I finally had a moment to make a page dedicated to our 520 days living in Estella and traveling the country. If you haven’t seen it, you can find it here: https://mshapsandestella.com/where-we-stayed/. Some days, it feels like that time passed in a blink of an eye, and other days, I am so exhausted when I think back to all the places we traveled.
We have narrowed our list for phase two of the journey, and I’ve updated the page to reflect that we’re on to our next thing – just me (Ms. Haps) and Arthur. If you missed it, I started jotting down ratings of the cities that I thought could possibly be our new home. When we were in Texas, I narrowed the list down to a few of my favorites and eliminated some others.
Chicagoland, IL
I initially didn’t have this on the list because Chicago is huge, but there were a few things that swayed me to add it. There are a lot of potential suburban areas that aren’t as big as Chicago itself. It’s easier to find a condo where I would have zero yard work. And, most importantly, it’s really close to my family and friends in Minnesota.
Grand Rapids / Ann Arbor, MI
I really enjoyed my time in Michigan. Both Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor are great-sized cities, and they both have a lot to offer in terms of medical care, diversity, climate, and all the other things on my list. This was an easy choice to add.
Buffalo, NY Area
I just fell in love with East Aurora, NY, and the towns in that area. I could take or leave Buffalo itself, but the surrounding communities and the proximity to the Great Lakes and the East Coast vibe were definitely drawing me in.
Why didn’t those other highly rated cities make the list?
If I only had to give one reason why most of them didn’t make it, it would be because it would too hot in the summer. Prescott, AZ, Albuquerque, NM, and Austin, TX were all really great, but I know the summers would do me in. Missoula, MT was right up there in the running, but in the end, it was too small for what I was looking for and maybe a bit too remote. Salem, OR, was highly rated, but the west coast seemed just too far west. Prince Edward Island (yes, all of it) was my hands down favorite, but Canada just isn’t in the cards for me yet.
So, back in April, Estella was stored in one of my parents’ out buildings, and Arthur and I left for Chicagoland – Evanston, IL, to be exact. We will spend a couple of months in each of the areas and have a longer stint in the Buffalo area. I know IL and MI winters, but a winter in Buffalo is something I’ve never experienced, so we will be spending the 2025-26 winter there to see if we can endure it. It’s been over a decade since I experienced a real winter; I just want to make sure I’m still made of the stuff that can take it.
We will be living in furnished places in all of these areas. While we were in Texas, I booked AirBnBs and places through Furnished Finder for the next 12 months, signed leases, and tried to explain to Arthur that we weren’t done just yet.
What if they don’t work out?
It’s a distinct possibility that we’ll travel to all these great areas and not be as enamored with any of them as I had hoped. I’ve kept Estella just in case that’s what happens, and we’ll head back out again. I’ve been lucky enough to live in all sorts of places, so I think, at the end of the day, it’ll either be somewhere I’ve lived before or one of these new areas.
I hope you’ll stick with us even if we’re not traveling in the RV anymore. There are many more adventures to come as we continue the search for our Unicorn City.
The Adventures of Ms Haps & Arthur 