Month: July 2023

Our morning looked like this:

White Sands NP. It was wicked hot. And the sleds didn’t slide as well as we hoped.

So, we get to Mather Campground at Grand Canyon NP around 11:45pm and do our best to set up as quietly as possible. It’s shockingly quiet here. No dogs, no generators, no late night revealers. Sam is in his Bivy and we hear a ruckus and lots of talking and Sam said it was stinky pigs, right outside his Bivy, at least 3 of them. So now he’s in the tent and now we know what a javelina is.

Good morning from Guadalupe Mountains

Carlsbad Caverns- we hiked in from from the natural entrance and also did the Big Room hike, for a total of about 2.7 miles. We couldn’t stay to watch the thousands of bats leave the cave but we sure wished we could have.

Just drove through Pecos, Texas for what might be the last gas station for a while. We passed a parking where dozens upon dozens of people shot off fireworks, like a legit fireworks show.

Well, we finally made it to Guadalupe Mountain National Park around midnight, MST. I have a constant worry of someone being in our reserved site and having to wake them up to ask them to move but of the 30 or 40 “RV” sites here in what is pretty much a parking lot, there might only be 4 other people here: a camper van and a few small RVs. Also here, however, are WESTERN DIAMONDBACK RATTLESNAKES. Josie and I saw one when we walked to the bathroom. We were already fairly noisy and it just slithered off. I texted my group here and told them to shuffle around as they walked. The big 4 didn’t even want to get out of the car, but I confidently convinced Erin we could walk to the bathroom. Well, again a rattlesnake was on the sidewalk and we shuffled really loudly but this one didn’t move. It kind of just raised its head and tail and we retreated. Believe it or not I didn’t stick around to take pictures.

It was definitely cooler than the night in Louisiana. I was actually able to make scrambled eggs and bacon for the first time this trip, for the first time using our JetBoil Genesis Basecamp stove, and the first time using our Full Windsor Magware silverware. While the girls and I tried to pack up as much as we could, Ed and Sam were working on getting the air compressor working.

Padre Island National Seashore (PINS). It was after 8pm when we got here and pretty dark already in most of the pics but my iPhone did the night long exposure so it’s deceiving. I guess tonight was also the full moon. We probably don’t have anyone else camping within a mile from our spot. Hot dogs for dinner after some technical difficulty. SO MUCH SAND all over us and everything we own. So so much.

5 am we had to wake up and break down the half camp we set up. On the road to the alligator swamp boat tour.

The airboat swamp tour was a pleasant and exciting surprise. Our tour guide Nick was educational and had entertaining delivery. We saw quite a few alligators and saw some interesting landscapes, trees and birds. It was a bit of a $plurge but worth it.

Toured the Tabasco plant in New Iberia.

Interesting tidbit for today: last gas stop, some odd little bird was hanging out with us and then hopped up on our front bumper and snagged a squashed dragonfly and took off.

Another odd observation, we have passed at least three pickup trucks venting hauled, while also filled with furniture, like someone said, “well since I’m towing that truck anyway might as well load it up with furniture and I’ll stop it by your grandma’s house.

Made it to Galveston Island State Park around 7pm. We saw another car accident, a truck quickly turned into a car that was going straight, two cars ahead of us. (And Ed and Sam saw another accident later when picking up pizzas. Sam said at one point they saw the kid doing wheelies and after getting the pizza they saw an ambulance and the motorcycle being flatbedded away. Anyway, the campsite is pretty quiet and we can hear the gentle ocean.

After a late night of working in the truck, doing laundry and packing (2am) we (Ed and I) we’re up by 6:30am to work on the truck and start packing up. First stop is to get Ava to the Pensacola Airport where she flies to Orlando and then home to CLE, arriving just after midnight. We continue on from Pensacola to Louisiana, where we will spend the night at Fontainebleau State Park and leave early tomorrow morning for a swamp boat alligator tour.

Breaking news: Josie has not had McDonald’s in 9 days. While we hoped she would have detoxed she has made it clear she needs McDonald’s.

It was a long, hot drive to Louisiana. There was a fatal motorhome accident on I10 in Mississippi that requires closing the highway for 90 minutes for a helicopter. We got to Fontainebleau before 8pm and quickly set up the tent and Bivy so we wouldn’t have to do it in the dark. We drove around the state park and it really looks pretty cool and a little spooky with the Spanish moss hanging from the oak trees. As I type we are at Chili’s because it’s way too hot to cook anything at camp.

The night didn’t go as planned. The dark and heat and bugs, and the prospect of taking it all down at 5 am, made setting up the truck tent seem like a bad idea. So all of us girls were trying to sleep in the cars, which you can imagine also went very badly. We all ended up sleeping on the ground in the tent with Ed, literally on the ground. Rocco was up in the Lexus tent. As miserable as 5 am hits, we all moved quickly with the goal of getting to the alligator thing and out of Louisiana asap.