Category: Uncategorized
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Day 116 / April 16, 2024
We woke up to a balmy 23 degrees our first morning at the Grand Canyon. Well, technically we were one mile outside of the national park at the most run down and nasty campground that somehow still came with a premium price tag. Location, location, location as they say! 🤑
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Day 115 / April 15, 2024
Today was our third looooong drive day in a row and it was at this point that we discovered that our maximum was actually only two full days of driving in a row. 😮💨 I tried to reframe our exhaustion as training for the AlCan!
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Day 114 / April 14, 2024
Matt got to celebrate his birthday in Arizona this year! He also got to drive us 250+ miles to our next stop in Camp Verde. 🥳
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Day 113 / April 13, 2024
We woke up early today in a show of solidarity with our friends whose babies refuse to sleep. Oh, and because they invited us over for breakfast even though they are perpetually sleep deprived. SO NICE.
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Day 112 / April 12, 2024
Our stop in El Paso was twofold: visit some friends that we met on the road last year and see a national park site. It doesn’t get much better than that!
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Day 111 / April 11, 2024
After a brief overnight stop in Fort Stockton, we were back on the road for another day of driving west.
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Day 110 / April 10, 2024
Today is Riggs’ birthday! It’s hard to believe that he’s been a part of our family for 4 years already.
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Day 109 / April 9, 2024
Now that the solar eclipse is over, we had one more day to hang out with Nana and Papa before we continued on with phase 2 of our road trip.
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Day 108 / April 8, 2024
It’s finally the day that we’ve been looking forward to! The solar eclipse is happening and everyone around me is excited that I’ll be able to stop obsessively checking cloud cover forecasts and constantly sharing updates. 🌤️
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Day 107 / April 7, 2024
The cloudy weather rolled in just in time for the solar eclipse tomorrow. 😫 When we started planning this road trip one of the main goals was to be in the path of totality during the 2024 total solar eclipse. We’ve had our campsite reserved for the past 9 months but as the date approached…
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Day 106 / April 6, 2024
Today we did all the things in the morning (Riggs is proving to be quite helpful when it’s time to recycle) then drove down to San Antonio for a pool party with the family in the afternoon.
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Day 105 / April 5, 2024
Today we took Nana and Papa to Natural Bridge Caverns to check out one of the largest caverns in Texas. Put a cave face on; we’re heading in! 🔦
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Day 104 / April 4, 2024
The band is back together again! We met up with my family for dinner at Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, Texas. To say the cousins were excited to hang out again would be the understatement of the year. 🥰
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Day 103 / April 3, 2024
Today we were reunited with Nana and Papa again! Riggs just about wagged his tail off when he spotted Papa. The kids loved unpacking our mail from home, the packages we had shipped to their house and lots of goodies from Nana. It was like a delivery from the Pony Express! 📬
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Day 102 / April 2, 2024
Before we left Village Creek State Park Elleny had to get sworn in as a Texas State Park Junior Ranger. The activity book was a cinch but like I said, extrinsically motivated. 😉
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Day 101 / April 1, 2024
I don’t know if it was a sick April Fools’ joke or just the fact that we were camping in a thicket but the mosquitos got even worse today. We dosed ourselves in bug spray but these guys were hungry for blood. 🦟
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Day 100 / March 31, 2024
Happy Easter and happy 100 days on the road to us! It is inconceivable that we’ve been traveling for that long already. We’ve, of course, hit a few bumps along the way but we’re happy to be experiencing this journey together as a family.
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Day 99 / March 30, 2024
We chose the tiny state park nearby because it is near Big Thicket National Preserve. The Big Thicket, the first preserve in the National Park Service, is spread over 112,000 acres in east Texas. Since we only have one day we’ll only be checking out just a few of those acres. 😉
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Day 98 / March 29, 2024
Not sure why it took us 98 days to attempt making a pannenkoeken in the convection microwave. It was a breakfast staple at home so the kids are happy that it’s back in rotation. 🥞
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Day 97 / March 28, 2024
Today we left the New Orleans area and we were definitely ready to move on. The mosquitos were vicious at Bayou Segnette State Park and while this might be getting us ready for Alaska, it sure wasn’t fun!
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Day 96 / March 27, 2024
Now that we’ve checked New Orleans off of our list, today our destination was the Barataria Preserve which is located in south Louisiana. Like, really far south. We’re off to the wild wetlands!
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Day 95 / March 26, 2024
Today we stepped out of our comfort zone and visited New Orleans. The main objectives were to visit New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, eat some beignets, and then get out of town before dark! 😅
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Day 94 / March 25, 2024
Five days in the bayou and we were more than ready to leave Mississippi! Of course, the chilly weather didn’t help but we really didn’t love the little bit of Mississippi that we saw. We did, however, have some fun trying to speak the way they do down here. Some people are so hard to…
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Day 92 / March 23, 2024
Although we haven’t visited an actual national park for quite some time; for the past three weeks we have been following along the Gulf Islands National Seashore. This national seashore stretches 160 miles from Florida to Mississippi and today was finally the day to check it out.
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Day 91 / March 22, 2024
This afternoon we went to Ocean Springs, Mississippi to see the what all the fuss was about this historic coastal town. One glimpse of the live oaks lining Main Street and I was agreeing with everything I had heard – it WAS adorable.
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Day 90 / March 21, 2024
The weather in Ole Miss is none too warm but these rebels were bound and determined to try out the lazy river today.
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Day 89 / March 20, 2024
All good things must come to an end. 😭 After an absolutely wonderful 14 day stay in Gulf Shores we had to keep moving west.
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Day 87 / March 18, 2024
These new yoga mats are being used for lounging more than for actual yoga. 🙃 We spent the morning working and then headed up to visit Neighbor Dave in nearby Summerdale, Alabama.
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Day 86 / March 17, 2024
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Looks like the leprechaun dropped off a special treat for breakfast. ☘️
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Day 85 / March 16, 2024
It was another picture perfect day in Gulf Shores. We cooked up some waffles and ate outside since the weather was so nice.
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Day 83 / March 14, 2024
A tired Riggs is a calm Riggs! He’s been getting lots of exercise on the trails and it shows. 😴
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Day 82 / March 13, 2024
Today there was a presentation on alligators at the Gulf State Park Nature Center and I wasn’t about to pass up learning about these terrifying creatures from an expert.
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Day 80 / March 11, 2024
The days start out a little bit chilly (50 degrees is chilly for me now that I am a snowbird!) but warm up quickly here in Alabama.
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Day 79 / March 10, 2024
Today was another beautiful day for a bike ride around Gulf State Park. There are wetlands, woodlands, beaches and freshwater lakes so every bike ride is a new adventure.
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Day 78 / March 9, 2024
We had a rough night of sleep last night with Riggs acting up and being restless. We could tell something was wrong, but we weren’t sure what was going on and he wasn’t telling us. 🧐
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Day 77 / March 8, 2024
We had a busy morning of visiting with our Neighbor Dave from back home (chatting outside together was just like old times on Sherman Rd!) and saying “see you down the road” to new friends.
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Day 76 / March 7, 2024
Today is a great day for a birthday! Elleny woke up ready to party and we were here for it.
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Day 75 / March 6, 2024
Goodbye Destin! We’ll miss your white sugar sand beaches but not the high speed death defying road down the middle of your city – IYKYK.
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Day 74 / March 5, 2024
The forecast called for a 100% chance of rain today and unfortunately it was 100% correct. Who’s job was it to pack a raincoat for Riggs anyway?! ☔️
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Day 73 / March 4, 2024
As if Mondays aren’t hard enough already! How can I expect to get anything done with Riggs “helping” me?! 🥺
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Day 72 / March 3, 2024
The day started out just like any other weekend. Riggs secured the campsite perimeter, the kids hung out and Adler cooked up some breakfast for everyone. Later today, however, we had a surprise up our sleeves…
