Johns Trippin'

  When there is an accident on the single road leading off the mainland to the Florida Keys

Our plan for Florida is to run roughly down the western coast and then back up the eastern coast. Our first stop was at Hillsborough River State Park. It's not strictly on the coast, but it's close. The Hillsborough River, which borders the park and from which the park takes its name, runs past Tampa into the Tampa Bay. It was a fairly sprawling park, and much of it was unusable. It had an enormous pool, but it was closed on account of COVID-19. Of course. I guess this is the one place in Florida that acknowledges we're in a global pandemic. Fortunately, the usable part included a few miles of hiking trails. We took full advantage. There was a nice riverside hike on which we saw multiple alligators, a few large birds, and one very small snake that we only spotted because there was another hiker staring intently at it. We were curious what he had found! Unfortunately, the internet situation was poor at the park. As with Florence Marina, I had to commute for work. I spent one...

You know that sound you sometimes get after a nice rain? It's the sound of drops of water softly falling from the trees. It's soothing. Have you ever heard that sound when it hasn't rained for days? If you ever do, it might be caterpillar poop. Turns out we aligned our stay at Hillsborough State Park perfectly with millions of hairy little friends . Fortunately they are harmless and mind their own business. But yes, it does in fact rain poop from the trees!

At Florence Marina State Park we went to Providence Canyons State Park. I collected 6 rocks and I got a thorn stuck in my shoe. It made a hole. Then we went back home (RV) and made some new friends named Bryce and Sydney. We had a lot of fun. We saw 7 alligators and 11 turtles. We did some bike rides. I got some candy at a store and we went to do mini golf. We rented the ball and club.

Julie and I are both blessed with wonderful families. I can't stress that enough. We truly are. We've spent the past two weeks visiting various members of both of them. That explains the lack of updates. Special thanks to Julie's sister for letting us park the RV at her house and providing me a desk for the week! We hit the road yesterday in what I consider to be the official start of our full-time RV lifestyle. Even though the house sold a little more than two weeks ago, the reality is that we haven't been living out of the RV while also doing school and work. That starts today. And evidenced by the fact that I commuted 40 minutes this morning to the nearest big town to our campsite so I could work, it is off to a rocky start. Regardless, here we go...

You know how some dogs love walking so much that they basically drag you around? Yeah... not so much with Fiji. Have I mentioned that she's 17 and was supposed to die before we started this trip but didn't hold up her end of the bargain?

I had the whole family list some things that they were thankful for at this site... When I was researching on what to get when starting out in an RV, all the videos I saw said to get an outdoor rug.  There are many good reasons to get one, the two biggest being able to help dirt stay outside and it gives an additional room outside that is great for kids and road-schooling.  It was on my list of things to get and it was always pushed aside for one reason or another.  We had no outdoor rug until we got to Don Carter State Park and met our nice neighbor Carly. She came over and asked if we had an outdoor rug. Hers was too big and she wanted to get a smaller one.  She gave us her brand new double-sided outdoor rug, but I know Who really gave it to us! Thank you Lord!  To the one Who knew exactly what I wanted and when!  Wow!  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the Heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting sha...

Poinsett State Park was the first place we stopped. I got out and compared the size, easily noticing a difference. Ours was definitely the biggest one on the lot. We set up, which includes putting the stabilizers down, putting the slides out, and hooking up the hose to their water. At Poinsett there was a big field, some trails, nice bathrooms, and neighbor kids. It was late when we got there so we hurriedly went to bed. In the morning Asher and I rode our bikes down to the office to see if there was any firewood to buy. We searched and searched but didn't find anything, but we did find that they had a lake and a playground but no firewood. We rode back and told the news. Then I went outside to collect firewood. I had only gotten a little when some man who looked like a ranger came riding down the road. I went up to him and asked, "Sir, do you know of any place you can buy firewood?" He replied, "Yeah, do you know where the office is?" I said, "Yeah." ...

Earlier today, sometime around 3:30 or so, Caleb, Jordan, mom, and I got our bikes. We split up, Caleb and Jordan biked down the road while mom and I went the other way. We rode down a path to trail sign #23 and turned left down whippoorwill (yellow trail). We rode until #25 and turned left on scout (orange trail). The trails were really nice and flat. And with trees on either side it was shaded so it was cooler. On scout we rode until we got to palmetto. When we got there we turned left and rode to the end to get to the lake. When we got to the lake we met Caleb and Jordan, who had taken the road. We played around for awhile but we came back around 4:30 because when dad tried to lock the RV door, the key got stuck in the lock and he had to call a locksmith who ended up just pulling the key out with a pliers. We headed out again but without Caleb and Jordan. Then we had to go back again to pay the locksmith. Mom and I set out again and this time we weren't called back. So this time...

Have you ever paid a lot of money for something that broke right away? Just wondering. I was talking to a friend the other day, and he said to give it a month for everything on an RV to shake out. I'm 3 days in. Things are definitely still shaking out. Today's drama is a key stuck halfway in the lock. Won't go in. Won't come out. Won't turn. Just stuck. Guess where my spare keys are. Yep, in the RV.  The campsite host spent some time messing with it. He called the park rangers in, and they spent some time messing with it. No dice.  The kids and Julie are off riding bikes, and I'm sitting here with Fiji waiting on a locksmith. She's taking it in stride. By the way, there are no locksmiths close to this park.  Oh well. It's 65 and sunny, so I can't complain. Definitely a first world problem. But come on... I paid a lot of money for this thing! 

We took a picture at the sign. We went to the boardwalk trail. We saw a downy woodpecker, bluegill, and me and mom saw a snake. We had books for a junior ranger. We had a word search, sign language, and a treasure hunt! We had a lot of fun! PS: All the sentences start with a "We".  😀 

It all started when we got into the RV. I was excited, sad, and mad all at the same time. Excited because we were living in an RV, and that was pretty cool, and we were going to be driving around the country seeing stuff while other kids were stuck home because of COVID-19! Sad because we were leaving everything I've loved about North Carolina: female, our duck; the other ducks; the library; Village park; but most importantly, friends. Now I was just mad. I don't know if you'd understand why, but I felt like the new owners had just taken everything out of my world, poof just like that, stolen the ducks and gotten away with it.  All of these thoughts were swirling through my head as we got in the RV, pulled in the slides and left. I had known goodbyes before, but it was say bye, wait a week, and then hello again. But this time it wasn't like that.

Day 1 of life on the road! The trip to Poinsett State Park was uneventful except for the part where the fridge flew open on a turn, dumping (and breaking) numerous jelly jars and spilling raw chicken juice all over the floor. No big deal. It only took Julie an hour or so to clean up while we all watched. Just kidding! Mostly. Julie is currently organizing the new house. We mistimed our packing over the past two weeks and had to leave in a hurry yesterday. That resulted in us cramming things wherever they'd fit. It is creating a bit of work for us (well, Julie) today. I know what you are thinking. I promise I'm contributing! First of all, I drove the house here. This thing doesn't move itself! I also turned the heat on. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but Julie is afraid to touch buttons right now (she'll get there), so if it were up to her, it would still be cold in here. See, I'm helpful. Also, my task today is to register all of the warranties for the vari...

I mentioned in a previous post that we're in the process of adopting. We haven't had a child placed with us yet, but we're trying to plan ahead for that event. That's what kicked off this move in the first place. I'll cut to the chase. An RV is not a house, at least in the eyes of the state of North Carolina. We did what we thought was our due diligence by running our plans past the adoption agency. They were confident it wouldn't be a problem. Turns out they were wrong. We had a house. We just sold it. We now live in an RV, which is not a house. Oops. Per the agency, we have two options: Pause the adoption while we travel. Buy a house. Did I mention that we just had a house and sold it? For the sake of completeness, we also have a third option: don't adopt. We don't consider this a serious option. We've always felt like God was calling us to adopt, and if that's the case, it would be disobedient to give up simply because circumstances got compli...

It all started out with our adoption. We've been waiting for about 3 years to adopt a child. When my dad put the house on Zillow someone's wife wanted to buy it in 10 minutes. But the husband promised his wife a pool. So they didn't buy the house. There were a few others that I can't remember. But finally Melissa and Tim stepped up! They bought the house. We left March fifth. Tim and Melissa have a daughter named Brook. We are on March sixth now and we are enjoying our time at Poinsett State Park!