Category: Uncategorized
Leaving Florida

Leaving Florida

By |

Hey Guys! After almost four months of hiding from winter in Florida, we’re down to our last two weeks in the Sunshine State. We spent two weeks in Jacksonville, FL. I’m not going to lie…we weren’t super impressed with the area we stayed in. The RV park had recently been purchased and was converting from a mobile home community to an RV park…so…it was kind of a dump. There were still mobile homes that looked like they should have been demolished twenty years ago, the roads around the park were filled with some of the biggest potholes we’ve seen, and the neighborhood was sketchy at best. But, we stayed anyway. We could tell the new owners were making strides to clean the park up and make it something less…scary. We saw them working hard every day we were there. And, we will probably give them another chance the next time we’re in the area.

We have quite a few adventures on our list for the Jacksonville area. We made it to several places, but couldn’t get to all of them.

Y’all know we love old Forts. We stopped by Fort Caroline National Memorial. Fort Caroline preserves the story of a sixteenth century French colonial settlement. The actual location of Fort Caroline has never been determined. The NPS has made a near full scale replica near the location they believe the original fort was. Honestly, there’s not much there. We did enjoy learning about the old French fort, but kind of expected more from a NPS unit.

Kingsley Plantation is part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Perserve. When Zephaniah Kingsley first settled on Fort George Island, the plantation was only accessible by boat. The once one-thousand acre plantation had a cash crop of Sea Island cotton. This NPS unit shares the story of Zephaniah Kingsley, his wife Anna, and their children. Anna was once a slave of his. She and Zephaniah ended up having three children together and in 1811 he freed Anna and their three children. They all moved to the Kingsley Plantation together and Anna managed not only that plantation but several others they owned in the area. When Anna was freed in 1811 she acquired more land and slaves.

Today at the Kingsley Plantation you can walk around the now sixty acre NPS unit and learn about the stories of the people who used to live and work at the plantation. There are several buildings still standing and you can explore most of them.

Our favorite Jacksonville adventure was Fort Clinch State Park. The very first fortifications to sit on this site were started in 1736 and like most forts of that time, there were several different stages of fortifications before the construction of Fort Clinch was started in 1847. At the start of the Civil War the fort was only about 2/3 complete and didn’t have a single canon mounted yet. There was minimal work on the fort during the Civil War so it still wasn’t finished by the end of the war. Because of this, in 1869 the fort was abandoned and left empty. The US Army maintained the fort until the Spanish-American War when Fort Clinch was used as not only barracks for the soldiers, but also as an ammunition depot as well. Less than a year later the hostilities were over and the fort was abandoned once again. By 1926 the location was no longer thought to be of strategic value and the US Army sold the fort and its land to private buyers. In 1935 Fort Clinch became one of Florida’s first State Parks. At this point the CCC stepped in and started renovations. CCC Company 1420 built the campground, roads, and museum as well as the restoration of the fort itself. We’re fans of the CCC. We’ve come across their work all across our country and the stories they tell are always some of the most fascinating. It’s amazing that the work they did back then is still being utilized even today. Personally, I think our country could benefit from another program like the CCC.

Guys, this fort was so awesome. There were sooo many tunnels, and buildings, and walkways to explore! We had the best time learning the story of Fort Clinch!

We found another beach…well, there were tons of beaches, but we were specifically looking for a shelling beach. I can’t remember the name of the beach we ended up at, but there were quite a few shells. We didn’t find a huge variety…we might have been there too late for that…but we found enough to fill up a big ziplock! We now have quite the collection of Florida shells. If I have time, I’ll put together a post on how we clean and preserve our shells.

I know this is going to come as a shock, but we found some foodies. Just a few. Ha! The best/worst one was Toby’s BBQ. It was the best because the food was stellar…it was the worst because it was literally right across the street from where we were staying. So…we ate there a few times. Oh! And Toby’s gives you a free dessert with every meal. I mean…it was free…we had to eat it, right?

Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park isn’t in Jacksonville…it’s in Tallahassee. We stopped for a visit while we were on the way to Alabama, but I thought I’d stick it in with this post. Guys, this place… So. Many. Pretties! And, the best part about this SP…there are pretties that bloom all year! This SP was once the winter home of Alfred Maclay and his wife who were, like us, hiding from the winter in Florida. The Maclay’s bought the property in 1923 and set out to create the beautiful gardens you can walk through today. The SP is used as a setting for weddings and events throughout the year, but the most popular season is around February/March when the camellias are in full bloom. In fact, the day we went, there were two weddings taking place later that day.

And that, Guys, is the end of our Florida winter! It’ll be two years before we head toward the east coast again. I’m not sure when we’ll winter in Florida again…it’s difficult to find places…but, really, it’s hard to find places that will take us in Arizona (which is another great place to hide from the cold) for the winter too…so, we’ll see!

See y’all down the road!

#hidingfromthecold
Orlando Amusements

Orlando Amusements

By |

Hey Guys!! We spent two weeks in the Orlando area but we didn’t really do much. We only went to two places…

Thanks to some friends of ours who are totally awesome for giving us tickets (waves at David, Sarah, and Virginia) we spent four days at Universal Studios…being wizards. Universal is one of our favorite amusement parks. Every time we walk into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter it’s like the first time all over again. Universal really does an amazing job of transporting you into the books/movies of the Harry Potter world. Universal has more 3D/4D rides than roller coasters and while that’s all good…we do really enjoy them…we’d like to see more actual coasters. This year one of the roller coasters was being redone into a new HP coaster experience. It’s supposed to open up sometime this summer…we will definitely have to go back for it. We did get to hit the new rides that were being built last time we were there…The Fast & Furious ride and the Jimmy Fallon ride…they were both…ok. I feel like they could have been so much better.

I’m not going to lie…I could totally be a regular at Universal. I could go weekly and never get tired of it.

Universal has some great foodies! Not only within the individual parks but also out on the City Walk. You can totally find anything you’re craving. You’ll pay amusement park prices…but hey…at least the food is good! We like to take picnic type foods for lunch and then splurge for dinners. It’s nice because it’s so easy to walk out to your car and have a meal then walk back in to the parks. If you have park hopper tickets, it only takes maybe 10 to 15 minutes to walk from park to park. We love how easy it is to get around the Universal campus.

We spent four straight days at Universal. I don’t know about you, but when we do the amusement park thing…We’re going to get in every second we can from the time we have there. We show up when the park opens and we leave when they kick us out. It’s like an all day marathon. At the end of our four days there…our feet were feeling the miles.

We took four days off…well…not really off. We spent those four days catching up on real life stuff. You know…work, school, chores, laundry. Our feet totally appreciated the time off.

The second week we headed to Disney World. This was our first visit to Disney. I got us tickets through some special Disney was running at that time. Four day park tickets for like $89 per day per person. The tickets were only only good for certain dates (which worked because that’s when we were in the area) and we could only use one ticket per park. No park hopping. No using two tickets for the same park. And that was perfect for us. We wanted to experience the four different parks.

We started with Hollywood Studios. This is the park the boys had been looking forward to the most because of the Star Wars stuff. Nicholas dressed as Darth Vader…Chewie was not amused. In fact, Chewie put Nicholas in the corner. It’s definitely a moment we will always remember! We met all of the characters we wanted to, rode the rides…and only had to stand in one long (90 min) line. The longest line was for Slinky Dog Dash. We stayed for the Disney Fantasmic show at the end of the evening and it was so good!

Here’s the thing about roller coasters…four of us love them. Nicholas…not so much. So, usually, one of us has to sit and wait with him and then we either swap or one of us misses out. Disney’s coasters are a bit tamer than what we’ve seen before. I actually talked Nicholas into riding Slinky Dog Dash and guess what Guys…he liked it! Every time we talked him into trying another ride he got more comfortable with riding. The Aerosmith ride is the only coaster he didn’t’ ride and it’s probably a good thing. It was mainly in the dark and it was fast with loops…he wouldn’t have liked it at all. The three of us that rode it loved it!

Disney day two was spent at The Magic Kingdom. This seems to be the biggest of the four parks and was definitely the most crowded. We had a great day of exploring all of the different magical lands and riding all of the rides. Our longest line was for The Seven Dwarves Mine coaster and it was less than an hour. Our favorite ride was probably the Seven Dwarves.

We don’t really care for the way you have to ride either the mono-rail or the ferry in order to get to Magic Kingdom. Plus, the parking is so far away you have to ride a tram just to get to the ticketing area where you catch a ride to the actual park. It would have taken two or more hours to go out to our car for lunch so we ended up eating all of our meals in the park…which can add up when you’re feeding five people and three of them are teenage boys who can totally put some food away.

We stayed for the light/fireworks show at the end of the evening. Wow…just wow! It was so worth staying for. We really enjoyed it! I wonder how much Disney spends on fireworks a day? The ocean of people trying to get to the mono-rail and ferry so they could grab a tram to get back to their cars was…well, we’ll never stay for the ending show again. We saw it once and that was enough.

Disney day three was Epcot. This is the park Jerl and I had been looking forward to…and yes…it was for the foodies. Ha! The Test Track Experience totally took us off guard. We went there first and Guys, we were there for two hours. Playing. You get to design and test your own cars. It’s so cool! We were going to ride it again but the day got away from us. We really enjoyed Epcot. We feel like a few of the rides could use some updating…but we thoroughly enjoyed exploring the different countries and sampling the foodies. The longest line for us at Epcot was maybe half an hour and that was for the Soarin’ ride. I have to say thanks to a friend (Mark) for letting us know how good this ride is! I’m not sure we would have ridden it if he hadn’t clued us in on it.

I found this cute little passport in one of the stores and even though it’s technically meant for kids…I had the best time collecting all of the stamps! So fun! And each one of the countries had their own special way to sign it. My favorite is Norway.

We stayed for the end of the night light show at Epcot, but after Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios…it was a little lack luster. Still very cool, but not huge like we’d come to expect after the two previous nights.

Epcot foodies did not disappoint. Between the five of us, I think we got something in almost every area. Some areas we visited more than once. We were disappointed in the Italy section. We’d been looking forward to grabbing a slice of pizza in Italy and there was no fast service pizza places. None. The only option for pizza was the sit down…take a long time place. And Guys, we didn’t want to take the time for that. We wanted quick and easy…grab and go. We basically ate the entire day. That was our plan…walk and eat. We didn’t even plan to go out to our car for lunch because we knew we were going to want to try everything.

Disney day four was Animal Kingdom. I had high hopes for this park since it was originally designed to be a zoo. We started in the Pandora section because I’d heard the rides there have super long lines throughout the day. We got there when the park opened (actually, we somehow got in before actual opening time) and went straight to the Pandora Flight of Passage ride and the line was already at a 120 min wait. This was the longest line we stood in the entire day. The ride was great! The other Pandora ride was not worth the 90 min line we stood in at all. But, now we know. Animal Kingdom felt the most crowded of all of the parks. Our favorite ride at Animal Kingdom was Expedition Everest. This was a great coaster that we somehow talked Nicholas into riding! I got worried when it went backwards in the dark…but he did great and…even wanted to ride it again. Which, surprised us all. We snagged him a Yeti shirt from the gift shop after the ride. We rode all of the rides we wanted to, saw the very few animals they have there (we felt like there should have been more animals for a park that was supposed to be a zoo), and left around five that evening. We didn’t wait to see the light show at the end of the evening. We were done. We were at the end of two very long weeks and we were just really over the crowds. Crowds aren’t our thing.

When we left Animal Kingdom we headed over to Disney Springs to do some shopping and grab dinner. We managed to get there before the evening rush. We strolled through a few shops found the souvenirs we wanted and we were done. Our feet were screaming at us and we were feeling a little under the weather. Somewhere at some point over the last two weeks we’d come into contact with some germs…imagine that…and four out of five of us had colds and some really hellacious allergies.

The next day Jerl and I ended up heading back to Disney Springs to exchange a shirt that didn’t fit quite the way we wanted. We snuck in a date night and ended our Disney World days with some Ghirardelli treats as we chatted about our first Disney experience as a family. I had been to Disneyland before and he had been to Disney World before, but we’d never been as a family.

We didn’t really end up with many souvenirs. Some pins and smashed coins…a post card and the passport…we each got a shirt. Compared to what we buy at Universal that’s not a whole lot. We kind of go crazy at Universal…I mean…Harry Potter. I did get rice crispy treats at three of the parks and then at Disney Springs. I some how missed getting one at Epcot. I guess I was too busy eating everything else in sight. ;-p

We’ve had some people asking us to compare Universal and Disney. It’s hard to do that. They’re such different parks. It really is like trying to compare apples and oranges. The rides, the foodies, the entire feel of the two different amusement park companies is different. They’re each shooting for a different demographic group. For us…we’ll choose Universal every time. Not just because of Harry Potter…we like that the two Universal parks are so easy to park hop between. We like that our car is so easily accessible. We love the rides at Universal. We’re not terribly into the whole princess thing. Disney is geared more for a younger group of kids. When we go to an amusement park, I want thrilling rides and good foodies.

And Guys, even if we had little kids who were totally into Disney, I wouldn’t take them to Disney until they were at least ten. By noon, I’d say 89% of parents we saw at Disney looked haggard and the kids looked totally miserable. We saw parents with printed out itinerary talking about their reservations and fast pass times while the kids were screaming to go on a specific ride right then. They were stressed and the kids totally felt it too. We didn’t do reservations. We didn’t have fast pass times. We just walked around and jumped in lines as we saw them. And guess what…we had a great time! We were able to ride every single ride we wanted to, see everything we wanted to see, and grab food when we passed something that looked good. My point? Don’t forget to have fun. And please, for the love of all that is good in this world…stop entertaining your kids with screens 24/7. Let them get bored and learn how to deal with it. We saw soooo many kids walking around Disney with screens of some kind in their faces with headphones on. Usually watching some Disney show…while they’re at Disney.

Overall, I’d call our two weeks of amusement parks a success! We learned that eight full days in two weeks of amusement parks is too much. We were worn out for a week. But man oh man…we sure had some fun and made some amazing memories!

See y’all down the road!

#hidingfromwinter
Pizza Roundup: Tony & Nello’s Southern Italian Cuisine

Pizza Roundup: Tony & Nello’s Southern Italian Cuisine

By |

To my fellow pizza lovers! I bring to you a post from Tierra Verde, Florida.

Tony & Nello’s is more of a Italian place (with really, REALLY good pizza) rather than just a pizza place.

The décor makes the place feel a bit fancy. We only went for lunch and jeans were fine. There was cloth table cloths, but they had paper on top…at least for lunch. I liked that the walls were painted to look like marble.

We had to get the garlic knots, and boy were we surprised when they came out with a pile of fresh garlic instead of garlic powder! These garlic rolls were smothered in olive oil, garlic and herb goodness! They were swimming in it! So good!!

The pizza was no joke either. It said large, but what we got was more like an extra large! Can anyone say leftovers?! I was surprised by how good the pizza was. The crust didn’t droop when you picked it up, it had a nice chewy crunch. And there was enough garlic olive oil left over from the garlic knots that we were able to dip our crust in it as we ate… it was awesome.

Everyone we met that worked there was nice and the restaurant was clean. Man between the garlic knots and pizza this place gets a 5 star review in my book!

See y’all next time on…

Pizza Street!!

Written by Nicholas
Hiding From The Cold

Hiding From The Cold

By |

Howdy!! It’s been a while since I last wrote a post. In fact, it’s been a few months. I took some time off from writing posts to be present in life. I feel like sometimes I get so caught up in trying to get a blog post written and out each week I forget to be in the moment…present in life. So, I worked ahead and was able to get posts scheduled from October 2018 to January 2019. Last week’s post was the last post I had pre-written so I could take a break.

SO! We’re back to the normal writing and posting schedule where I’m just a few weeks ahead! It’s been a few months…and we’ve done quite a bit! Let me get y’all caught up!

We left Colorado and spent some time in Missouri to visit family and friends. Then, we headed down to Texas to do some doctoring and visit with more friends. After Texas…we hightailed it down to Miami, FL where…we hid from the cold for six weeks.

We stayed at Larry and Penny Thompson Park the last time we were in the Miami area. It’s a great park with full hookups and is wonderful for getting some walking in. I can get right around two miles with one loop.

And…when I got tired of walking the loop in the park, I could venture out to this little pond just outside the campground boundary. The signs say watch for gators, but in the six weeks we were there…we never once saw a gator. Not. A single. Time.

Most of our six weeks we did regular life stuff. School, chores, work… Nothing exciting or remotely adventurous. I guess you could say we took a staycation. ;-p

We did eventually decide we should probably venture out and do something. We’d visited both National Parks in the area during our last stay in Miami, but we’d missed seeing the Nike Hercules Missile Base over at the Everglades National Park so we hit the Ranger Walk one Saturday. If you’re interested in seeing the Nike Missile Base here, you should know it’s only available through the Ranger Walk so make sure you check the times for that. We’ve been to other Nike Missile sites, but this was the first time where the missiles were kept in topside buildings instead of underground silos! This missile site was the last one to go dark in 1979 due to the Cuban Missile Crisis of the time.

We also made it to the Miami Zoo Lights during the Christmas season. We’d never been to the Miami Zoo…we wish we’d gone during the day instead of during the Zoo Lights. Don’t get me wrong…the lights were super cool! But, we only saw three animals. And, their habitats were lit with weird blue lighting. So, I guess we’ll have to hit that up the next time we’re back in Miami because the zoo itself looked like it would be a really neat zoo to visit!

One of the cooler things we did during our six weeks in Miami was to go to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and take a glass bottom boat ride! It was really neat to go check out some of the sea life hanging out by the coral reef! The whole tour was about two hours and there were a couple of very knowledgeable guides to tell us what we were looking at. They did a great job!

After the boat ride, we hung out at the state park long enough to check out the beaches and fight off the thousands of no-seeums that swarmed us. They were bad. We all went home with tons of little itchy bites! And yes…for those of you wondering…we did use spray. They might have thinned a bit after the spray, but they were still pretty darn thick.

John Pennekamp Coral Reef Sate Park is on Key Largo and…since we were so close…we decided to go hit up Robbie’s down in Islamorada for some lunch after the boat tour! Check out that shrimp quesadilla! It was huge! And it was loaded with shrimp. I wasn’t expecting to get that much shrimp in a quesadilla.

After we ate at Robbie’s we walked over to the docks right next to the restaurant where you can feed the ginormous tarpons!! Guys!! These fish were soooo big! We saw a few sharks lurking nearby too. And the pelicans were begging for food. Begging…stealing… The pelicans were kind of pushy about the food.

The last stop on our day trip to The Keys was to The Blond Giraffe Key Lime Pie Factory where you can get anything key lime flavored. We all got something then headed out to the chicken yard to eat. The chickens were awesome. They were so friendly they were willing to share your key lime treat…they might have been a little too friendly because they didn’t really care if you were done with your treat or not. Ha! I loved it! And yes, that is a frozen chocolate covered piece of key lime pie. Alex let me know that it was delicious!

We spotted tons of these huge iguanas. They would just kind of lumber around everywhere. The biggest ones we saw were all lounging around along the side of the big borrow pits along the sides of the roads. What’s a borrow pit? It’s where the state had to dig a big ditch in order to use that material to build up the road. All of the borrow pits we saw were filled with water…and quite a few had some gators that were keeping the iguanas company.

We made Christmas cookies over Christmas. It’s one of our traditions. The decorating gets more and more creative each year. We also ate ourselves silly on Cuban food and Mooyah burgers.

There were pretties everywhere, but these purple ones were my favorite.

We had a great six weeks being semi-normal and slowing down a little. It was such a switch from the fast paced moving we’d been doing all year. We learned we’d like to take it a little slower…we also learned that six weeks in one stop is way too long for us. We were all getting a little stir crazy by the end.

See y’all down the road!!

#hidingfromthecold
Mountains, Mountains, and More Mountains

Mountains, Mountains, and More Mountains

By |

Hey Guys! Here’s part two of our Denver area explorations. If you missed part one, you can find it here. We were only in the Denver area for one measly week, but we crammed every bit of adventure we could into that one week.

It was so cold and windy the day we went to Loveland Pass. Alex forgot his jacket and wasn’t up for doing much exploring so we walked around a little, snapped a few pictures, and got back into the warmth of the car.

Even on a cloudy day the view was breathtaking…and not just because it was cold.

We got there right as the clouds started brushing the tops of the mountains. We thought briefly about walking up the trail…but with one of us without a jacket and the bitter cold…we passed.

This picture was taken the same day as the ones on Loveland Pass. We took a drive up the Mount Evans Scenic Byway. We barely squeaked in on the last day the road was open for the 2018 season.

We made it all the way to Summit Lake before we had to stop. The road to the summit was already closed. Alex was still without a jacket so our hiking was pretty limited. It was a balmy 30° with a wind-chill much lower at Summit Lake that October day. Those of us who braved the cold and wind to see the views really wished we had actual coats and not just jackets. But Guys…look at that view!

We saw some female longhorn sheep. There was a whole herd of them just hanging out right by the road. Checking out the cars as they drove by. Meandering into the road whenever they felt like it. We thought they were goats until we talked to a Ranger. The Ranger told us all of the goats had been staying higher up on the mountain. Wildlife is one of our favorite things to see while we’re out exploring.

Here’s another shot of the view. This one was on the way back down. We were super bummed we couldn’t go all the way to the summit. We’ve made plans to go back to Colorado next year and have this on our list of places to revisit. Hopefully, on a warmer day.

Mount Evans, with a height of 14,264 feet, is the twelfth highest mountain in Colorado. The Mount Evans Scenic Byway is the highest paved road in North America and takes you through several biomes before getting to the top. We stopped at the Mount Goliath Natural Area to see the Krummholz Forest.

Krummholz comes from a German word meaning crooked wood. The stunted, twisted trees mark the transition between forest and tundra.

We love National Parks. We basically make all of our plans based on National and State Parks along with the State Capitol Buildings. Jerl had been looking forward to this particular National Park since we started this crazy nomad life. We were staying in Golden, CO so it took us a good two hours to get to the Rocky Mountain National Park. We only had one day to explore RMNP so we got up super early and spent the entire day seeing as much of the park as we could.

It was rut season for the Roosevelt Elk in Rocky Mountain National Park. We were hoping to see and hear them. We hadn’t been in the park an hour yet, and we both saw and heard them. You can’t see them in the picture above, but this is where we were standing when we first herd them. Bugling to one another. Calling out challenges. Staking claims.

The mammas and the babies were grazing by the road.

The day we were at RMNP was the last day the Old Fall River Road was open for the season. We couldn’t have timed it better if we’d tried. And trust me, I try…but this was just a happy coincidence. Old Fall River Road was built between 1913 and 1920 as the first motor route to cross the Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s only a nine mile road, but it took us a couple of hours to traverse it. Every turn was cool enough to stop at and take pictures of and ogle, there were waterfalls to hike to, and all four life zones to learn about. The road ends about half way up the main park road at the Alpine Visitor Center.

 Welcome to the high mountain country! It was super windy up on the mountain at the Alpine Visitor Center. Soooo windy and not even close to warm. But I like the views…so we hiked the Alpine Ridge Trail. The trailhead is right off the Trail Ridge Road which is the highest road in any of the National Parks. The trail itself isn’t long…it’s just over half a mile, but it is a steep climb up 220 or so stairs. The trail ends at 12,000 feet. It was so windy the day we went that we kept expecting to get blown off the trail. It was a pain going up…but it totally made the trip down faster.

The view at the top was spectacular! There were mountains in every direction.

On a different day, we would have stuck around and really taken in the view…maybe even picnicked up there, but the warmth of our car was beckoning to us. So, we looked as long as we could withstand the cold and wind then raced back down the trail to get warmed up.

The aspens were showing off their colors. We found this gorgeous grove along the Trail Ridge Road. Fall colors are some of my favorite colors. I spent a good portion of our time here trying to find some fall foliage.

We were in Colorado three whole weeks. We’ve changed our plans for our next loop so we can spend more time in Colorado. For the first time…in 49 states…we’ve found a state that gives our love of Texas (our home state) a run for its money.

Colorado, we will be back.

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018
Pizza Roundup Leon Gessi

Pizza Roundup Leon Gessi

By |

To my fellow pizza lovers! I bring to you a post from Colorado Springs, CO.

Leon Gessi is a pretty good pizza place. They have all the sizes of pizza right on the wall so you don’t have to ask!

Leon Gessi has a nice crunchy crust, but it’s also pretty soft. It’s a magical combo!

They have lots of toppings to choose from, jalapenos, sausage, peppers. And if you want them all, just get the Kitchen Sink pizza!

They also have some subs, although I think they could use a little more meat. But the sammich looked really good with the sauce to dip it in. My brother really enjoyed it.

I really liked the décor of Leon Gessi. It feels like a cabin. We ate here after a LOOOONG day of exploration. The pizza was even better after all that hiking!

Leon Gessi will always be a special pizza place for me. It’s where I completed my goal of eating pizza in all drive-able states! That’s 49! With that being said, the speed limit on Pizza Street will slow down a bit. I won’t be doing posts as often, but they’ll still be made! We have had some really good pizza… ehem Potsy… and some not so great pizza… sorry Hometown. But I think that there would be some ups and downs with 49 states worth of pizza, right? Speaking of, I’m giving Leon Gessi a 4.5 star review! Well, I think I’ll…

See y’all next time on…

Pizza Street!!

Written by Nicholas
Our 2018 Year In Review

Our 2018 Year In Review

By |

Hey Guys! Happy New Year’s Eve!!

I thought we’d end the year with a quick post to share some of our favorite memories from this year.

Our year started off…well…not the best. We spent last New Year’s Eve driving through an ice storm to get back to Missouri so Jerl could have eye surgery and our home-on-wheels could get a new engine. It was a stressful start to the year, but it got loads better!

We made it to twenty-one different National Park Units this year! Twenty-one! Two of those were revisits, but nineteen were new for us…so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that seven of our top ten memories for this year are about National Parks.

Let’s start with our honorable mention…Sparky’s Burgers in Hatch, New Mexico just missed our top ten, but we all like it so much we decided it really should at least get an honorable mention! We’d been eyeing Sparky’s for a couple of years now. We found out about it in 2015 while we were in Alamogordo, but didn’t want to drive that far in the time we had in the area. This year, however, we made it! And Guys…it’s so good! We got there right as they were opening and it’s a good thing because when we left, the line was already starting to curve around the block. Alex had to try one of Sparky’s famous green chili shakes. He chose chocolate and raved about it the whole time. I think next time I may have to get one too!

Our number ten spot isn’t a foodie or city or state…it’s not a National or State Park…it’s a view. The Columbia River Gorge from the Portland Women’s Form State Scenic Viewpoint in Corbett, OR was spectacular even though the smoke from some nearby fires was wafting through. We had this entire viewing area to ourselves…well…there was one other person there and he was busy having a conversation with himself…so…yeah. But, that view!

Sequoia Park Zoo comes next. We found this little zoo in Eureka, CA and made time to visit right at the end of a day of exploration. We got there just in time for the red panda feeding and zoo talk. We’ve been to some of the top rated zoos in the country and this little zoo is one of our favorites. Happy animals, clean and big exhibits…what more does a zoo need? What it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in heart.

One of the things we love is a good view and what better place to get a view than atop one of Colorado’s tallest mountains. Pikes Peak is the most expensive mountain we’ve explored…but Guys…that view. When we were there, the summit was torn up for construction of the new Summit House. It’ll be fantastic when it’s done! We just might have to go back and see it completed!

One of the states that Jerl has been looking forward to the most is Colorado. The mountains have called his name for many years so it shouldn’t be a surprise that Rocky Mountain National Park is on our top ten list. We were only able to spend one day exploring this giant park and hope to go back one day to see more of it.

Yosemite National Park is in the number six spot on our top ten list for 2018! We were there right before the busy season, but there were still so many people. The few days we ventured into Yosemite Valley the crowds were insane! It wasn’t our thing…all of the crowds. But, when we drove Glacier Road and Tioga Road…the crowds weren’t nearly as bad and the views were ah-mazing!

One of the places I’d been looking forward to visiting is Redwood National and State Park! These two parks work together to preserve one of the largest tracks of old growth coastal redwoods left in the US. And! There’s Fern Canyon! This canyon has fifty feet walls covered in several types of ferns. It was so fun to wade down the small creek! If traveling isn’t your thing…you can take a look at Fern Canyon without leaving your home…it was used to film parts of Jurassic Park II.

We made it to Oregon right as the burn season was revving up. We could see the smoke from one of the fires at the park we were staying in. We were worried we wouldn’t make it up to Crater Lake National Park due to the fires. I’m so glad we did! Crater Lake is gorgeous! The blue of that water!! There’s a bit of lore that says the blue bird used to be black before it dipped into the waters of Crater Lake.

Olympic National Park rests in the number three spot on our top ten list for this year! This place…Guys, I could totally spend a season or two in this area of Washington. There is so much to love about Olympic National Park! You get beaches, mountain vistas, and forests of moss covered trees to hike through!

This next park is not only in our number two spot, but was the biggest surprise for us. We weren’t entirely sure of what to expect from Kings Canyon National Park, but we loved it! You get the gorgeous tall trees and you get to explore a huge canyon! We somehow ended up taking an old forest service road to get into the park and in doing so drove right through one of the largest groves of redwood old growth left. We had it to ourselves and it was fantastic! The canyon was a total surprise. There are views for days, hikes and waterfalls to explore!

Our number one memory of 2018 is Sequoia National Park! We heart tall trees in a serious way. We can’t get enough of them. We stayed in the Sequoia National Park area for two weeks and we spent every spare minute we could up the mountain, in the park walking amongst the tall trees. I’m already trying to plan our next trip to Sequoia.

We’ve wrapped up our State Tour. Y’all haven’t seen the last few posts about those explorations yet, but they’re coming! We hope that each of you have a wonderful New Year’s Day and a blessed 2019! Thank you for being a part of our crazy nomad journey!

See y’all down the road!
Pizza Roundup Grandpa’s Downtown Pizza

Pizza Roundup Grandpa’s Downtown Pizza

By |

To my fellow pizza lovers! I bring to you a post from Cheyenne, WY.

Grandpa’s Downtown Pizza is a really good pizza place. The inside is not very large. Their menu is also nice and simple. Some salads, some subs, then pizzas and calzones.

One of the cool things about this pizza place is that they give a free slice of pizza to the homeless when they come in!

Their garlic knots are really good, the only thing missing is a whole lot of butter!

They don’t skimp on the toppings either.

I think this place gets 5-stars from me!

See y’all next time on…

Pizza Street!!

Written by Nicholas
Cheyenne, WY

Cheyenne, WY

By |

Hey Guys!! We made it to Wyoming! These weekly jumps are wearing us out!! We’ve had three weeks in a row of jumping states and long drive days. Moving so fast makes our travels seem kind of like a blur. We start the whole…which-state-did-we-do-that-in thing. It’s no bueno.

Utah sent us off with a spectacular sunrise. We also spent some in the morning keeping track of a big semi-truck that kept swerving all over the road. I think he needed a nap. He was swerving so bad we didn’t want to try and pass him…and honestly, we didn’t want him behind us. He’d speed up and slow down and was just all over the road.

It didn’t take us long to reach Wyoming. Unfortunately, the sign was in a bad spot to stop so I had to snap a picture on the go.

Our long drive to Cheyenne was filled with looonnggg stretches of road like the one above. We saw so many antelope. I think we found the land where the antelope play. We really wanted to see some deer playing with the antelope and maybe a buffalo roaming around. *wink, wink*

Our reason for staying in Cheyenne was to visit the State Capitol Building. Guys, it was closed! Completely closed! It won’t reopen until sometime in 2019. What the hey-diddly!!! They’re completely remodeling it. Y’all may or may not know, but I have a book that I collect stamps from each State Capitol Building…stamps you can only get in the SCB. It’s not a sticker stamp. It’s an ink stamp. *sigh*

Plan B. We went to the State Museum which is right across the street from the SCB and hoped that the stamp had been moved there during the SCB remodel. We lucked out and the stamp had been moved to the museum. The museum was small, but filled to the brim with information about Wyoming. This was the boys’ favorite exhibit. There was info about everything from Wyoming topography to Wyoming natural resources to the state’s history and lore.

Jerl was pretty excited to learn that the NCAR Wyoming Supercomputing Center was located in Cheyenne. There was a small visitor center with some hands on exhibits. I have four boys who were in nerdom heaven. We were able to take a tour of the facilities. I heard lots of numbers and names of things fly around. It all went over my head. All I can tell you is that you’re looking at a very, very, super-dee-duper fast computer. The little lights were flashy and it really was impressive.

If you’re ever in Cheyenne look for the big boots. They’re all over the place and are all decorated differently based on where they’re located.

We were surprised by how small town Cheyenne felt. We saw so many antelope all over the place. I don’t think there was a single time we went out that we didn’t see antelope. Wyoming really is the place of wide open places where the deer and the antelope play.

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018

Pizza Roundup Junction Pizzeria And Grill

Pizza Roundup Junction Pizzeria And Grill

By |

To my fellow pizza lovers! I bring to you a post from Midvale, UT.

Junction Pizzeria and Grill is a decent pizza place. I’m not sure the cashier quite understood what we were wanting when we tried to get a hamburger with no bun. One of us wanted just hamburger patties with cheese and they tried to charge us $30 for it. That’s an expensive burger.

The regular burgers looked pretty darn tasty.

The one who wanted the $30 burger ended up getting some chicken wings instead. He said they were good.

Mom got the poutine, and they do NOT skimp on the gravy. Or cheese. It’s all loaded! The restaurant was clean.

I’m giving a 3 star review because of the burger fiasco.

See y’all next time on…

Pizza Street!!

Written by Nicholas