Showing all posts in Travel

As you might have guessed…

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We are no longer traveling. Our time on the road seems like a whirlwind. It was a good almost year and a half out of our planned 2-5 years on the road. But God seemed to have other plans.

The spring of 2019 we started the trek back north as the weather got warmer. We went through Arkansas to visit Jeremy’s sister and family and from there made our way through Kentucky to visit where it all started for the Richard’s and then started making our way northeast.

I’ve always wanted to visit the northeast. When I was younger, I wanted to live in New England in a cute little cottage with a white picket or stone fence. Lined with tulips of course in the spring. When I was in Junior High and High School I even sent off for LL Bean, Land’s End and Newport News catalogs and would circle what clothes I’d wear as an adult and ooh and ahhh at the scenery the pictures were taken.

What I won’t tell you is that up until 9th grade, I thought New England was a state. I had always heard of it, and I guess assumed it was one of those little states up there in the northeast around Vermont and New Hampshire. I was so confident in this, that I argued with my high school geography teacher that New England was INDEED a state. After an animated discussion (and my lack of finding it on a map), my bubble was burst and my hopes and dreams of one day living in a cute little cottage in New England proper were dashed. Who knew?

(Everyone but me, that’s who.) Don’t laugh. My genius husband didn’t know pickles were cucumbers until recently. Yes, I’ll throw him under the bus.

Mad props to Mr. Rutledge my geography teacher though. He handled it stellarly.

Anyhoo, we had a good (albeit cold) time on our way up. Final destination: Maine. I had planned out major stays and booked them because it is rather difficult getting a spot as large as we’d need them and for a 50amp. The plan was to spend 3 months in Maine and get a monthly spot in different places. Well I was able to book 2 places for a month each, but could never find anything for the month of August.

So as we are getting closer to Maine, I think both Jeremy and I are feeling that our time RVing is coming to a close. And we’re not sure what to think about that. It wasn’t in the plan, it’s not that we wanted to stop and settle down, it was just a feeling of ending. We would pray about it and as we got closer to Maine, we started talking about staying. What if God was telling us to stay? Really? Maine? It’s so….far….from everything and everyone we love. We were really thinking we’d end up in Wyoming or Idaho or Montana…still far but not far enough to feel like you’re in a different part of the world. I mean, people might come visit us on one of those other places, but Maine? Did I mention it is FAR? Mainers have a saying about everyone NOT from Maine. They (we) are all considered “from away.” And from away is right. Because everywhere else is from far away.

As we crossed over into Bethel, Maine in our 41ft RV, it was like we were home. Not Bethel, just Maine. We further crossed the Sunday River and other places and landmarks marked our trip with the Holy Spirit saying “You’re Home! It’s here!” Again, when we prayed. And we brought back up the idea of planting a church. It’s one of those things that have always been on our hearts but it was never the right time and then there is the drama of running or starting up a church. In case you’re not aware, that comes with the headache of running a business (when you just want to teach and preach) and the drama of church drama. After being burned in a church in the past, did we really want to take that on?

Back in 2014, Jeremy and I went to a presbyetry service at Gateway Church in Dallas during the Jewish New Year. That is a story in itself, but long story short, that night during the words in season given, Jeremy was one of the ones called out of a service of a few thousand and given a word. Part of that word Ed Ivy gave Jeremy was, “Keep the Main thing, the main thing.”

That part seemed obvious. Of course we will keep God at the forefront as the Main Thing. That’s how we got there!

We’ve carried that word with us. Well the next morning as I am sitting drinking my coffee, Jeremy walks by me, stops, turns around and kind of looks at me. “Mandi, what if “Keep the Main thing the main thing is Keep the Main thing the MAINE thing? Is it that obvious? The revelation hit us like a ton of bricks and right there Jeremy prayed: God, we will start a church, just lead us to where.”

“Keep the Main thing the MAINE thing”

We realized why we could never book an August spot here, it was because that was the month we would move in to a house here in Southern Maine.

With Covid looming it’s ugly head around the corner, God was looking out for us settling down when we did. It has put a wrench in our church plans, but God knows the timing.

Currently, Jeremy has been busy writing a book and working on a podcast. I have been finishing up counseling courses for Christian pastoral counseling, writing a book, and will be starting counseling soon with my brother who will be moving up here to kick off this ministry with me. The kids have adjusted to a sticks and bricks home nicely and have settled in to the slower paced life here.

Life in coastal Southern Maine is slow, beautiful and we are excited for what God is going to do in Maine. The harvest is ripe.

Acadia Nat’l Park

Where It All Began

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After snaking our way out of the Arkansas mountains (hills? I dunno), we headed to Kentucky.

When J and I were first married, we were both in the Army and our first duty station together was Ft. Knox, KY. We have fond memories of there. We didn’t actually, then. But after we moved to the Ft. Bragg, NC in the pit of hell, we had a new appreciation for our time spent in Kentucky.

Our first home. Funny story: Under this window was this giant hideous bush that I tried to kill the entire time we were there. They had to have pulled it out, because I don’t think anything could have killed it. They also repainted. It was red brick with white siding.

Ft. Knox is the first place we made a real home, had our 2 oldest kids and I had to see my husband off for his first deployment as a married couple. We frequented Louisville often and went to The Old Spaghetti Factory. Often.

So we decided since we were headed to Kentucky anyway to the Ark Encounter, we’d make a detour for a few days and show the kids where they were born and see how much had changed. Elizabethtown has added a lot and Radcliff as well. We went to a movie at the little theater there in Radcliff for the memories. (I think before kids, J and I would go see every movie that came out worth watching)

We arrived at the military campground right north of Ft. Knox and it had changed a bit from the day my parents came to stay there while I had my middle. I remember being in labor when we went and met them at the park to get them checked in, then later my mom and I went shopping. In the cold, almost icy rain. Don’t worry, I didn’t have B until later that night.

We took the kids around Ft. Knox and saw our old house on post, the buildings J and I used to work in and ate lunch at the PX. Such good memories and nostalgia. I didn’t quite realize how emotional it would be. Its been what? 13 years since we’ve been there but it feels like a lifetime ago!

To finish off our time, we took the kids to downtown Louisville and the Old Spaghetti Factory to eat dinner. Jeremy’s mom loved that place and when we’d leave, she would always get a bag of Mizithra cheese to go. So of course, so did we. My favorite is the browned butter pasta with mizithra. Yummm.

I think the kids enjoyed seeing where they were born and K remembered bits and pieces of it. So excited we were able to show the kids a piece of their history.

New Familia and Sightseeing in Mountain View, AR

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Arriving in Mountain View, Arkansas was an adventure. The road from Hot Springs was increasingly windy and steep. I guess it makes sense being that we were going down into a valley, but seriously. We have decided that in the little towns headed down into the valley were designed by the town drunk.

Mountain View however, is a little paradise in the valley. Such a sweet little mountain town where folk music is everything. We stayed in a nice little campground right outside of town, Blue Sky RV Park, and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. Nice and quiet and the owner was super nice. When we arrived, it was still cold and everything was brown. Apparently we arrived before their tourist season started. By the time we left, everything was green and the weather was beautiful.

People will bring their instruments to the Pickin Park and play and sing. Since we are not instrumentally inclined, we listened. 🙂

We had a reason for venturing into Mountain View, and perhaps that is the reason it has taken me so long to write about it. This is the first time my husband would be meeting his sister. It would also be the first time our kids met their cousins. Its truly an amazing story. One that’s hard to fit into a blog post.

But the background is: my husband was adopted when he was about 2 1/2. He had known all his life he was and that he had other siblings out there. His mom passed away in 2014 and we had much of her stuff at our house. When our house came under contract we had 30 days to clear it and get stuff packed. It was about 5 days before closing I was going through a tupperware of his moms papers, pictures and notes that I came across his original adoption notes from the paralegal. In this, we discovered his birth fathers name, the birth dad’s family and detailed notes on where they were from and what they did. It was truly amazing. It put us on a path to finding his birth moms sister whom he spoke to on the phone, a potential half sister and her siblings and the employer of his birth father. We learned from his aunt (birth mom’s sister) that she was contacted by a female saying she was the birth moms daughter.

We had a picnic out here with us 5, Jeremy’s sister, mom and husband! Such a beautiful area!

Making a long story short, we found the name of my husbands sister and we did what we knew how to do: find people with that name on Facebook and start messaging. It wasn’t until a few months later that the correct Kimberly messaged him back saying she was the right one! What is amazing, is that she knew about her brother her whole life and her adoptive parents actually wanted my husband as well. Instead, the adoption fell through at the last minute. She had been looking for my husband under his original name, but his name had been changed when he was adopted. So this is why she was never able to find him. It wasn’t until a few years ago, my husband actually knew his given name at birth.

So, a surreal several months later, we made our way to Arkansas to meet his sister and her family. I’m not sure what I imagined, siblings meeting for the first time, but it didn’t go like that. We met at her husbands restaurant with all the kids on a cold, misty day. They hugged, we hugged, we introduced nieces and nephews ( I have nieces and nephews y’all!) and just talked. After getting the stories told, from each perspective, it seemed like they had known each other all their lives.

We were able to meet Kimberly’s mom (who had almost adopted Jeremy) and her husband. Later that week, Kim’s sister and niece came up to meet everyone. It was all so surreal and have been able to spend an entire month with them all, getting to know everyone and the kids getting to know their cousins.

Our daughter also had her Sweet 16 here! We were so blessed we got to spend it with new family!

Its truly amazing how much the kids all favor each other, looks wise and personality wise. They enjoy many of the same hobbies, they are artsy and get along so well.

God has worked all of this out in His perfect timing and plan. I shudder to think that those notes could have been packed away without a glance into a storage unit to not be found for who knows how long. Because we are full timing, we were able to spend time to get to know each other.

My husband is over the moon that he has found his sister and he is so proud of her. Being an only child and now he has 2 sisters, brothers in law, nieces, nephews, and a whole other family who already treats us like family. God is so good and it goes to show, you don’t always have to be blood related to be family. I can’t wait until we go for another visit.

Hot Springs, Arkansas

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After a dreary, wet winter, we are finally starting to see some semblance of spring. We fell back an hour, (why are they still torturing us with this?!?) our daytime is a little longer, and people look to be coming out of their holes for spring break.

We spent about a week at Crater of Diamonds State Park, and while we didn’t find a diamond, we really didn’t get a good chance to make a noble go of it. It was either raining or freezing. But I highly recommend Crater of Diamonds State Park. We had a lovely campsite, spacious, paved and the park was quite nice. There are easily accessible walking trails as well. During warmer months, they have a small water park and snack bar open.

Crater of Diamonds

We started making our way toward Hot Springs and it wasn’t a long drive, a little less than 2 hours maybe with our RV. In Hot Springs, we managed to snag a spot at Gulpha Gorge Campground in the national park there. There are no reservations, just first come first serve. Arriving on a pretty chilly Sunday, we got a good spot that fit our RV. FYI: the spots closer to the front of the campground are more apt to fit a larger RV. The ones in the back may if you can back in. They are tighter to turn, and there are several spaces with trees that may make it more challenging. It was nice, our RV backed up to a pretty creek and it was quite pleasant.

Hot Springs was an enjoyable city. We learned our way around pretty quickly. We spent many of the days perusing the old downtown and Bathhouse Row. My birthday passed while we were there so we all went to a movie as a family and then my oldest and I had a girls afternoon and hit the private baths at Quapaw Bathhouse, shopped downtown, then hit the local tea shoppe. We brought home yummy cupcakes and cookies to celebrate.

The kids and I spent a day at Garvan Woodland Gardens. I think this was my favorite of our stops these 2 weeks here. The kids had such a fun time exploring the gardens. It was so well planned and laid out. There was a trail to follow, but from the trail there were so many rock paths and other tiny trails that led to somewhere else with something new to see. Or something that you could really only see well from the trail. It was beautifully done. For reals. If we lived near there, we would so invest in a season pass. I could imagine spending a day there sitting and reading or drawing in some little nook you found.

The Tree House area is a kids dream. While the treehouse was cool, there were tons of places to explore, climb rocks, explore a cave behind a waterfall where you could climb up and come out above…I had fun as an adult, but can just imagine the things a kid could dream up and pretend spending time there.

It was still too early for the tulips. (sad face) But the daffodils and some other bulb flowers were blooming. I think the lady said there were something like 100,000 tulip bulbs. Tulips are my favorite flower, how could they not be?! They are such a happy flower. So huge bummer we missed them blooming, but the other flowers were beautiful and bright.

Another highly recommended place to go with kids was the Mid America Science Museum. We took a field trip day and the kids got to try out all of the hands on displays there. They had 2 shows to choose from: The Tesla Demonstration and a Solar System Tour in the planetarium. The Tesla was by far our favorite, getting to see a 1.5 million volt Tesla Coil in action was pretty stinking cool. Unnerving, but cool. The Planetarium show was neat, but it looked a little too computery, and my brilliant observant hubby was quick to point out that they weren’t using the updated image models of Pluto. So what can ya do? Poor Pluto, it just can’t win for anything.

There were so many sights to see in Hot Springs, what would you add to the list of “must sees?”

~Enjoy the journey!

RV Kitchen Must-haves

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Living in an RV, you learn pretty quickly what items you need and don’t. In our sticks & bricks, our kitchen was fairly large. Plenty of room for kitchen gadgets and utensils for specific things. In an RV, you don’t have that luxury.

I started by donating, selling or throwing anything I didn’t use. Then I went back through and took out things I wanted to keep, but not use in our RV. (We do have a storage unit with some things we wanted to keep: Piano, furniture that’s been in the family and keepsakes for the kids from their grandma, my vintage Pyrex…because I loves it.) I absolutely loved our kitchen, and I love my kitchen gadgets, so I knew this would be an adjustment having the bare necessities.

It actually hasn’t been so bad. We have simplified our lives significantly, so who needs a specific press JUST to juice a lemon? Not I…for now….

*NOTE: This post contains affiliate links. I share links to products I love or that interest me, and if you do make a purchase it helps me pay for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

So to start the list, I am on the bandwagon with about 90% of other full time Rvers and say and Instant Pot is a “must have.” I’m not gonna lie, I bought it 2 Amazon Prime days ago and it sat in the box for a good 3 weeks before I mustered up enough courage to even take it out of the box. I dunno why it intimidated me so much. The first dish I made in it was the obligatory Instant Pot Butter Chicken and I was in love.

We use our Instant Pot pretty much every day. Sometimes twice a day. It makes life easier living in close quarters and it doesn’t heat up your RV in the summertime. Winner winner chicken dinner. Literally. I’ve done everything from breakfast egg scrambles, to oatmeal, to soups, pastas, beans, roasts…I have yet to bake a cheesecake in it, but I’ll get to it someday.

#2 on my list would have to be our Electric Skillet. When we started out, I bought a nonstick electric skillet and it really only lasted about 6 mos. Not a fan of the chemicals used for the nonstick already, and then despite taking care when cooking and washing, the area above the heat ring started wearing off and stuff started sticking and burning. It went in the trash.

My awesome parents got me a pretty stainless steel electric skillet for Christmas and I love it! Cleans up nicely. Cooks more evenly and I don’t have to worry about nicking the coating exposing us to toxic yuckiness. This is also something we use pretty much daily.

#3 But should be first is our electric Percolator. I got this pretty early into RV life and it’s a great investment. Ours goes up to 8 cups and takes up little space. I have a Nespresso machine which we had in our RV for a little while but have since put back in storage because for some reason, caffeine has had some adverse affects on me. Its pretty sad for this coffee snob, so I’ve had to lower my standards and drink decaf when I just want a latte. You may mourn for me. Its sad. Really.

#4 Our magnetic knife strip from Ikea. Keeps the counter clear of too much clutter and them also out of the drawers. When we travel, we just put the knives in a lower drawer inside of a plastic pitcher. Easy peasy.

#5 Under the counter paper towel holder. A must. Keeps the paper towels off your counter and easily accessible. (I’m sorry this picture clearly has the paper towels facing the wrong way)

#6 This fruit/veggie hammock. It also…keeps stuff off the counter and in a place the wouldn’t be used otherwise. It also keeps produce easy to see so that we are more apt to grab an apple or orange to eat because we can see it.

#7 This fun drink ware from The Pioneer Woman’s Mercantile. I splurged a little, not gonna lie, but they are stainless steel inside with an enamel coating. We drink out of water bottles a lot, so these are the perfect size for the kids to grab some juice or milk.

Enameled Floral Tumbler

#8 When asking about dishes, and what type of dishes is best in an RV, I will say a million and one times: Corelle. This is some serious dishware. Its tough, holds up amazingly well on travel days, and I’m not afraid for the kids (or us) to bring outside to use. This is what we used growing up and there have been a time or two throughout our marriage I’ve gotten some other kinds of plates or bowls and they have all gotten chipped or broken. Corelle dishes are the absolute best.

#9 Pyrex bakeware. A good 8×8 square or 9×13 glass baking dish will forever come in handy. From baking, heating up food, using it as your dish to take food off the grill and keep warm, this is something we use often.

#10 A few baking sheets. Again, these just come in handy, pulling off bigger pieces of meat from the grill, or using to season your meat, and for baking. We have a few sizes, I kept a medium pizza size, small baking sheet and a large. I use them pretty often. Just make sure what you keep or purchase will fit into your oven! We have a convection oven and it will actually fit our large one no prob. Who knew?

#11 Large glass measuring bowl and small glass measuring cup. We use it for boiling water, mixing batters, making pudding, all sorts of things. Ours has a lid, which makes it good for storage as well.

#12 Rice Pot. This may not be on everyone’s “need” list. Ours lives in an outside compartment unless we need it that evening. That may be once a week maybe. We’re from Louisiana and sometimes you just need a good Gravy or Gumbo. We don’t ruin it by using quinoa or a cauliflower rice imposter instead. While you can totally use your Instant Pot to make rice, if we need rice, it’s because of something I’m making in the Instant Pot.

#13 Ninja Pro Blender. We got this from Costco a few years back and I knew this would be a must for our RV. It fits neatly on a shelf in the cabinet with all its accessories. I’ve used this to make batter for muffins, salsa, sauces and of course plenty of smoothies and shakes.

#14 Cast Iron cookware. So, I put this as a need but I haven’t actually used mine in our RV yet. I took a Cast Iron skillet and pot with us that both currently sit in an outside compartment. I figured I would be using them all of the time and be our main thing we cook with. Being a southern chick, I love cooking with cast iron. But it hasn’t exactly happened since we’ve traded our house for an RV. Now, this is due to me being slightly ok a lot afraid of using our stovetop. Yes, I know it’s completely unreasonable. I cooked with gas in our house. I did however, turn it on a few weeks ago. Baby steps y’all. Baby steps. (I provided a link here, but honestly, you will find good well-seasoned cast iron cookware at your local flea market or antique store)

I fully intend on using our stovetop. At some point. But honestly, my electric skillet or Instant Pot or using the grill outside has done everything cooking on the stovetop would do and with less clean up imo.

#15 Silverware. We rarely use plastic. That and we keep any plasticware up in a cabinet that’s kind of a pain to get to. We will break out the plastic if we take a picnic, but other than that, we use good old fashioned silverware. There are 5 of us so I have a 5 of each plus a few extra. I also have a few cute sugar spoons we use for coffee in the morning, because who doesn’t love old pretty sugar spoons?

#16 Dern I remembered one more. 15 was a good number…Anyhoo, a collapsible colander! This thing squishes down and is a great size for draining pasta, meat or potatoes. It takes up very little space in the cabinet and sure beats the awkward space a normal round colander takes up!

As far as kitchen must have’s, these are what we use (save the cast iron) on a regular basis. Its what works for us and I hope this helps anyone downsizing or considering this lifestyle to see what may work for you!

Is there anything you would add to this?

Magnolia Market in Waco

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Day Trip!

Visiting Chip and Joanna Gaines Magnolia Market has been on my must go list for a while. We finally made it yesterday! The kid’s were like, “what exactly are we doing there?” And you kind of have to fudge it a little rather than say you’re going to a large home goods store. They had already been to The Pioneer Woman’s Merc and lodge. So they figured they were good on the home goods field trip front. Oh Contraire! teehee

We are staying at a campground about 40 minutes away so we had to get going a little earlier than our usual to go to Magnolia Table for breakfast. We were all so excited to have my brother Logan join us for the day. He drove up from North Austin and met us there.

  • My brother thought I wouldn’t post this

We went on a Wednesday and at about 9am, we didn’t have to wait at all. The benefits of being able to go on a weekday..

  • Yes, he ordered an adult meal.
    No, he couldn’t finish it.

The inside was true Joanna Gaines style, light, airy and farmhouse chic. Everyone that is employed there are super kind, polite and helpful. We had a breakfast appetizer of Lemon Lavender donut holes that were delightful. I love a lemon lavender combo, as well as a good lemon blueberry combo. I actually have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to blueberries. Growing up with both grandparents owning blueberry farms probably have something to do with that.

Breakfast was a hearty farmhouse breakfast of bacon, eggs, these yummy giant tater tot things, and french toast for me, pancakes for the others or biscuits. The strawberry butter is to die for!

After a nice leisurely breakfast, we loaded up and headed over to the Magnolia Market and silos. It’s a really quaint area consisting of a few acres I believe. It houses their bakery, the market and the back area has a large area of astroturf where kids can play, parents can lounge or you can sit at one of the many picnic tables as you eat a meal or snack from their food truck area.

After dragging everyone through the market and looking at EVERYTHING, I came out with a few goodies. Luckily, living in 350 sq ft keeps you with a good minimalist mindset. You can’t buy what you don’t have room for. Or you could…but who wants that kind of chaos in their life?

Then it was outside where we played giant Jenga and threw a kickball on the astro turf and let the kiddo’s run off some steam.

We made a quick stop at the old Magnolia warehouse shop where they had some discounted and sale items. I found a Christmas ornament for our RV tree, (we try to get an ornament from the places we visit on our travels) a Charcuterie board, (eeek I’ve been wanting one) and neat leather pouch I want to hang on the wall by the passenger seat for my phone and book while we are driving.

  • I can’t believe this was a thing

Downtown, we visited the Dr. Pepper museum. My brother is a huge fan of Dr. Pepper. Huge. It’s a pretty neat museum, at the end, we were able to watch a lab demonstration about the history of “Soda Pop” and watched the demo lady make a celery soda. Yep, that was apparently a popular thing back then. It actually didn’t taste bad.

  • They’re over picture taking at this point
  • Got our “free” Dr. Pepper at the end and tried a chocolate egg cream

Off to the river and the historic Waco walking bridge. This area was part of the original Chisolm Trail and was neat to see.

  • “Everybody turn around so I can take your picture.”

For our last stop, it was back to Magnolia Market to eat a late lunch from the food trucks and get a snack at the Bakery for the next day. Everyone had a burger and I opted for a gourmet grilled cheese. It was all yummy!

  • “I am one with the force..
  • the force is with me.”

All in all it was a pretty successful day in Waco. I wish we hadn’t waited so long to go!

  • My #1; “I have no idea what we’re doing.”
  • The Lemon Lavender were yummy

Have y’all been to Waco? Are there any must see stops for next time?

~Enjoy the journey!

NOTE: This post contains affiliate links. I share links to products I love or that interest me, and if you do make a purchase it helps me pay for this blog, at no extra cost to you.


About Our Rig

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I don’t think we have ever formally introduced our rig, our home, our humble abode. Unlike others, we haven’t named her..him..it. We just aren’t those who would consistently call it Nelly. Or Helga. Or Tom. Really, we don’t even consistently call it anything.

It goes back between the “RV,” or “camper,” or “home/house.” We probably call it the “RV” more than anything. But in my head I hear Cousin Eddie saying “that there is an Awrrrr Veee.” So I can’t even take that seriously. But for whatever shortcomings we have with struggling what to call it, its our home and we love it.

Ironically, after looking online at rigs all over the country, we wound up finding one in Austin, not terribly far from where we lived.

When we started seriously searching for our RV, we made a list (it was more a mental list, we aren’t that put together) of what we knew we must have in an RV we were going to live full-time in.

-Diesel engine

-Bunk house

-Class A Motorhome

-Nothing over 10 years old

-Lots of storage

You get the idea. We went back and forth between a Class A and a 5th wheel. Well we did but not really. From the beginning, we leaned more toward a Class A Diesel pusher. Many families go for a travel trailer or 5th wheel, but for us and our needs, a Class A works for us.

My husband is disabled due to a parachuting accident from 2008. So the comfort of traveling in a Class A opposed to a truck was a no brainer. Also the ease of parking and setting up/tearing down a motorhome compared to a 5th wheel is just easier. We love traveling comfortably together with nothing blocking the views from our huge windshield as we travel.

We pull our Ram behind our motorhome and its seriously a 5 minute or less process to hook it up and unhook. Which is great because for some reason, it loves to rain on our tear down and leave days.

There were certain brands we just decided were a “no-go” from the beginning, so between the brands we wanted, needing a bunkhouse, and a diesel, that narrowed our search down quite a bit. We would find out there are not a ton of diesel pushers with a bunkhouse. We also, did not want to spend an arm and a leg on a brand new rig. Being debt-free was and is a big deal to us on this full-time journey of ours!

Initially we wanted to stay between 34-38 feet. So we found a bunkhouse plan in a Winnebago Itasca that we really liked. We also liked the Newmar Allstars we found that were actually a mid-engine diesel, but they were 40+ feet.

Long story short, we found a 2009 Newmar Allstar mid-engine diesel in Austin for sale and when we looked at it, it was like, “yep! This is it!”

We actually have a “basement” in the back, allowing for a lot of storage. The bunk area has drawers underneath the beds, an armoire across that holds our clothes and shoes and the kids each have a shelf with their “stuff.” While our fridge isn’t a residential size fridge (which I really wanted) it really holds everything we need. I can do a pretty big grocery run and fit everything.

I will do a blog post in the future with how we have everything situated and some redecorating.

Until then, feel free to post any questions!

~Enjoy the journey

Christmas in Cajun Country

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We spent the end of November and December in Louisiana visiting family. For Christmas we went to Saint Francisville, LA to visit family and spend some time.

Saint Francisville, La is beautiful. If you imagine the heart of cajun country with huge moss filled Live Oaks, Plantation and old Acadian style homes, ornate churches, this is the place to visit.

  • They love each other really..

Not to mention there are legit hills here. Which makes the terrain even more interesting. The weather much of the time we were here (see, it followed us again) was icky, so we made the days count that we got out of the RV. My uncle has a lovely place and we took advantage of being able to grab a fishing pole and go fish. The kids had a blast playing with cousins and roaming around.

St. Francisville has a “Christmas in the Country” every year that is worth going to. Shopping in the old downtown, seeing all the Christmas decorations, live nativity at a local church and “A Dickens Christmas” at one of the plantations. We got to tour the home, watch victorian style dancing and eat roasted chestnuts. Which, we all came to the conclusion that despite the Christmas carols singing their praises, they are just nasty.

We toured Rosedown Plantation which has a neat history.

After Christmas with family in Louisiana, it was time to head to Texas for another Christmas and to see more family and friends!

~Enjoy the journey!

NOTE: This post contains affiliate links. I share links to products I love or that interest me, and if you do make a purchase it helps me pay for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Bucket List: The Pioneer Woman Merc, Pawhuska, OK

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So my hubby is awesome. We went out of the way on our way back to Texas and took a few extra days just so we could go spend the day in Pawhuska, (I like to say this word) OK and go to The Pioneer Woman’s Mercantile and Eatery.

Outside the Pioneer Woman’s Lodge

Since we left Montana, I think the rain followed us. It has rained literally every travel day so far. We arrived at the Settle Inn RV park a few miles outside of town. It’s a cute park with a super sweet park host. As we got settled, I used their laundry room to get a few loads of laundry done. We have a combo washer/drier, but we had been having trouble with our water pressure so it was easier to just use the park washer/drier.

Oklahoma is one of those states like Kansas, that I really don’t ever want to live in or stay a while. (I’m sorry to any Kanansasians and Oklahomians, I’m sure your home states are wonderful) Case in point: the weather picking up and us starting to get severe weather alerts. As my #1 is in the park shower house and I’m going to check a load in the drier, we get a text from the park host saying there was a tornado warning and to head to the shelter (they have 2) if it got close. Lovely. I go knock on the shower house door and try and tell my #1 calmly to hurry up in case the bad weather got close.

On the way back to the camper with my clothes, the park host stops me and says “tonight, if you hear someone beating on the side of your camper, get up and run to the shelter.” Understood. The campground is up on a hill and you can see pretty far off in the distance all around. I could see where the storm clouds were and the radar had it moving our way. Oh Lordy. I stood there and prayed. Prayed that the storm wouldn’t move any more our way or be severe.

At that point, my #1 was back to the camper and we went inside to go to sleep. I’d love to say I was like Jesus, trusting God and sleeping peacefully, but I’m not gonna lie. I was a little anxious. I checked the radar several times the next few hours and guess what? That storm didn’t move any closer to us. Thank you Lord!

The next morning we woke up super early (for us) and headed to the Mercantile to hopefully beat the line to eat breakfast. That totally paid off and we were able to get right in. It was pretty full already for just opening and it wasn’t long before a line was forming.

We met some sweet people on either side of us while waiting for our food and got to chat. Breakfast was phenomenal. Hubs got a steak and eggs breakfast, and the kids and I got waffles or pancakes.

After breakfast, which we all ate too much of, we walked through nextdoor into the store and it was just so much fun! I loved how colorful and eclectic everything was. She has everything from dinnerware, to kitchen gadgets, to clothes and accessories and house wares.

Because of Ree’s Mercantile, several other business have opened up in that little town and it’s really a hopping place to stop for a day or two.

At breakfast, our server gave us tickets and directions to Ree Drummonds lodge where her show is filmed. It was a beautiful drive out there and the Lodge was so very cool. When you walk in, you walk into the kitchen set where she films. We met a very nice older gentleman that was very knowledgeable about the area and encouraged us to open drawers, cabinets and closets. She even has a junk drawer too y’all.

  • I tried to get them to pretend they were on a cooking show..

Aside from the kitchen, down the hall there were several guest rooms and bathrooms as well as a humongous utility kitchen (and the pantry. wow.) that rivals the Duggars.

  • The new standard

I told J when we finally settle down somewhere, this kitchen is the standard. J/k. Kinda.

~Enjoy the journey!

NOTE: This post contains affiliate links. I share links to products I love or that interest me, and if you do make a purchase it helps me pay for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Green Makes Me Happy

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For a must-see in Montana we were told we needed to go to Libby, MT and spend a day in that area. So we did. It was a few hours drive from where we were in Hungry Horse to Libby so we left in the morning.

It was a scenic drive and when we got there went to the Travel office to see what we could do if we only had a day. The nice lady that worked there suggested Kootenai Falls, the rope bridge and the Ross Creek Giant Cedars.

The hike was a fairly short one to the falls, and I was in complete awe of the beautiful trees! Huge trees and beautiful green forest! Giant green trees and mossy forests seriously make me the happiest gal ever. I can’t wait until we visit Oregon and the Redwoods in California. I’m absolutely itching to get there!

We spent some time overlooking the falls and then hiked the other way to the rope bridge that went across the Kootenai River. It was a little drive to the Cedars so we weren’t able to stay too long.

It was a spectacular drive in the mountains to the Cedar area. As we drove, J and I kinda had an off feeling, but chalked it up to it being in the middle of nowhere.

We had left the bear spray at home and were wishing we hadn’t. When we got there, there were only 1 or 2 cars in the parking lot and one was driving off. So as we were downloading from the truck, we noticed on the message board that there had been a bear sighting with cubs in that area a Ranger had posted and someone else had put a handwritten note that day confirming a sighting. So we were like ok..we will just keep our eyes open. But I think we all had a weird vibe thing going. And everything was just eerily quiet.

  • At the beginning of the trail. Yes, they all had jackets they left in the vehicle.

We got about 50 yards in, none of us really wanting to admit we were a little freaked out and our #2, Mr. Eagleeyes spotted very fresh bear poo by a nearby tree. Our southern, flatlander selves decided we needed to listen to our gut feeling and vacate. So we did.

I was so bummed at missing out on seeing the giant Cedars but I think we did the wise thing by leaving. We have had our fair share of bear encounters, we didn’t need another for the books!

~Enjoy the journey!