Sweet Home Alabama

I have been excited to get to Alabama the whole trip. I didn’t really have any specific reason but I wanted to see it because of how I picture the south in my head. Oh it was better than what I thought in my mind. We stayed out on country roads surrounded by thick trees, green fields and the cutest homes with front porches and yards. The folks were all so friendly and had great “accents” and respond respectfully yes sir and yes ma’am’s. The food, well it’s fried, extra sweet and not colorful; but we did learn about conecuh sausage that is really good.

Mobile- We went and explored the USS Alabama Destroyer War Ship and The Drum Submarine. We learned a lot and got to walk around the whole ship.

Blakeley- state park that is a civil war battlefield. We learned about the war and Confederate and Union sides. What the way was about. We also got to run around and pretend what it would have been like as we hid in trenches, saw sharp tree spike guard fences and the pits and walls where soldiers were. Walked on the ground that men lost their lives for us for our freedom. It was powerful and impactful for us all.

Fairhope-

We boondocked at Big Daddy’s Grill. Great spot. Fun for kids to play at sand pit while parents have a beer or eat. On the river with a dock to go out on. We met some great friends that we connected with very quickly. Can’t wait to hang out again. We even had them all over to our house for dinner. It was a great time.

  • Good  Coffee: Refuge
  • Good Breweries: Fairhope Brewing
  • Good Libraries: Fairhope= AMAZING Could spend all day every day there. Kids have their own area and can be normal, roam, use computers, great story times. LOVE IT!.

Gulf Shore= big hotels and beach house rows. Eat at Flip Flop Deli. Watch out for sand gnats- noseeums- they itch bad. We like Fort Morgan beach area. It was less tourist hangout and commercialized

Pictures that speak for themselves.

By far one of our TOP favorite places.

Louisiana and Mississippi

Alright I don’t know what happened but every time I update this and add more content and pictures it doesn’t save. So I give up. I will add some pictures and call it good. Not very detailed and we did a lot more in these two states then I wrote about.

Louisiana

We felt like we have entered into a new planet. We have never been in an environment like this. The ground is swampy then there are thick palms then there are huge trees and vines grounding and hanging from them. Also there are huge bare trees with Spanish moss growing on them. They look all spooky like from a dark movie, especially in the areas the mist is rolling in.

We experienced a lot of firsts here such as

  • First alligators
  • First time eating crawfish
  • First armadillos
  • First bayous
  • First beignets
  • We drove over the Mississippi River
  • We drove through Baton Rouge at 5 miles an hour,on the interstate
  • We learned to avoid I-10, it’s so rough

We also drove past the church Scott came down to help rebuild with a mission trip in 2005. The church had since been rebuilt on stilts. We were shocked at the amount of damage and the amount of vacant places there are now. A Sheriff told us that we would probably not see more then 10 folks on the road over our next 2 hour stretch. He was right. It’s a odd feeling driving a coastal highway that is empty and properties that are just stilts or foundations instead of homes.

Mississippi

We learned that in the south the states all have a welcome center right when you enter the state. That’s helpful. We enjoyed the welcome center and even got a lot of info about the up coming Mardi Gras. We didn’t know we were in Mardi Gras week. We went to 2 parades and learned that they are not what we northerners have heard or believe them to be. Well at least not all of them. They are full of joy, culture, traditions and history. We have never had that much fun at a parade before. We also came home with pounds and pounds of beads. We met a lot of folks that were so friendly and kind. It was nice. Also as a northerner, did anyone else not realize there is so much coast line in Mississippi? (and later we learn the same in Alabama). The Gulf Coast here has miles of beaches, bike trails and even an island of the coast that we hear has amazing blue water on the other side.

Padre Island and Corpus Christi Texas

We spent a little over 2 weeks here after we randomly decided to come down here to escape the freezing temps coming to the Austin Area. We didn’t want to deal with, nor prepared to deal with those types of temperatures. We stated at Padre Balli City Park. It’s not much right one because of hurricane damage. They are making a nice area with pave sites and grass. Currently it’s just a old paved parking lot with picnic tables. BUT the ocean is only a sand dune away. It’s right across from Mika’s seafood on the pier.

You can enter Padre Island National Park and drive 53 miles of undeveloped ocean coast line all whiling looking for tons of shells and sea turtles. We drove it twice and 4 wheel drive is a must. We had to pull a truck out that got stuck. We had several times we thought we may get stuck. I watched a video on what to do in the area from Day Tripper. He had great information.

We met another family who had a kiddo the boys age and those boys spent every second together out there exploring and making caves. The family has paddle boards and let Scott and I take them out into the ocean. It was a blast and so peaceful being out there with nothing but water around. It was still and quiet and kinda blue. I was kinda nervous because I have a weird mental fear of what could be under me. It was worth it and overcoming fear is a powerful thing. I won’t let it hold me back or miss out.

Some pics of Canyon Lake TX

I am doing laundry and have WiFi so I thought I would share a few pictures. Scott updated my phone and backed up my 1000s of pictures and removed them from my phone. So I only have a few to share.

We are in Canyon Lake TX and survived our first few days of living in the trailer through freezing temps. Nothing froze but the outside water spicket. https://adventureforth.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/img_4468.mov

Christmas in our home

This was our first Christmas spending it without other family or friends and in our home(trailer). We really wanted to embrace and go all in for Christmas spirt. We had a few presents for the kids and some money for experiences to share and make memories. We had a very difficult time finding campgrounds to stay at in Texas but after calling about 15 different places we found one site that we could be at for a week and kinda settle at to spend Christmas there. We did a lot of light looking, town exploring and spent more time then desired inside because it’s cold and rainy here in Texas. It’s really a bummer and unplanned for because we thought(expected) sunshine and warm.

I cooked our first lasagna for Christmas Eve. We had plans to go to a families house, strangers actually but we had met them and talked to them while looking at lights late one night when we were still out and about with overly tired kids and a long drive home. They invited us for brunch Christmas Day. They wanted to learn more about RV life and we were wanting friendship and social conservations. Around 5am Christmas morning g Brayton started throwing up so we cancelled those plans ? and spent the day very chill and lazy.

New Mexico

SNOW?!?!! )

Nope…White Sand

We were trying to jump at the same time Lol. I really wanted to get a cool jumping pic of us all. Couldn’t get it so I just decided to be silly.

When we got here we decided to stay at an escapee co op park since we are members. I called and they had openings so we headed that way. We showed up and were the first family to a stay there. The lady in charge welcomed us and said that we are the future of Xscapers and that they need to be used to families amongst the RV communities. They even introduced us to everyone at the happy hour. I was nervous but everyone said they loved seeing the kids around.?

Carlsbad Caverns.<<< era died before we were even halfway thorough exploring. And it's hard to take pictures in a cave. <<<<<<<<<<<<< n!!

Adventure Awaits.

We are spending our last few hours in phoenix at a great little coffee shop while our trailer gets road ready at the shop. Long story, but we took it in for maintenance a few weeks ago and got it back with no brakes and a broken jack…hummm???? Anyways, we are headed to Tucson then will make our way to White Sands NM then Austin TX.

Our time in Phoenix has been great. It’s always so nice to be with friends again and to be able to do life with others and have community again. It’s lonely traveling just the 6 of us sometimes( may blog about that later). 2 of our friends had babies while we were here and we got to be with a bunch of friends for thanksgiving. Our church is going strong at the property and looks beautiful all decorated for Christmas.

Our plan is from TX we will make our way to Florida and stay until winter and snow is over everywhere else. Then we will explore the whole east coast and hopefully visit my family that is over there.

Enough words. Here are some pictures.

AND back to Colorado!

We are back in Colorado. Longmont and Boulder area. It’s so great here. Endless things to do and new places to go. Many little, but still big towns real close. We went to Layfette for laundry. If every laundrymat on every town could take notes form them they would all be awesome and have a great, cute, perfect coffee shop next door.

So many breweries to pick from. I think we went to 7.

Smoke has cleared and now we want to explore some hikes and The Flat Irons.

So far the coolest thing we stumbled upon was a creek along a park but along the creek we found a rope swing. Blake and Brayton loved swinging across the creek. Sadly the creek is shallow so it’s not made to jump off or jump across, just swing. It was so fun to see them enjoying that so much. No one minded being in jeans we all ended up in the creek. I couldn’t get more then this one picture because my phone was full and even though I deleted several pictures it only let me take two, but the other was bad.

From Longmont we headed to Frisco and went to Brechenridge, Dillion, and Silverthorne. We found a great bike park with a pump track and good runs that the boys spent hours riding. Showed up the day after the free Gondola to the top at Breck closed but we spent time in the town and tried to be more local then touristy so we went to the library, the parks and more place off the Main Street. We are learning to be fast locals becuase it’s to expensive to be tourists in each town we go to. We are learning that now and having to make choices and decisions to not eat at all the amazing places or get coffee at all the spots or beer at the brewery. Even though that would be so much more fun and enjoyable.

After 3 days of being out of water we had to move out and we traveled to Leadville CO. It’s a huge mining town but super historic and still feels like 1879 which is the building date on the saloon that is still open. So much history and so many beautiful homes and building. I LOVED it there and could move and stay there. We only spend one day there sadly becuase the RV Park, called Sugar Loafin, (fun name) price is $$$.

Currently we are in Buena Vista for the week.

Overall- We have meet so many cool people who are also traveling. We have to learn to be fast friends and hope to meet up again as we all travel on our ways. So thankful for the time we get to spend with those fast friends the share encouragement with.

Sadly no wifi as I update this so I can’t add pictures yet.