Into The Great Wide Open

 After the sad good bye in Fort Worth, it was time to make our way to New Orleans, but needed this sleepover stop between.  Found it on the Overlander app and it was perfect.  Only $16 and no one was in sight of our waterfront spot.  It did feel like a gator might walk into camp at any time (no swimming signs), but amazingly very few bugs. To this date we have only spent $46 on lodging which will change after the New Orleans Airbnb.  Got an early start (9am) to New Orleans and a 3 hour drive.

 We really had a great visit with Alivia during our extended stay in Fort Worth.  It was cool that it worked out for Paula to be there on Mothers Day.  Also an interesting time to be in town since it was finals week and lots of graduation parties in the neighborhood.   It was fun to see Alivia’s living arrangements and be apart of it.  One of her roommates moved out, another one was leaving to study abroad in Rome while we were there  We met the parents of two of her roommates and went to Lola’s for karoake with Bree’s parents after Mother’s Day Brunch with them prepared by Livi and Bree.  Alivia cooked us a spaghetti and meatball dinner which we both enjoyed having her prepare for us.  Another highlight to me was when she offered to show me how to operate the shower handle.  It was a complex system that I certainly would have stumbled to figure out. One day we hit the botanical gardens and they were beautiful.  It took us a little over ...

 Wow, we were blown away by the Carlsbad caverns.  Our drive there took us past Roswell where we were lucky to avoid any alien contact.  Once there, you take an elevator down 75 floors to the caverns.  All of the different formations were stunning, the ceiling height massive.  It was very peaceful down there as they asked everyone to use their library voices which all but a few did.  Really a magical fantasyland that I would highly recommend.  We had to hustle through a little due to the pets in the van.  We were relieved when we returned to see the inside temp was 4 degrees cooler than what the phone said and both pets were chillin.  Thankful to have the 2 ceiling fans in the van. Our plan after Carlsbad was to go down to Big Bend National Park in the very south of Texas.  We started heading south and when we reached the interstate Paula and I were like do we really want to add 6 hours of driving to go somewhere where we hadn’t found a ...

 We drove south from Scottsdale to Sierra Vista which is at 4,600 feet where Nancy and Rhonda hosted us for 3 great nights.  They have a beautiful property with views of their mountain playground and a new pool to cool off in after the days activities.  We arrived Friday just in time for the weekly happy hour with Rhonda’s sister Pamela and her husband David.  It was Cinco de Mayo so we enjoyed some margaritas and tamale pie.   The following day we went on a hike up a river in one of the many places to recreate very close by to them.  This route was chosen due to a little later start and wanting a little of the shade the tress provided instead of being exposed to the sun.  Cheech was an asshole on Friday night and severely affected our sleep so we were needing to chill before heading to see some live music at the fair.  I put Cheech on his harness and made him hang out on the lounge chairs so he wouldn’t sleep all day.  At the fair, there wer...

4/20-4/21 Bend  4/22-4/23 Ontario Or. - Darcy and John’s 4/24 Provo Elks 4/25 Moab Boondocks - Hotel overflow parking lot 4/26 Moab campsite - Colorado River 4/27 Capitol Reef Dispersed Camping 4/28 Bryce Canyon Dispersed Camping 4/29 St George Elks  4/30-5/1 Sun City, AZ - Henry and Julies 5/2-5/4 Scottsdale Condo 5/5-5/7 Sierra Vista - Nancy and Rhonda’s Casita 5/8 Ruidoso, NM Boondock in Public Parking next to river 5/9-5/17 Fort Worth visiting Alivia 5/18 Indian Creek reservoir. Agriculture and forestry park close to Arlington, LA 5/19-5/21 New Orleans - A functional space located within walking distance of French Quarter.  Paula called it dirty. I don’t disagree, but affordable. 5/22 Apalachicola - Cute little town. We stayed on quiet street in front of Gibson hotel which looked like a nice place to stay. 5/23-5/24 Sarasota Elks - There were 4 RV Spots and we were the only one using one. 5/25-5/30 Tavernier Elks - On the Florida Sound in the Keys 5/31 Anastasia State...

After a great stay at St George Elks, we headed South to stay with Aunt Julie and Uncle Henry in Sun City AZ. The pets enjoyed being out of the van and we were thankful for the hospitality.  Henry showed me the extensive facilities geared towards all kinds of interests and activities.  The wood shop was absolutely amazing and so were the exercise facilities.   We then headed to a condo in Scottsdale that a friend of Paula’s was very kind to let us use for 3 nights. This felt like we took a break from vanlife and entered vacation mode.  We had a great happy hour meal at Buck and Rider with shrimp ceviche  and trout dip with saltine crackers. Spent a couple days of hanging out by the pool and playing games.  We drove out to visit Chuck and Debbie in Brooklyn and had a great steak meal.  They are adapting to their new life and location very well.   Yesterday I worked on a couple things on the van that we found needed attention after driving in it for...