Miss Ellies RV Park, Waskom, TX

We arrived in Waskom, TX at 9 p.m. The campground we chose was right off the interstate, very convenient for a one night stay. The sites were full hook-up, which was also very convenient since we hadn’t dumped in Tickfaw.

20140604-102949.jpg

20140604-102958.jpg

20140604-103004.jpg

When Jacob told me not dumping in Tickfaw was his plan, I told him about the time my family went camping with 2 other families. It was a far trip and since we all live close to one another we traveled caravan style with talkie-talkies. My dad is known to drive slow, 60 mph no matter what (you get better mpg, ain’t nothin’wrong wit dat!), so he was in the middle so that he wouldn’t get left behind. Somewhere along the way an eighteen-wheeler blew out a tire. The first truck swerved out of the way but our camper hit a piece of the tire. Immediately after we hear, “hey, what the hell, there’s blue all over our windshield!” There were some obscenities and what not, haha you’d have to know him…doesn’t finish a sentence without a curse word! LOL, oh good times! Anyway, the tire busted our sewer tank and the blue stuff was the chemicals you put in it to reduce the smell (blah) and keep it clean.
All I was thinking the 5.5 hour drive to Waskom was it wouldn’t just be blue chemical!
Jacob said, “It’ll be alright” in his cajun drawl. And it was.

On the way we stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner. It was either that, McDonalds, or Burger King. I am always disappointed in the food here, it is consistently disgusting, yet I always give them the benefit of my doubt….stupid girl! I love everything inside the store though and it smells lovely in there! It gives me delusions of great expectations, I suppose. So this is where the experience took a turn….I ordered steak, what?!? Yeah, a freaking steak at Cracker Barrel! What’s wrong with me! Well, what happened was…we sat in the middle of 2 seperate tables both of which were eating steak with a baked potato and side salad that looked delicious. You know when you’re hungry, or hangry, and you see something yummy and the voice inside of you says, “GIVE IT TOO ME, SEYMORE!” Well that’s what happened and looks are very deceiving! I’m pretty sure it was microwaved, is that legal? AND to top it off they ran out of baked potatoes! At 6 pm, really? The side house salad was very good. (you should always say something nice to balance out the negative)
Why didn’t I just order something simple like chicken-n-dumplings? We should have gone to McDonalds, a phrase that never comes out of my mouth! We’ll make a ham sammich before we stop at Cracker Barrel next time.

Now we’re driving to our next 1 night stop, Lake Arrowhead State Park in Wichita Falls, TX while listening to A Game of Thrones.

Our west coast trip is planned and we’re leaving soon!

Once a again we are going on a long vacation.  Our planning is complete, all the campsites are booked, and I’m getting everything ready to hit the road again!  We are so fortunate to be able to take off and get out of town for 6 WEEKS, that’s crazy, right?

dr-seuss oh the places you'll go

Let me tell ya, planning a trip of this magnitude takes a lot of organized planning and budgeting.  We have a beautiful spreadsheet that includes, but is not limited to; dates, cities, states, campground, websites, travel time, distance, things to do, rates, accommodations, budget, and fuel cost.

Here is a list of all of our stops.

Untitled

There are so many things to see and do in all of these places.  I want to make a separate trip to each, ahhh one day…. maybe with some kids 😀

Why would we be wasting time in Robert?  I actually messed up on the image, Tickfaw State Park is in Springfield, LA and I was too lazy to correct it.

rachel-dratch

This is pretty much the face I made when I typed that.

 

Jacob has some work to do in Robert and we are leaving as soon as he is finished. Sooooo to avoid him having to drive home after work we decided to just camp near by.  It’s a beautiful campground with boardwalk trails through the swampy forest.

Back to our journey west, I cannot describe to you how excited I am to see this side of the country.  I know the landscape will BLOW my mind!  I am going to take a ridiculous amount of pictures and savor every inch of scenery!   I have been pinning things to do like crazy on Pinterest, I know we won’t have time for most of it.  Of all the places on this list I have only been to Colorado, basically just Boulder.  I am so excited to be able to spend time with Jacob there because I absolutely adored being there.

When I was in college I decided to take a field course in Boulder.  It was such a wonderful experience and great adventure for me on my own.  My mom thought I was either crazy or really brave.  I flew, not only for the first time ever but also completely alone, to a place I had never been to meet people I had never met.  Honestly, looking back, it was a little bit crazy.  After arriving in the Denver airport, which is beautiful by the way, I had to take public transportation to Boulder.  This was a little scary, being from New Orleans I tender stay away from city buses.  I do enjoy streetcars though maybe because they have multiple exit points, but the buses freak me out!  Public Transportation is TOTALLY different in Denver/Boulder everything is clean and tons of people ride their bikes to work and use the bus system to travel long distances…it’s awesome!  There is a completely different lifestyle in Boulder and you can feel it.  There air is cleaner, more people walk or bike, and there is an appreciation for nature that is lost in so many places.  Not once did I feel like I needed a gun or clench my pepper-spray ready to take action.  I even stayed in a Hostel for a night, and even after seeing several movies that make you never want to come close to one of those I never felt like my life was in jeopardy.  Overall I cannot find one negative thing to say about Boulder it was a welcoming, beautifully scenic, place perfect for a wandering traveler looking a fun and adventurous destination.  This a place that is in tune with nature and the people at least try to minimize their global foot-print, I can really appreciate that way of life and wouldn’t mind living there….but I don’t do cold weather, so I’ll just stay put.

colorado1

Me in Colorado holding the biggest dandelion I have ever seen.

I know there are not many people that see this blog, but if you have any ideas on “must-do activities” in one of our stops please give us a shout out!  I know even with all the pins on Pinterest I’ve probably missed a great deal of awesome things to do.  Also if you know of a blogger that is taking or has been on the same trip we would love to follow them too.

In closing, as I think about the wonderful things and people that have come into my life this song appeared in my thoughts.  And of course I can’t stop myself from singing it repeated!

oh the lord

Johnny Appleseed