Johns Trippin'

First we went to my aunt Tynessa's house and we parked the RV there. Then we brought the bunnies, bags, and clothes to granny's house. Then Granny got Fresh Air BBQ for dinner and also a free giant cake because Granny and Granddaddy go there so often. Dinner was delicious. For dessert we had part of the cake. Then we got ready for bed. Asher slept in the bottom bunk and I slept in the top bunk of the bunk bed. Caleb slept in a pullout couch. All the beds were in the same room. In the morning I had a biscuit for breakfast and Caleb and Asher had cereal. Because it was a week day we did school. That night we watched the movie Heaven is for Real, a true story of a little boy's trip to heaven and back. For dessert that night we had vanilla cake. The next day mom's brother Jason came over and we played a game called party quirks . He gave Caleb, Asher, and I $50 for Christmas. He also took Asher, Caleb, Granny, and I out to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. He left before dinn...

As we traveled the country, we tried to experience local culture. We didn't have much time in each location, so we thought that one of the best ways to do this quickly was to partake of local foods. Therefore, in addition to our National Park theme , we also had a "local food" theme. As we hit each state, we ate a food famous in that state. Just an example; we didn't go off of this map We quickly came to realize that this is a very subjective endeavor. Before we started, I ignorantly assumed that each state would have one or two "famous" foods, making the selection process easy. Not true. First of all, most of what shows up on lists of foods by state is hardly "famous." It's more like "foods you will definitely find in this state and may or may not find elsewhere." Some states have a dozen such foods or more. Many states have the same "famous" foods (there is a lot of crossover with fruit and beef). Second, much of this food...

First we were going to a campground with a hot tub (that was the whole point) but then we heard that the hot tub at that campground was broken. So we went to Reed Bingham State Park because that was the campground we might have gone to if they were not full. We wanted to go with the Lay family in April so we wanted to check it out. When we got there it was raining so we agreed to check the campground out in the morning. In the morning the campground was not that much of a pretty sight. It had just rained and everything was kind of soggy. Also is was kind of still sprinkling. We went around the campground on our scooters and saw that there was a nice dam, playground, miniature golf course, and campground store/office. After that we mostly had a dreary day of school and went to bed. The next day we did school, school, and guess what: more school! We slept a restful night and left in the morning

On the way to Ocala Sun RV Resort, we stopped at a gas station and bought a big bag of Florida grapefruit and a bag of Florida red naval oranges. They were delicious! We arrived at night, which usually causes a lot more stress when parking, but we had a pull-thru site! The man that came and helped us to our site told us that the hot tub was broken. I only picked this RV site because of the hot tub. I know how much Michael likes them and I wanted him to enjoy one and relax. With a broken hot tub there was no reason to stay. After dinner, we worked on blogs and played party quirks, a fun improv game. In the morning, the boys enjoyed playing on their scooters. I joined them and coasted all the way down to the end of the campground. Asher and I scootered to the office when it opened and I was able to cancel our next two days for free. This is great, since I had already booked the next two nights at Reed Bingham State Park near Valdosta, GA. 

Candace and my mom are friends and Candace asked her to be a bride's maid. As we were driving into the parking lot of the church where Candace and Steven were getting wed I realized that we were trying to go through a gate. There were some cons about this idea but I realized I could only think about 1 pro. So I'm basically saying, I don't like this idea. There were low hanging branches, the gate looked way too tight, and there was basically mud on the ground! Well it turns out we could not fit through, so we started backing up. So, back to the mud. Two sentences ago we talked about the mud, well here it comes in! We unhooked the Jeep. And we started backing up and our wheels got stuck! And to think going through the gate was supposed to be faster. It turns out that the pastor of the church had just bought a winch and had not used it so he thought he'd give it a try. He hooked it onto our RV and out we came! Yay! Then we drove around back the slower way to the RV...

I am going to talk about the campground a little bit but compared to manatees, that campground was Boring! It had a playground, a pool, and nice asphalt to ride scooters around on.  The pool was not that warm but it was warm enough to lure me in. I swam in it one morning with Caleb. One night while mom was making a shrimp boil we swam again! Get ready to learn about one of the most amazing, cute, and funniest animals in Florida. If you have ever swam with manatees in the summer in Kings Bay you know that your chances to see a manatee is not as good as it is in winter. In summer all of the manatees would be in the Gulf of Mexico where the water would be warmer. So we went to swim with manatees in the winter. In Kings Bay, a bunch of manatees would be swimming there because the water would be warmer. We saw and swam with three manatees. But the downside was that the water was cold! Okay the water wasn't that cold but, it was cold enough to make me uncomfortable. Oh yeah, for gear we...

As soon as we got there, three Great Pyrenees dogs came running out to meet us. If you are unfamiliar with such dogs, they are big, white, very furry, and entirely lovable. Later we got to see a litter of five Great Pyrenees puppies along with the proud mom and dad. Our RV was parked next to a lot of goats. In the morning we got a tour of the farm.

This park is among the nicest we've been to. There's 28 miles of trails there, so we used our scooters a lot. In fact, I don't think that I ever went in the car to go anywhere other than the beach. We just rode our scooters around the park. The night we got there we went and played at the huge pool. We found out that there's a nature center here. There's lots of animals, especially reptiles, but there's also some aquatic life and a big brown bat (even though it's only as big as a fist if it's wings are folded in). The reptiles are snakes, a few lizards, turtles, and two baby alligators. There's also a free-range turtle here. Caleb named him Shelly and he likes to inspect shoes. And they have three owls and a red-tailed hawk outside. Hey, Willow! This Diamondback Terrapin is one of my favorites Hi, Shelly! Peek-a-boo! I think we went to the Nature Center every day we were there. The state park is right up against the Gulf of Mexico. We went to the bea...

When we were packing up, our neighbor came over and gave us their unused bottled water. No one has done that before, but I am glad that they did. They told us that where we were headed had bad storms. Thank you Lord for this knowledge and kindness. We ended up changing our plans and going south to go under the storms. It was cloudy, drizzly and very windy. Since we would have to back track and since I had not paid for the next site, I called around and changed our accommodations to Natalbany Creek RV Park in Amite, LA. The other RV park was located in Mississippi and an area that had a tornado. We arrived at the RV behind the casinos at night; parking is always harder at night. There was an issue with the electricity not grounding right and so we moved to a site right by the duck pond. Michael accidently ran over the damaged slide cover so he folded it up with the help of the Jeep and threw it away.  Caleb and Jordan had a cough and so we brought out the facemasks. On Wednesday af...