Utah

I am the absolute worst at keeping up with this blog. Trying to keep my own personal journal up to date is a struggle. Half of this was actually written a year ago... somehow didn't finish it. Now I have more trips to add and getting behind is not helping. Sorry for the delays, hopefully I can get it together. Hope you enjoy!

What a week we had in Utah. We drove a lot of miles and hiked about 8 miles a day in the scorching summer heat.

Day1: We left home at 5pm when everyone was off work and drove straight through the night to Zion Nat'l Park in Utah. We got there about 6am and pulled off on BLM land for a nap before exploring the park.

Sarah, Alicia and Maggie all packed up and ready to go

Day2: Our nap was short lived as we woke in a sweaty daze from the already hot morning. We were now running on excitement. We explored a little ghost town nearby and accidently took a 4x4 road in the little CRV. We drove into the park and decided to do the Canyon Overlook hike first which was a short 1 mile hike to a view of Zion and Pine Creek Canyon.  We then decided to make our way up to Angel's Landing. At about 3pm we started out ascent, I highly suggest hiking at a cooler time of day. We were just excited to break some ground and see some epic views. I have to admit I was very out of shape for this hike and being easily dehydrated called for tons of water breaks, which slowed Sarah and Maggie down.
Side note: earlier this week Maggie was in a motorcycle accident and had sprained her ankle and had road rash so bad, she decided to hike without any shoes from the descent of Angel's landing onward for the rest of the trip. She is the true beast of this trip!!
 Anyways we hiked upward and upward to a landing that was unfortunately not the top. I could see the pathway to the top, a narrow trail on the mountains edge that you had to support yourself by hanging onto chains in order to not fall the 1500' to your death. Did I mention that I am afraid of heights!! Ok I had come this far already I had to complete the trip. I was worried because I was fatigued by now and sweaty, I didn't want to slip off the chains. I just focused on each step and made my way to the top for the most beautiful overlook. It was so worth it. The view overlooks Zion Canyon with the Virgin River carving its way through. It was one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. I really didn't want to climb down, I was seriously wishing I had a parachute or something for a quick escape off the mountain, anything but climb slowly down the steep cliff. After catching our breaths and enjoying the view we made our way back down the mountain and now enjoyed the cooling shade of the canyon. We got down and decided to cool off in the river, we swam around until we felt cool and energized. We refilled our waters at the station then hiked out to Emerald Pools. We hiked along the Kayante trail to Emerald Pools. We stopped at the middle pool and found a secluded area away from the other tourists, and we were able to hear the bleating of the Canyon Frogs. Someone told us that the upper pool wasn't worth the hike and based on the middle pool not being as we had imagined, we decided to head back. We stopped at the lower pool where Maggie and Abe (a stranger at the time) took turns letting a waterfall shower over them. We hiked back to the shuttle talking with Abe's family about their trip, we learned they were from North Carolina so I conversed with them about the Blue Ridge Parkway which brought back tons of memories from last years road trip. We were luckily able to get the last campsite available in the park and set up camp for the night. After cooking up a delicious meal of chicken and fresh veggies from Maggie's farm I passed out exhausted from the long drive and day.

Angel's Landing acent

Resting at the top of Angel's Landing

Day 3: We woke early and cooked up some breakfast burritos. We had to switch campsites as someone had previously reserved ours. We headed to the South Campground for first come first serve and found a perfect spot. We dropped our stuff then headed out for another long day of hiking. We took the shuttle to the Temple of Sinawava to hike the Narrows. This hike is throughout the canyon following the virgin river. The path crisscrosses the river which is achieved by wading in the water. We came upon a jumping rock where kids were enjoying the thrill. Maggie decided to jump off, she said it was only about 5 feet deep max and was a sketchy jump. We continued on, swimming in the deeper pools, and pushing our way against the stream. We hiked about 4 hours into the canyon and decided we should head back. Back near the start of the trail we heard a boy crying, turns out he had broke his ankle on the same jumping rock Maggie had leapt from hours prior. He was with boyscouts, they had fashioned a gurney from 2 hiking sticks and their t-shirts. His foot was wrapped up and the boys were trying to get him downstream. We continued on and passed Search and Rescue marching to the hurt boy's rescue. We reached the trail head and I could feel the blisters on my feet from hiking in wet sneakers all day and sand getting into my shoe and rubbing my feet raw. I hobbled onto the shuttle. We got back to camp and cooked up dinner and set up the slack line. We listened to some music and attempted slack lining across our camp. After dinner we set up a corn hole game and invited our neighbors over to play. After some time a couple other neighbors joined in. We ended up playing Cards Against Humanity with the neighbors into the middle of the night until we got a noise complaint then we said our goodbyes and headed to bed. It was fun to catch up with people and hear of their adventures too.

Hiking the Narrows

Day 4: We had another early morning and packed up to head to Bryce Canyon to check out some Hoodoos. The drive didn't take too long. Our first stop was the Visitor center where we ran in Abe. He was visiting the parks with his family and decided to hike with us for the day. We decided to do a shorter hike then to make our way to Arches. My feet were also dead from the blisters and 16 miles of hiking we had done so far this week. We decided to take the Sunrise loop into the Navajo loop for about 3 miles of hiking. The decent was nice into Hoodoo land. We saw some major rock formations that looked like Thor's hammer and a queen. We picked out different shapes and named some Hoodoos ourselves. The hike out of the canyon was tiring. A mix of the heat, the grade, and my blistered feet made for a tiring trek up. At the top we got a great view overlooking Bryce Canyon. We then went to Inspiration point for a quick upward hike to get a better of the National Park. We drove back to the visitor center and created a little picnic area with our mats and broke out a mix of our remaining snacks. We rested, ate, played Frisbee and talked for hours before saying our goodbyes to Abe. We invited him to come to Arches with us but he had a family reunion near Provo. He invited us to stop by on our way through. Leaving Bryce Canyon we decided to take the scenic route to Arches. Our first stop was a Petrified Forest near Escalante. The park ranger talked us out of wasting our time there but informed us that Hwy 12 that we were on is the 2nd most scenic route in the world to New Zealand. I definitely had my doubts, wondering how there could be a road here more beautiful than the Blue Ridge Parkway on the east coast. The drive left us in awe. The landscape changed so much in such a short drive from red canyons, white canyons, meadows and aspen forested. I understood how this had beat the Blue Ridge Parkway. As beautiful as it is, the roadway was 500 some miles of roughly the same landscape. This Hwy we were on had so much variety, every turn lead to an amazing view. We drove into Capitol Reef NP where we admired purple and pink hues in the rocks. We snuck into the fruit gardens to pick apricots and  cherries. After a quick stop to check out petroglyphs we were on our way again. There was a huge forest fire we passed through. Driving along we notices a couple people riding dirtbikes in the hills and a bunch of campers set up so we turned in to check out what was going on. We were stopped by security, turns out they were filming the opening scenes for Point Break 2. A couple of workers told us a little bit about the shoot and technicalities they faced. It was really interesting to hear about. We turned back onto the road and decided it was getting late so we needed to make our way to Moab faster. We turned up Hwy 24, saw the famous "cock rock" and drove along the straight hwy. We decided we should make some music while driving. Sarah driving and on flute, me terribly on bongos and Maggie in the backseat played guitar.We rocked out up the highway and laughed till we cried. We got into Moab late, got a campsite and fell asleep reminiscing on our driving band.

Selfie stick for the win.

Bryce Canyon

Day 5: Today we made it into Arches NP. We happened to get the very last campsite available, unloaded some things then headed to Delicate Arch trailhead to hike before it got too hot. This hike was less occupied than it had been the previous year which was strange it was almost the same time of year and day of the week. We were able to get some great shots of the arch without having strangers in them too. We drove into Devil's Garden to do the loop hike here. I'm pretty happy I finally got to see this section of the park as it was closed last year. We hiked to all the arches. My new favorite being Partition Arch because you can walk through the arch lay on a cliffside in shade while looking out over the NP. The summer day heat made the hike difficult, blisters and minimal water made for a hard hike back. We drove back to camp for lunch and I changed into flip flops to check out some remaining arches in the park. After dinner we hurried to view the sunset over the park then drove into Moab to check out some bars and night life. We met some locals and listened to mediocre karaoke. It was getting late so we drove back to camp and fell asleep after promising to wake early for a sunrise.

Hey look an arch!

Sunset in Arches Np

Day 6: I woke to Sarah telling us we had to get up for the sunrise. I wanted to go back to sleep, it was to early. Then Sarah said "omg, we might miss it" I jumped out of bed, eyes partially sealed shut, slipped my sandals on and bounded through the desert brush. Sarah and I ran as fast as we could to a big rock by our camp and climbed up it just in time to see the sun break the horizon and illuminate the desert around us. We enjoyed the suns glow. Sarah laughed at me saying she has never seen me move so fast, one second I was asleep in the bed and the next i was sprinting through the desert. After breakfast we walked the loop to Tapestry arch. The walk was nice with cool morning sand and no other hikers. We got back to camp, cleaned up and got on the road. After a  quick stop at a craft store for Maggie we were on the road home. After a couple hours into our drive we had to pull off for the restroom, Maggie realized she left her shoes at the craft store and had to call the store and pay for them to ship the shoes back to California. As we passed through Provo we messaged Abe to see about saying hi. He happened to be in Arches with his family till the evening. We headed on to the Salt Flats where we frolicked around on the pure white salt. I read Desert Solitaire out loud as we headed back into California. It was getting late and we were tired so we stopped at Sarah's families cabin in Tahoe city for the night.

Sunrise in Arches NP

Day 7:  We made the short trek home, said our goodbyes and promised to do another trip to Colorado next year.

Heading out West

Map route

We woke early in Cleveland and headed to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I dressed accordingly, with a black bra top that was studded and had chains hanging off of it, and some tight brown leather pants. We got to the Rock Hall of Fame and took an intro picture of us looking like a rock band. We got to look around the museum at all of the guitars and clothing of some great rock stars. I really enjoyed Janis Joplin's hippy car. There was a section of modern pop stars and we got to see some of Beyonce's dresses which were amazing. When we finished the museum we went to the gift shop where some people took pictures with me because they loved the way I was dressed. Outside of the Hall of Fame we took a tour of Johnny Cash's travel bus. It was pretty awesome inside, definitely more spacious than our little dolphin. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was something I was really looking forward to but it paled in comparison to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The organization at the Rock Hall was lacking and made for a large eclectic mess. Still there was tons of cool stuff. When we finished at the museum we drove to Toledo, Ohio for the  night.

Natalie, Alicia and Nick rocking out at the Rock and Roll  Hall of Fame

Jimi Hendrix guitars

Led Zeppelin outfit/ guitar

Beyonce's costumes

As soon as we woke we drove to Chicago, Illinois; we drove through Indiana to Illinois. Once we got into Chicago it was really busy. Traffic was heavy and it had started raining. We came to the cause of traffic, a cement truck had tipped onto a car and smashed the driver's side- there was definitely no survivors as the truck was still on top of the car and they were working on lifting the truck up. We drove into the heart of Chicago where we miraculously found some outdoor parking that we could stay at for the night. After a nap we got some deep dish pizza at Beggar's Pizza then got ready for the night. After managing New York's subways we decided we could tackle Chicago and we rode the train to Michigan Ave to experience Chicago nightlife. Lollapalooza was going on the weekend we were there and had just got out so the streets were full of festival goers. We could only find small hotel bars and walked the streets until we settled at Miller's Pub. The bar was packed with people from Lollapalooza. We made our way down the bar to find an open seat. At the end of the bar some girl pointed at me and the guy sitting next to her offered his seat to me. I would have been sitting between the girl and her guy friend with the guy that gave up his seat standing behind me. I declined their offer and thought how weird it was. On the other side of those people were two seats available and a man at the very end gave his seat up to us. I sat closest to the group and they immediately turned and chatted with us. They had just come from Lollapalooza. The girl got up to leave and the guys asked if I knew her, I told them I didn't and obviously they didn't know her either. While we were chatting with the group we told them we were from NorCal and had been on a road trip for a month and half. One guy immediately asked if we knew where P-ville was, the old hangtown. All of our jaws dropped, no one knew where our small town was. Turns out this guy had family in P-ville and had spent his summers there while growing up. The guy told us he was from Connecticut and that growing up the girls he knew ranked about a 5. He said he thought hot girls only existed in movies and didn't think much of it until he came out to NorCal for the summer. He said "Holy Shit!! Every girl was hot as shit." He had wanted to live there and enjoyed his summer visits. We were all rolling at his story telling. He had many adventures to tell and told us some things to check out on the rest of our trip. The group of guys left, and then another guy sitting there scooted down to sit with us. He had also been at the festival and said he was coming down off acid. He said some really trippy things, he changed his name on us from Chris to Change. We just went with it. He was a bartender in Kentucky and got dragged out to Lollapalooza with some friends that he had lost earlier in the day. Another guy joined our group, Cory. He was a super muscular army man that was on his way back home. He talked just like Sylvester Stalone in Rocky. He gave us some movie quotes which was amazing!!! He said he had never seen the movies until everyone told him he talked like Rocky. We all got our fill of entertainment for the night and found our way back to the subway station and back to our motor home.

Pizza in Chicago

Nick and Natalie with friend in Chicago subway

We slept in a bit in Chicago then headed for Nauvoo, IL- a Mormon town on the Mississippi River. Along the way we ran out of gas :( and puttered into a rest stop. We were about 3 miles from the closest gas station so we asked some rest stop workers if they could help. They gave us 2 gallons of gas from the lawn mower gas can and we made it to the gas station to fill up. The hwy to Nauvoo crossed the Mississippi river into Iowa then back across the river to Illinois into Nauvoo. We checked into the campground and then drove into town. We walked the streets to the Mormon Temple and then down the hillside to the visitor center where we learned about the early settlers. We happened to be in town when the yearly pageant, a play about early Nauvoo, was going on. After eating dinner we sat in a huge field to watch the play. It was a highly technical play and you could tell had been practiced for a long time. It was very good and kept our interest the whole time. When it had ended we went back to the campsite. While laying in bed we could hear our neighbor's phone call where he was yelling at someone and threatening their job by saying he had connections. Then another phone call to his son telling him to throw our someones stuff and to piss on their pillows. The phone calls ended and we finally fell asleep, only to be woken in the middle of the night to the same man hacking for hours. It was probably the grossest sound I have ever heard. Finally we all fell asleep.

Joseph Smith and Hyrum statues outside of the Temple

Sunset over the Mississippi River in Nauvoo

A band playing at the Pageant in Nauvoo

We woke up and did laundry then headed into old Nauvoo. We got to see the old bakery and try some gingerbread cookies. We then went to the Family Living Center where we learned how to weave, make a barrel, do pottery, make rope, cook bread, and make a candle. We got to keep the rope we made and to eat some freshly cooked bread. After that we headed back to town to the real bakery for some pastries. Back in old Nauvoo we learned how the bricks were made and got a small Nauvoo souvenir brick. We drove along the trail of hope and read plaques of journal entries from the Mormons when they were escaping prosecution. We drove all the way to the Mississippi River where they crossed the frozen river and we put our feet into the Mississippi for the first time. Once we had finished up in Nauvoo we drove to Carthage to the prison where Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered. We got the last tour of the day and got to see where they were held and murdered, with the bullet holes still in the door. After we finished our tour Natalie drove for a bit while I napped. When I woke up I took over the driving through Iowa where we stayed for the night in Des Moines.

Nick at the Mississippi River

Sun setting in Iowa

Quote:
     "The core of man's spirit comes from new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun." ~ Christopher McCandless

The Sunshine State, sometimes The Rain State

Map route

We spent the day at the marina RV park, swimming in the pool and catching up on laundry. After cooking some dinner we went to Frenchmen Street in New Orleans, LA. We took a taxi into town and walked along the streets. Since it was early not much was going on we stopped into some art galleries. The first shop was full of art and row after row of books. The only theme of every art piece and book was homosexuality, we giggled at all of the nudes. We continued on along the road admiring the Creole French style houses with the shutters painted in bright colors. We kept walking along, stopping in shops we found interesting. We stopped into a bar that had a patio with a water feature that had fire coming out the top. We only went in to admire the patio decorations and exited on the other side, where we found ourselves back at Bourbon Street. Things seemed a lot more calm than the day before. It was earlier than when we had gone out the previous  night but we could only assume that as it got later things would get crazier. We quickly walked back to Frenchmen Street and stopped at an art gallery that had a huge shrine "A tribute to smokers" with cigarettes hanging down with wings on them. This gallery was so cool and unique- the artist, Chris Roberts-Antieau had done a lot of embroidery and had installations that pointed out the faults in society and with technology. We stayed for a long time admiring the details of her work. We found our way to an artist district where there was vendors selling various forms of art from clothing to jewelery and paintings. I bought a tiny starfish ring made from wire. The artist used to be an electrician and he took to making jewelery and doing metal working, his real passion. Natalie bought a print of Bill Murray and Nick found a button up shirt that has Sasquatch embroidered onto it. The artist that makes the embroideries himself used to work at an embroidery factory and he said now he just sits at home and does "tons of drugs" making awesome embroideries. Some of the other t-shirts the artist had included Sasquatch fighting a shark, unicorn stabbing someone with its horn and our favorite (though we refrained from purchasing it) was a woman's shirt that had cute hearts on the shoulders and read "suck your own dick" - this guy obviously is awesome. After some convincing (not really much convincing needed) we got Nick to get his nose pierced. For the best healing results he has to wear a diamond stud for a couple months which pisses him off because he really wanted a hoop. We stopped at a cafe and got some jambalaya, red beans and rice, and crawfish etouffee. All of it was really delicious. After strolling the streets and listening to the jazz players on the sidewalks we called it a night and went back to the RV park to sleep.

Jazz band playing on Frenchmen Street



Natalie with a self portrait on Frenchmen Street Art Walk

We woke up and swam a little bit  in the pool before heading to Florida. We drove along the highway through Mississippi and Alabama to Florida. The first thing we noticed once we got into Florida is that everywhere was selling boiled peanuts, we have yet to try any but we want to before we leave the state. We drove down along the Gulf Coast. We turned down some street towards the beach but found a "utopia" country club. Everyone was riding bicycles dressed in preppy clothing. This looked like a picture from an ad for anti-depressants. Everyone wore a plastered white smiling face over their stretched tan skin. After figuring out we couldn't access any of the beaches without a membership we turned back. We picked up groceries at the Walmart in Panama City and stayed in the parking lot for the night.



Sunset along the Gulf Coast in Florida

In the morning we continued along the Gulf Coast. We came onto a beautiful white sand beach just off the hwy. Mexico Beach was picture perfect. An empty beach with crystal blue water. We swam for hours. Wearing goggles I chased schools of fish trying to catch and hold one but the fish proved faster. The water here was comfortably warm but still refreshing under the hot Florida sun. We laid out on the beach and buried Nick in the sand making him a mermaid and then into a large sea turtle. The sand here was of a consistency I have never experienced in sand. The sand was so soft and fine it felt like we were playing in powdered sugar and the sand itself was almost as white at sugar. We drove on along the coast to another beach where we cooked dinner and ran through the white sand under the almost full moon. After the stars came out we drove to Carabelle and parked for the night.



Fluffy white sand on the Florida Gulf Coast

We continued following the coastline then headed north through Tallahassee and then South East to Orlando. We stopped at Crackle Barrel- a staple restaurant for every state except for Nevada and California. We had some home cooked style southern food that made us miss our mother's homemade meals. We stayed at Turkey Lake RV Park- a campground with a large park for frisbee golf, where we put up the tent for the night. We wanted to escape the confines of the motor home- the small space along with the heat was not making for comfortable sleeping conditions. As soon as I finished the tent the dark clouds overhead let out the rain. At first a sprinkle and then full on downpour. I was really excited to sleep in the tent now, knowing I would be cold for the first time since Colorado. Natalie stood out in the rain in a bikini re-dyeing her hair and I held out the umbrella for her. We probably looked ridiculous. The weather was strange, but the hot air and the cold rain drops felt amazing. In the campground bathroom we found the largest green tree frog about the size of our palm- we had officially made it to the tropics. After staying up reading we finally called it a night. We crawled into the tent and listened to the rain pitter patter on the cover until I fell asleep worrying about snakes and alligators.



A large green tree frog in Florida

Natalie dyeing her hair in the rain- Our tent in the background

When we woke the rain had stopped and the hot air was already drying out the tent. After cleaning up camp we went to Disney World. Natalie had never been so she was ecstatic. We got our tickets to Magic Kingdom and took a ferry across the lake to the theme park. We rode rides all day- the lines were still very long for it being a Wednesday. The rain came in late afternoon and we got ponchos to stay dry. Luckily the rain didn't last too long and most of the rides are indoor. At night we watched the Electric Parade with all of the Disney Characters dancing along. We got some snacks and went to the front of the castle to watch the most amazing firework show. When the fireworks were over I grabbed Natalie's hand and ran through the crowd to Space Mountain, a ride I had yet to go on. Along the way I ran ahead of Nick and Natalie, at the ride entrance I saw a huge crowd was coming and if I waited for them it would be an hour wait before we could ride. I  made the decision to continue without them on the ride and it was amazing. The roller coaster that's in the dark with fake stars made my night. I felt like my money spent on the park ticket was well worth it. When I got off the ride Nick and Natalie were no where in sight. With my phone dead I decided I better not let the fun stop and I went on more rides for a couple hours until the park closed. I got back to the motor home to find them locked out (I had the key) and worried about me. They thought I was looking for them and though annoyed at me ditching them for fun they were happy that I was safe. :) We found a parking lot for the night and fell asleep quickly from being worn out

Natalie and Alicia about to ride the ferry to Magic Kingdom

Natalie spotting Minnie at Disney World

The next day our feet were sore from walking all day. I drove us to Clearwater Beach through Tampa. We spent the day swimming, wearing goggles to search for shells, and laying on the sandbar. The water here was not as clear as Mexico Beach but still a bright blue that contrasted beautifully with the white sand. We swam until the storm came in- darkening the sky and raining us out. We ate dinner at a restaurant right on the beach. Sitting on the patio we overlooked the setting sun and listened to the live band. After eating and a couple of drinks the rain had stopped and the clouds rolled off. We walked the beach and then drove back to Orlando to wake up early for Universal Studios.

Clearwater Beach



Alicia at sunset- Clearwater Beach, Fl



A boat in the Gulf of Mexico

At Universal Studios we rode rides and walked through the streets of Harry Potters Wizarding World. After riding roller coasters we sat down for a meal at Three Broomsticks. We ate our roasted chicken and turkey legs and drank Butterbeer (the most delicious drink ever) We went to Ollivander's Wand Shop where they picked out a wand for someone in the room. The 14 year old girl they picked was decked out in Harry Potter attire and almost cried. Her mother was tearing up for the excitement her daughter felt. It was a really cool experience to see how much this meant to the girl and her family, in fact we all felt a little emotional. We rode all of the rides in the park and were beyond soaked after the 3 water rides and tried unsuccessfully to dry out by riding rollercoasters. We left the park water soaked and with squishy shoes then headed back to our parking lot to sleep for the night.



Alicia, Nick, and Natalie at Universal Studios




Alicia, Natalie, and Nick in Dr. Sues land

We drove South to Miami Beach for a day of relaxation. After driving around for quite some time we found parking that would fit the motor home. This is an issue we have continued to have in larger cities. Most parking is in garages that will not fit the height of our 11'6" motor home. We had to find a parking lot near an outside shopping strip that was a bit further from the beach. We planned to lay on the beach but got distracted by the shops and spent the day dragging Nick around to beach shops. When it got late we drove into Miami city through the freshly rain flooded streets and parked for the night.

In the morning Nick and Natalie were hoping for a day of doing nothing but I had other ideas. I drove us east to Everglades Nat'l Park where we hiked along the swamps and canopy of trees. We saw our first alligator in the swamp swimming along. After a couple minutes he sank down deep under the water and we walked along. Natalie spotted an alligator laying right next to the walkway under the trees. We watched him and he watched us. He just laid there about 5 feet away from us. It was pretty scary being that close to such a large predator. Next to the gator in the water was a smaller one just laying in the shallows also watching us. We stood there taking pictures and being cautious about the huge reptiles. Seeing the alligators completely made our trip. We would have been pretty bummed if we hadn't found any while in Florida. There was tons of wildlife from brightly colored grasshoppers the size of our palms, turtles, and birds. We continued along to other hikes where we got eaten alive by mosquitoes and are probably now infected with West Nile. We ran one trail to stay away from the blood suckers. We drove through the park to the ocean at Flamingo Beach, an area that was once heavily populated by Flamingos but now seeing them is rare. We didn't see any Flamingos sadly so we drove on to Ft. Lauderdale. We planned to take a ferry in the morning from Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas but the prices kept fluctuating every time we looked and eventually the cheapest we could find was $200 a person which wasn't something we could justify. We stayed at an RV park and on our way to the pool I almost stepped on a baby python. Thank god I didn't see it otherwise I would have cried. Natalie saw it and watched it slither away through the grass. This was the first and only snake siting we saw, thankfully. After a day of reptiles we relaxed by swimming in the pool. When we got out I read a "children's" book There's a Hair in my Dirt: a worm story by Gary Larson of Farside cartoons. This isn't really a children's book and was hilarious. I bought it at the Nat'l Park and couldn't put it down. I read the short story out loud sharing the pictures like elementary school. We then watched Counselor- an action movie that was funny and gory and left us with a WTF did we just watch. We realized it was now 3:30 am and climbed into our beds for the night.

Nick hiking through the Everglades

Large cricket in the Everglades



Butterfly with broken wing in Everglades

Bird hunting for lunch

Alligator swimming through the swamp

Alligator laying in the water, keeping his eye on us

Quote:
      "Maybe the journey isn't so much about becoming anything. Maybe it's about unbecoming everything that isn't really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place."

Country Fever

Map Route

Nick catching his breath at the top of Enchanted Rock

After looking at Texas' capitol we drove from Austin toward San Antonio. We drove along Texas Hill Country road with our first stop being Pedernales Falls State Park. We walked out to look at the falls and then went to the swimming area. After being in the hot motor home we were looking forward to some refreshing water. We were sadly disappointed to find that the water was lukewarm. The river felt more like bath water, which I'm sure would be nice at night but not in the scorching noon sun. We paddled around the murky waters then continued on to LBJ state park. By the time we got there the park center was closed but we followed the map and drove around looking at the living history barn and church. We made our way to the Enchanted Rock State Park. The park is for the rock formations, the largest rock of entirely pink granite. We followed the path through overgrown bushes, cactus, and flowers to the base of the mountain. Natalie and I, naively in flip flops, hiked to the summit. The hike was very steep. Ominously, vultures circled over us as we neared the summit. The mountain seemed to be getting more steep with each step, we came over a ridge to find a dozen vultures sitting and watching us. Luckily we pulled through and the view was worth it. The sun was setting over the valley which created more of a pink glow on the granite. The rock is said to be enchanted because there is a buzzing noise at the top from the mass contracting and expanding. We laid on the top and felt the earth around us, listening to the buzz of "spirits".  We got up and hiked back down before it got pitch black and wandered our way back to the motor home for the night.

Enchanted Rock

Pink granite of Enchanted Rock

In the morning we woke up and drove to the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, there they had life size iron sculptures of cowboys and horses outside with miniature ones inside. We walked around looking at all of the country paintings, stagecoach wagons, and horse saddles. We then drove on to the Lost Maples State Park. This is an area where Maple trees grow because the park is shaded by canyon walls and river runs through providing water for the maples. We walked down the Maple Grove along the river. After a quick hike we drove to Garner State Park, we only drove through to see tons of people camping and floating in the Frio (cold) river. We didn't have enough time to stay as we were trying to make it to Houston. We drove on and through Bandera, the cowboy capitol of Texas. Sadly no hot cowboys were waiting in the streets for us, so we continued through to San Antonio. In San Antonio we went to the Alamo and then did the famous River Walk. the sidewalk follows along with the river on one side and restaurant on the other. It was really cool thing to see, there were a lot of people and there were river tour boats going by. We left and headed upstairs back to the main street level. We drove to Houston, all while watching a lightening storm that lit up the whole sky. The lightening crackled across the sky looking like a root system. In Houston we parked and slept for the long drive.

Alicia and Natalie at the Alamo

Indian sculpture at the Museum of Western Art

Natalie and Nick on the River Walk in San Antonio, TX

4th of July!!! We left Houston early and drove to Galveston, TX- an island in the Gulf of Mexico we reached by bridge. We somehow found free parking and made our way to the beach which was packed for the fourth of July. We claimed a piece of white sand and made our way to the brown, seaweed infested waters. The water was cool and refreshing as we swam and body surfed the small waves. After laying out to dry off we took the ferry across back to the mainland. We drove to Louisiana, the highways are mainly bridges over swamps. We drove through Baton Rouge, one of the more green city we have seen (from tons of trees). We made it into New Orleans, and after getting lost down some road by the train tracks we were beginning to feel uneasy. Where we had accidentally drove to looked like a movie set for a rape/murder/ torture road, one where nobody would find our bodies for a month at least. After redirecting ourselves we made it far away from the creepy zone and to the campground. The campground, Pontchartrain Landing, is on the marina, and had their own fireworks display that we saw go off over the Pontchartrain Lake. We took a cab to Bourbon Street to experience the night life and boy were we out of our element. The first thing you notice when walking up the street is the mass amounts of people and the crazy things they're doing (not as much flashing going on as I'd had imagined) then the smell hits you. There was a constant smell of shit all the along Bourbon Street, but the smell changed as you went along to more of a pee smell, then more of a vomit smell, to more of a rotten food smell. This was not a smell any normal person could get used to. We walked the streets trying to avoid running into all of the people and not step in small puddles of mystery brown liquid. This time it was Nick and I that had wore sandals which is not something I would suggest to anyone. We went inside Bayou Burgers for bite. We got Gator Traps- deep fried alligator with jalapeno cheese, and the ultimate hamburger that had a grilled cheese bacon sandwich within it. We continued along the streets, I honestly didn't feel comfortable enough to drink anything because I felt hyper aware of everything going on around. When we made it to a cross street we decided to turn back and walk the other direction. We had made it 20 feet before we saw a wall of people barreling towards us. Like the Lion King we were about to get ran over by a stampede. Everyone was screaming and you could see pure fear in their eyes, something that reflected back in ours. One girl yelled into my face that there were gunshots and we needed to get out of there. We turned and ran as fast as we could so we didn't get trampled to death. We made it to the crossroad and turned, some girl grabbed mine and Natalie's arms and pulled us to the side. She said to calm down and that nothing was going on. She had lived there forever and goes to Bourbon Street all the time and she said this was a regular occurrence. She said that we shouldn't run and just step out of the way unless we actually hear the gunshots. This wasn't really an option for us, if we had tried to move out of the way we would have been knocked down just like the homeless man that was cowering on the ground covering his dog. My heart had finally stopped pounding and the crowd had cleared so we made our way back down the street. After the stampede tons of policemen were out riding their horses, we came along a huge group of people bunched together. We didn't know what was going on in the middle, but a police officer riding a horse rode through the group with the horse swaying back and forth to break the group up. When this happened it created a lot of commotion people screaming again and jumping out of the way of the horse and other people. In this process my foot got smashed by a large man and I was officially done with New Orleans. We caught a cab back home and called it at night at 12am. I can honestly say I will never go back to Bourbon Street as the craziness is a normal thing there, I cannot imagine what Mardi Gras is like. Tomorrow we will got to Frenchmen Street- a place where locals go that is "very calm" and more artsy with live Jazz music. Hopefully we won't get trampled.

Alicia and Natalie on Bourbon Street

Bayou along Hwy 10 in Louisiana

Quote:
       "The wish to travel seems to me characteristically human: the desire to move, to satisfy your curiosity or ease your fears, to change the circumstances of your life, to be a stranger, to make a friend, to experience an exotic landscape, to risk the unknown."