Johns Trippin'

Those that have been with us since the beginning will recall that we failed in our first attempt to hit two of Florida's three national parks. Biscayne National Park was one of those two, and the failure was a direct result of the park being mostly in the water, us not owning a boat, and a failure to plan ahead. Two years later, the park is still mostly in the water, we still do not own a boat, but we did  plan ahead this time! About a year ago I started talking to my sister about doing a joint family vacation to Florida. We knew we had to return to pick up the two parks we missed, and we figured it would be fun to get the cousins together for a trip. We set plans in motion to do a spring break trip, driving down in the RV to give them a taste of our lives. We made two stops  on the way down to the Everglades, which was home base for the RV during our visits to the parks. Our plan was to visit the Biscayne Visitors Center upon our arrival in the evening and then spend the en...

We arrived at Indian Mound Fish Camp in the afternoon. First we parked the RV. Then we went to catch crabs! We caught a lot of hermits. It seemed like crabs were rare. We caught about three medium sized ones that night. Then we ate a dinner of tacos and fresh shrimp and went to bed. In the mornin' I saw a manatee! Sophia came outside too and we caught crabs together! It was fun! Then the other kids came outside and we went to a big dock behind the office to catch crabs. We caught a lot by lifting up rocks and catching them with a net because they were under them. Sophia caught the crabs and I lifted the rocks. Because I lifted the rocks I got two big scratches. One from a big rock falling on my toe — I have a scar from that one — and another from a sharp rock. I got it just by touching it. Then we let the crabs go. Me and Sophia went to the bath house to get a nice wonderful shower. Then we went into the RV for a much needed sit-down. Then Nathan had a shower that he did not l...

We started our Florida vacation by driving to Southern Grace Farms. If you don't know, we went on a ten day vacation to various places in Georgia and Florida. We also are going to go to these three National Parks: the Everglades, Biscayne Bay, and Dry Tortugas. We are going on this vacation with one set of Aunts and Uncles (Alaina and Marc) and with both of our Cousins (Sophia and Nathan).  After a fun drive of video games and stories, we arrived at Southern Grace Farms. Southern Grace Farms was a Harvest Host in Georgia that had fruit trees, fruits, strawberries, and vegetables, but only the strawberries were in season. When we arrived, we bought a basket to U-pick the strawberries. Nathan, Sophia, Asher, Jordan, and I went out into the field to pick the strawberries. We picked (and ate) an overflowing basket (and mouth) of strawberries. I really liked going on the playground. The thing I liked most was a roller slide made up of a bunch of PVC pipes. It was usually slow but I stoo...

We went to the State Park on a Sunday. After popping into the Visitor Center for a few minutes, we hit the trail to the gorge. In case anyone who is reading this is unfamiliar with the concept of a gorge, here you go: Gorges are deep. In order to get down into one, you typically need to go down. There are a few (non lethal) ways to do that. One way is stairs, lots and lots of stairs. Three hundred and ten to be exact. Stairs More stairs What do you know? Stairs! Stairs coming down as seen from the opposite side of the gorge At the bottom of those 310 stairs, there is a suspension bridge crossing the gorge, eighty feet above the river.  The bridge even swayed when you walked on it! From there you have the option of continuing down two hundred and twenty one more steps to an overlook of Hurricane Falls. And, unless you have a permit and are planning to go downriver, that means you have two hundred and twenty one stairs back up. Hurricane Falls Bottom of gorge Now that you're back to ...

We didn't know what we were doing when we started. That's not entirely unique in this lifestyle, but most people spend some time planning things and learning about RVs. We didn't have that luxury due to the compressed timeframe when our house sold. That said, would we do anything differently if we could do it again? Yeah, we would. Would I term those "regrets?" Nah, not really. That implies that I'm dwelling on these things, and I'm not. So while we don't regret the decisions we made, here are a few things we'd do differently if we could start over: We would have gotten a Costco credit card a lot earlier than we did, which was more than halfway through our trip. We bought a lot of gas, so we might as well have been getting rewarded for it. We would have signed up for Thousand Trails. We heard all kinds of mixed reviews on the program, but we're confident we could have saved money on campgrounds had we signed up early on. Julie would have put th...

We are now settled in at a campground in North Georgia for the next 3 months. The plan is to use this as our home base while we search for a permanent place to live. Whether that will be a plot of land upon which we build or an already built house, we don't know yet. Before this trip started, I was pretty confident we were going to build when we were done, but I've had a lot of time over the last 22 months to think about it, and now I'm less certain. Regardless of whether we build or buy, our first job is to narrow in on a location. We know we want to be near family, many of whom are in north Atlanta, but we also know that we don't want to live too close to the city. That likely puts us between Gainesville and the South Carolina line. We want to start by finding a good church. Our kids are either at or approaching youth group age, and youth group was such an important part of Julie's and my childhood that we want our kids to have the same opportunities we did. It...

We moved our stuff from Sophia's house to Nana & Gramps's house. Aunt Alaina, uncle Marc, Sophia, and Nathan Lay came over. And uncle Steve & aunt Hannah came over. We all had a great big brunch with all 13 of us! Then we went into the family room and I read the Christmas story! Then we opened presents!!! I got a bunny brush, slingshot, books from the series Kings and Sorcerers, a beautiful quilt that Nana made, and lots of Velcro that I use a lot for crafts. Asher got a robot and some Wings of Fire books. Caleb got a mini drone, Gravitrax expansion pack, and Nintendo Switch controller holders. Then we played with the kids next door, Andrew and Ava. I played a lot with Sophia that afternoon. Then the Lay family left. The next day, Monday, We did school at Nana and Gramps's house which I did not understand, to me this was supposed to be a vacation!!! We did grammar with Nana it was great! We went to see aunt Hannah and uncle Steve's new house! It was really nice....

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