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Well, we decided to spend a couple nights in Baton Rouge. We got out to the state capitol and some Louisiana food the full day we were there and discovered the roads weren’t that bad. We decided to leave the following day since Baton Rouge was supposed to get down to 19 degrees and Galveston was supposed to be around 34 degrees.

On the drive to Galveston we drove across a very long bridge over the bayou in Louisiana. Then we ended up seeing a billboard for the Gator Chateau where you can hold baby gators! Well, we had to stop and it didn’t disappoint. We even got to feed ducks and stretch our legs with a walk around the pond.

After that we continued on towards Galveston Island. Google kept sending us down the Bolivar peninsula to a take a ferry. We were rather skeptical that it would actually work out, but after some online research we took our chances. And sure enough, it’s a free ferry from the Bolivar Peninsula across to Galveston Island that Moby and Richard got to ride with us on!

When we got off the ferry, our tire pressure sensor began to beep and we ended up driving right to a tire shop and getting a new tire put on after finding a very large screw in the tire. Crisis averted. We finally got to our campground as the sun was setting.

We ended up deciding to stay in Galveston the rest of the week because of the cold temperatures. Galveston was at least staying above freezing!

We did school, went on beach walks, went swimming, mini-golfing, kite flying, did laundry, enjoyed beautiful sunsets, and did vehicle/camper upkeep. One night we played BINGO hosted by the campground. Matt won $25!

One of the days we went in and toured Galveston (the campground was about 30 minutes out of town). We walked along the harbor, ate lunch, visited some historic places/plaques (Galveston is the birthplace of Juneteenth), and visited La King’s Confectionary. We also drove around and saw several tree stump sculptures that were created from trees that died in the storm surge of Hurricane Ike in 2008. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures, but you can check them out here.

From Galveston we headed to Brenham, TX and stayed with Matt’s aunt, uncle, and cousin. We greatly enjoyed the time with them, and appreciated their generous hospitality (including many fabulous meals)! But unfortunately we didn’t get any pictures with them.

Brenham is the home of Blue Bell Ice Cream, so we went and visited their factory/visitor center/gift shop/ice cream shop! With scoops for $1! Matt got cinnamon and mango. Reece got peppermint. Claire got cake batter, but ended up not really liking it and got a cherry vanilla instead. Libby got red velvet cake ice cream. It was tasty!

We also visited Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park one day. It’s the old town site where Texas declared independence from Mexico and wrote up their own laws. Texas became it’s own country for almost 10 years before joining the US, and Washington was its first capitol.

We ended up staying in Brenham for three nights, and then headed to Austin. We visited the capitol building and had dinner at Scholz’s Biergarten on recommendation from Uncle Richard. We really enjoyed it!

The next day we went to San Antonio and met up with our friend, Ken, who we knew from the climbing gym in Colorado Springs. He introduced us to Spam musubi (and gave us the tool to make it!), and he made food for us when Claire was born. It was great to see him, and he was an amazing tour guide. We wandered around the Pearl – an old industrial area of San Antonio that has now been turned into upscale restaurants, shops, venues, etc. It’s along the river walk just north of downtown, and we had fun watching lots of turtles and ducks.

Then we grabbed some lunch and headed to the Alamo. We toured the church and the grounds and got to talk to a couple living history people on the grounds. It was very informative. Despite a TON of construction on our walking route to and from our van, the city is really neat! We even went by a cool outdoor theater set up.

Looking forward to more adventures across Texas!

Well, we’re back at it!

We had a lovely holiday visit in Michigan and spent lots of quality time with friends and family!

We left Michigan on Tuesday. It was a day later than expected because of bad weather. And actually Tuesday wasn’t great conditions either, but we made it.

We drove to Cincinnati to visit our friends, Kenneth and Katie (who actually live in Newport, KY). We delivered the flask we had purchased for Kenneth in PA (which was also a great deal – like the socks! See post on October 7 for context).

We enjoyed trying Cincinnati chili at Skyline Chili, meeting their corgi – Chloe, and seeing the neat row type house they are living in. It’s been fun to see the different types of architecture around the country!

Wednesday we went to the the Cincinnati Museum Center and visited the Natural History and Science, Children’s, and City History museums. It was a very enjoyable and educational day!

After the museums, Matt wanted to be sure we experienced Jungle Jim’s – A crazy Cincinnati superstore complete with – EVERYTHING! We enjoyed dinner there at one of their several restaurants in store and picked up a few treats.

The next morning we hung out with Kenneth and Katie while having goetta – a breakfast meat famous in Cincinnati originating from German immigrants who were trying to stretch their meat. My Dutch blood understands and applauds this! 🙂

We hit the road early afternoon and made it to Cave City, KY (right near Mammoth Cave). We enjoyed dinner at a nearby local Mexican food place – very tasty.

The next morning we went to Mammoth Cave Visitor Center and then took the Grand Avenue tour of the cave. It was about 4 hours and 4 miles long. It was fun to traverse that long underground and walk through slot canyons and up and down ‘mountains’ as the guide called them. We even climbed ‘Mt. McKinley’!

Then after grabbing some lunch and completing Jr. Ranger books, we were on the road to Nashville to meet our friends for dinner. We enjoyed dinner for their school fundraiser at Waldo’s Chicken and then had to hit the road. The big winter storm that was taking over the eastern half of the nation was bearing down and we had to get to Birmingham!

We spent the night in Birmingham at an Avid hotel where there were extremely hospitable staff and a whole crew of Southern States Utilities setting up to respond to issues the storm caused.

We got out of there the next morning to continue to avoid the storm and made it to Picayune, MS. We reunited with our camper and everything seems to be as expected – no rodents or bugs infested, nothing broken into or stolen, etc.! Yay!

In the process of trying to navigate around/through this storm, we decided the Baton Rouge area made the most sense – as did a number of other people at this campground! So here we wait out the cold temps before heading west. Those of us who have lived in the north in the winter are confused as to why freezing temperatures mean we can’t drive, but locals who know the roads aren’t treated and many roads are elevated over bayous are warning to stay put. So, we’ll be careful and make the most informed decisions possible! Hopefully anyone else affected by this storm is staying safe, warm, and dry!

Next post will be from the west side of the Mississippi River! We’re looking forward to heading west.

After dropping the camper off, we drove to Birmingham, AL. On the way, it turned out that Matt had to go to Springfield, MO for work. So the next day we dropped him off at the airport in Birmingham.

Then the kids and I went to the Civil Rights National Monument which is comprised of several sites. We went to the Kelly Ingram Park where there is a walking tour with a timeline of the Civil Rights movement in Birmingham. This park is where the Children’s March/Crusade happened in May 1963 and it is kitty corner to the 16th Street Baptist Church that was bombed in September 1963. We also walked by the A.G. Gaston Motel (closed on Tuesdays) and got hot beverages at the coffee shop on site. The discipline and strength it took to peacefully protest in the face of all the hatred and violence is truly inspiring. (And unfortunate that it was needed. Why do we treat other humans that way? Why do we vilify whole groups of humans?)

We enjoyed BBQ pork sandwiches at SAW’S BBQ in Birmingham before hitting the road to Tupelo, MS. I didn’t realize that northern AL and even northern MS are the foothills to the Appalachian Mountains. It was another beautiful drive.

When we arrived in Tupelo we went to Elvis’s birthplace. We walked the grounds and learned a bit more about his life. There were a couple neat statues and a reflection pond – not at all the crazy opulence that I’ve heard Graceland is. And Reece shares a birthday with Elvis, so that was part of the draw of this stop.

After a night at the hotel with Christmas movies and swimming, we went to the Natchez Trace Parkway Visitor Center. It had a great video and displays about the history of the parkway. The Natchez Trace is a scenic drive from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN (444 miles) that is run by the National Park Service. We picked it up in Tupelo and took it to Nashville. It was a beautiful day and nice change of pace to drive 50 mph on a scenic drive without a gas station or store in sight. We stopped several places along the way to see some historic/significant spots.

We ended at Loveless Cafe and met our friend, Sarah, there for some southern dinner which they are known for – especially the biscuits! We were full after eating, but someday we may go back for homemade banana pudding – complete with homemade vanilla wafers!

We spent the next several nights in Nashville with our friends, the Scotts. They used to live right down the street from us and Sarah worked at the Dale House. We regrouped the first day we were there and dyed the tips of Claire’s hair (an early birthday present). (A new skill that’s totally of my wheelhouse, but between Sarah and I, we figured it out and it turned out alright!)

The next day we went to Fort Negley (in Nashville) and ended up helping with an archeological dig that the city was running before doing improvements at the Fort.

After that we picked up Matt at the Nashville airport and had lunch at the Tennessee State Farmer’s Market food court. It is located next door to the Tennessee State Museum which we visited after lunch. We didn’t realize how large it was and had woefully little time there, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out, playing, and doing house projects. Also on Saturday we went back to Fort Negley with our friends and got to experience some living history – including soldiers, Abraham Lincoln, and live cannon fire. We also played some Civil War period games and dug for fossils at their display. A great time and a beautiful day!

Sunday morning we left early and drove to drop Matt off at the Indianapolis airport for a work trip. The kids and I continued on to cold, snowy MI. We’re glad we have a warm house to stay in and not a camper!

We celebrated Claire’s birthday and finished up our last week of school here. And we are picking up Matt from the airport/his work trip tomorrow.

We’re grateful to be spending the holidays with family and be off the road for a little while. It will be a good transition period before returning south and heading west next semester.

I probably won’t blog again until we hit the road in mid January. Hopefully you all have a lovely holiday season wherever you are! May you experience light and hope in this chaotic world. Love to all!

From the Gulf Coast Gator Farm we drove to Slidell, LA. Matt had to fly out for a work trip for a few days, and the best airport to fly from was New Orleans. So we found a campground in Slidell to stay at for the week.

We arrived on Monday. On Tuesday we dropped Matt off at the airport and did a little Christmas shopping on the way home and got school done. Wednesday the van went in for an oil change and tire rotation, we did school, and we went for a Christmas light walk around the campground.

Wednesday night it started raining – with rain in the forecast until Sunday… We were already feeling a little cabin fever with staying in the same spot, the cooler temps, and the campground didn’t have great outdoor space, and the rain did not help. So on Thursday, after doing school in the morning, we went to a trampoline park to expend some energy – it was great. When we got back in the car, we saw waves in the flooded parking lot – it had rained a lot (not as much as Titusville, but a lot).

On Friday we did some school in the morning and then decided to go on a field trip to the end of the Mississippi River (well, as far as we could drive at least). The end of the Mississippi River is over 76 miles SE of New Orleans! I didn’t think there was that much land past New Orleans.

We started driving past New Orleans and looked to the east to see the Mississippi and all we saw was a 10-12 foot green hill behind all the houses/fields/etc, but Google maps showed the river right there. Then we realized that the hill was the levee that was keeping the Mississippi in its banks. As we continued, a levee began on the other side as well, so the highway just drove between 2 levees for a long time. There were some houses along the way (some rundown, a few massive, some on stilts, some low to the ground), some farms, also several massive refineries/ports/etc.

It was a gray and cloudy day and we weren’t really excited to keep driving another 30-40 minutes south, so we turned off the highway onto a gravel road that looked like it had houses on stilts at the end, but it turned out to be a creepy seemingly abandoned area with old boats and trash strewn about. And then we turned around when we reached a parking lot with a bunch of newer cars and trucks parked there, but no one around… A fishing operation? It was a little creepy.

So then we drove up the other side with a number of run down houses, a cemetery (with above ground graves – standard in the area), and just a weird vibe. We never saw the Mississippi down there, but we did pick up some oranges and broccoli from a road side stand on the way back.

Then we still had time to kill before picking up Matt, so we did a little Christmas shopping and then drove around looking at Christmas lights in Kenner, LA (near where the airport is). It was really enjoyable – even without snow. And Matt got in on time!

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We spent Saturday celebrating Sinterklaas Day and relaxing and packing. Then Sunday we headed to the French Quarter in New Orleans. We decided to take the long route over the Pontchartrain Causeway – a 24 mile bridge over the widest point of Lake Pontchartrain (don’t worry – we listened to The Lakes of Pontchartrain (Be Good Tanyas version) as we crossed it). We had beignets and coffee at Café du Monde, walked the waterfront (Mississippi River), saw some massive ships, walked through shops, and came upon a Christmas parade! It was an impressive parade (and very family friendly)! And we got lots of beads!! My favorites were the Dolly Partons and the Chaissez Ladies. I may have a new bucket list item! All in all a great New Orleans experience!

We returned to camp to pack up. With Matt having some work trips scheduled and the kids are really craving a home for the holidays. We decided to store the camper and head to Michigan for the holidays. We’ll be back down to pick up the camper and head west in January.

We’re taking about a week to head back to MI, so there are a few more adventures before that. I’ll blog again soon.

Did you know that there were 4 African American women that refused to give up their seats to white people before Rosa Parks? I didn’t.

Also, I was struck by the holidays that Alabama celebrates…