We worked our way up the coast, into Alabama, where we stopped for a few days on the gulf shores. Max got some fishing in, I took a helicopter ride. We both spent time at the beach working on our tans. We ate some great food, which brings us to needing to work out.
Since starting this journey I have put on some weight, which I realized that I needed to get into better shape. I got into running about a 2 miles each day, in addition to cardio. We both decided that we needed to hit the gym, and got memberships at a nationwide chain. I actually dropped the extra pounds quickly, and dropped some more too.
We are trying to get off the fast food, and sweets or so daddy says… right after he eats a honey bun. I have a decent sized refrigerator in the RV, enough so we can get fresh meats, fruits and veggies. So typically when we pull into a town we try to find a farmers market or produce stand. We switched the cookies, cake and ice cream out to bowls of French fruit, with an occasional sorbet. Fruit smoothies are part of breakfast.
We explored some museums in costal Mississippi. There was a museum that had miniatures, small paintings and scenes, a children’s museum, a maritime and seafood industry museum and finally a visit to the Hattiesburg Zoo. All in all we were out exploring 3 days with 2 days to edit videos.
We actually got pretty good at shooting video and daddy found that he had a great voice for narrating and voiceover work. This helps fund the travel, keep the gas tanks filled and feed the kitty. We would do our traditional vlog, but also shoot some b-roll and interviews. Neither of us would be in front of the camera.
We moved on to the experience that is New Orleans. We broke from our healthy eating when we went to get Beignets, I mean you just must try them. Plenty of gumbo and other creole dishes too. Max made me promise that I would not repeat the last trip to bourbon street and getting drunk.
We did stay at the same campground that I had when mom and dad came down.
We stayed in Louisiana for about 9 days before continuing through Texas seeing quirky things and vlogging about them.
We settled into a schedule of 3 days of shooting, 2 days of sitting, scouting and editing. We would then relax those nights, and drive for a bit the next day.
After about 6 weeks of putt putting towards Arizona, we made it there. By then it was the first week in March. We rolled into Ehrenberg AZ, emptied our tanks, filled up the water, propane, and about every water container we had as well. We needed all the water storage we could get.
We facetimed Max’s family and wished the twins a happy 12th birthday, saw all the things they got too. Gift cards for xbox live, itunes gift cards, more diapers for David, clothes for both. Not much other than that. We had sent some souvenirs from the road to them.
We then found a place outside of town at a BLM (bureau of land management) dispersed camping area and set up camp.
The first couple nights there was nobody around us, and I loved it. I would run around in just a onsie and diaper and sandals. Eventually more and more of the area filled in, but it wasn’t that full. Yet one morning I woke up and stepped outside in just a onsie and diaper and there were people camped about 30 feet away; like you could pick anywhere but you chose to be right up our ass.
I paid them no mind as I sat outside and sipped my coffee and watched the sun come up. Nobody told them to camp so close to us. They did not stay in that place long. Max told me that my fun was over since there were becoming more people, and I had to put pants on. I pouted but lost out.
The next people who camped close, were parked the opposite direction and left us alone. About every 3 days we would drive into town to see what was going on, maybe get some groceries, etc. Once about every 8-10 days we’d take the RV in to town, dump the tanks, fill the water, empty the trash and do laundry. Often we would take a fellow camper in with us just to be nice. We got to know a few people that were camped nearby, and found that for some, living like a nomad was their only choice.
Many of them were in fact homeless, and they were often able to scrape just enough gas to make it to the BLM land, and be able to move every 14 days as required when they had to. Many were on various public assistance as well. Some like me had the ability to do what they loved, but many just wanted to be out on the open road going where the wind blew them. We never once ever let on that we had the means to be able to do this without a care to the cost. I can be quite the tightwad sometimes.
By the end of March, we started getting tired of the scenery, so to say. One night in early April, the 3rd I think, Max said “Tomorrow we need to move on down the road, it’s getting too crowded here, and it is consistently getting warmer and warmer, and we’re getting to the point of needing the AC and we cannot run the Generator and the solar isn’t going to provide enough power.
The next morning on April 4th we got up early, watched the sun come up, shot our last time lapse sunrise there, packed up what we had out at camp, battened down the hatches and pulled the RV onto the main pathway, coupled up the car and headed out. We topped off and emptied out the tanks respectfully and headed back east towards quartzite, then up to lake havasu, before hitting I-40 and then we travelled into Oatman, and visited the burros.
Max had never been to the Grand Canyon so we had to visit there for him. We camped at a KOA outside Williams AZ, then took the Fiat into the Grand Canyon Village and toured the whole day, we took many photos and bought tons of souvenirs as well. I am sure that many people thought I was special needs as Max was constantly directing me around and holding my hand and speaking to me in his daddy voice. I am sure my light up sneakers, bright colorful shorts and diaper bulge did not give it away.
The next day we walked around Williams AZ, in and out of the various shops. This was also a great place to get a nice steak dinner, and do laundry.
We basically chilled for another 2 days and then headed east along Historic Route 66 heading towards flagstaff, short trip to Sedona and Horseshoe bend for photography, where we spent most of the day. Boondocked that night and then went to Meteor Crater.
We stopped off in Winslow AZ to just stand on the corner, it was such a fine sight to see. Saw the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook AZ. We checked into a KOA, then took the Fiat and did some vlogging from the petrified forest to the east of Holbrook and back to the RV for the night.
Got up the next day and kept heading east into New Mexico. There really wasn’t much to see there, Albuquerque was way too congested to get the RV into. So we parked about 10 miles out of where we wanted to be at a truck stop and headed to the Route 66 diner for lunch and then back as quick as we could before the kitty got too hot. We drove another 3 hours to Tucumcari, NM and then stopped for 2 days.
Again in Tucumcari we had to go to the Dino museum, walked around and looked at the murals, vlogged, and visited the Route 66 museum for New Mexico. Oh, and who could forget getting some great Mexican food at Del’s, and LaCita and one morning we went to Kix on 66.
We stopped at the Cadillac Ranch, spray painted a car. Saw some other sights like the leaning water tower and a giant cross along the freeway, pointed out where I got stranded on my first time out.