Mar 31, 2014

Alabama to Mississippi

What a hectic Sunday. Quick recap.

After a fun-filled week in South Carolina with Cori's uncle, we said to ourselves, "Hey, let's go to the ocean." Then we looked at the weather. And all the crowds. And then we said to ourselves, "Yeah, let's stay away from the ocean this time around - we already saw that one anyway." And so we headed west.

We found ourselves, once again, in Alabama - sort of picking up where we left off last fall. Spent a week on water front property in a place called Wind Creek State Park. Which allegedly has the largest state-run campground in the U.S. - almost 600 sites! It was a pretty site with lovely scenery, although our view of the night sky was often obstructed by tenting lanterns across one of the many lake fingers. A very pretty park, but I doubt we'll be back.


After that, we trekked onwards into the west, setting our sights on Lake Lurleen state park in Alabama. We got there after a night of boondocking (which is made extremely easy with solar panels, by the way), and the park is BEAUTIFUL. Very nice little park nested around a little gem of a lake. BUT the woes of having to remain employed on the road held us back this time around - the internet was unusably slow, in spite of our many efforts to move, re-seat the antenna, and scream in frustration.

So we continued on west - to Louisville, Mississippi. We're currently parked in a privately-owned campground in a little lake-resort area called Lake Tiak-O-Khata. It's a nice, fully-forested campground with a great layout. The resort area up the road is borderline hilarious, though - Cori said it looks like they could have filmed Dirty Dancing here. Not a bad place at all - we'll call it home for now.


 Pretty view from our front door at Wind Creek

 These funny ducks were a permanent fixture the whole week

 Bowie cat sittin pretty

 Back on the road after leaving Wind Creek. God rays over Alabama.

One of the nice things about driving west, is you always get a sunset view.
(or completely blinded for 30 minutes if there are no clouds)

 Snapped a picture of this gorgeous courthouse we drove by. I looked it up later to learn there's a ghost story, and a face in the window that you can still see. Super bummed we didn't know about this (actually I did know the story, just not that this was the courthouse!) would have loved to see it :( It is the old Pickens County Courthouse in AL.

Golden ribbon road in Mississippi. It was a charming drive through the
little Alabama and Mississippi towns between Tuscaloosa and Louisville.

Mar 25, 2014

South Carolina

Our visit to North Augusta was great! We got to see Uncle Ed and Hannah, and make new friends with Dale and Arthur. Ed's house is close to downtown, and is adjoining a pretty park, with everything you need in biking/walking distance. We had a whole fenced in yard to ourselves, didn't feel like we were in the middle of a city. The chickens really add to the ambiance. 5 star location :)

Guess What

All week we were kept busy, well fed, and engaged in great conversation. Ed is a founder of The Clubhou.se, a new Makerspace in downtown Augusta. (It's this kind of community action, that is making the world a better place!) We got a tour, and met some other makers. This week, Hannah and Ed's project was making light up shoes! I helped!


Ed and Hannah making copper roses

Seriously, they've got the best little urban homestead going on.
Complete with a blacksmith forge out back

Mar 20, 2014

Uncle Ed gave us a metalwork lesson! Pretty good for my first go, eh? btw I was totally not afraid of the torch and plasma cutter..

Mar 15, 2014

Kings Mountain

After a few bumps in the road, we are finally back at it again. This nasty winter kept us in town longer than planned, but for most of that time, there was nowhere warm in the country for us to go anyways! Moving back into the ship took longer than expected, but we managed to make a quiet getaway during a little break in the frigid winter weather. The first day driving was all nerves and excitement, then some panic and wtf?#*¿! when the water system that worked just 2 hours ago springs a leak. In a pretty much impossible-to-reach location. Stress! But we put our game faces on, and pushed through to Kings Mountain State Park. We arrived exhausted and frustrated. After filling up our water jugs and settling into our campsite, we found ourselves sitting around in a silent, defeated daze. I decided to turn on some Grateful Dead since they always lighten the mood. My favorite GD album, Working Man's Dead, was exactly what we needed. Oh dang that first line completely snapped us out of it. Just perfect. Tears and laughter!

                                 

 We had a great week. Hiked and biked everyday except for Friday because my legs were too sore. Had a little refresher course on our constellations, and quickly fell back into the groove of fulltime RVing (without water. Like, real camping. Ha). We hiked into King's Mountain National Military Park, and around the battlefield. We learned a lot about the Revolutionary War, and this particular battle, which marked the turning point in the American Revolution.

CCC dam forming Lake Crawford in Kings Mountain SP

 Today in the home depot parking lot, Ed fixed our leak with a new hose, some choice expressions, and a couple fittings...luxury! Relief! We spent the day cruising around South Carolina on our way to visit Uncle Ed. We made a few stops for groceries and other odds and ends. Lunch consisted of peach cider, peach ice cream, boiled p-nuts and scuppernong juice. Did I mention the temperature is in the 60's and 70's? SPRING!

Mar 10, 2014

Shit's already falling out of the fridge after we stop. We are officially back on the road!
Shout out to #OutdoorIndiana magazine #roadtrip #keys #fulltimeRV #beerwecantgetathome