairs, and after climbing to the 3rd floor we accessed our cute studio apartment with a skeleton key. (I know, Right? So very gothic.) Super charming and reasonably priced. We loved it.

We were unaware of the fate about to land in our laps when we arrived in London and the hostel I found near St Pancras Station. We arrived by train from Brussels and had only a short 20 minute walk to the place.

Thank goodness for the explicit instructions on how to access our room. Ever been to an “Escape Room”? Surrounding the compound was wrought iron fencing and gates with keyed locks. After many locks, keys and codes we accessed our sleeping quarters for the next three nights. If I thought the pillow sized kitchen in Antwerp was small, I was utterly surprised at what we experienced next.

Now, I think I have a pretty high tolerance for discomfort. I am up for adventure even when some comforts are lacking. Like getting lost in the woods in the rain and trying to build a fire with wet wood, and trying to dry out my soaked cigarettes, while it’s still raining (yes that really happened, I was 20 years old).

How about the time we roasted in an eco-cabin, middle of summer near Mount St. Helens. The room was 102 degrees inside at night as we were trying to go to sleep, and outside were clouds of mosquitos waiting for dinner. And how about that ever fateful kayak trip in New Zealand’s Fjordlands National Park where we were covered in sand fly bites. We actually signed a waiver excusing the company from our “mental duress”. We were unable to get away from the little pests even in our tent and then, I broke down and cried in the morning putting on my ice cold wet suit - cold and wet because we neglected to tuck it securely out of the rain overnight.

But back to London - Close your eyes and imagine a broom closet with two twin beds, each, neatly packed into the corners of the room, leaving a 12 inch space between them to walk. There was absolutely nowhere to put our backpacks, no chairs, no shelves (there was no room for any of those things - and truly there no room for us either). We had just stepped into a box. We had a slim stand up fan and a few windows that opened to the outside hallway.

The floor was dark brown carpet, stained (I didn’t stare at it too long lest I identify the cause of the stains) and it was crawling. I’m sure it was home to a substantial population of fleas although I didn’t actually meet any of them. (Miracles come in all shapes and sizes, just FYI) I did however meet their cousin as he welcomed us to our new home - he died shortly after we met.

Hence, the floor became Hot Lava. We would NOT touch the hot lava without our special hot lava shoes. We’d remind each other if we were setting anything of value on the hot lava: “Wait! Hot Lava!”

We were only there a few minutes before I reviewed what we actually paid for this dump. Whoa, and it’s Non-refundable. Damn! I searched for anything other than where we were. Negative. Zip. Zilch. Not unless we wanted to pay 500 to 2000 pounds a night. Yikes!

So I reached out to the management of the hostel and said “I want you to know I’m not having a 5 star experience (haha) and this doesn’t match your advertised description”. (A tea kettle in a hall cupboard is not kitchen facilities.) But I was ghosted.

So Rude. It was a very long three nights. Luckily it was easy to visit each other over the foot long lava bed between us.

But we win some and we lose some. And we have proven that we are resilient and can survive quite a bit. One day at a time. Helping each other, reminding each other, “Don’t touch that - Hot Lava!”. In spite of all this, we survived together had a lovely time exploring London, outside, away from Hot Lava.

And now we are in paradise. Our first pet sit in England is on a little Island with only 23 homes inhabiting it and accessed by a skiff. The River Thames is just outside our front steps and it comes with the sweetest kitty named Misha.

Hot lava is but a memory.

We spent the longest day of the year watching all the weekenders passing us by on the river and on the foot path on the other side. We had thought we would take out the kayak and stand up paddle board, but why when we have all this right in front of us??

So we relaxed and talked and ate and continued watching everyone else.

A wonderful, chill day for us on our anniversary. We’ve been together for 28 years and married for 17.

We are doing a pet sit on The River Thames for a lovely kitty named Misha. And it’s a pretty great gig. Feeling so blessed for this good fortune.

OK, we are taking a quick break from all our travel posts to share some exciting news from our daughter Courtney. She will be taking part in a fundraising hike next month through The Enchantments, a beautiful alpine wilderness in central Washington State.

The Enchantments are one of the best hiking memories Shannon has because of the hike she did there soon after we first met in 1998.

And in the photo above is Courtney at the top of Storm King, (a sort of similar but really not so much) hike near her hometown on the Olympic Peninsula. And here’s her announcement we recently received about the fundraiser. (and please, feel free to donate if you have the means, to help her support this great cause!)

And now, back to our regularly scheduled, somewhat intermittent programming…

Wow it’s hard to believe that it has been more than two weeks since I shared what I wanted out of this thing. Let’s recap and and see how it went:

We did part of the trail ✅, and did at least 15km a day ✅ while carrying all our stuff ✅. We did this for more than two days ✅, and we did hike for a week ✅.

I do know much better what I am and am not capable of ✅.

So from all of this, I would say: “Mission Accomplished”.

We hiked part of the forest where pilgrims have been walking for nearly 1,000 years. But really, there was not much forest on the portion we walked.

I’m not sure if I felt a stronger connection to nature and mother earth - most of our walking was on asphalt, and a lot of it was in very urban environments.

And while it is true that we were sorely unprepared…

• We had way more stuff than we needed, or even used, so we were carrying a lot of unnecessary weight

• We did not have warm enough sleeping bags, and no tent or sleeping mats.

• No camp stove, no cookware or dishes, and no means to build a fire

…still, the physical challenge was nothing compared to the mental energy required to work out logistics.

My final hope was was:

…and this proved to be very elusive. I think it would require doing a lot more walking in a much more mindful way. Yes, we were mindful, but in a very different sense…

• How much food do we need to pick up today?

• Will we be able to cook our meals? Or are we eating cold food? And if so, for how many days?

• How far do we need to walk to our next overnight and what will it cost? What amenities will it offer?

• How far to the next grocery store after this one?

• Repeat all of the above every day.

And we did that looking at 3 different maps for the different bits of info each provided. We needed a translation app to convert Norwegian to English. And a currency converting app so we knew what we’re spending.

After a week of doing that every day, getting blisters on our feet, and getting soaked on our last couple of days, only to end up sitting in a free shelter - cold, wet and tired - we realized that we had already accomplished most of what we had set out to do.

We decided we were the ones in charge of this challenge. We proved to ourselves what we wanted to, and had nothing to prove to anyone else.

So we called it. We ended up back-tracking 4km to the charming pilgrim hostel you saw in our previous post. We paid for the overnight stay, dried ourselves out and contemplated what to do next.

I’m not complaining. I’m just realizing that originally I was all concerned about the physical aspects of this - the weight on my back, the distances to cover each day - but what I learned is that the required mental energy is what became so overwhelming.

And maybe that’s true of all pilgrimages? (especially those that people actually complete?)

I am SO glad we did this. I learned a lot about myself in the process and I think I can pat myself on the back:

Me - a 63 year old, strapping 35 pounds on my back, and heading off down a trail with no backpacking experience - I think I did OK.

And on a lighter note, here’s something that happened out on the path. If you have a longtime partner, spouse or significant other, you may be familiar with the concept of one of you pausing mid-sentence, trying to find the words and the other finishing the sentence for you. Well that happened with us as Shannon was explaining to me what she had read in the guidebook. It went something like this:

Shannon:
“Pilgrims had many reasons to walk to Trondheim - searching for the healing powers of Saint Olav, or forgiveness of past sins, and for those reasons as well as to find shelter from the elements, they would travel from church to church along the way, hoping that their prayers would be answered… (pause)…

Me:
"…in the order they were received?”

Anyway. We thought it was funny. Maybe you had to be there.

Thank you again for being with us! ❤️

Tim and I started Europe with a full backpack and a day pack each. 4 packs total.

Our first day on the Gudbrandsdalsleden Pilgrimage was Tuesday, May 27.

Before we struck out, we unloaded our 2 larger backpacks and filled 1 empty day pack with items we thought we could live without for a month and didn’t want to carry 643km to Trondheim.

Tim is carrying 1 day pack in front and 1-50 liter back pack on his back.

I squished and smooshed most of my stuff in 1-65 liter back pack.  Then we added 2 sleeping bags and 2 pillow cases.  (Necessary for the hostels.)

We are carrying  approximately 2 liters of water each day while walking.

Today is May 31st, Sunday.

So far,

We’ve walked 49km of the official path.

We’re averaging approximately 19,796 steps a day or 10.6 km a day.

We’ve Spent 1 night in the forest in a free shelter.

Slept 2 nights in hostels.  Beds with kitchen facilities.

Stayed 3 nights in hotels (including the 1 tonight).

When we treat ourselves at a typical cafe,  it costs about $24 for 2 cortados (espresso with a touch of steamed milk) and two pastries. It remains a treat.

We have 3 blisters between the 2 of us.

We’ve gotten 8 stamps so far in our pilgrim passport.

We’ve been to McDonalds once for breakfast. (Necessary as well)

We’ve had a few disagreements, many conversations with laughter and more realizations about ourselves.

We’ve not met a single other pilgrim, yet.   But we’ve met some really nice people along the way. ❤️🇳🇴

“Oh you can totally do the whole thing in that amount of time“ - that may not be word-for-word, but it’s pretty much what Anna at the Oslo Pilgrim Center told us on Tuesday, so guess what - we’re doing it. Or at least, starting it to see how far we can get.

We picked up some maps, the official guide book, and our Pilgrim Passports, and then Anna led us downstairs to give us our Pilgrim’s Blessing.

I was not expecting that and it was pretty incredible to feel something welling up inside me - almost bringing tears to my eyes. I’m not sure what it was but something about feeling honored to be able to attempt this trek.

Anyway, then we were off.

Well, almost - sleeping bags first. We had a couple of leads on where to rent and both turned out to be dead ends, so luckily we found some in a sporting goods store at a reasonable price so we picked them up new and then ate some lunch. 

And THEN we were off.

Anna had told us of a Pilgrim Hostel about 4km away and we decided on that for our first night. (We had already been carrying our packs all over the city, so that seemed like some good baby steps for our first day.)

Along the way we found ourselves playing “I Spy with my Little Eye” to make sure we were going the right way.

As you look at these photos see if you can spot with your little eye, the symbol that has become our new friend.

That little thing marks the route all the way to Trondheim.

Full disclosure - we did miss it a few times and ended up straying from the path, but luckily we had downloaded the gpx track to layer over our mapping app and were able to quickly get back on course.

But it’s been fun to see how much we can do without constantly looking at our phones and we’ve done pretty well actually.

For our second day we decided on about 15km to some Pilgrim Shelters in the forest and we were only about 3.5km along when I finally decided to stop and get the tiny pebble out of my shoe. But try as I might I could not find a pebble, just a lump of lint all wadded up on the bottom of my sock. And it was then I discovered the beginnings of a blister forming on the ball of my foot. And worse, a little crater in the sole of both of my shoes in that exact spot. 

So I swapped out the shoes for hiking boots and then started to worry - OMG OMG OMG I so do NOT want a blister right now, how can this be happening? Really? After I’ve been getting 10,000+ steps nearly every single day for the last several weeks?

Shannon pulled out a little round Band-Aid and I put it over my baby blister, I pulled on my socks and my hiking boots, and hoped for the best. And on we went.

The asphalt finally gave way to wooded trail through the forest and before too long, we arrived at our shelter, and lucky us, we had it all to ourselves.

It was 2:30pm. And we were pretty much exhausted and ready to sleep, but it doesn’t get dark here this time of year until about 11:00pm so we just sat there and enjoyed being in the moment.

I asked Shannon (my resident health care professional) if she thought it was a good idea to remove the little Band-Aid from my blister. She took a look at my bare foot and said “there is no Band-Aid on you blister” and sure enough it was gone. After further examination it was discovered way over under my big toe! (It had migrated across my foot about 4 inches) But good news, the blister did not look any worse.

We finally we decided it was time - that we were probably tired enough to get some sleep on the hard, wood floor (we have no sleeping mats). So that’s what we did and we both slept many, many times.

We also discovered that our inexpensive sleeping bags are barely enough to keep us warm when the temp drops to 42 degrees, but somehow we made it through the night, and got up this morning with not much water and no real breakfast. (Poor planning on our part)

So we packed things up and started hiking out of there. And you know what? Since I’ve been counting my daily steps, today is the most steps I’ve ever gotten before coffee - about 9,500!

Right now we are lounging comfortably in a hotel (we figure we earned it last night) and recharging for another 15km tomorrow.

See you next time~

Maybe I should call it a battle against my inner demons. I think Shannon the adventurer is good with any and all of it. What I’m referring to is hiking the Gudbrandsdalsleden - an ancient (1,000 year old) pilgrimage trail from Oslo to Trondheim, Norway. The Good Brands Dolls Lead-In. This is one of the things that brought us to Europe in the first place.

But let me catch you up a bit…

I mentioned last week that we might be catching a ferry, but also hinted that we were leaving ourselves an out if we decided against it at the last minute. Well in spite of several potential roadblocks thrown at us, we went with it and on Friday, we took a ferry from Copenhagen, Denmark to Oslo, Norway.

So now we’ve hit the ground in Norway and we are trying to learn more about this pilgrim trek, and I’m having trouble with it. And if you wanna know what’s troubling me, I got a list:

• We realized after we paid for non-refundable ferry tickets that the Pilgrim Center is only open on select days before the pilgrim season begins on June 1st. This means having to wait around in Oslo from our arrival Saturday morning, until Tuesday before we can even get in to get some questions answered.

• Over a couple of days last week Shannon reached out to 2 different places to stay and never heard back from either of them

• I reached out to the Pilgrim Center to see if we could schedule a meetup on Saturday (they say on their website that they sometimes do that). We still haven’t heard back.

• We dropped into Oslo on a holiday weekend so nearly everything is closed. Including Monday.

• We had been hoping to maybe extend our allowable time spent in Europe past 90 days, giving more time for doing this trek, but it’s much more complicated than we originally thought, so we’re not gonna bother trying at this point. So we only have about 6 weeks left from now.

• We saw that one of us was apparently dyslexic when looking at the info about the pilgrimage and it’s actually 643km in length, not 463km. So uh. WOW. It was already a huge challenge but this made it a lot huger.

• And silly us, being unprepared. We walked a bit with our packs not even fully loaded and our hiking boots on, and were quite dismayed to see how tired we got after so short a hike to the grocery store (5km)

• And finally, I guess the expense of overnight accommodations - we’ll hopefully know tomorrow (if the pilgrim center is open) what we’re looking at, but it seems there are fewer hostels along the route than we’d expected, and more farms and hotels.

So here I’ve been, saying Should I Stay or Should I Go Now? Stay the course and see how much of this I can do? Or should I just blow the whole thing off and go find a pet sit somewhere? This has been my struggle all week.

And here’s what I’ve come up with:

I really want to do at least part of this. I want to see what it feels like to carry all my stuff on my back for 15km. And do it again the next day. I want at least 2 days but hopefully a week. I want to walk through the forest where pilgrims have been walking for 1,000 years. I want to feel a stronger connection to nature and mother earth.

I want a better understanding of who I am, what I want, and what I am capable of.

Most of all, I want to know what I am walking toward. Or what I am walking from.

It starts as a desire to do something, like “wouldn’t that be fun” and then it grows into a dream, and then a dream come true. I wanted to drive my own dog sled. I watched aerial cinematography of contenders running the Iditarod in Alaska, in preparation for our trip to Alaska in 2022. Then I got to try it as a half day tour in Yellowstone Park, Montana in 2025. That was the spark that started the fire. I could imagine myself sliding along the open tundra with my dogs pulling me deeper and deeper into the vast, white, untouched wilderness. The need to do this became a passion and then a reality. The experience filled my heart and soul so completely.

I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

There were five of us humans, with 29 Alaskan Husky dogs, (5 teams of dogsleds) pulling us through the nature reserve, Vindelfjallen from our starting point in Slussfors, Sweden. We were dressed warmly and seemingly prepared for whatever we encountered (high winds with limited visibility, people camped on our trail that we had to maneuver around, melting ice holes as we crossed frozen lakes, ruined trails left by snow machines that felt like a road with too many potholes). I was so intent on staying on my sled that I quickly learned not to pull my phone out unless I risk the chance of losing it. This is the only picture I shot learning that.

I was the least experienced of my group but luckily I learned quickly. I quickly learned what I was capable of as well as many of my flaws that soon became life lessons for me. Like Swedish dogs don’t speak English(Duh!), but we can still communicate.

Our days began by waking up just as the sun was coming up over the horizon, and unfolded as we took care of the dogs and ourselves. We’d spend an average of 4-5 hours sledding on the snow. Our days ended long past bedding down the dogs for the night and past when the sun went behind the horizon.

We stayed busy making sure the dogs were watered and fed, checking their paws for any signs of cuts or wounds. We picked up their poop, and when we’d stop for the night we would drop grass down for them to lay on and in the morning pick it back up again for the next stop. In between all the necessary chores we’d have time for kudos, ear scratches and pep talks. And then, us humans, we would take care of ourselves - filling thermoses, building fires, making hot meals and cleaning up; always unpacking and packing our things.

I spent my days completely connected to the present and SO ELATED to just be living. It felt like I could do this forever.

So do I share with you how I cheated death? Or all the things I learned about myself? Like how to ask for help, how to be a friend, how to set boundaries and how I need to take care of myself first so I can be a team player?

The first 10 minutes of the entire trip my dogs fell into some soft snow on a downslope off the trail. I got tangled into their lines as I tried to untangle them while sinking into the soft snow myself. Embarrassed I told my fellow dogsledders I came along as the entertainment.

First night out, the zipper on my sled storage compartment came off the rung. Luckily it was a relatively easy fix. We made it work.

Second day out my brake got caught on a runner and I was completely baffled at how it happened and didn’t know how to get it unstuck, the harder I pulled the brake, harder the dogs pulled and with 5 dogs wildly pulling so hard I knew imagined my hand severed somehow and just stood there stymied. Katirina came to the rescue, she threw down my sled onto it’s side, which held the dogs and we were able to get my brake free while maintaining all our appendages. I hugged her.

I only had 5 dogs, instead of the 6 because someone smarter than me knew I probably couldn’t handle 6, although I heard it was because I was petite. To be completely honest, It took everything I had just to control 5 dogs and were actually controlling me? But every minute of every day, I had THE BEST DOGS! (Thank you Isa!)

Generally speaking I learned It was about the first 30 minutes of running that the dogs would run full out wild and crazy and then they would easily fall into a melodic rhythm and we would float and fly over the trails, enjoying the pace and absorbing the beauty surrounding us. All I could hear was the sound of their foot falls and the runners of the sled as it glided along the tundra. I was lost in my joy.

The day after I almost died, we hit a wind storm, weather reports claiming winds at 25 meters per second(90 kph or 56 mph). It knocked me on my feet twice, literally.

The undulating terrain was sometimes through the woods on days when it was serene and peaceful (my favorite) and then there were days of gale force winds where you couldn’t see 3 feet in front of you but I just let go and trusted the dogs knew where they were going. Oh and I was following Roger so I was bound to run into him eventually.

By the third day I was getting the hang of things, my dogs leads (lines) were positioned correctly, I was staying upright on my sled (not being dragged with only my arms or one arm hanging on to pull me back up when I lost my footing), and I was finally master of my sled, so to speak.

And then, one of my dogs’ paws was cut up from the ice lake we crossed. I was soon coached (or scolded, not sure which) by Roger, to stop if I notice one of the booties on my pups was missing. This particular day I was the last in our line of dogsleds (another long story). So off we went and sure enough I noticed one of the booties was missing. I immediately tried waving down my group ahead of me. The wind was so fierce that they couldn’t hear me or see me. I had to make a quick decision and so I stopped my team, fixed the bootie and then restarted to catch up to the rest of my group. They were nowhere in sight.

I knew enough not to panic (a benefit of being older). So I started planning scenarios in my head of how I would take care of myself and my dogs should I lose my group and need to shelter in place. I kept following the erected wooden trail markers and trusted that the dogs knew where to go, and they did. About 15 minutes down the trail, through the snowy field I could see dark lumps and as I got closer there were my new friends, waiting for me. Just as happy to see me as I was to see them.

Overall these Alaskan Huskies are so happy with the simplest of things: exercise, food, praise and attention. Aren’t those the same things that make us thrive and make us happy?

I have never felt so vibrant and so alive as I did out on that sled with the dogs. And when they would sing I would sing with them. It was Pure Magic.

“Now I Can Die Happy.” quoted by my good friend, Joan Marshall.

A little over a week ago we caught a train north out of Copenhagen to the small town of Nivå and our first pet sit on this European excursion. We are taking care of Salsa, (a very independent kitty) and her owner’s house. It will be 11 days total by the time we’re done this coming Friday, and in this time it’s been a welcome slower pace and some down time.

Much calmer than the jet-lag fueled fracas of city life and sightseeing. Not that there was anything wrong with that - as you’ve seen here in previous posts, we are quite enamored with Copenhagen and the European lifestyle. It’s all been good.

But it’s also nice to slow down and be more present. We’ve found some walking paths around Nivå and also some paths that lead to the nearby small towns roughly 5 km north of us and 5 km south. Gravel paths through the forest and paved multi-use paths along the railroad line (or we could walk along the highway, but really?)

And we’ve found some fun and interesting places for coffee and treats.

Also, our host has two bikes we can use and we got out on those for a longer excursion all the way north (34 km round trip) to the tip of this land mass we’re on, where there’s a ferry to Sweden.

And the down time. We’ve had a few days where we just hunkered down and relaxed indoors with a cozy fire, and didn’t get our steps. And that’s been nice too.

In just a few days, we will say goodbye to Salsa and Nivå, catch a train back to Copenhagen, and then a ferry to… well - let’s keep that a secret until we’re sure, (because “Tim and Shannon who?”) Let’s just check back here in a few days to find out if it actually happens.

As always - thank you for being here with us.

Dad’s box car has found its way to a destination we’re pretty sure he would approve of. A cozy little coffee and pastry shop down across the canal from the Christiantown neighborhood. We stopped here before visiting the Christiantown Art Museum and had a couple of espresso drinks and some yummy goodness to chew on.

And here are a few more messages to share from people who know dad:

• Uncle John, I have always enjoyed your big smile and your laughter. I can tell how very intelligent you are, just like Daddy was. It shows in how you write and how you live.

• Roll on, little boxcar! That strong and gentle man is watching - sending love to him via the international rails!

• To John, and to the memory of Louise, You have been examples of how to be in the world. Keep on chugging. ❤️

One day while exploring Copenhagen Tim asked if I’d like to go to the Happiness Museum. Sure! Not knowing what to expect I imagined a big building with lots of exhibits and amazing pieces of art. I don’t know why but that’s where my brain took me. Imagine my initial disappointment when I came to what looked like from it’s exterior entrance another apartment building. We stepped down three steps to arrive in the basement of what looked like someone’s flat, sans home furnishings. As we entered the small reception area, we were greeted by the super friendly receptionist. She handed us these sweet little cards and invited us to become Happiness Ambassadors.

Imagine a looming ceiling overhead, small rooms with white walls and narrow door ways in a labyrinth of connected spaces with various simple, crude invitations of paper and displays to look at. I first walked down this narrow hallway completely covered with post-it notes because at the end of it was the bathroom. Completely relieved and ready to absorb my surroundings I was caught in the hallway covered with post-it notes. I found myself smiling as I am right now remembering how I felt reading all the things people posted about what makes them happy.

Turns out there is a lot to say about happiness; from how we define it and the words we use to express it to the study of happiness and why it’s so important to us.

Hygge is a word the Danes use to describe a feeling or experience of happiness. And some fun facts….. in a danish poll, Hot drinks came in on top at >80% out of 100, Sundays hit somewhere in the middle at >60% out of 100, and lastly Facebook came in at <5%.

And did you know?…..

I just returned from Slussfors, Sweden at the end of March after spending 10 days dogsledding in the Swedish Lapland, and I can honestly and wholeheartedly say I found what pushes all my happy buttons. Along with a well-made Cortado (espresso with steamed milk) and any fresh pastry, a small serving of African Jollof, so spicy and delicious.

What makes you Happy? We’d love to hear from you. Let us know in the comments.

You might think we put that “Seattle to Denmark 2026”post-it there but we didn’t. lol

We are so Happy to know you, and that you are in our lives.

Be it a delicious breakfast in a cozy restaurant where cool, smooth jazz is playing quietly while we dine.

Or enjoying coffee at a sidewalk cafe as we watch the daily life of the locals go by.

And we have a special part of him that we brought with us as a tangible object to anchor his spirit in a more physical sense to various places in the environment here. In addition to his affinity for Europe, he has also had a life-long love of railroads, with memories from his early childhood of walking down Maple Street in his hometown in Wisconsin, to watch the big locomotives hauling freight across the country on the Milwaukee Road railroad line.

Over the past couple of decades he has been building his own HO scale model railroad, and so I found the perfect object to bring with us (with his permission of course):

Here it is dad, your first photo anchor from Europe - The little box car in Copenhagen photographed here on an overpass above the railroad tracks right near the passenger train station.

If this was a real car on a real train, it would be the mail car because it carries messages from friends and family with special messages and quotes about what makes him special. Here are a few of those messages:

• In this train car may your spirit ride and find joy and fulfillment far beyond the limitations of our mortal shells

• With my own Dad being gone for 22 years, John remains a living link to a time when our families would gather in a timeless friendship for adventures in the mountains and on the water. And every time I see him—just as I did with Louise—I feel the depth of those family memories. What a gift we were given!

• May your travels take you to wonderful, stunning places with lots of apple pie <3

• To Dad, who always loved trains, and the places they take you

And there will be more coming soon. Maybe this will be updated with each photo we get from meaningful places as we travel.

If you dear reader, would like to include an inspirational message, just send us an email and we will write it on a little scroll like this in the photo below, and include it in the “mail car”. (please keep it brief - the little car has only so much capacity)

And keep watching here for updates and soon you may see your message appear here.

Thanks! And now we return you to your regularly scheduled scrolling...

As we were cutting through the “park” near our hostel on our way to breakfast today, we realized it wasn’t a park but actually a graveyard, and what a beautiful graveyard! It appeared at first as a park because of so many people there - walking; biking from point A to point B; pushing their babies in strollers - and Shannon mentioned how nice it was to have such a beautiful place to remember and honor those who have passed as part of daily life, rather than “something you make time for” when you have the time and the energy and the need to go to the cemetery to remember passed family members - how about just do it daily on your way to the store, or work, or school?

Or breakfast!

And with that thought in mind, how about exercise being very similar - something that just happens as part of your day, rather than “something you make time for” when you have the time and energy and the need to go burn some calories at the gym. Such a nicer way of life.

Copenhagen also has lots of biking, similar to what we saw last year in the Netherlands. You need to be on your toes when walking around here on sidewalks along the streets, because there invariably are bicyclists everywhere so you don’t want to step off the sidewalk without looking first because the bikes travel fast and come up silently behind you.

We discovered several times this morning on the way to breakfast that you need to “walk with a purpose” and anytime you want to stop, look first for a vacant place off to the side to make sure you don’t get rear-ended by another person walking behind you.

But so nice and refreshing to see so many people out on foot and on bikes. And so refreshing to find a beautiful place for breakfast where people are eating lighter fare in smaller portions. And the delicious flavors! And slowing down - eating just to satisfy rather than eating to fill up.

So we walked to a late breakfast and then past the canal for a quick tour afterward, and here it is mid-day and we have 10,000 steps - I think we’re losing weight already!

We are staying in a hostel in the Nørrebro section of Copenhagen. It is called “Sleep in Heaven” and we had a choice of a room full of bunks shared with other people or a private room. We chose the private room for our first two nights here, just to acclimate a bit and hopefully get better sleep than the other night in the pod.

And yes we did sleep better last night! We have a shared bathroom and a nice common area, and we can order espresso and snacks at the reception desk.

We’ll stay here one more night and tomorrow we have about a 25 minute walk to a different hostel, a bit less money per night and this time we’ll be doing the shared room with bunks. And I think we’ll be there for about a week until we catch a train and head north to Nivå, where we have our first pet sit scheduled: 10 days watching a kitty for a real nice woman we met several days ago over zoom.

We are also looking at possibly another sit after that one, this time on a more remote island just across the way in Sweden.

We are communicating with a host there for whom English is difficult, so we’re trying to understand better, but if it’s a go, we may access the place via rowboat, but we’re not certain of that. We do know it’s extremely remote though. For now, we’ll just have to see how it goes.

A real good thing about pet sitting is we get much more immersed into a location than “just doing the tourist thing”. And we save money by having a kitchen to prepare meals (as well as saving money on lodging). And of course we get our four-legged-furry-friend fix!

I think we will write up this whole pet sitting opportunity in a little more detail in the near future in case it’s something you may be interested in.

But this is all for now, I’m gonna call it for today. Thank you for being here!

Our first indication that something wasn’t right was the flight status display at our departure gate in Seattle that said “On Time” ten minutes before boarding with no plane yet at the gate. When the plane finally arrived sometime later, no one disembarked for what seemed like 30 minutes. And finally at about 10 minutes after scheduled departure time we saw passengers coming off the plane. And no announcements about any of this because the airline’s PA system was down. But we finally boarded and eventually took off about an hour late. (Good thing we scheduled a 24 hour layover in Reykjavik before our connecting flight!)

And then, you know that parent flying with two young unruly children? Yeah them. They were right across the aisle from us. Having a miserable time. A loud, shrieking and whining miserable time. On an overnight flight. That left an hour late. So it was a sleepless flight in other words.

We arrived in Reykjavik at about 9:00 am local time, (2:00am Seattle time) and were now ready to begin our day because we couldn’t check in to our “hotel” for another 7 hours. (This whole plan about having time to see a little bit of Iceland between flights was dynamite on paper, but a bit different on the actual execution.)

And now I’m writing this post in the middle of the night from inside an overnight accommodation pod that we decided to try out for the first time. A somewhat sleepless night. We found this Blue Viking Pods place in Keflavík right near the airport at a fraction of the price of a typical hotel room. Instead of a hallway with doors to guest rooms, it’s one large room with sleeping pods stacked 2-high around the edges and in the center of the room.

Each pod is roughly 7 feet long, 5 feet wide and about 4 feet high. We got a top unit with a little step ladder to access it through a sliding door on one of its walls. It is made out of sturdy but lightweight plastic that is very - well “acoustic” comes to mind. It’s like we (and the other hardy world travelers who arrived at their pods at about midnight local time which remember is now like 5pm Seattle time) are sleeping (trying to sleep) in a drum. Every move and bump of the elbow resonates rather loudly. And when closed up, they are quite warm. Too warm actually, and stuffy. So it’s best to leave the door open a bit for some air.

There is a TV on the wall by our feet, and a mirror, charging ports and some environmental controls on the wall opposite the entry which is pretty much all we need. Well that and some sleep which continues to elude us here at 3:30 am local time now.

But I’m making this all sound much worse than it is. We are actually enjoying the pod and we did finally get about 6 hours of glorious sleep before being awakened in the night. And I haven’t even mentioned the best part yet:

We rented a car from the airport and drove an hour and a half to Hvammsvik Hot Springs, where we had a great meal and some luxurious soaking in some of Iceland’s iconic healing mineral water springs. And that, friends and neighbors, made it all worthwhile.

And that’s about all I got for now. We’re gonna have to roll soon. Get this rental car back to return it when they open at 5:00 so we can get to the airport for our 7:00 flight to Copenhagen, Denmark!! Wahoo yes you heard right, we’re going to Denmark. And once there, no plans yet, we’re just going to wing it and see what happens next. Well actually we do have plans starting next week - we will be cat sitting for about ten days about a half hour north of Copenhagen by train. And after that, we’re looking at the big long word named pilgrimage from Oslo, Norway to Trondheim. But we need summer weather for that so we’ll have to find some filler in between.

Hey I know it’s been a while, but we’re finally heading out again, and this time with a couple of twists:

Twist Number One is, we’re gonna be blogging on our website instead of here on Substack. Nothing wrong at all with Substack, in fact we really enjoyed it for our trip to the Netherlands. But our sad, sorry website has been so neglected, we thought it was time to start using it for what we made it for in the first place.

So you would make us so happy if you clicked over to our newly designed website TimShannonLTD.com and check out our new blog posts under
Our Travels - Road Life and Recreation

Twist Number Two is, Shannon and I are splitting up.

Sort of.

You’ll have to go to our blog linked above to see more about that.

Hope to see you over there!

This is my friend Sandy and she is Sweetgrass Farm. She makes me laugh. I love her because she says what’s on her mind. I don’t have to guess. I met her eons ago when she was my acupuncturist. In her retirement, Sweetgrass Farm has given her a sense of purpose; flowers are her favorite. I am so lucky to be able to spend time with her playing farm. Today was market day. Doesn’t she just shine? I received a text….”Strawberries are selling like hotcakes”. It’s all about the friendship and the fun.

Ooooooh and we get the rejects. Just because they don’t meet selling appearances doesn’t mean they don’t taste DIVINE. Going, Going, Gone.

These are our new friends Joan and Hal. I first met them in February when I did the wolf tour in Yellowstone. They live in California and came up to the San Juan Islands to visit and to ride their bikes. We hiked up Mount Grant (elevation 736ft), it’s not Mount Rainier but we only had the afternoon and the weather held out for gorgeous 360 degree view from the top. Their plan is to continue exploring Washington state. Safe travels you two.

This is an older picture but we spent almost a week with my son Cody and his grandpa, Al. While we were in Castle Rock, some other friends of ours, Jen and Tom, met us at a local park for a visit. It was soooooo good to catch up with them.

Crazy story is… Tim and I were a day early for a Van Festival Meet up in Hurricane, UT Octoberish 2023 and the dispersed camping near the meet up was so packed with people boondocking there was no place to park. But Tom was outside his van and waving us over to his and Jen’s campsite and said “Hey we have space if you’d like to park next to us”. Even if they didn’t share their campsite we’d be friends. Van life for 3 years now Congratulations you two! And through them we met Julie. Julie couldn’t make it to our impromptu meet in Castle Rock because she was in Alaska. Poor Julie, having the time of her life.

Miss you, adventurous spirit!!!

Our visit started with my little sister Marnie and my mom’s brother, my uncle Bernie. (I am so lame not to have gotten a more recent photo. He’s pretty amazing!!)

I am so grateful to all my friends and family for who they are and what they do. Love You!! I so appreciate you, you’ve made me who I am. Can’t wait until next time.

It’s road trip time! Did someone say Road Trip!! Wahoo! OK, so let me catch you up a bit. We have been back in the states for about 3 weeks now after our most awesome trip to the Netherlands and we’ve been getting the itch to go somewhere again (because that was so much fun). And Shannon has been wanting to visit some family so we are off. And our first stop is - You guessed it, Uncle Bernie’s! Although I really must tell you I came up with that great title for this post a few days ago and have only now realized that the weekend will be over before we get there. (But I don’t care - it’s a free country and that’s what I’m calling it).

So - more on Uncle Bernie later, but for now we’re taking a couple of days to road trip our way there, and maybe take in a hike or two along the way. One of our favorite things to do is use our mobile app, iOverlander, to find places to overnight along the way and we did exactly that last night. We had originally planned to sleep at the trailhead for the hike we did today, but before we got there we checked out a backup we had seen on iOverlander and we had the place all to ourselves. So we stayed there instead thinking “a bird in hand…” well you know. We didn’t want to backtrack 15 miles if there turned out to be no overnight parking at the trailhead.

So that was it. Basically a big sand pit off the side of the highway that the road department uses to sand the road in winter. And it was deserted. And we parked with the huge mountain of sand between us and the road and it blocked nearly all the road noise throughout the night. So - free overnight; all to ourselves; and nice and quiet. A win-win (win).

Then this morning after testing and proving that our new magic barista coffee maker would work just fine even off-grid and unplugged, we made our way to the trail head to check out a 4 mile out-and-back hike to a beautiful mountain lake that we had heard was “worth a look”.

And it definitely was worth a look. One of the better hikes we’ve done in a while, but soon it was over and we continued on the highway looking for a cell signal so we could figure out where to stay tonight. And as it happened, we drove right past it as we were heading to a place we’d found (again) on iOverlander. But this place, a boat launch fishing access point right on the river, just looked enticing. So we turned around and came back to check it out, and here we are.

It’s not much more than a big gravel parking lot beside the highway (and the river), with a boat launch and a vault toilet, but we have the place to ourselves. And the weather is perfect for grillin’. As tomorrow is Father’s Day, I had picked up a Rib Eye Steak to celebrate and that’s what was for dinner. I rarely eat beef, and even more rarely eat steak, but once in a while I like a good rib eye for a special occasion. And that’s what this is - we just hit the road again for a week. Things can’t get much more special than that!

(and this photo doesn’t do it justice but wow that steak was good!)

Tune in tomorrow when you’ll hear Shannon say: “It’s my turn to write a blog post!”