Exploring the USA as a family
Wow…its been a month since we began this adventure. In some ways it feels like its been a long time but in other ways it seems like time has flown by.
Here are a few interesting statistics:
While we stayed with the Millers we parked Ava in a vacant lot owned by their neighbors. We considered taking it to their house but it would have been a challenge to park and this vacant lot was a breeze. But the area seemed slightly sketchy. I thought about moving the bikes inside the trailer but figured that 3 cable locks would be enough. Before we went to visit my niece in Birmingham we stopped by the rig to get some stuff. I could see something hanging loosely at the back of the trailer, my heart sank, and when I rounded the back of the camper….all 4 bikes were there (Brielle’s gets stored in the basement). However, someone had cut the ropes and taken the bungees off…so there was at least an attempted theft. Oh I was fuming mad that someone would do that…I just don’t understand the mentality of taking other people’s stuff. But I’ve had a pretty nice life so maybe I just don’t get it. We moved the bikes inside the rig so they would hopefully be more secure. By the way, 4 out of our 5 bikes were purchased on Craigslist…these are used bikes…no titanium frames, kevlar belts, plutonium filled shocks, etc…just plain ol used bikes.
My niece (also my God daughter) is attending Samford University in Birmingham…they love the Governor (come on, sing it with me….”Ooooo oooooo oooo”). So we decided we were close enough to make a day trip up to see her. Its a 4 hour drive from Mobile but Steph did some of the driving so I could get some work done. We met Sid on campus and she gave us a tour of her dorm, her room and campus. I still remember holding her when she was days old and now she’s a college student…wow!! After a quick bite at Subway we went to the McWane Science Center on a suggestion from both Sid and her dad…plus our Denver Museum of Nature and Science pass got us free admission. Sweet!
Another observation for the life on the move series
I was getting an intermittent “water in fuel” message in the truck and had a check engine light on so I headed to Mobile on Saturday morning to try to get it looked at. I went to the GMC service center and got there right as they opened. Thankfully they were able to get me right in.
I first met Bill Miller at bootcamp several years back (exactly this time of year too). We were randomly placed at tables for meal time and Bill and I were put at a table together. That weekend had a huge impact on me as I believe it did for many men including Bill. Long story short, Bill and Karen Miller served our church and community in so many ways…it seemed like they were involved in everything. Then one summer day in 2014 I’m riding my bike home from work and I pass them riding their bikes out by Golden Ponds. We chat for a bit and I share with them our family’s plan to travel the country in a 5th wheel. Turns out, they’ve done the same thing….several times! Bill ends up in a major leadership role in our church’s construction project to build a new facility while at the same time he and Karen buy a house in Mobile AL and sell their one in CO. And that is how we came to plan a stop in Mobile AL on our adventure across the USA.
Somewhere along the way I’d heard about Dauphin Island and since its close to Mobile where we have friends we wanted to visit we decided to check it out. We made reservations for 3 nights at the campground on the island. Its a pretty decent campground and the price was fair (more than a state park but less than many private parks)…it helped that we just had a water and electric site with no sewer. Lots of campers seem like they are here for a long time….not full time, but snowbird types. But the crown jewel of this campground was that it was just a short walk to a really nice beach.
Dacen covered the details of our time on the island pretty well in his blog post but here I’ll throw in a few thoughts of my own.
While in New Orleans we stayed in the well known (to full time RVers) Bayou Segnette State Park. Its only 20 minutes to downtown and 10 minutes from Walmart, restaurants, fuel, etc. It had free wifi (but its pretty jankity…don’t count on it for work but at least they are trying). The sites were nice but beware of the “double site”…these are literately double wide sites and the hookups are both together. This would be great for two rigs wanting to camp together but not so much for us. The staff had no problem with us picking something different, so we did. Bathrooms were perfectly adequate and had nice hot water. AND….are you ready for this? FREE LAUNDRY! Its not like laundromats are that expensive but this sort of thing just warms my penny pinching heart! We had been so busy in New Orleans we hadn’t even checked out this state park where we were living so we decided to explore a bit one afternoon by bike.
Happy Valentines day! Steph decorated the trailer with hearts and a paper heart chain and the younger two kids made drawings for the family. Caden created a compliment box…it dispenses a piece of paper with compliment on it for you to give to someone. It was quite a hit and Dacen and Brielle both started writing new compliments to add to the box!
Steph had found a second line parade to go to so we navigated back into town. But we decided to try to find parking closer to the parade. We found street parking right by Louis Armstrong park and when I went to pay the machine it said, free parking on Sundays. SCORE!!
Our arrival in New Orleans was a bit marred by my bad experience and waste of time at the GMC service center there. But with that in the past we set out for a day of exploring in town. We followed the advice here and had no trouble getting a spot to park. We were definitely big for the parking spots but we squeezed into one, paid and headed out on foot. Had we been in a dual rear wheel truck there would have been no way.