An extension of the May baseball trip, the great 2025 road trip back north was necessary so we could retrieve John. It was the first big test for the Kia Carnival. As usual, I made plans to stop off at work locations and break the trip up.

Wednesday, June 11: Destination Dallas

I headed three hours north on my own around 1:00 Wednesday, braving the cutthroat driving of I-35 through the Dallas metro, up to the northern suburb of Flower Mound. I checked into a very dated Homewood Suites before meeting up with coworkers Shane, Holly and Vini for dinner at Velvet Taco. On Thursday I met the team at their new mini office and spent a day getting some valuable face time in.

Thursday, June 12: Destination Tulsa

Around 3 I vacated the office and braved more white knuckle driving through DFW rush hour up to Tulsa, home of ConsumerAffairs. I stayed at the Hotel Indigo and grabbed a fantastic dinner at McNellie’s. Though I could have reached out to any of dozens of Tulsa coworkers past or present, I was too tired. Friday morning I woke up and grabbed breakfast with coworker Ethan, then headed to the main office briefly before coffee with CEO Zac. After working for an hour, I grabbed lunch with Holt. You sure can’t put a dollar sign on that face time!

Friday, June 13: Destination Wichita

No, Wichita is not really on the direct path from Tulsa to Carpenter, but I had long wanted to see a Wichita Wind Surge (Twins’ AA affiliate) minor league baseball game. I left the Tulsa office around 1 that day and checked into my Home2Suites hotel, right across the street from the ballpark. I had time to kill, and was pooped from driving, so I closed the blackout curtains, mixed a drink, and spaced out to The Office for a couple hours. It felt very relaxing to do such a thing in the middle of a weekday. In the evening I ventured over to the ballpark and watched most of the Wind Surge’s game vs. the Corpus Christi Hooks.

Saturday, June 14: Destination Carpenter, via Omaha and Sioux Falls

I left bright and early Saturday morning with Omaha in mind. Lauren and Edie planned to fly into Omaha which was right along my route to the farm. If all went to plan, I would seamlessly cruise through town the precise time their flight landed. Instead, they suffered numerous delays, which gave me time to stop in and visit with Liz, Curt and family! Lauren wound up changing flights, going to Sioux Falls instead of Omaha. That was just as convenient, and off I drove to Sioux Falls. They actually beat me to the airport. After a quick bite, and a stop for groceries in Brookings, we arrived on the farm around 10pm. It was the first time Lauren and Edie had seen John since Cleveland several weeks earlier during our May trip! I of course had escorted John to Detroit, Chicago and Watertown before leaving him on the farm. It was a happy reunion.

Sunday, June 15: Chill Day

Finally, we could sit and relax for a minute. I did take a long walk through the country though. Later, I cooked fajitas and mixed margs for the whole family.

Monday, June 16: Working Remotely + Huron

After a day of work for everyone, plans began to take shape for dinner in Huron. After a few dropped out, it was just me and Lauren accompanying niece Peyton and fiancee Keith! We enjoyed all-you-can-eat sushi, which was pretty good for Huron, I suppose. On the way home we were joined by Alex, Jordan and Hadley at the bar in Yale for a few cold ones.

Tuesday, June 17: Baseball @ Hamlin

John and Edie went with the cousins to Storybook Land in Aberdeen while Lauren and I worked, but in the evening we drove over to Hayti to see John play baseball for Willow Lake! It was a proud moment for me seeing the boy suit up for my hometown team, and he had a great game. He pitched 3 innings of one-run ball, tripled, and homered in a 7-2 win.

Wednesday, June 18: Trivia Night

After a day of work, we cooked up dinner and split the family into teams for the first annual round of Glanzer Trivia! I moderated the event, reading several questions from a category of each participants’ choosing, ranging wildly from farming to baseball to the show Steven Universe. Alex, Emmy and Adrienne’s team came out on top.

Thursday, June 19: Driving Lessons & Baseball @ De Smet

It was a day off work for us due to Juneteenth, so we celebrated by lounging around the farm. John made his on-road driving debut by taking an old Yukon up and down the road a few miles without issue, and Edie got her chance to drive the Can-Am around the farm unassisted. In the afternoon we drove over to De Smet for another John baseball game. He doubled in his only at-bat in a 3-1 loss in a very abbreviated game.

Friday, June 20: Destination as far south as we could get by bedtime

We left the farm at 1pm and headed south on Hwy 81, getting as far as York, Nebraska by late afternoon. We stopped for dinner at “Chances R”, a fun supper club type of place. Then we swam at the hotel for a bit. It was good to get off the road due to the extreme winds we faced the entire drive.

Saturday, June 21: Destination as far south as we could get by bedtime… again

Could we have gotten all the way home? Probably. But why push it. We stopped in the Fort Worth area for the night, grabbing some Tex-Mex and parking it at a nice Tru by Hilton hotel. Again, the fierce winds made the I-35 drive more difficult than it should have been. I felt like the car was blowing all over the road.

Sunday, June 22: Back at last

In the morning we finished the drive to Austin, the wind still bearing down on us the whole while. Man, that was a long, windy drive. We were going south and it was hitting me from the side, so it didn’t improve or hurt fuel efficiency much probably, just more aggravating than anything. I really don’t like passing semis on the interstate with winds like that. At home, we were reunited with Minnie who had been in training the whole time.

Trip Wrap

When John stepped foot in the house, it marked 30 days that he had been away! He didn’t really seem all that excited to be back. John declared his time on the farm to have been very fun, and he sends his sincerest thank-yous to Grandma and Grandpa for taking him in for a second straight summer. If you consider that last year he was there more in late July/early August, then one could say that for the year spanning July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, John spent around 10% of his time on the Glanzer farm!

What’s in store for the rest of our summer? Probably no more significant travels, though we usually try to visit Minnesota. Lauren tossed around the idea of going during State Fair time over Labor Day weekend.