Molly & Ben

After New Orleans, we had a long ways to go back to Austin Texas. We stopped in Beaumont for a few days then stayed 2 weeks at a Thousand Trails campground for free. These free campsites are getting scares and we really wont have another one until we get up to Oregan state.

While in Beaumont, we stumbled upon the old McFadden house. This is a historical mansion from the early 1900s. Worth stopping by if you are in the area.

Columbus Texas is right in between Austin and Houston. The country is beautiful here and the wild flowers are popping up everywhere.

We are staying right along side the Colorado river and these little hikes are amazing any time of day.

Blue Bell Factory

You read that right. About an hour north there is a Blue Bell Ice-cream factory we went and visited. It was ok, but I would say only make the trip if you are passing through. You learn about the history of the brand and can see the factory workers work, but that’s about it. Before we left, we enjoyed some ice cream!

NASA

Being so close to Houston was nice because we traveled and visited some close friends in Spring TX who also do RV stuff. While there we went to NASA for the day. To lead up to our visit, we listened too, and watched The Martian.

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We are also toying around with the idea of owning an RV park… This is just an idea for now but we like the idea of getting a house as well as a business all in the same purchase. Also, we like the idea of land and possibly waterfront property. We saw a place for sale near Spring that had some great reviews that was for sale. It was WAY out of our price range but decided to go talk to the guy.

It wasn’t the type of RV park we are looking for but was fun to spend time with a local.

We are excited to get to Austin and see some of our friends! See you soon ATX!

Any preconceived ideas of what you think Mardi Gras is all about, throw it out the window. Seriously.

A couple of years ago we came to New Orleans over Labor Day and had a blast. During our time, we went to Mardi Gras World learn about the festival and how the floats are made. During that time, we learned Mardi Gras is really family friendly except for a few certain nights in certain parts of town. But other than that it’s very safe and very tame.

I was still skeptical, but Ben really wanted to go. While we were in upstate NY, we met a couple that served here in New Orleans and said it was super safe and even the missionaries were allowed to go. If it’s good enough for them, then it’s good enough for me!

We met some members and hung out with them in Uptown area and had the best time. The floats were so big and intricate. Ben and I are both minimalists, and we live in an RV so why were screaming for people to throw us stuff we can get at the dollar store is beyond me! It was just so fun!

Between parades, everyone in the neighborhood was hanging out playing, talking, and even barbaquing on the side of the road. Everyone was in such a happy mood. I would do it again 100%.

The locals didn’t mind the visitors at all! At one certain parade, someone said “You need some glitter on your face,” and I couldn’t agree more! Thanks random lady!

Watch Out For Alligators!

The members here were the best! Super friendly and welcoming. I am sure they are used to visitors but we felt right at home. Something they recommended to us was the Barataria which is a natural preserve hike where you can see alligators in the wild!

It was a decent “hike” through the bayou, and the walkway were boarded because of the soft swamp land. We saw about 12 alligators hanging out right by the walkway!

They are mainly nocturnal so not much movement but still really fun to see.

French Quarters

Last thing we did before heading out was visit the French Quarters. During the day it’s totally fine. It’s filled with artists, buskers, food, and tourists. We walked around the shops and looked for our badges and stickers which we collect from each city we visit and then headed out after eating some lunch.

Thanks New Orleans! You treated us well.

Also, this guy is the best travel buddy. Love you so much Benjamin XO.

We have heard about Destin FL for a couple of years now. There is actually a really cheap flight from Austin to Destin (which we never took) but as our RV adventure was going through, decided to spend a week in Destin on our way to New Orleans.

We stayed about 40 minutes from town in a park right next to the river. We even saw a live alligator in the water!

Good news!

We decided to extend our RV trip until January 2020! We did a mock route to see where we would be at what time of year. The more we researched it, the more excited we got. SO! We are taking on the west coast as well as Utah national parks. We decided it’s all about chasing the good weather. If it’s cold, you don’t want to go outside which gets old.

Because we decided to extend there were a few repairs to attend to. First up, the roof! Ben works full time, so it was up to me! I really don’t mind working on the RV. It feels really rewarding when I can fix something. It took two days without rain but it worked! Now we don’t have to worry about the roof leaking throughout the next year.

The weather was slightly colder but we did make it to the beach one day. It was in the 70s so not super warm but good enough to throw a football and work on our handstands.

My attempt to work on a handstand…

I am always the one to instigate selfies to try and capture life, but Ben isn’t always on board as you can see in this picture. He looks like he is in pain while I am having the time of my life.

The beaches were really nice. I would like to come back and spend more time here. Preferably a warmer month.

We headed south west to Tampa and settled in a place about an hour north of the city. I wanted to come here because there are a lot of mermaid stuff happening.

I actually went to a mermaid meet up at Alexander Springs and had a great time meeting other people and doing an underwater photo shoot!

Before I went there I had a huge fear of alligators but come to find out, they are really shy and only attack at night when they are startled. There were two alligators there but we left them alone.

We were also able to visit Eric and Candy with Mertailor! They are amazing people and it was nice to put a face with a name. They genuinely understand this community, and really good hearts. They work hard for what they do and I wish them the best of luck!

Other than Mermaid stuff, we just caught up on work and enjoyed the nice weather.

As Ben and I were making our way to Orlando, we addressed the length of our RV adventures. During November, we were thinking of throwing in the towel in April and settling down. After being out for a month, and heading toward warmer weather, we were not sure if we wanted to stop.

So we started the conversation with Ben wanting to settle down and get a house in Austin and me wanting to continue our RV trip. After he told me all the reasons why he wanted to settle down, and I told him all the reasons I wanted to keep going, it seemed like we switched sides. All of a sudden Ben wanted to keep going with the RV, and I was more open to getting a house. Long story short, we laughed and decided it was still too early to make the decision.

Disneyworld Magic Kingdom

Ben and I decided to experience Disneyworld as adults, without kids. Maybe because we are terrible people, or because we are genius. It is everything they say it is. Dreams really do come true here. I loved experiencing this with my husband. It was non stop fun all day.

One of my favorite parts were the shows. They had different parade performances or shows throughout the day. These were nice breaks for the ride lines. The rides were really great but we now understand why they give 3 fast passes. Some lines were over 2.5 hour wait!

You might not know this, but I love mermaids. The show “The Little Mermaid” influenced me so much as a kid I joined the swim team.

So part of our adventure was meeting Ariel in her Grotto. Ben was wearing a captains hat and she said, “I am married to a captain too! That means we are sister!” AH! She was cool.

Something surprised me that night, was the final show. They used the castle as a screen to show different Disney movies mixed with music and fireworks. It might have been an over stimulating day but I actually got teary eyed. Disney has really been apart of my whole life and I never knew how influential it was until now.

Also, when I was little, my brother and sister had mickey mouse hats but one of the ears fell off. My sister convinced my brother that it was cool to wear it like a rhino horn so I had to take this pic.

Disneyworld Animal Kingdom

It was a toss-up between the Animal Kingdom and Epcot. We were standing in line at the magical kingdom and overheard someone say it was their 60th time coming to Disney. We asked which one was better and they said Epcot is really fun if you want to drink. Since we are not drinkers, we did the Animal Kingdom and it was great!

We decided to head straight over to the Pandora ride from Avatar. The line was CRAZY long but we decided to go for it. Not sure if it was the best decision. I am not even going to tell you how long we waited in line.

The decorations leading up to the ride were incredible and you felt like you were on a different planet.

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The shows here were actually better than the ones in Magic kingdom as you could do more stuff around animals. There was a Lion King show as well as Finding Nemo!

Something that we have both never seen before was the water and light show. Over the lake they had water shooting up and light projected through the mist which acted as a screen. It was really amazing what they could do. They did this by these 4 lily pads. This made me wish my Dad was here. He would totally dig this.

Universal Studios

As if Disney World wasn’t enough right?

Well, we decided to do Universal studios the next week. A big drive for me was Harry Potter World. As Ben and I have driven around the country, I ordered the audiobooks for Harry Potter and listened to all 7 of them! It took me months but I was honestly sad when they ended.

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Butter beer was good, but WAY to sweet. Ben and I shared one and couldn’t even finish it. We went to both Diagon Alley and Hogsmead. The rides were really fun and totally worth going. We didn’t do the wands which would have been fun but you would just stand in line to see others doing the same thing you were about to do. We decided we would rather enjoy more of Universal.

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One of our favorite stops was Jurassic Park. We could take pictures with a “live” raptor. We WISH we would have go pro-ed this but the raptor did a good job scaring you right before the picture was taken. Totally candid.

via GIPHY

We enjoyed going on other rides throughout the park, and we’re happy we made the trip out as a newly wed couple. Fun times in Orlando!

When we got back to Atlanta, we had a few days to recover in our Airbnb which was amazing.

We decided to do one fun thing in Atlanta, and I picked the Georgia Aquarium. Just so everyone knows, the Georgia Aquarium, is A LOT different from the Atlanta Aquarium.

We drove for 45 minutes north in traffic and rain to the Atlanta aquarium to find out it was a small pet store! I looked at the tickets and we had to drive 30 minutes south to the Georgia Aquarium. Ugghhh. Ben is really good at laughing things off… It took me a little longer as it was my mistake.

It was PACKED! For a Saturday night. It was a few company parties and we actually ran into an old roommate that lived for a brief time in Austin. I am glad we went and would only go again if it was less crowded.

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What’s Going On With The RV?

This question has been on our mind for about a month now. The RV place we went to was great on the phone of reasuring us what was happening, but then when ever sending email, was very slow to respond and would start working on things without our permission.

While we were away, we kept calling to get quotes and didn’t get much response. This wasn’t a good sign! We finally got a response but a lot of the quotes didn’t make sense… Trying to get answers was few and far between. Yikes!

After returning, we were surprised that the rearview camera was working, and the door shut much better. The monitor light was still broken, and the jacks would have taken longer than we would have liked. Overall it was a good deal. We had it stored in covered parking, and had a few things fixed.

Savannah GA

We drove off the lot and headed toward Florida. We stopped in Savannah and stayed at a wonderful park called Creek fire. It was seriously one of the nicest places we have ever stayed. If I could design a home, it would look like this one. #dreamhouse

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However, after parking, our airbags would release anylonger and our generator wouldn’t start. That isn’t a huge deal as we didn’t use the genorator but the airbags were a problem.

So! We are going to have to do something ourselves! I actually enjoy fixing things as frustrating as it is at the moment. We ordered a new touchpad and got the release airbags working again, and found a fuse was blown for one of the jacks. Long story short, we got everything working again!

So as cheap as the autoshop was for some repairs and storage, we left with some more major problems. Oh well. They say it isn’t an RV trip unless something breaks!