Author: Wanda and John

We left Alabama yesterday and drove north west into Mississippi. We arrived around 4:00 pm. It’s another beautiful Army Corp of Engineers site right on the water. We even have a private dock out on the lake.

We’re leaving tomorrow morning to head for West Plains, Missouri. We’re only staying one night there and then continuing on. We want to keep going so we can spend more time out west and get out of the heat!

It’s been a few years since we’ve been on a trip out west so we’re excited to be going again.  We traded in our 5th wheel, that we pulled with John’s truck, for a Class A Motorcoach, that we drive, and we’re towing our Jeep.  The RV is a little smaller then our last one but we can walk all the way through from front to back while driving which means less stops on the road to use the restroom and easy access to food and drinks.  Here we are ready to leave the Elks Lodge in Brandon FL where we store our RV when not in use.

We left Tuesday morning and drove northwest into Georgia.  It was about 5 hours on the road.  Very comfortable ride!

We’re stayed at a nice campground just over the border called East Bank in Chattahoochee GA.  We had a spot right on the lake.  It’s was really quiet and not crowded at all.  What a great way to kick off off this adventure.

This was the sunset over the lake.  That boat passed at the perfect time.

Today we packed up and continued northwest and drove 4 hours into Alabama. When John and I are driving along we try to spot the lowest gas prices – $2.59 today in Alabama! Nice.

We’re camping at another Army Corp of Engineers site with full hook up and right on the river.  It’s not crowded at all although it’s still hot here.  95 degrees but our site is under shady trees so it’s not that bad.  We’re here until Sun. morning and then back on the road.

We arrived back in Brandon yesterday and dropped off the RV in the storage lot at the Elks Lodge. Cedar Key was lovely and before we left we got a few shots of the main street area.

We had a very enjoyable mini-trip this fall and it makes us excited to start planning our trip out west in the spring. In the meantime we’ll enjoy the nice weather in Florida. 🙂

We stayed overnight at a campsite near Lake City, FL then continued on today, just a few hours south to Cedar Key FL. It’s a quiet little island community off the northwest coast and it feels kind of like a mini Key West with a bunch of small islands all around. We were able to reserve a site right on the water. This is real Florida camping! We’re going to explore the town and local spots for the next few days. Here’s the view from our backyard for the weekend.

Below is John’s shot of the sunset. What a gorgeous way to end the day.

We left NC this morning and headed into SC. We’re only here for one night and tomorrow we’re continuing south back into north FL. Before we left beautiful Maggie Valley, John took these photos of a large heard of elk that were feeding just off the side of the Blue Ridge Parkway. What a site!

Turn your speakers up when you click on the video below and you can hear them calling to each other.

Yesterday we went to the ‘Wheels through Time’ museum. It’s a really cool motorcycle museum and it’s huge. We’ve never seen so many vintage bikes in one location before.

We visited Billy and Lisa at their home up a mountain near our campsite. This is the view from their front porch. It’s even more breathtaking in real life. Check out John’s drone video below the picture.

Today we went to the North Carolina Arboretum. We walked through the gardens and then hiked around the area. It was a beautiful day to spend in such wonderful surroundings with good friends.

They had a lego exhibition and the following pictures are all lego sculptures. Truly amazing!

They also have a bonsai garden and the pictures below were taken there.

Watch out John…I feel a new hobby coming on 🙂

We left the ocean on Wednesday and traded it for the mountains. Maggie Valley is a beautiful little area nestled between the Smoky Mountains to the north and the Nantahala National Forest to the south.

Today we drove down to a really cool old antique store near the town of Cashiers NC.

And then we hiked out to a waterfall nearby. It was a perfectly sunny day and the leaves are just starring to turn here with the littlest nip in the air.

This is all the autumn I need and we’re both glad we’ll be heading back to warm Florida at the end of this trip 🙂

We left FL on Sunday and drove north through Georgia and into South Carolina. We are staying right on the ocean at Hunting Island State Park.

It’s been raining a lot but we still managed to get out and check out the area. There is a lighthouse on the island and a beautiful park.

Last night we went to a little local restaurant and I had the most amazing fresh seafood lobster pot pie. It had lobster, shrimp, mushrooms and asparigus in a cream sauce with puff pastry and it might be the best seafood meal I’ve ever had or it might just be that we’ve been eating RV type meals for the last week so it was a welcome treat. I would have taken a picture of it but I was too focused on just eating it 🙂 Such a shame that John doesn’t like seafood! He really doesn’t know what he’s missing. Tomorrow we head out for Maggie Valley NC (just west of Asheville) where we’ll stay for a week. We’re looking forward to hanging out with our friends Billy and Lisa while we’re there and exploring the area.

We decided to take only a short trip this year since we’ve just settled into our new house in Bradenton FL and since Covid changed everything for everyone. We packed up the RV at the Brandon Elks Lodge on Wednesday and hit the road on Thursday. Our first stop is Flamingo Lake Campground just north of Jacksonville FL.

We have stayed here before with our good friends Ang and Bob and thought it would be a good first stop this year.

It was surprisingly easy to get back into the swing of RV living although it took a day or two to remember where everything is and how we function in our tiny home.

We’re going north as far as North Carolina and then heading back south for home this year and we should be out for about 4 weeks. It’s great being back on our mini adventure but we’re already looking forward to going back out west next summer!

We made it to southern Georgia this afternoon.  This is our final stop before we are back in Brandon by tomorrow afternoon.  The map of our travels looks crazy and the experiences we’ve had have been just as crazy, but I wouldn’t change a thing! Well, except maybe the wheel falling off thing 🙂  As I did last year I’d like to post my ‘Lessons Learned from the Road – 2019 version’:

1. I learned – that you can’t judge a state by its name.  Some of the states I thought would not be very interesting turned out to be beautiful and enjoyable.
2. I learned – that camping is not really the best place for white things.  Like white towels, white blankets, white clothes.  Gray, brown or tan work best.
3. I learned – that our new favorite drink is Jim Beam fire.  Thank you Billy and Lisa for that one and congratulations on the wedding!!!!
4. I learned – that I can live for three or four days without cell phone service, internet, or TV. (not too sure about John though)
5. I learned – that the best freedom in life is sometimes not knowing (and not caring) what day of the week it is.
6. I learned – that you can’t panic.  Even if the wheels fall off.
7. I learned – that John is still awesome and is the best ever at taking us all over the road and back.  Thank you so much for all the hard work you do to make this all possible.
8. I learned – that Montana really is God’s country.
9. I learned – that even though we’re no longer young, our eyes can still be filled with wonder and our hearts with adventure, excitement and joy.
10. I learned – that no hotdogs from a gas station = no passing out.
11. I learned – that this country is an amazing place to live in, travel through and experience.  We ran into a guy in Wyoming who was here visiting from the UK.  He had traveled all over the world and we asked him where his favorite place to go was.  He said that we have it all here in the US, we have the mountains, deserts, lakes, oceans and rivers, forests and canyons. Why would we need to go anywhere else when we have it all here?  I agree – we are all very lucky to be here and to to be enjoying the freedom and beauty of this great country and it’s people.

Tomorrow we leave for Florida. We’ll clean out the RV and put her in storage behind the Elks lodge until our next trip, and then drive back to St. Pete Beach to our sweet little condo – which always seems huge after being in the RV for so many months.  I can’t believe this year’s road trip is almost over.  It’s been such an adventure and although I’m happy to be getting back, I’m also sad that it’s coming to an end.  John and I have talked about taking some short trips this winter and then we’ll start planning for next spring so we’ll see where travels take us next.