Category: Texas
Five Year Nomadiversary!!

Five Year Nomadiversary!!

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Hey Guys!! It’s that time again…it’s our Nomadiversary!! Today marks five full years of being digital nomads and living our American Dream. You know, we started this whole journey to show our boys that not all American Dreams have to look the same. Some might include a white picket fence, some have you wearing suits and working in offices, sometimes it means you go to work outside and some dreams might look like a home-on-wheels that takes you wherever you want to go. Everyone has different goals and dreams…and that’s ok. It’s those differences that make life so interesting and our Country so great. We really believe that if you can dream it, you can do it. You just have to be willing to put in the effort to make it happen.

It’s been quite the year! We started our year in Texas eating our way though BBQ places and then we spent a couple of months in Missouri visiting family. Every time we’re in Missouri we seem to have a never ending list of projects we need to work on. We did make it to Branson with my (Jennie) parents for a long weekend of family fun. And, the boys got to have Shop Class with Grandpa. We always look forward to our time with family.

We spent almost two months in Colorado finding the wild places and visiting National Parks. Colorado is, with out a doubt, one of the most beautiful states in our country. Our favorite day in Colorado was the day we went exploring up in the mountains on old mining roads.

Utah was in a word…amazing. We did some hard hikes, found some breathtaking views, drove down some awesome dirt roads and woke up with ice on the inside of our walls a few times.

We spent several weeks in Northern Arizona. before heading to New Mexico. I always forget how cold New Mexico gets in the winter. A few of us wanted an actual winter with a white Christmas so we ended our 2019 in New Mexico. We visited some new NPs and revisited an old favorite. Even as nomads we’ve developed family traditions…ours just revolve around certain places. Is it weird we feel at home in several different states?

Arizona was home to us for most of our nomadic year. We were just starting our time there when the Corona Virus started to do its thing. Luckily, we did get a little exploring done before everything closed down. Sedona has been one of our favorite areas since our very first visit back in 2015.

Ok, let’s talk about the real reason you’re all here…the foodies. We do love our local mom and pop foodie shops. And, Guys…we found some ah-mazing places this nomadic year!!

We had big plans for 2020 with tons of National Park units on the schedule. In February and March while we were in the Sedona area, we realized things weren’t going to go as planned. Due to the Corona Virus, everything started shutting down and it became almost impossible to find things in the grocery store. State and National campgrounds closed, some private RV parks were ordered to close, and…all of the National Parks closed. All of them. It’s hard to go on a National Park tour when the parks are closed and there’s no definitive answer as to when they’ll open back up.

When our reservations in Sedona ran out we decided to go ahead and keep with our planned reservation schedule. Our next stop was back to Page, AZ and honestly, we didn’t mind that it was basically a ghost town. Mostly locals. It was so different from the last time we were there when there were people in every nook and cranny.

For now, we’re hanging out in Utah, waiting to see what happens with the National Parks and the campgrounds. We’ve been enjoying the scenic drives that are close by…and the snow topped mountains aren’t the worst thing ever. ;-P

It’s been quite the eventful year for us even with this whole corona virus mess! During our fifth year of nomadary we: explored six states, visited thirty-two National Park units, drove a total of 4,689 miles, and made countless memories.

A few of our favorites from this year are hiking Angel’s Landing, exploring the mountains of Colorado, getting to talk to some Navajo while visiting their home, and hiking the Peekaboo/Spooky slot canyons.

All in all…I’d say our fifth year of living the nomad life was a success. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

See y’all down the road!

#nomadiversary
A Slow Year So Far…

A Slow Year So Far…

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Hey Guys!! It’s been awhile!! The last time we chatted, we had just moved from the Houston area to the Kyle area. That was way back in April. In June, we moved up to Missouri for two months. I thought I could squish the four months we were in Texas and Missouri into one post…so here we go!

Let’s start with the BBQ…because y’all know we had some. We ended up eating at nineteen different BBQ places in the two months we were in Kyle. Yup, you read that right. Nineteen. And some of those places we ate at several times. Ha! It was hard to leave all of that amazing BBQ!! Jerl is still grumbling about having to leave all of those BBQ joints behind.

When we got to Kyle, the entire area was covered in carpets of bluebonnets. It was gorgeous! When I planned this part of our year, I’d hoped we would be able to see some bluebonnets. It’d been four years since we had been in Texas during the bloom and I was desperately wanting to get pics of the boys with the bluebonnets once again. During our two months in the area we saw the bluebonnets in all of their glory fade away to be replaced with the bright yellows and oranges and reds of the other wildflowers known in the area. It was beautiful.

We were fortunate enough to celebrate two Birthdays and a High School Graduation while we were in Kyle!

When we weren’t stuffing ourselves with BBQ or celebrating something, our days looked pretty…normal. Normal for us anyway. Work, school, and chores. The boys were all working on learning to drive. I left those lessons up to Jerl. I’m a reluctant and a bit nervous driver at the best of times. The last thing the boys need is a Nervous Nellie trying to teach them to drive.

We’d had grand plans of hiking every weekend, but the weather seemed to have other plans for us. It stormed so much that the hiking trails were either under water or a muddy mess. We weren’t able to hike at all, but we did take a day trip to Waco and visit Waco Mammoth National Monument to learn about when Colombian mammoths once roamed Texas.

Right next to one of our favorite BBQ places to frequent was a pie shop. Pie and BBQ…a match made in heaven. We actually found out about the Texas Pie Company while we were eating at a different BBQ place. These pies were sooo good! And there were tons of flavors! I think I ate my weight in BBQ and pie and then washed it all down with sweet tea. Gotta love the South!!

We headed for Missouri in June to spend some time with family and work on some projects on our home-on-wheels. Besides the many projects we had in mind…we also had some medical stuff to deal with. Eye surgeries were done (Jerl), wisdom teeth were extracted (Charles), and the many projects were…almost all done.

In between medical stuff and projects, we had some fun. The boys learned some new skills by helping their grandpa build a deck, we celebrated a birthday, and we took advantage of all of the space. Living in an RV gives us limited space and while we have a new “yard” every couple weeks or so…it’s different than having a real backyard where you can let loose and be free. The boys really enjoyed their summer.

We’ve been to forty-nine states and have favorite foodie spots in quite a few, but there are some foodie spots in the Joplin area that we always look forward to visiting!

Right at the end of our visit in Missouri we were able to squeeze in a trip to Branson. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of family vacations to Branson. When I was a kid, we would go every summer. We love sharing new places with the boys, but we also love to give our boys a chance to experience some of our favorite childhood places too. It was so fun watching the boys make some great memories with my parents this summer.

We were basically stationary for four months this year. It was both the longest and shortest four months ever! Ha! After four years of frequent moves, I start getting the itch to move along about three weeks into a stay. The first week of August we headed out on our next loop of adventures. We love our time with family and leaving Missouri is always hard, but (as the quote goes) “the mountains are calling…”

See y’all down the road!!

#nationalparktour
Back In Texas!

Back In Texas!

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Hey Guys! We made it back to Texas! The Texas border sign is always a welcome site. Especially when we’re coming from Louisiana…the roads in Louisiana are so rough!

Our first stop in Texas was the Houston area…our home base. We’re only in Texas once a year, so when we’re home…we like to stop at some of our favorite foodie spots. Torchy’s Tacos and Papas Burger are both favorites of ours!

We didn’t really do much. We took care of some doctoring, saw a movie, and I planned the next school year. The best thing about stopping in the Houston area is visiting with friends. But, Guys, can we talk about those theater seats?! They reclined! It was the most comfortable theater seating we’ve found so far!

We got to spend some time with several of our friends and we got to try out some new foodie spots! The best one we tried was Bernie’s Burger Bus. My bestie (waves to Andrea) clued us into this spot and man-oh-man…was it good! The two of us met there for lunch the last week we were in town and it was so good I took Jerl there a couple of days later. Ha! Great find Andrea!

Most of the time we were in Houston was spent working on projects, chores, and planning with some visiting squished in as often as possible so there’s not really much to tell y’all. I mean, we did stuff…but it was mainly just regular life stuff. I don’t like to post pics of other people on here…they didn’t sign up for it…so that makes it hard to post about all of the visiting we did. So…this post is on the short side.

The next four months will be slower for us. Two months in Texas followed by two months in Missouri. I’m not sure there will be post-worthy events every single week, but I’ll post as often as I can. I’m not one to post just to get a post up. I like a post to actually be entertaining.

So! I’ll keep y’all updated!!

See y’all down the road!
Lets Try This Again

Lets Try This Again

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Hey Guys!!

I took a few weeks off from writing blog posts. We’ve been crazy busy…but mostly it’s been mundane…not really blog worthy stuff. We left my (Jennie’s) parent’s house where we were driveway camping and headed to Houston. We always take a family pic by the map before we start each loop. I like to look back and see how everyone has changed.

We spent two weeks in Houston getting all of our yearly stuff done. Even adventurous nomads have to go to the dentist, get their eyes checked and visit their pediatrician.

Our furr baby-nomads had to go visit their doctor too. They weren’t pleased…not even a little bit. They let us know of their displeasure loudly on the ride there and back

We hit up a few of our favorite eateries,

stopped by one of our favorite book stores, and even made it to a friend’s birthday party! I don’t like to post pictures of other people’s kids so you’ll just have to take my word that this particular kiddo who just turned one is pretty stinkin’ cute! The best part about being back in the Houston area is spending time with friends.

I think I told y’all that we were having leaky plumbing problems from the cold weather we were in. We took our home-on-wheels to an RV place to get it fixed…we actually had to take it twice…and it was still leaking pretty badly behind the back toilet. Jerl ended up having to take the toilet off and redoing the fix, but he fixed it! No more leaky toilets!!

That pretty much wraps up our two weeks in Houston. Short and sweet…filled with friends and foodies.

We took off from Houston to Junction, TX where we would stay overnight on our way to New Mexico. Things were going pretty smoothly until I looked in the rear view camera to check on the car and the car…well, it wasn’t there. I looked in the side view mirror and there it was…trying to race us down the highway. It was pretty startling. Jerl kept his cool and used the RV to stop the car. I wish I’d gotten some video of it all, but I was too busy freaking out. The pin that holds the hitch to the RV either broke and fell out or someone messed with it at the last gas station we were at. Either way, the tow bar ended up under the car. Just to clarify…that’s not where it’s supposed to be. It doesn’t really work properly like that.

Everything considered…we were extremely lucky. If this had happened on a busy road or going down a steep incline, it would have ended very differently. The car can be fixed. It’s totally drive-able…just not quite as pretty as before. The RV has a few scuffs and scratches and the light came off. But, there’s nothing too bad.

We were twenty miles away from the RV park we were going to stay at. We got untangled and made it to the park before dark. The camp host at the park did his best to try to help us straighten out the tow bar. They were making some progress when they started worrying about the integrity of the metal after being so bent up. So, they stopped. We really appreciate their willingness to help strangers, but that’s been our experience with the RVing community as a whole. We help each other out.

It was a pretty exciting first day back on our travels…and not really the kind of exciting we’re used to (or want). We’re hoping for some less exciting travel days in the future.

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018

Mad Dash To Missouri

Mad Dash To Missouri

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Hey Guys!! Are you ready for more of the story?

It took us three days to drive the 1,400 miles or so to get back to Missouri. We were in sunny and warm Arizona when we started out. We said goodbye to Lost Dutchman State Park early Friday and took off for Las Cruces, NM. Now, there are three ways to get from Phoenix to Las Cruces. One path goes up and over and takes you up the steep Colorado Plateau, one path takes you straight east through Globe, NM and some steep grade mountain passes and the other path takes you down to Tucson and then over.

We chose the down and around route to avoid the steep grades since our engine was acting up. We ended up at the Hacienda RV Resort the first night after a fairly uneventful day. We’ve stayed at…I don’t know…close to 100 RV parks and this was the first one to give us treats for our cats! I thought it was super cute and the cats appreciated the treat. I don’t know how the RV park is other than the treats. We got in right before they closed and we left before anyone was in the office the next day.

We started out even earlier on day two. We had a long day ahead of us and there would be some elevation gain that would slow us down. Our route took us through El Paso. You’re looking at Mexico in the picture above on the left. We’ve heard a lot of…not so great…things about El Paso. We didn’t stop. We just drove on through. It’s a big city and took forever to get through, but we made it with no issues. The engine was behaving.

We got to our RV Park in Abilene pretty late that night. It was so dark on the road we weren’t really sure we were in the right spot at first. Thank goodness the office had the forethought to put us in an easy in and out spot. It was dark when we got there and dark when we left.

We woke up to ice on day three. We’ve driven in a blizzard, we’ve driven in wind storms, and torrential rain…but, Guys…driving on a sheet of ice was a whole new ball game.

We crept along at around 20mph and noticed our windshield wipers were freezing up so we thought we’d be smart…and safe…and stop at a gas station to recoup and fix a few things. We didn’t know we were driving onto a thick sheet of ice until it was too late. Our only course of action was to go with it and try not to run into anything. We slid past the gas tanks with the cars…we slid past the propane fill up…and somehow we got stopped without hitting anything. I think Jerl and I were in shock at this point and  sat wondering how the heck we were going to get out of the ice covered parking lot. The only out we had a chance at making it to was the one in the pic above and we watched car after car slip and slide up and down it. My (Jennie’s) dad had the idea to use cat litter to get enough traction to get out. Luckily, the gas station had one bag of it left. It worked and we made it out of the parking lot an hour and a few heart-attacks later.

It took us four hours to go 90 miles that morning.

We made it though. It took us 15 hours that third day to make it to Missouri, but we made it safely. It was the most stressful day of driving we’ve had in the three years we’ve been nomads…I’m getting all stressed out again just thinking about that day.

I’ll leave y’all here and next week I’ll give you all the updates and the plans for the rest of the year!

See y’all down the road!

#itsnotallfunandgames

The Top Of Texas

The Top Of Texas

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Hey Guys!! While we were in the Carlsbad, NM area we spent a couple of days at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas.

The Guadalupe Mountains sit right on the New Mexico-Texas state line. We were so close, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to explore another Texas National Park Unit!

Our first day at Guadalupe Mountains NP we did two hikes and the boys completed the Junior Ranger program. We did the Pinery Trail which is a short trail to the ruins of an old stagecoach stop from the 1800s called the Butterfield stagecoach station. This was a super easy almost one mile paved trail.

The second trail we hiked was the Devil’s Hall Trail. This trail started off great with about a mile of constructed trail. We saw some really pretty fall colors on this trail! Just when we thought the Devil’s Hall trail was going to be easy peasy, the constructed trail ended and dumped us out at a wash and the “trail” followed the wash for about a mile or so. This was a difficult trail due to the fact that there wasn’t really a trail. There were several times where you could tell which direction you needed to go, but there wasn’t a definite way to get there. And there were a couple of time when we weren’t really sure if we were going the right way. The wash was littered with big boulders and slippery round rocks. So…the going was slow.

One of the things we learned while doing the Junior Ranger program here is what an Alligator Juniper looks like! The bark looks like gator hide! We had fun pointing out the different trees while we were picking our way down the wash.

At the end of the wash you get to a natural staircase that they call a “hiker’s staircase”. You can see Alex making his way up the staircase in the picture above. It was a little tricky to get up with a camera around my neck. I ended up having to hand the camera up then scale the “staircase” myself.

Once you make it to the natural staircase you’re almost there! I probably took way longer than necessary because I kept stopping to take pictures. Devil’s Hall turned out to be a short narrow canyon. We walked down it and explored the area for a little bit before turning around to traverse the wash again.

We decided to do a hike on Thanksgiving Day. We did the Guadalupe Peak Trail which is a strenuous trail that gains a total of 3,000 feet of elevation.

I try to do my homework when it comes to trails like this. Everything I saw said that if you can make it past the first 1,000 feet or first mile and a half then you won’t have any problem finishing the hike. What they failed to mention is that after that first mile you’ve worked so hard going almost straight up that your legs are shot for the rest of the hike. So, while the rest of the hike isn’t quite as hard…it feels just as hard because your legs are jello! And, I would like to point out…the entire hike is hard. Not just that first mile. Check out the switchbacks we hiked up in the pic above (top picture). Parts of this trail are on exposed cliffs where if you slip…you slide a loooong way down.

Now that I’ve warned you how strenuous and possibly dangerous this hike is…lets enjoy some of the views! Because lets be honest…the views are the whole reason to hike trails like this. This view was about half way up at the end of one of the many switch-backs. I stood there a good few minutes catching my breath and ogling the vista.

I thought this bridge was so neat the way it’s right on the edge of the cliff! Once I got across it and to the other side I got a better look at it and wowzers! It really is right on the edge of a very high cliff!!

Funny story…there was a part right toward the end of this trail where we couldn’t really tell which way we were supposed to go. The couple in front of us each went a different way. I chose to follow the girl and well…we didn’t exactly take the easy way. See those two hikers on top of that rock in the pic above? Yeah, that’s the way we took up to the top. Notice we’re on the trail on the way down. It was much easier! But wait!! I’ve left out the best part!!!

Welcome to the top of Texas, y’all!!

Not a bad place to have a Thanksgiving picnic! We were so hungry from all of our hard work that we promptly sat down on the most comfortable rocks we’d ever found and ate lunch before we actually looked around at the views. You’ve got to have priorities, you know. Food is very important. ;-P

We wolfed down our lunch in record time and then took in the awesome views at the highest peak in Texas! Things sure look different at 8,751 feet up. Oh, I know…there are mountains that would make this one look like a mole hill…but y’all…check out that view! We spent a good half hour or so eating lunch and taking in the views. We wrote our names in the log book and then started the looonng hike down!

It was faster going down than up and we made it back to our car and the most comfortable seats in the world! Some of us (I’m not telling who…it might have been me) started to worry that our legs weren’t going to make it the whole way down.

Do you remember those little pencil trolls that used to be so popular with the wild hair that went all over the place? That’s what this pretty reminds me of. Troll hair.

Well y’all, we made it to the top of Texas and survived the hike! I would say the Guadalupe Peak hike is rated as the second hardest hike we’ve done so far. The Harding Ice Field hike still holds first place.

See y’all down the road!

#grandwesternloop

The Grand Canyon Of Texas

The Grand Canyon Of Texas

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Hey Guys! The whole reason we stopped in the Amarillo area was to explore the Palo Duro Canyon State Park! We spent as much time there as we could in the two weeks we had in the Amarillo area.

Palo Duro Canyon is known as the Grand Canyon of Texas and is the second largest canyon in North America. Palo Duro Canyon State Park measures in at 27,173 acres…so, there’s plenty of space to explore and some pretty epic vistas!

The CCC sent seven companies of young men and military veterans to work on developing roads, a visitor center, trails, bridges and a way to get down to the canyon floor. You can see what’s left of their camp in the pic above. The CCC worked here from 1933 to 1937 and the park officially opened in 1934.

I think the structure in the pic above is called Cathedral Rock. That’s what another hiker told us. And…it does seem to fit that name. If you look closely you can see the boys standing in the mouth of the cave.

We only did a few hikes in Palo Duro State Park due to time. My favorite hike was the Lighthouse Rock hike. We started out as soon as the park opened at 8am and had the parking area and trail pretty much to ourselves. We’d driven by the trail head parking area the day before and it was packed. The Lighthouse Rock trail is right around 6 miles round trip and takes you by some fantastic rock structures!

This was our first glimpse at Lighthouse Rock. You can just barely make it out on the right side of the pic above about mid way up. Nicholas was waiting for me to take the picture…he didn’t know he was going to be in the picture. He’s always my hiking buddy…we both have short legs.

The trail officially ends and there’s no view of the famous rock you’ve hiked all that way to see. No view. At all. But, you can scramble up about a quarter mile of this (bottom right picture) to get to the real view. The scrambling was difficult in a few places (especially with a camera around my neck). We scrambled and slipped and slid our way that last quarter mile, but we made it!!

For those who are adventurous enough, you can scramble up onto Lighthouse Rock! It was sooo incredibly windy!!! So windy! But, Guys…check out that view! So worth all of the scrambling and slipping.

It’s always hard to get a good perspective on how big things are in photos. Here’s a pic of Alex standing near Lighthouse Rock. We had the place pretty much to ourselves. There were maybe three other people there and none of them stuck around long.

It wasn’t until we were on our way off of Lighthouse Rock that other hikers started to show up. We didn’t see too many other hikers until we were almost back to our car. The empty parking area had filled up and people were waiting for places to park. We were home by lunch and ready to head off on another adventure!

We did find a couple of pretties! I love the vivid purples and I’m always a sucker for the wispy wild-hair pretties!

Here’s a little video of all of our Amarillo area explorations!

See y’all down the road!

#grandwesternloop

Heading West

Heading West

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Hey Guys! We’re back on the road and heading west this loop! We’ll spend the next year making our way through twelve states before heading back to Missouri to visit family again. The plan is to finish up the remaining six states in the contiguous US left on our map, grab a few places we missed as we went through some of the states the first time, as well as, revisit a few of our favorite places. We’ll (hopefully) hit around 40 different National Park Units as we make our way through our #grandwesternloop!

We spent two weeks in the Amarillo, TX area. We don’t normally stop at “roadside attractions”, but we found ourselves at two different roadside attractions while we were in Amarillo. Cadillac Ranch was created in 1974 along Route 66 just west of Amarillo by Chip Lord, Doug Michels, and Hudson Marquez . For those traveling The Mother Road this roadside attraction is a must. And don’t worry…it’s completely legal to spray graffiti on the cars at Cadillac Ranch.

We had to leave our mark. Can you find it?

We’ve heard that the city is thinking about closing Cadillac Ranch down because of all of the spray paint cans being left there. We saw quite a few littering the ground near the Cadillacs. We brought our own cans and we threw them away in the handy dumpsters the city has provided when we left. If you go…make sure to do your part and put trash where it goes.

The other roadside attraction we found ourselves at was the Jack Sisemore RV Museum. We weren’t really sure what to expect here, but we’d heard it was a neat stop and at a great price. Free!

Jack Sisemore has been collecting old RVs for over 25 years. He’s redone some of them and left some in the condition he found them in. He has several RVs in his collection put together to make this museum that you can walk through and see how much RVs have changed over the years. The oldest one he has is the 1921 Ford Lamsteed Kamkar you can see in the pic above. The Kamkar body was mounted onto a standard Model T Ford and came with everything you needed. It was made by Anheuser-Busch and sold for a grand total of $535.00 in St. Louis, MO.

This is a 1976 FMC and was owned by Max Factor, Jr. You might know him as the president of Max Faxtor Cosmetics. We had way more fun going through these old RVs than we thought we would.

Each RV that had been restored also had been set up with items popular the year the RV was made. Check out that video camera! The kitchens were stocked with items from the specific year of the RV. Check out the old tins!

You might recognize this bus from the movie RV! It’s the one they used to film the movie! The inside of the bus was…a little lackluster. I’m going to have to rewatch that movie and pay attention to the scenes shot inside the bus.

Some of the vehicles in the museum aren’t strictly…RVs, but they’ve been used as one. I love this old VW bus! Talk about vintage vanlife!

At the back of the museum they had an old gas station set up. Check out the air conditioner on this car! Here, let me give you a better look at this beast of an air conditioner. Can you imagine sitting right by it? My head would be frozen! It was a true feat of engineering and could be yours for the low price of only $12.85!!

We snuck in a National Park that we hadn’t planned on. The Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument was a very cool place to visit. When we got there we almost didn’t make it inside due to an infestation of paper wasps. I didn’t get any photos…I was more worried about being stung, but oh my word…there had to have been a couple hundred wasps flying around the visitor center. It was slightly terrifying.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the actual quarry because we’d just missed the last tour. We did peruse the museum and watch a film about the area before heading out to see what we could of the park. This area was known for it’s flint. The Native Americans would come here to get the flint to make their weapons and tools. We were able to see and touch some of the flint! Somehow, we ended up on this one lane (but not one way) dirt road. We hoped it would lead to some amazing overlook of the flint quarry, but it just kind of wound it’s way around the area where Lake Meredith used to be. Our GPS was convinced we were driving through Lake Meredith. Ha!

Let’s talk foodies…we found an awesome burger joint called Hil’s Burgers in Canyon, TX! If you go…make  sure to get the onion rings. We also found a Torchy’s Taco in Amarillo…so we had to eat there. Once… or twice…or more.

We also went to a very cool state park, which I’ll tell you about in the next post because this post is getting to be way too long!!

See y’all down the road!

#grandwesternloop

Here We Go Again

Here We Go Again

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Hey Guys! We spent almost a month at my parent’s house in the Southwest corner of Missouri visiting with family and friends!

One of our friends (waves to Gogo and family) sold Girl Scout Cookies with her troop…and well…we always like to support our friends in all of their endeavors. Especially when food is involved. So, we bought some cookies to help her out…and…cookies. Since she lives in Virginia, she graciously shipped them to my parent’s house for us. Food is our favorite kind of mail.

Did you know that Girl Scout Cookies can have a different name based on which bakery they were made in? What?!?! I know, right?! I totally did not know this! Not only are the names different, but the cookies can even be different. The S’mores cookies were totally different! I don’t have any pics to show you…we kind of ate them too fast…but if you have a chance to compare them, do. The S’mores cookies from Little Brownie Bakers were like a sandwich cookie where the ones from ABC Bakers were a dipped graham cracker cookie. Just FYI…we voted the Little Brownie sandwich cookies better.

…

Since we’re on the subject of food… We had to hit some of our favorite foodie spots while we were back in our old stomping grounds. The burger above is the Poutine Burger from Eagle Drive-In. If you live in the area, go get one today. Trust us…everything from Eagle Drive-In is good!

We even found a new foodie spot! Wiestside BBQ is definitely a spot we will hit again! Just check out that burger Littlest has!

Jerl and I took a little side trip down to Houston one weekend. The plan was to stay with some good friends of ours (waves at friends) who were expecting a baby any day. On the Tuesday before we were to fly down, they thought they might have to induce early. So, Jerl and I decided to take some of the stress off and grab a hotel room. The last thing an expectant mom needs is the added stress of house guests. Well…more stuff happened and we ended up canceling our room and planned on staying with our friends again. We flew down on a Friday night.

Not a bad view for sunset… I didn’t get a window seat. I feel bad for the guy that sat next to me. I kept leaning over him to take video and pics. I did ask first and struck up a conversation with him…so that’s not too rude, right? He didn’t seem to mind…maybe he was just a nice guy. We ended up answering questions once he found out about our nomad lifestyle.

For anyone who’s had a baby, y’all know they do things on their own time. Our friend picked us up at the airport Friday night and told us they were, in fact, inducing that night! Wait, what? Long story short, they had the baby and he’s an absolute doll! We also had the help of a couple of other friends (Ben, and Brian) who we can’t thank enough. We packed up our storage unit Saturday morning with the help of Ben and Brian, then drove back to my parent’s house that afternoon. But, first…we made a pit stop at Torchy’s to stock up on some chips, queso, and salsa! We needed sustenance to get us through the long eleven hour drive ahead of us. *wink, wink*

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The weather didn’t cooperate with us during our stay in MO. We had all of these plans and projects we wanted to do while back, but we didn’t have the right weather to do it. The couple of days that were nice, the boys all took the opportunity to ride around my parent’s place on anything with wheels that went fast.

Mr. Dude turned 14 while we were there. Well, actually, he turned 14 the day after we left, but we celebrated while we were there! I baked him an Almond Joy Cake! It was pretty tasty!

We started planning the last 50 state tour loop. It’s going to be a doozy, Guys!! More on that in a different post.

I had a girl’s night with some of my besties (waves at friends). We’ve been friends for…a few (cough 30ish cough) years. Give or take a few years. I went to school from kindergarten on with one of these lovely ladies! Bonus points for anyone who knows which one!

 Oh!! And, my camera crapped out. Boo. It saw me through 36 states. So, I’m learning how to operate a new camera.

I’ll leave you with this pretty from my parent’s (waves at parents) yard.

See y’all down the road!

#minieasternloop2017

Aaaannnddd…We’re Back

Aaaannnddd…We’re Back

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Hey Guys!! Aaaannnddd…we’re back in Houston! I can’t even begin to tell you how fast our Eastern Loop 2016 went or how good it feels to drive back onto Texas soil after having been gone for a whole year. A whole year, Guys!! This was our first full year loop and it was…well, it was kind of awesome. I’m not going to do our Year-In-Review post right now so stay tuned for that!

All of our loops start and end in Houston. That’s by design. We go back to Houston once a year to see our friends and get all of our yearly check-ups done. Even nomads have to go to the Dentist (waves and Dr, McGriff & staff), get their eyes checked (waves at everyone at Today’s Vision Sugarland), and they definitely have to get physicals done (waves at Dr. Kahn & all of the lovely Ladies). And, with two nomad cats, a good Veterinarian staff is a must (waves at SPAH)!

We spent two weeks getting our business done, visiting friends,

and hitting our favorite eateries. Y’all know we’re foodies and Houston is a foodie town. I’ve tried several other places in several other cities, but the best Indian Food is in Houston and this is my favorite place to indulge.

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We spent the whole year missing Torchy’s Tacos. They have awesome tacos, but my favorite thing to get there is the queso. It’s…well…magical.

We didn’t just hit all of our favorite foodie spots, we also went to the Houston RV Show! No, we’re not looking for a new home. We wanted to see what new features were being added and get a few ideas for some upgrades we are wanting to make to our home-on-wheels. Check out this slick feature! This is an induction cook top that has been designed in a way that allows you to easily remove it and move it to another spot like the table or outside and still use it! We want to take out our gas cook top and replace it with something like this. Our current cook top uses propane and we’ve found that in some areas propane can be…well, a pain to find.

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I got to spend the entire afternoon with one of my absolute favorite BFF (waves and Andrea). We always celebrate both of our birthdays while I’m back even though neither one of them is in February. She knows me so well…check out those truffles!

We’d just left Louisiana and all of that wonderful Cajun food right in the middle of crawfish season. We tried a place not far from where we were staying in Houston. It was ok. If we hadn’t just had the real thing, it would’ve been good.

During crawfish season all of the HEBs (Here Everything is Better) have live crawfish that you can get live or you can get them already boiled up in a spicy Cajun seasoning! We got 8 lbs of crawfish! We ended up with about 17 ounces of crawfish to use later in an Étouffée. Guys, we didn’t actually eat any of it as we shelled it. Maybe a few…for quality control purposes only. I promise! lol! We were a little surprised by how little we ended up with so we headed back and bought some crawfish in the freezer section that had already been cleaned up. And you know what? It was cheaper to buy them frozen! Oh well, lesson learned. I’ll post up my Étouffée later if y’all are interested.

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Living in an RV, weather is always on our minds. We had a few close calls with tornadoes in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. We didn’t really expect any trouble in Houston. But we spent an hour or so up at the RV park office during a tornado warning one morning. Growing up in Tornado Alley, we know the power and devastation Mother Nature can cause so we’re always prepared to jump and run.

While we always enjoy our time in Houston…

we don’t enjoy the endless supply of traffic.

See y’all down the road!!