We love crazy people; and the fabulous "5"-0

This idea of us loving crazy people is certainly a tacit concept weaved amid our sisterly 50 states race adventures.  Being crazy is certainly not a requirement, however, it definitely makes things run more smoothly if those who join us are at least a little bit cray cray!  This time we basically placed a want ad for anyone on the crazy spectrum, forewent interviews, loaded anyone willing to put up with us for a couple days into Mird's car and headed west. Oh yeah and people joining us had to be willing to run through a flood plain, under a current flood warning, during a rain storm, on a trail composed primarily of dirt mud.  As you can imagine, there was a long line of applicants beating down my door.  there were not many responses to our ad and very few people loaded up in the car-- a record low number in fact. And you know what, we had a damn fine time despite all that.  Here's who we hired for this trip and we paid them in  exquisite homemade foods, second hand puzzles, and some good old fashioned alcohol and family fun.  

Do we look crazy?!

Lisa Mastenbrook making her third appearance on our 50 states tour, Lisa is also a transplant Nunican. She grew up in the UP which is why she's tough as nails and completely awesomesauce!  She is most famously known for being a top-tier mom and wife and for her kean jigaw puzzling skillz. Lisa is not in the least bit interested in being an avid runner, unless scary things are chasing her through the dark spooky woods and then she is very interested in being a hard core AVID runner.  She's simply the best!

Tera Culp also made her third appearance on the tour but for different states. We joined her on her birthday adventure in Tennessee when we ran a half marathon for St Jude's Hospital and more recently she joined us for another half marathon in Rhode Island. She recently moved from Arkansas to Kansas City with her Fiance, Kobe Rose. He was the final member on our payroll this time and he had the difficult job of attempting to balance out the estrogen in the house and keep the crazy to a manageable level.  Kobe was also there in Memphis where he made his marathon debut and drank all of us under the table the night before the race!  So he may have been a poor choice for craziness management, but whatever, he was an important member of our team.  He understood the situation and still chose to come with us and that says it all! Also, he and I share a birthday so that totally sealed the deal!

Now this particular adventure was set in the microclimate of Northeast Iowa.  That's where our characters faced their most recent endurance challenges. If you're unfamiliar with this particular natural phenomenon, it is basically a part of Iowa that nobody even knows exits. This lack of awareness is likely because it is cooler than all the rest of Iowa combined with Nebraska so nobody in Iowa tells anyone about it. It's top secret.  Those not from Iowa, drive through this tini microclimate without even knowing they've been there that's how micro and secret it is. Think Twilight zone with corn surrounding it and mere seconds from Wisconsin and you get the vibe for where we shacked up for the final weekend of my (gulp) forties!    Those residing in this microclimate keep to themselves. They eat at supper clubs, go hiking and stay put.  For 48 hours we called this place home. It was a spectacular way to say farewell to my forties. In an attempt to continue my impact educating people, here's a cool table I found about this area. Skip it if you just want to laugh and see how the race went. Read it if you are interested in getting to be a smarty pants like me!

Key Microclimates of Northeast Iowa

The extreme topography of the region creates several specialized growing environments:

Microclimate Region / Feature	Temperature & Zone Attributes	Landscape Impact
Far Northeast Bluffs & Valley Bottoms (Decorah, Waukon, Upper Mississippi)	Zone 4b to 5a (-25°F to -15°F)	Cold Air Drainage: Deep river valleys trap dense, freezing air rolling down from the bluffs. This causes significantly lower winter minimums and risks late spring frosts.
Algific Talus Slopes (Unique to the Driftless Area)	Sub-Arctic Pockets (Stays cool all summer)	Ice-Cooled Vents: Air travels through underground limestone cracks over winter ice, escaping into slopes. This creates a localized freezing microclimate that supports rare glacial-period flora.
South & West-Facing Bluff Sides	Artificially Warmer (Micro-pockets of Zone 5b)	Solar Radiation: Steep hillsides facing south capture intense sun angles, accelerating snowmelt and raising the soil temperature earlier in the spring than flat areas.
The Iowan Surface Plain (Transitioning West toward Waterloo)	Zone 5a (-20°F to -15°F)	Wind Exposure: Flatter, eroded glacial terrain with gentle rolling hills. It lacks the bluff windbreaks, exposing plants to biting winter winds and severe windchill.

Switching topics..Fun fact:  This poem hung in our kitchen when we were growing up in Fremont.  Mird and I were able to recite it from memory.  It greeted us every time we arrived home when we were kids and it did the same every time we passed the washing maching on this vacay. It was a wonderful welcome when finally arrived at our airbnb which had the best view of the Mighty Mississippi and the bald eagles that called this place home.   

Traditionally we take a pic when we enter a new state!  This time we fell down on the job and we only have proof of being in Iowa! 

The Michigan crew (Mird, Vern, and Lisa) arrived hours early—giving us front-row seats to a lovely premium outdoor garbage exhibition and a few lovely indoor "surprises." But in real estate, it’s all about location, location, location, and sitting right on the Mighty Mississippi with a working hot tub makes it surprisingly easy to ignore a total dumpster fire. Once Tera and Kobe showed up, I served a pre-race carbonara that successfully distracted everyone and left us feeling energized for the race. We spent the night carbo-loading, puzzling, watching MSU, and praying there would be no more "surprises".

Race day turned out to be a total flex for our crew. Not trying to brag, but it just was.  The weather forecast lied about a downpour, leaving us with a perfect, cool morning and a sun that was practically cheering us on from above. The packet pickup energy was incredible getting everyone excited to head out on the mountainous trails of Northeast Iowa.  We did all the pre race things:  porta-john, drop off stuff to car, port-a-john, sing songs, port-a-john, take pictures, port-a-john, listen to national anthem and go time. 

      Birthday kids Vern and Kobe and our running ensemble                                 The fabulous "5" 0-- Lisa, Mird, Vern, Tera and Kobe                                                   

Now because Tera and I are crazy masochists training for the Chicago Marathon next month, a normal half-marathon wasn't enough mileage for us. I know more proof of the lack of sanity on this trip!  Once we got our packets, we slapped on our bibs and immediately hammered out a 4-mile "warm-up" to lock in a 20-mile day all before the pre race bathroom, singing, national anthem stuff happened. Coming out of our warm-up we felt completely invincible and ready to take on the trail.

Then that very same trail tried to kill us. We were out there parkouring across rocks to cross a creek and blasting through mud puddles like rabid dogs. The first few miles were manageable, but then we hit the monster hill. Thanks to my endless training loops at Coast Guard Park, I scaled it like a machine. Tera? The hill absolutely broke her, and she was left questioning her life choices miles behind me. I felt incredible and kept up a lethal pace for quite sometime.  Tera kept gutting it out and around mile 10 or 11 she finally caught up to me and we ran together for a bit.  We were running in spots 2 and 3 at the time. After a futile water stop at an aid station, a gal passed us.  We tried to catch her but I was unable to so eventually Tera declared, "I like a good competition" so I said go get her and she did just that. Tera kicked butt and ran a sub 8 pace for the final mile or two claiming the 2nd overall female spot! I had to settle for 4th overall which I was happy with until we searched the results later and discovered that the lady who beat me out for 3rd was also 49 years old and had beat me by 49 seconds. Then I was pissed with a capital P.  Really, 49 seconds?!  I could've cut 49 seconds off my time if I just hadn't moved all the damn branches off the path or if I hadn't chatted with the volunteers so much.  Oh well it was a respectable performance for sure and I was able to run our 3 mile cool down as planned. Tera had to opt out after her cruise into a second place finish her legs were done.  Here's a few action shots from the adventure...

    

The toughest 20 miler I've ever done and I've done some rough ones.

Beast mode

   

The rest of our crew performed amazingly well especially given the fact we had members on non traditional training programs who just came to celebrate my birthday and got stuck running a race in a muddy flood plain.  That's a good friend! Mird and I took a dip in the Mighty Mississippi. I mean we had to do it; It would have been "crazy" not to...

                         Before the dip                                            After the dip
To celebrate all of our success we decided to partake in some Iowan tradition and we headed to the supper club for some much needed nutrition and social time!   Best of all, the supper club we ended up at was owned by a bunch of Lion's fans! 

          Goooo Lions!!!                                            I'll take the smothered chicken...

We totally stopped traffic to snap these pics!  

After dinner we returned home to continue puzzling, have a celebratory toast to us for being awesome, and to God for the opportunity to have this time together and to simply chill...Thanks Shaha for the amazing and smooth bottle of French wine for the occasion! It sure hit the spot!

Cheers to crazy people, the number "5" (0) and the opportunity to grow older!

Iowa Trail Series Yellow River Half Marathon

September 20, 2026

Lisa, Kobe, Tera, Mird and Vern

Harpers Ferry, Iowa

State # 25 or 27 who really knows?!

A good old fashioned family vacation... to Alcatraz

This time, when my sister and I decided to lace up for another one of our crazy running adventures, we didn’t just stop at self-inflicted physical exhaustion for which we paid good money. Nope, we doubled down and dragged the whole family along, branded it in the words of Clark W. Griswold, a "good old fashioned family vacation" and then we got real close to God and prayed it would all work out because we feared we had gotten in over our heads this time! Here's how this one went down.

Flashback to December 2025: Us sisters were planning this particular adventure and it felt like an absolute stroke of genius. I mean who wouldn't want to "run" away to California when amidst a long hard Michigan winter like we had last year?  We were shivering in the bleak, endless Michigan snow and dreaming of a perfect summer adventure among giant trees, sunshine, ocean breezes, and majestic bridges. Sigh.  Here's the best picture to represent what we must've been imagining when we clicked "book flights" on that fateful December night.

Muir Woods our crew of 8:  Courtney, Me, Kenny, Hazel, Jeff, Aven, Mird and Cody

Now apparently Michigan winters impair cognitive function or something because it made us think that flying away for a week in between our boys' graduation ceremonies and their open houses was a grand idea! Who the hell does that?  Apparently us. We do that!  Back on that fateful night in December, in a fit of frostbitten delusion, we booked direct flights from Detroit to San Francisco because they were "a steal" and we've been trying to make this particular trip happen for the better part of a decade. Now that the boys were (gulp) graduating, it truly forced the issue. It was now or never. We chose now!  Thanks to one of my close highschool friends, Shahla, we even had an awesome house just outside to Yosemite to call home for the week!  Super duper special thanks to her because without her generosity, we likely never would've made it to see those glorious trees and all the rest of all the splendor of Northern California! 

 

At Detroit aiport on our way to California!  We were all kinds of giddy despite that it was 4 in the morning...except for me. I look like I haven't slept in days basically like any teacher looks 4 days after school gets out!

the Daniels boys were much more agreeable to photo ops than our kids! Here they are traversing the always challenging airplane jetway. They're ready to head to Cali!

To pull this off, we instantly went full frugal mode. We cut back, returned empties, rolled spare change, and stopped buying stupid stuff. Next, we researched cool things to do with teenagers in Yosemite and how to save money when traveling with teenagers in Yosemite—and then we stopped paying our bills.

Just kidding.  We didn't reseach what to do when traveling with teenagers in California, because we already knew what we were going to do. We were going to check out the biggest trees in the world, check ourselves into Alcatraz for an afernoon, visit some sea lions on Pier 39, and run across the Golden Gate Bridge! We had a plan and plane tickets what else could we possibly need? Hopefully not much because the tickets we bought only allowed for a personal item that fit under the seat in front of us! No carry on luggage and certainly no checked bags! Once the teenagers adjusted to this fact, they rocked out the packing and totally pulled it off even Hazel! 

Reflecting back on our most recent sisterhood adventure, it can really be boiled down to three notable ideas: impeccable service, insane adventures, and backseat bonding. Let's visit each of these themes independently so you get a feel for what California was all about!

Impeccable Service was apparent throughout the entirety of this most recent adventure. From the moment we checked into the park and fly hotel in Detroit until the moment we picked our own car back up from that lot the service was truly incredible.  Lourdes at the Detroit hotel that first night was incredibly friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful and got the trip off to a great start by booking our 4 am shuttle to the aiport the following morning. While Jay at the hotel in San Francisco our last night made Lourdes look like chopped liver. He literally dryed our clothes that had gotten wet in the ocean, planned our travels while we were there down to the nitty gritty-- like bus numbers and directions to bus stops. Oh and gave us free bottled water when we headed to the airport the final night!  He was the best customer service housing I've ever experienced. And I've traveled a lot so it means something! Jay you rock! And our rental car experience totally redeemed rental cars in our book. After our horrible experience with a rental car in Rhode Island last fall, we were a bit gun shy but given our house was 3 plus hours from the airport we truly had no choice but to take our chances with the Russian Roulette game that is car rental.  Well Enterprise you made us believers in impeccable service, quality vehicles and an overall wonderful car rental ordeal.  We have zero complaints and other than the car sickness that many of us had to manage, we had a perfect ride around Northern California.

Hotel with Lourdes in charge

ready to embark on our crazy Cali adventure!

Insane Adventures This trip can best be summed up as a series of deathdefying, rule-breaking, life choices that resulted in off the chart adventure and fun! The peak of my parental supervision on this trip? Dragging the teenagers to the top of Bridal Falls passed the signs that warned us of a fate worse than death to literally kiss the cliffside behind it. I spent half the time praying nobody would die, mostly because I was the only adult present and I really didn't want to have to tell my sister one of her kids was dead. Also, prison jumpsuits really aren’t my color.

Hazel kissing that wall!

Me and my honey with those falls far, far in the background.

On day one near Muir Woods, the teens also abandoned Jeff and me to "blaze a new trail." Naturally, we let them go. Because nothing says "great supervision" like letting a pack of unruly teenagers wander into uncharted wilderness with zero water, no cell service, absolutely no sense of direction, and a useless map that didn't even show where they were currently located. What could possibly go wrong!?  We were about to find out...

Just before they wanderd off into the wilderness searching for a new way back to our van! Come to think of it, they were basically Columbus that day searching for the all too elusive rental van!

goat climb completed...

The teenagers popped out awhile later down below climbing on a downed tree and it looked like they might be rehearsing for a part in Dirty Dancing.  Meanwhile, Jeff and I were hiking responsibly on the established path. Jeff was happy with this reality as he loves to follow rules while I was busy daydreaming about doing the famous lift with someone who resembles Patrick Swayze. It would've been a spectacular feet of balance and strength! Sigh. 

Meanwhile, Mird and Courtney found these slugs that apparently are psychodelic and make you hallucinate if you lick them.  Honestly who licked slugs?! Gross on so many levels so I just nodded and acted interested when my sister filled me in on this tidbit.  She really does learn the most random shit on these trips!  I love that about her.I fit in the tree!

so did Cody!

We also took turns hiding in and around the trees. It's what you do when trees are this BIG.

The glorious trees and our entire party of 8!

strike a pose

half dome and us

Muir Woods the perfect start to any California vacation!

The following day the kids found themselves dropped in the valley with a whole lotta time, a mediocre bike and their fellow cousins to check out the valley. Us adults, we biked through through that valley like we were training for the Tour de France or Japanese tourists given the amount of pictures we took.  We would have kept biking for many more hours except for the teenagers complaining of tiredness, hunger pains, and with a general lack of ambition to continue on our quest to bike all of the valley floor. I was expecting a grueling, dramatic trek akin to when we stormed the beaches of Normandy on bikes last summer. Instead, it was a brief, underwhelming pedal that truly didn't equal a serious workout or a grandios adventure at all. I will say it did provide absolutely breathtaking views of waterfalls, wildlife, and trees so all was not lost!

When we returned home--just a quick dip to cool off. The following morning yoga on that very beach...

I could be wrong but I think Mird has real potential as a yoga instructor...just sayin'

 

We also had an impromtu quick sardines hide and seek adventure. That's right on our last night at the Yosemite House, we played sardines (reverse hide and seek) one person hides everyone else searches and if you find the person you silently pack yourself in next to them and hide with them. The last one to find them is the winner/loser and gets to be it next!  It was so much fun being kids with our kids who are truly more or less adults now!  We had a blast!

Backseat Bonding Please do not be fooled: while it sounds glamorous and like an emotionally positive experience for everyone, backseat bonding is a complete oximoron and a bloody lie. It wasn't glamorous at all and there wasn't much positive that happened in that backseat; in fact it was the complete opposite of glamorous and uplifting. It was a test of human endurance, survival, and patience. The combination of winding mountain switchbacks and stop-and-go traffic triggered a level of carsickness in some of us so brutal, it felt like that rental van was actively trying to murder us. It turns out our only survival mechanism for a shift in the back of the Honda Odyssey was to aggressively sleep through the unending misery until the next stop when nature's glory would once again make you realize all the torture in that van was totally worth it! There is just one photo of our driving around because we were all looking rough in that van. We did stop to get a few cool pics amid all the torturous driving. check em out!

backseat bonding...

 

we saw a sow and her cubs along the way...

Possibly the coolest backseat bonding that happened was this...

there were two waymo rides for the kids covering the same route and the cost was not consistent so we were surprised pleasantly because the one Sunday morning after the race was way cheaper and we were on a budget afterall!

Bonus awesine things we did:
We took an afternoon and enjoyed Groveland California-the gateway to Yosemite- where our house was located. It is an amazing old historic downtown and we enjoyed our shopping bonanza!  

this was our absolute favorite item found on our shopping spree and it's true...

this was a close second also true

Mird was so excited she almost bought one of everything. HERE she is showing off all those funny stickers just like Vanna White our favorite game show personality and we visited the oldest saloon in California! 

Bar time

Photo dump from random shit we did...We headed to San Francisco at the tail end of the trip for a 24 hour whirlwind adventure that included the race over the Golden Gate Bridge, a trip to Alcatraz, Pier 39, teenagers riding in self driving cars and much much more....

chess matches at the house

Cody takes on Alcatraz

Go green!

We found the sea lions of Pier 39

Bust stop babes

sunset at the Golden Gate Bridge

Oh yeah, the race. We ran a 10k race thereby completing another state in our quest to visit all 50 to run a race! It was superb; In fact, it was so fun it convinced Hazel to get on the wait list to run over Mackinac Bridge with us on Labor Day!  It was definitely the icing on the cake that was this dream come true trip!  Then we ate an amazing free breakfast (remember frugal family trip) and headed back to Jay and our amazing motel (and even more amazing shower!!) to get packed up and head to Alcatraz.I best stop now before this blog turning into a trilogy or you fall asleep.

Say "free pancakes by the Golden Gate Bridge!"

Our crew: Hazel Kenny Vern Courtney Cody Mird

Presidio Half Marathon/10k/5k

 June 21, 2026

San Francisco, California

State # 24ish 

PS I am so thankful the sisters declared this one a family vacation, that Courtney knows she's family, and that everything went relatively smoothly.  Until next time--Happy Trails!

PPS

the perfect ending to our perfect family vacation to Alcatraz was everyone got to sit together.

Vern