Author: thetinyhousetravelers

On March 4^th we left New Orleans and headed towards Mobile, Alabama. We had chosen Mobile as it was only a two-hour drive from New Orleans and, after spending two months in one spot, we were a little nervous about being on the move again so we thought a short trip would be best. Everything was going well until we found ourselves on a dead-end side street. It turns out that John had entered the wrong address into the GPS. After some creative maneuvering, we were able to turn around and start making our way back to the correct location. That’s when one of the tires on the house blew.

Many people ask us why we drive separate vehicles on move days. The easy answer is that truck is obviously necessary to pull the house but gets HORRENDOUSLY bad gas mileage. Like 8mpg diesel (12mpg when not pulling the house) bad. It is also massive and hard to maneuver in tight spaces. We usually park the truck once we get to our campsite and then just use the car for our daily driving and adventuring. Harley also greatly prefers the car over the truck.  The other reason is that John doesn’t have a lot of experience towing things. He had actually never towed ANYTHING prior to building the tiny house. We both feel more comfortable with me following along behind the house and watching for any issues with the tires or for anything that may fall off of or out of the house or truck.

John called and asked me to drive up and check the tires because something felt weird. I was able to quickly confirm that we had a flat on the house. Thankfully we have 4 tires on the house so even with the one rapidly deflating we were able to pull into a gas station that was just ahead of us. Unfortunately, we didn’t yet own a spare tire or a jack capable of lifting the house. We were stuck.

John spent some time calling around but didn’t have much luck. Most agencies like AAA and Good Sam won’t cover us because our house was custom built but we tried Good Sam anyway. They were able to hook us up with one of their service providers…for an extra fee. It took a few hours but the service man finally arrived and made quick work of changing our tire. He did let us know, however, that the other tires on the house were in bad shape and would also need replaced soon. We thanked him, got information for their garage, and promised to contact them about replacing the other tires once we got settled. After a $650 bill and a couple hour delay, we were on our way.

We made it to our spot at Shady Acres Campground. This campground did not offer a lot in the way of amenities (even though it was more like a permanent trailer park than a campground) but it was quiet and we felt pretty safe there. It was also super close to restaurants, groceries, and highway access to get anywhere in Mobile easily. In fact, after two months in New Orleans where we would go to sleep to the sounds of gunfire and drag racing every night, it was too quiet to sleep for the first few nights. It was eerily quiet. After the stress of the move and flat tire, though, we finally drifted off.

For our first full day in Mobile, we took the recommendation of a friend and headed about 45 minutes south to Dauphin Island. We decided to make a full day of it so we had several things on the to-do list: The Alabama Aquarium at Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Fort Gaines, and then hitting the beach!

The aquarium was small but fun. It was settled right on the northern shore of the island and had a lovely boardwalk outside right along the water. We enjoyed the touch tank and seeing exhibits containing animals from the local waterways. They also had an ice cream parlor attached so after going through the aquarium, we got a nice cold treat and sat down for a rest to enjoy it.

After the aquarium, we visited Fort Gaines at the far eastern side of the island. This fort, along with Fort Morgan, played a big part in the Battle of Mobile during the American Civil War. These two forts sit on opposite sides of the bay and between the two were able to fire on any ships trying to access Mobile by sea. We walked along the walls, explored areas that had been used for barracks, kitchens, munitions storage, and even the latrine. This fort is kind of small but is very well preserved (you can even see where cannon balls have struck the walls during prior battles) and is very accessible to guests. It offers beautiful views of Mobile Bay and one of Dauphin Island’s public beaches is just below its walls.

Having explored the eastern end of the island, we turned around and drove to the other end of the 15-mile-long island to visit the other public beach. As an Ohio girl, I had never imagined swimming at a beach in early March but the water was very pleasant and inviting. We spent a few hours relaxing on the sand and wading out into the waves. It was a wonderful way to spend the day.

After leaving the beach we were pretty hungry. There are a few restaurants on the island and we chose to visit Pirate’s Bar and Grill. There was a fairly long wait but we passed the time walking the beach outside and watching the sun set. The food and service were okay but nothing could top the view. It was absolutely lovely.

On March 8^th, we drove to the Charles Wood Japanese Garden for a walk. We found a small waterfall and spent some time climbing over the rocks in the stream. They also had several koi ponds with some of the biggest koi I have ever seen. When I was growing up, my grandparents had a pond in their backyard and my grandpa was obsessed with his goldfish and koi. Being among these ponds and watching these massive koi slide through the water made me feel so close to him and wish he was still here to tell about it.

The next night, we took a murder mystery dinner cruise through Mobile Bay on the Perdido Queen. The show was put on by Bay Cities Improv and was a little chaotic but super fun. John was even chosen to dance in the musical number. Thankfully, the song being performed was “All that Jazz” from the musical “Chicago” with which he is very familiar so he was able to sing and dance along so well that I think he surprised the actors! The food wasn’t that great but it was a fun experience being on the water. We failed to solve the mystery but did enjoy ourselves.

Toward the end of this week, we also got to eat at Happy Sushi which was our first restaurant with a sushi train! We ordered the Auburn Roll, Chicken Teriyaki Bowl, and Shrimp Tempura Bowl and were delighted as our food arrived on the little train that ran on a conveyer belt next to our table. And, on top of the cool method of food delivery, the food was amazing!

We also opted to visit downtown Mobile and do a little exploring for dinner. We put our name in at Wentzell’s Oyster House and spent the time waiting for our table by exploring the area. We found an amazing art gallery – Lupercalia Art Society. We had a great time talking to some of the artists whose work is featured there. They were the nicest people! They also had a cool speakeasy in the basement. We would have loved to spend more time but we had to get back to the restaurant for dinner but we plan to visit them the next time we are in town.

Side note – did you know that Mardi Gras was actually being celebrated in Mobile BEFORE it was every celebrated in New Orleans? We had no idea! I bought another handcrafted mask to add to my collection and a small cat painting.

Dinner at Wentzell’s was okay. Nothing to write home about. After dinner, though, we walked to Mo’ Bay Beignets for some dessert. We had eaten tons of beignets in New Orleans but these were probably some of the best we had had.

On Sunday, we drove to Gulf Shores to visit the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo. It was a smaller zoo but the exhibits were nice. This zoo has an inspiring history, however. They had suffered back-to-back hurricanes in 1997 and 1998 which caused extensive damage to their property. In both cases, they had to evacuate all their animals to a safer location further inland. Having worked at a zoo, I cannot even begin to imagine that undertaking. Both times, they came back and rebuilt. They were also featured on the documentary series “The Little Zoo That Could” on Animal Planet in 2006.

 They had some beautiful birds and a nice selection of primates. We ran into a staff member outside one of the exhibits and he spent a few minutes talking to us about one of the monkey exhibits – the animals there had come from a science lab and were now living out their retirement at the zoo.

Our favorite part of the visit was the Lemur Encounter. For an additional $24.95 per person we were able to go inside the Lemur exhibit and spend about 15 minutes with the animals. At the time of our visit, the exhibit housed both ring-tailed lemurs (like King Julian from the movie Madagascar) and black and white ruffed lemurs. The ring-tailed lemurs were a bit standoffish and chose to keep an eye on us from afar. The ruffed lemurs were incredibly curious and friendly and swarmed us almost as soon as we sat down. They held my hand and shamelessly solicited belly rubs. They inspected (and chewed on) our shoes but they were especially interested in our phones. John eventually put his phone in his pocket but that didn’t deter the little stinkers – they started chewing through his pants to get at the phone inside! This was an incredibly fun experience and we felt that it was very fairly priced.

On the way to Gulf Shores, we also stopped at our first Buckee’s. For those that don’t know, Buckee’s is a chain of gas station/convenience store locations mostly located throughout the south. They are huge stores and offer pretty much anything you can think of! They have your typical candy and chip offerings that you would expect to find in any gas station or truck stop but they also have sections for clothing, home décor, an entire wall of jerky, a stand where they fresh-make fudge all day, a fine selection of roast nuts, an ENORMOUS variety of fountain sodas (in addition to Coke and Pepsi options, they also have their own brand and the black cherry soda is to die for), and quick service counters serving hotdogs and fries, burritos, bbq sandwiches, and more. And their mascot is a beaver.

During our time in Mobile, we also got to experience Foosackly’s which has become one of my favorite fast-food locations and something that I miss very much. They seem to only exist in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle but I wish they were everywhere. They are very comparable to Raising Cane’s or Zaxby’s but their sauces. MMMMMM their sauces. They offer their signature Foo Sauce, Real Honey Mustard, Buttermilk Ranch, Sweet & Spicy Kung Foo Sauce, Smoky BBQ, and Classic Buffalo. I didn’t know what to pick so I asked the man taking the orders which ones he preferred since it was my first visit. That kind soul gave me one of each. For the record, the Honey Mustard or the Kung Foo Sauce are the right answer, although they were all very good.

We spent our last night in Mobile (St. Patrick’s Day) by having dinner at Squid Ink, a local bar/restaurant in the downtown area. We had deep fried devilled eggs, a hot chicken sandwich, and an Avocado BLT.

We chose Mobile completely because it was a bigger city and was a short drive from New Orleans but we ended up falling in love and actually plan to spend some time there again next winter. But for now, it was time to say goodbye and move on to our next stop – Auburn, Alabama.

When we first arrived in New Orleans, I was beginning to worry that spending two months in New Orleans would lead to us running out of things to do and getting bored. As our time in The Big Easy was drawing to an end, I was starting to realize how much we still had left to do! Because of our various injuries during our stay, we were significantly behind on some of the things I had planned. We did what sane, rational people do – decided to squeeze in as much as possible in our last week in town and to hell with the physical consequences. That’s normal and healthy, right?

On Friday night (February 24) after John got off work, we decided to head back to City Park. We had intended to visit the museum ever since our fist visit to the park but the timing just hadn’t worked out so we did the next best thing, we visited the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden – a fenced in portion of the park just behind the museum that housed a large collection of sculptures and statues by various artists. Some of the sculptures were really beautiful and others were….interesting. Our visit was a little rushed as we arrived only about an hour before closing but, with my leg still acting up, it was probably for the best. We weren’t able to make it through the entire space but we did see several sculptures and installations and really had a nice time.

On Saturday, we drove over to Metairie to visit the cemetery there. For most people, cemeteries are places of sadness and are usually a bit depressing. In New Orleans, the cemeteries contain so much history and are full of beautiful mausoleums and statuary that they are a tourist attraction on their own. Sadly, because some of these graves are so old and because some people are disrespectful assholes, many of the cemeteries have been closed to the public. Metairie cemetery is much newer but just as stunning and does still allow visitors. It is also much larger, being settled on a grassy hill just outside of New Orleans, and is able to be driven through. By this time I was able to walk for about 30 minutes at a time before my nerve pain would flare up so we got into a lovely rhythm of walking among the monuments for a little while, then driving ahead until something caught our eye, then getting out and walking for a bit again. There were paved roadways for the cars and the graves were spread out in orderly rows with grassy walkways in-between. It was so quiet and peaceful.

We saw incredible mausoleums with stained glass windows, gorgeous statues, and historical monuments. Some of the tombs had started to crack or crumble but most were in remarkable condition. Several mausoleums had the stained glass broken out but were still impressive. John even found us an audio tour that he was able to download that provided driving and walking directions through the graveyard and pointed out interesting sights along the way. I think John had been a little skeptical when I said I wanted to explore a cemetery but I think he really enjoyed himself as well.

We had planned this visit for the morning so that we could spend a few hours and then grab some lunch at Drago’s. Several people had recommended this restaurant to me and I had been wanting to get there for several weeks. They have a location downtown and another in Metairie. I had heard that they were both about the same as far as quality but that the one in Metairie was often less busy so that is the location we chose. It was amazing. We had a 1/2 Dozen Charbroiled Oysters, the Bayou Roll, Crawfish Salad, and the Crawfish Fest which included Crawfish Etouffee, a Crawfish Cake, and Crawfish Mac & Cheese. We didn’t care for the Crawfish Cake (like a Crab Cake) or the Etouffee but everything else was DELICIOUS!

 After lunch, we drove over to Carrollton to do something that John had been excited about since we first arrived- riding the street car. We had been to Carrollton our first night in town and felt fairly comfortable there. It was definitely one of the safest areas we could think of to leave the car for this adventure. We scouted the area and found a place to park down a quiet residential street near the end of the St. Charles Street Car line. We parked (for free!) and walked the few blocks to the first stop on the line. On the way, we visited an outdoor art market and I bought a few cool stickers and two awesome pairs of earrings.

The streetcar was boarding when we arrived so we hopped right on. The St. Charles has been running since 1835 making it the oldest continuously running streetcar line in the world. It still has wooden seats and no air conditioning but there is a nice breeze with the windows open once it gets moving (it was in the upper 70’s when we were on it and we were very comfortable).

We passed through some incredible neighborhoods on the way down to the French Quarter. You could easily tell which streets had been on parade routes but the beads hanging in the trees lining the streets. On the parade routes, you could also tell which offices or apartments were vacant because, with no tenants to clean up, there was a buildup of beads and toys on the balconies.

We rode all the way down to the very edge of the French Quarter and then got off the street car. We walked a few blocks toward the river and got in line for the ferry across the Mississippi to Algiers Point. We had ridden the ferry over from Chalmette on a previous occasion but this crossing was right in the middle of downtown and offered a beautiful view of the city skyline. As luck would have it, we were there at sunset and it was lovely. We rode across and walked around for a few minutes taking pictures of the French Quarter as the sun dipped toward the horizon in the background. When we were in the Quarter, I had thought that it was kind of dirty and a little scary but seeing it from the opposite side of the river with the sunset painting it beautiful shades of pink and orange, it was quite lovely.

Because my leg was hurting, we caught the ferry back on its next trip then walked the couple of blocks back to catch the St. Charles line. We waited a few minutes but the car arrived quickly. We hopped on and were lucky enough to snag seats (the pain in my leg meant that standing was not an option). It was pretty full for the first several stops but by the time we reached the end of the line in Carrollton, there were only a handful of riders left. The price for the round trip street car ride plus the ferry were covered by the transportation pass that we had purchased on our phones earlier in the day. It was $3 per person for this unique adventure.

We ended the day with dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Carrollton, La Patrona, then drove back across town to our house – completely exhausted from the day.

At this point, I feel like I should tell you all that I am a breakfast eater. I love it. I could eat breakfast food for every single meal and be happy as a clam. John is not a breakfast eater. He actually went through a period where the very sight of eggs would make him nauseous. He can’t stand even the thought of a breakfast burrito. When I wake up, the first thing on my mind is what I am going to have for breakfast. John prefers something simple like a bagel with peanut butter or he skips breakfast all together and waits for lunch. It is the greatest point of contention in our marriage.

Fortunatley for me, John loves me very much and is generally willing, one day per week, to suffer through breakfast. This is usually on Sunday mornings. And, because he loves me, will look for a really well rated or really unique breakfast experience on those days. This week, he chose Sunday morning Jazz Brunch at The Court of Two Sisters in the French Quarter. Brunch was served buffet style and consisted of a station for eggs benedict, piles of sausage and bacon, pans of scrambled eggs and potatoes, mounds of crawfish, plus a bar with cereal, fresh fruit and pastries. I was in heaven. The food was amazing however the musicians seemed to be on break the entire time we were there so the “Jazz Brunch” was missing a key element. Still, we had a nice meal and the restaurant was beautiful.

After we ate, we walked around the Quarter for a little bit for our final time. It didn’t last long as we were full from breakfast, my leg was hurting, and honestly the French Quarter is pretty gross. It’s really hard to describe to someone who hasn’t been there but the Quarter, rich with history and THE tourist destination in New Orleans, is simply disgusting. It is a tourist trap with tacky souvenirs, people are jammed in like sardines and you feel crowded everywhere you go, and the air is heavy with an odor that is quite indescribable and very unpleasant. And then there’s the goo. That’s really the best word that I have found and is the easiest way to generalize the horrifying stew made from spilled liquor, vomit, urine, and spit. The brick streets are slick with it. It forms puddles in the gutters and lies in wait for any unsuspecting tourist who is unfortunate enough to wear flip flops or sandals. The various bars and restaurants send employees out to hose the sidewalks down each morning but still they cannot completely wash away the unholy stains from the night before. If you think I am exaggerating I can assure you that I am actually probably underselling the absolute horror of it.

Anyway, we did stop at one well known store where I finally picked out my souvenir Mardi Gras mask. I know that I said in the previous paragraph that the quarter is full of cheap and tacky souvenirs but, after all of my complaining, I am a tourist and getting a Mardi Gras mask as a souvenir is just what you do when you find yourself in New Orleans. Having attended multiple Mardi Gras parades, I considered it a badge of honor as well. A souvenir of the unforgettable experience that was more beautiful than the excruciating nerve pain in my leg. I had been searching the entire two months that we were in town for just the perfect mask and I finally found the one at Crescent City Mask Company. It cost me $50 but it did look a little nicer than the ones I had seen at the souvenir shops located closer to the docks where the cruise ships came in. Plus, I loved the feathers.

We also made one final visit to City Park before leaving town. We felt terrible because there really weren’t a lot of places for Harley to get out and explore. We took her on a few outings to Lake Pontchartrain and to Bayou Sauvage. We even rented a cool yard/park called a Sniff Spot for an hour to let her off leash for a bit and get her some exercise. We took Harley with us on this trip to the park and found a nice quiet stretch without too many other people around. She ran around like a crazed beast and sniffed everything and rolled everywhere. We went home tired and content.

Our last adventure in New Orleans was a visit to St. Louis Cemetery Number 1. This cemetery is one of the older cemeteries in New Orleans and is currently owned by the Catholic Church. Like many of the cemeteries in the Quarter, it is closed to the general public. There is one agency that is permitted to conduct tours there and you must book through them. Thankfully, the tour is fairly inexpensive and they have lots of options for dates and times. The weekends were pretty full but we were able to get an afternoon tour on a weekday during our last week in town.

After having visited the large, quiet, beautiful cemetery in Metairie we definitely found this to be an entirely different experience. The entire place takes up about one city block. It was surrounded by high walls and had a gate that was locked when tours were not in progress.  The tombs are crowded together in a mish-mash – there are no discernable rows and many of the crypts had disintegrated. Name plates were unreadable. There was actually a section where nameplates were on display. They had fallen off of their respective tombs through the years and no one had any clue where they belonged so they were all grouped together in one spot. Decades (and centuries, in some cases) of weather and vandalism had definitely taken a toll. Thankfully the church is working to preserve what remains and restore what they can.

There were some tombs that were better kept than others and some that were fairly new. We got to see a large pyramid crypt that is currently empty but will one day hold the remains of the actor Nicolas Cage. We also got to see the tomb belonging to Homer Plessy- the activist and plaintiff in the Supreme Court Case Plessy v. Ferguson which led to the creation of the “separate but equal” doctrine in 1896.

My favorite tomb, however, was the one belonging to Marie Laveaux – The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. Her tomb holds the remains of Marie and her daughter, Marie’s husband’s family, along with 80+ other people that Marie allowed to be buried in her tomb as the families could not afford their own burials. After Marie’s death, visitors would knock on the tomb three times or mark three x’s in the tomb in hopes that Marie would grant their prayers. They would also leave offerings of rum, tobacco or money but this practice is no longer allowed due to the fragile state of the tomb. Marie was so famous during her time that the New York Times printed her obituary when she died in 1881.

And yes, you read that right. One small mausoleum held the remains of over 80 people! Because of the extreme heat in New Orleans, the bodies and wooden coffins placed in the openings of the tombs at their initial burial disintegrated quickly and after one year and one day, would be pushed further back into the tombs and a new body could be interred there.

The rest of our time that week was spent packaging and sending souvenirs to family at home and preparing to move. After two months sitting in one place, it took a little while to get everything put away and secured for the move but we made it and on the morning of March 4^th we left New Orleans behind and began making our way to Mobile, Alabama. As much as I like to refer to New Orleans as a “terrifying lawless swamp” or an “apocalyptic hellscape”, I am so glad that we got to experience Mardi Gras and visit this insane town.

Thanks to my brilliant plan to not eat or drink anything during our all day Mardi Gras fun, I started off the week super sick. I was dehydrated, sunburnt, and exhausted and dealing with a pounding headache. My leg was also still numb from standing all evening on Saturday so we started the week out just taking it easy and hanging out around the house with occasional walks around the park with Harley to admire the beautiful flowers. For all of the unpleasant things we saw in New Orleans there was also so much beauty. Being in a place that was as hot as the devils armpit in the middle of winter was actually worth it to see be constantly surrounded by flowers.

On Tuesday, just as I was starting to wonder if the feeling in my thigh would ever came back – it did. With a vengeance. We had run over to Metairie to Whole Foods to process an Amazon return and get some groceries. About halfway through the store, I suddenly felt like my leg was on fire. It was excruciating. It really felt like someone was pouring boiling oil down my thigh. I couldn’t stand to put weight on it. I limped back to the car while John finished up checking out.

After sitting in the car for a few minutes, the feeling improved. I figured it was just a weird cramp or something so we went to the next store for the last of our groceries but the same thing happened after about 15 minutes and it was back to the car for me while John finished the shopping and loaded up the car. I didn’t know it then but this would kick off about 2 months of not being able to walk very much. We grabbed some burgers and the best strawberry milkshake of my life on the way home.

The pain in my leg continued. It would flare up after being on my feet for about 15 minutes so that made life really difficult but we managed a few outings. We went out one evening for Sno Balls. If you haven’t had a Sno Ball, you are definitely missing out. While they are similar to snow cones, they are somehow lighter and fluffier. It really is like eating flavored snow rather than crushed ice and they are amazing. We each got one and we got a chicken flavored one to-go for the dog then returned home to relax.

By Saturday I was going stir crazy so we decided to drive over to Gulfport, Mississippi to the aquarium there. My leg was still hurting so badly but I was up to about 20-25 minutes of walking before the pain set in so we decided that we would rent a wheelchair, if needed, once we got the aquarium. John had wanted to do a few more parades but, with me being injured, we thought it best to avoid the chaos of New Orleans for the weekend and go somewhere a little more relaxed.

The Mississippi Aquarium was small but still enjoyable. They had outdoor exhibits with dolphins, alligators, otters, and an aviary. Inside, they had a few smaller tanks and one large aquarium with viewing opportunities at multiple levels. Thankfully, they also had benches in every area so I was able to sit and enjoy the exhibits when the pain in my leg got to be too much without having to rent a wheelchair.

When we left the aquarium, we realized that there was a Mardi Gras parade going on right outside. We had always thought of Mardi Gras as being a New Orleans thing but it turns out that it is celebrated all throughout the Gulf Coast. We had been hoping to avoid the crazy hustle and bustle of Mardi Gras for te weekend but this parade was very small and relaxed. I found a nice bench a little set back from the crowd and watched from a distance. We enjoyed watching for a little while then got back in the car to head home.

On the way to the aquarium we had taken the most direct route there to save time. Because the exhibits were small, we had only spent about 2 hours there – including the parade – so we opted for a longer, more scenic drive on the way back that ran right along the coast. It was a really nice drive overlooking the water and we passed through several really cute small towns. We stopped a few times to admire the beach and dip our toes in the Gulf. We ended up stopping in Bay St. Louis for dinner and had a delicious meal.

By now we have obviously established that I have a habit of making poor decisions. Being out and about – even for the short time I was on my feet at the Mississippi and the parade in Gulfport- really wore me out and I spent the next few days laying around the house in pain. Because we still had some things we wanted to do, we decided to pivot to things that we could do while driving and on February 20, we headed over to Chalmette, LA. While there, we visited the Chalmette Battlefield and cemetery. The drive to Chalmette from where we were staying was about 25 minutes and it was a nice drive – we even got to go over a really cool bridge on the way which is always something that I love.

We visited the cemetery first. This was a very small cemetery and most of the graves there were very old. Burials are not offered here anymore except for very rare occasions. It is very well kept and not often visited and we only saw a handful of other people while we were there. The cemetery consisted of one long, tree-lined drive with several rows of graves on each side. There was a monument at the end of the drive where the road circled back around for guests to exit. Because it wasn’t busy, we were able to stop the car along the drive every so often and get out to look at the tombstones and the monument at the end. It was shady and quiet and lovely.

Our next stop was the battlefield. This is where the Battle of New Orleans was fought in 1815 between British Forces, led by Major General Sir Edward Pakenham, and the American army, led by Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson. This was one of the last battles of the War of 1812 (actually occurring AFTER the signing of the Treaty of Ghent which ended the war but word hadn’t yet reached the American South) and, although outnumbered and much less experienced, the Americans defeated the British in just over 30 minutes.

The Battlefield site is now run by the National Park Service and is where the river boat The Creole Queen stops on its tours. There is a plantation house, visitor’s center (closed when we visited as it was a holiday), and several monuments and informational signage. John was able to fly his drone a bit, too, which is always a fun time.

To get back from Chalmette, we had planned to drive the way we came after a bit of exploring. Unfortunately, John’s excellent sense of adventure and poor sense of direction ended with us in line for a ferry across the Mississippi. It was still a really cool experience for us, only cost us around $3, and cut down on our drive time. Living this crazy life that we have chosen for ourselves has taught us something very valuable – sometimes the accidental adventures are the very best.

As our time in Maine was drawing to a close, we still had a few things left on our “to-do” list. We had been planning to visit Acadia National Park for the entire time we had been in Maine but between the weather and other plans we just hadn’t made it yet. It was also almost time for the entire purpose of our trip – the Maine Lobster Festival- so John took a few days off work for adventuring.

Acadia National Park, which is consistently ranked among the top National Parks in the US, was about a 2 and a half hour drive from our current campsite (it had been even further from the previous spot so we opted to wait until this stop to visit). Because we have a dog, we aren’t able to be gone for more than about 7 hours at a time. By the time we calculated for the drive there and back, we weren’t going to have a lot of time to explore so we decided to just take Harley with us. We all hopped in the car and headed out.

We knew we wouldn’t have time to do everything so we opted for the Ship Harbor Trail which is a 1.3 mile trail set up in a figure 8. The trail has forest area, rocky shorelines, tidepools and mud flats during low tide, and a rocky beach and offers gorgeous views of Ship Harbor. The hike is only supposed to take about an hour but it turns out that when you have a husband and a dog that love to explore, you can easily spend several hours there. And we did.

When we set out to travel in our tiny house, we were really worried about how this life would impact our pets. The cats took some time but now they LOVE sitting in the windows looking out at all the wildlife. Move days are a little stressful for them but they recover quickly and seem fairly content the rest of the time.

Harley has absolutely loved it. It turns out that she loves exploring new places – especially forests- and has absolutely no fear of cliffs or rivers really anything else that we encounter on trails. We like to joke that she is part mountain goat because, despite being somewhere between 8 and 10 years old and having arthritis in her back right hip, she can cover rocky terrain like you wouldn’t believe. I really think she had a great time on this trip and I think these photos show that she is living her best life.

After our time on the trail, we drove around a few other areas of the park and through the town of Bar Harbor but it was just too busy and too people-y for us so we drove back home to rest and recover from our adventures.

On Thursday, we drove into Rockland for the Maine Lobster Festival – the entire purpose of our trip and John’s Birthday gift to me for this year. We really don’t have room for “stuff” and we pretty much buy things that we really want or need as we want or need them so for the past several years we have tried to give experiences to each other as gifts. Two years ago, John took me to Cincinnati, Ohio to stay overnight in a tiny house for the first time. Last year, he surprised me with an overnight at a nearby campground in our tiny house (we weren’t quite ready to move in yet but it was a good trial run) and rented a pontoon boat for the day for us to just cruise around the lake. Last year, I took John to the Grand Ole Opry. This year, we were doing the Lobster Festival.

The town of Rockland is very small and doesn’t offer a lot of options for parking. We had driven into town last week to scope out the area and we realized that parking would be our biggest issue. Thankfully, they offer parking at the local elementary school and high school and the city provides school buses to shuttle visitors to the festival site and back. The buses were newer and really nice (tinted windows, security cameras) and ran every 15 minutes. We were really impressed. We also happened to be on the bus to and from the festival with the school superintendent who explained to us that the festival donates a lot of money to the local schools so the schools provide the buses at a really low price to help bring more people to the festival. The festival covers the cost of the buses which means that visitors get to enjoy the transportation (and admission to the festival) for free making this a fun, affordable option for families. Everyone wins.

The festival was busy but not jam-packed (of course we were there in the middle of the day on a Thursday, the second day of the festival) and the weather was sunny and beautiful with a nice breeze coming in off the harbor. There were lots of seating options to take a break and almost all of the vendors were in large, cool tents. They had a stage with constant entertainment (we saw two different bands perform while we were there), tons of local craftspeople, plenty of food vendors, a petting zoo and a touch tank. There was even a branch of the military there offering tours of one of their boats (we didn’t wait in the line for it or want to mess with going through the metal detectors and bag searches). And everyone we spoke to was just so nice!

We bought a few souvenirs but the real attraction was the food! They had a main food tent that offered the Lobster dinners and various other seafood options, a tent with lobster rolls and then smaller vendors with pizza, bacon on a stick, rum cakes, pizza, various beverages and desserts, and char-grilled oysters.

The line for the bus back to our car was a little long but the buses continued to run regularly and made sure that every single seat was full before taking off so things ran very efficiently. Our only issue was an older man who was being really loud and rude to some women in line in front of us at the bus stop. This man was being racist and sexist and it looked like the the ladies were uncomfortable even though they were trying to laugh and go along with the guy. We inserted ourselves in the conversation and the women turned and started talking to us and ignoring the jerk. He didn’t take too kindly to being ignored and became a little mouthy. In case any of you don’t know – John can give attitude like no other when he wants to and he doesn’t tolerate hateful idiots. The guy said something like, “Oh I see, these guys have taken over the conversation” and John let the guy know that in the future he should “be more interesting”. A few other words were exchanged but eventually the guy lost interest and wandered away. We went home tired, absolutely stuffed, and mostly happy with ourselves.

We typically schedule our travel days on Saturdays so that we can have plenty of time to handle any issues that come up (or any pieces that fall off the house!) and have a day to recover before John has to log in to work on Monday. Because we didn’t know what the weather would be like and wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to visit the Lobster Festival, we scheduled our move for Sunday this time. I am so glad we did.

On Friday evening, we noticed that Pandora, our very white cat, had some red on her tail. We thought maybe she had gotten into something (it isn’t uncommon for her to have an assortment of stains on her fur) but when we investigated we found that she was actually bleeding and that there was about a 3/4″ laceration near the tip of her tail. When we looked at it we could see down to the bone. I immediately started panicking but thankfully John stayed calm. I called an amazing friend back in Ohio who is a vet to ask advice on what we should do to help her while John started calling around to find an emergency vet (it was 7:30pm on a Friday night). We were afraid that we wouldn’t be able to get her seen until the next morning so my friend told us ways to help her in the meantime if we couldn’t be seen immediately. I will only refer to her as Dr. T here but I want to extend a special thanks to her. I was absolutely a mess and she basically became MacGyver – asking me what I had on hand and working with that information to help Dora out all while keeping me calm.

John finally found an emergency vet that could get us in about an hour and 15 minutes from our current spot. We got Dora in a carrier and headed out the door. It was a long, dark, rainy drive on unfamiliar roads and we were very nervous the entire way there but we finally pulled in the parking lot of the Animal Emergency Clinic of Mid-Maine. The staff was great. They were incredibly friendly and did a triage exam as soon as we arrived. They said that it wasn’t critical so we were sent back to the car to wait. About a hour or so later they called us in. They checked her over again and the doctor told us that, thankfully, we didn’t need to amputate but that Pandora would need to be sedated to have the wound cleaned and sutured. Because Dora is almost 14 years old, we definitely wanted bloodwork done prior to having her sedated. It came back that she has hyperthyroid issues. It was decided that the usual anesthetic “kitty magic” (I kid you not, this is what it is called in the vet industry) was not safe for her so we came up with other options for sedation and treatment. (This is one of my many soapbox issues – ALWAYS OPT FOR THE PRE-OP BLOODWORK! You never know what will pop up and it is safest for your pet for the doctors to have a full picture of their health before putting them under sedation. Yes, it’s expensive. But is it worth it to make sure your pet is as safe as can be during a procedure? 100%)

They sent us back to the car and took Dora back for treatment. We were so nervous the entire time (even with using propofol instead of kitty magic, we were putting under an almost 14 year old cat with health issues – there are always risks) but the staff was amazing and about an hour later we were given some pain meds and thyroid medication and were putting a very wobbly cat with a weird new haircut back in her carrier for the ride home. We pulled in at the campground at around 2:30am. We set up a litter box and bowls of food and water in the bathroom, shut Pandora in there, then passed the f*** out.

When we woke up on Saturday morning my first thought was to check on Dora (she was irritated at having been confined to the bathroom all night but was otherwise completely fine and unfazed by our adventure the night before). My second thought was ” I am so glad we aren’t moving today”! We spent the day lounging on the couch and playing video games.

At 5:00, we headed to the campground pavilion for their Lobster Dinner/Clambake. For $30 per person we were each given one lobster, a handful of mussels and clams, a baked potato, an ear of corn, an onion, and a piece of blueberry cake. It was rainy and gross and we were tired and not feeling social so we took our dinners back to the house to eat then spent the reset of the evening watching television and napping.

We woke up Sunday morning still a little tired (we are getting older and it takes us much longer to bounce back than it used to) but felt much more prepared to face moving. We ate some breakfast, packed up the house, wrangled Pandora into her carrier (she usually just stays in the house during moves but we wanted to be able to keep an eye on her so she joined Harley and I in the car), and set off for Connecticut.

We decided start this week with more swamp themed fun so after John got off work, we loaded up Miss Harley and drove about 6 miles down Chef Menteur Highway to Bayou Sauvage Wildlife Rescue. We took a stroll on the 1/2 Mile Boardwalk Trail, a raised boardwalk that winds its way along the edge of the swamp. We had been hoping to see some wild boar but unfortunately, we didn’t see any wildlife. It was still a lovely walk with some nice scenery in gorgeous weather (about 65 degrees) and Harley can now say that she has pooped in a swamp! I think a large part of her travel goals involve pooping in different locations and rolling in the dirt in every state.

When we came home, we found that one of our neighbors had moved out. As mentioned in previous posts, the sites at Jude Travel Park are only slightly wider than the RVs themselves and we often didn’t have room to do any more than walk around the outside of our house. With this open space next to us, we finally had the room to get out the gas firepit that John had gotten for me the week before.

Fun fact: I love camping and I love our traveling lifestyle but smoke from campfires makes me unable to breathe. Another fun fact: I like breathing. We can’t do much about people around us but having the gas firepit makes it much more enjoyable for me to sit out around the fire, roasting hotdogs and marshmallows. It’s also a great investment for us because 1) firewood can get expensive and 2) firewood shouldn’t be transported from one campground to the next to prevent the spread of invasive pests and such. We also don’t have to wait for the fire to burn out at night. If we get tired and want to go inside or if something comes up and we want to leave – we just turn off the fire pit! We spent a quiet evening at home cooking dinner on the fire and relaxing.

Being on the move constantly means that we don’t often get mail. We have a mailing address in Florida that receives our mail and sends us scans of the outside. We can tell them to either discard it or we can have anything we want to keep bundled up and mailed to a location of our choosing- usually John’s Mom’s house. She hangs onto things and we pick up stuff from her in person if we pass through town or she can mail everything to us when we get to someplace we are able to get mail. Being in New Orleans for two months gave us a chance to get some things sent to us so we got a package from John’s best friend and her wife (some super cute socks)  and we got a few Christmas gifts from John’s Mom.

On Saturday, we were finally feeling well enough to return to Destrehan Plantation for a tour. Destrehan Plantation is the third oldest building in New Orleans- being beaten out by a brothel and a convent ironically enough. This home was constructed in 1787 by 8 slaves and took three years to build- they had to make EVERYTHING themselves- the bricks are made from mud from the river, beams are made of cypress, etc. The entire house was built using very few nails- mortise and tenon joints were used to join the beams together. The house uses a mud/plaster as insulation. The property was full of beautiful oak trees and I even got to make friends with a cat that lives there. It was a truly beautiful home but the dark history of slavery (including a slave revolt that took place at this very plantation) made it a very somber visit.

We needed some levity in  our lives after the plantation visit so, even though it was cold and rainy, we drove over to Metairie in the evening for the Mad Hatter’s Parade. This parade, being outside of the French Quarter, was able to have larger and more elaborate floats. This parade was very family friendly and was full of marching bands and baton twirlers from many local high schools, local dance squads, and even a dentist’s office throwing out little tubes of toothpaste and toothbrushes in addition to Mardi Gras beads. This parade taught us about Mardi Gras injuries – some of the beads that they throw are HEAVY and, especially when they are slippery from the rain and your fingers are super cold, they can quite painful to catch. They can be even more painful if you don’t catch them and they hit you in the face or other parts of your body. We ended up bringing home a ton of beads, some snacks items, a t-shirt, and a few cool hats. We also met some really nice people who gave us some suggestions on other things to do while we were in town and provided us with tips on celebrating Mardi Gras.

We also learned from this parade that when you have a ton of double and triple decker floats and large groups of teenagers walking a long distance, delays are bound to happen. People fall off of floats. Floats break down. Band and dance squad performers pass out. While our first parade lasted maybe an hour and a half – this parade lasted about 4 hours with significant periods of time where floats or groups were just stuck in front of us for long times. This is where you really learn about community. Riders on floats get bored and start talking to your or playing games. You can really spend time badgering them into throwing you a ton of swag. These are the fun delays. There are also times when high school groups get stuck in front of you and have to stand there in the rain and cold. One girl in one of the bands that got stalled in front of us was so cold that we got my winter coat from the car and let her wear it until they got moving again. People in the crowd also lent handwarmers and shared snacks with the stranded parade members until things got flowing again.

In addition to the beads and other fun souvenirs, I also brought home something I didn’t want – a compressed nerve in my back. For years, when I stand or walk for too long (usually about 30-45 minutes) I get a tingly feeling down my left thigh. If I don’t sit down and rest, my entire upper leg becomes numb. It isn’t really painful and usually I just sit down for a few minutes and the feeling improves and I can get up and go on about my business until it happens again. We had forgotten to put our lawn chairs in the car this time and the ground was wet from the rain so I opted to stand the entire 4 hours. I expected the feeling to come back once we got back to the car at the end of the night. It did not. In fact, I didn’t regain feeling again for 4 days and when I did- OH BOY. But more on that in next week’s post.

On Sunday, we were faced with a dilemma. Usually, we plan our day with breaks to come home and put Harley out or we do things that are short and can be done start-to-finish in about 6-7 hours (Harley’s limit for bathroom breaks). On this day, we wanted to go to three separate Mardi Gras Parades. The upside was that they all  had the same route and would proceed one after the other. The downside was that, due to road closures for the parade route, we wouldn’t be able to leave to go put Harley out. We made the decision to bring her with us and hope for the best.

We loaded up the car with lawn chairs (we learned our lesson from standing all night the night before) and a few bottles of water and headed downtown. John wore jeans and a t-shirt but I dressed for the occasion in a green shirt, black jeans, a black leather vest, a green feathered headband, and my long renaissance fair cloak. Harley was also looking festive in a purple bandana. We paid a little more for parking then we would have liked but the parking lot was right along the parade route so we were able to be in sight of the car the entire time and we had a place we could retreat to if Harley needed a break or if we needed to charge our phones for a bit.

While we thought that we had a good strategy, we had a lot to learn about doing Mardi Gras right. People around us arrived with grills, tents, sound systems, projector televisions and coolers full of provisions. One truck even pulled in with their own private port-a-potty in the back! Next to us a huge group spent the day grilling, playing music and playing games while watching the parades. Once it got dark, they even projected the Super Bowl onto the wall of a nearby building so that they could still watch the game without missing the parades.

Harley isn’t the greatest with other dogs and, while she loves people, we didn’t know how she would do in a big crowd. Thankfully, we were the only ones there with a dog for the most part (occasionally someone would walk through with another dog but they didn’t sit along the route anywhere near us). I got a little nervous when a police officer came over before the parade but he just wanted to tell her how pretty she was and give her belly rubs.

First up was the Mystic Krewe of Femme Fatale. This all female krewe put on a good parade and we really enjoyed them. We didn’t get a ton of swag from them but they gave a lot of stuff to the kids along the route and they had a ton of bands and dance groups that were super entertaining.

Next was the Krewe of Carrollton. This was the area that we had fallen in love with during our first week in town and the krewe was largely made up of businesses and residents from the area. They mostly all wore costumes that covered their faces but the floats were pretty cool. They also had some amazing dance groups – one of all older women called the Milkshakers and one of some very enthusiastic and flammbouyant men called the Swampers. They were having an excellent time and were so fun to watch.

Finally, we got to the biggest parade of the day and the one we had been most looking forward to – The Krewe of King Arthur. This krewe was well organized and they all had enormous floats – not only were they two or three levels high but they also had multiple linked together in a row! They also had a group of Dolly Parton’s and a group of Elvis impersonators! While we LOVED all of the parades we attended, I think this one was the favorite for both of us.

The super coolest thing about the Krewe of King Arthur is that they are one of the krewes with pretty well known custom throws. Basically, each parade is hosted by a different group called a krewe. Each krewe has their own general theme. All of the krewes throw out things like candy, snacks, beads, toys and trinkets. Some of the krewes have custom items, though. The Krewe of Muses gives out hand decorated high-heeled shoes and the Krewe of Zulu has hand painted coconuts. For the Krewe of King Arthur the item is a hand decorated chalice – a Grail.

 Unlike the other things that they give out, the special throws are few and far between and are highly coveted keepsakes. Each krewe member spends the entire year decorating and working on these custom throws and usually only have one or two to give out during the entire length of the parade. Because of this, they usually only give them to a person who really stands out to them along the route.

By this time, I was tired. My leg was still numb from the night before and I wasn’t feeling too well. (Something you need to know about me is that I made poor choices a lot. I have some stomach issues and if we are going to be somewhere without easy access to restrooms I usually won’t eat or drink. This is NOT a great strategy at an all day 12 hour Mardi Gras parade where you are sitting in the sun for most of the time).We had even let a band member sit in our chairs and cool down at one point, providing them with some of our bottled water until they could get up and get moving again but I still hadn’t learned my lesson. I had shed my headband, cloak, and vest and was sitting in the lawn chair back on the sidewalk with Harley. John decided the best course of action was to put on my costume (see his photo in the collage above) and hang out in the street right up against the floats where he could make creepy eye contact and stare down the riders on the floats, cajoling them into giving him things. His strategy worked though – we came home with not just one but FIVE of the custom grails along with multiple shopping bags worth of other swag.

I went home with severe dehydration, a splitting headache, a horrible sunburn and then proceeded to lay on the couch vomiting between bites of a Wendy’s cheeseburger and fries for a few hours before finally passing out.

And how did Harley do? She spent her day lounging on the sidewalk or in the lawn chairs that we brought and managed to score several stuffed toys to chew on and a new leash -compliments of a lovely gay couple on one of the King Arthur floats who absolutely fell in love with her during a period that they stalled out in front of us.

With all that happened, though, I think the most valuable thing we brought home was the knowledge that Harley LOVES marching bands but absolutely DESPISES horses. F*** those guys.

On Saturday July 22, we moved from Leeds, Maine to Nobleboro, Maine. The drive was only supposed to be about an hour and a half but, thanks to a few detours, it ended up being about 2 hours. Still not a bad drive. The roads were pretty rough, though, and we did end up losing a piece of our plumbing from under the house. I didn’t actually get to see it fall off as we got separated by a few cars while passing through a small town. I did notice a piece of PVC pipe laying in the road at one point on the drive and I just knew it came from our house. I radioed up to John to let him know.

We arrived at Duck Puddle Campground around 2:00 and found our site. The ground was very uneven and we had some trouble with our wheel chocks and blocks due to the wet, sandy earth. Thankfully, the owner of the campground is parked next to us and went and found some thick boards for us to put under our wheels which basically allowed us to level the house. Once we got things settled, we were off to Home Depot in Rockland to get what we needed to replace the plumbing.

While in Rockland, we decided to grab dinner from Claws, a seafood restaurant right on the water. We ordered the Seafood Fries, a Lobster Burger, and the Fried Clam Strip Basket. It took FOREVER to get our food but we did get to sit outside and watch the fog roll in off the bay. The Lobster Burger was really good, the fries were enjoyable except for the cheese sauce being a little bland, but the clams really needed some more seasoning in the batter. Regardless, we ate until we thought we were going to burst then drove back home to fix the house.

When we got back, there was a band playing at the stage just down the lane from our house so we put up our gazebo and Harley and I sat and listened to music while John fixed the house. We had a few neighbors stop to say hello and had a really relaxing evening.

On Sunday, we headed out to breakfast at Moody’s Diner in nearby Waldoboro. This diner has been around since 1930! We each opted for the All Day Breakfast Special – bacon strips and scrambled eggs for both of us with blueberry pancakes for me and French toast for John. We also split a blueberry muffin.

After breakfast, we drove back over to Rockland to scope out the location of the Lobster Festival next week. We got out and walked around the cutest little shopping area. We visited several stores, including a pet store where we bought a stuffed lobster for Harley, and walked off a little of our breakfast. We stopped off at a few shops on the way back to the campground, too. At one farmstand we bought some carrots, spinach, beans, and jelly and at another we bought some wild Maine blueberries. We checked out an antique store, too, but didn’t see anything we couldn’t live without.

The coolest store we stopped at was the Maine State Prison Showroom in Thomaston. This store sells handcrafted items made by inmates serving time in the state of Maine. This program serves to provide a way for inmates to fill their time while teaching them job skills and a way to earn and save money to help them after they are released. The items were all really well made and very reasonably priced. They had furniture, toys, and household items all crafted from wood along with a few other things like candles. We bought the cutest bird house that looks like an acorn and a tin cup candle.

On Monday we FINALLY got to go on a whale watching trip! We had been rained out for both of our reservations in Portland so we had opted to book through Cap’n Fish’s in Boothbay Harbor. This tour also offered the opportunity to visit Eastern Egg Rock to see puffins. We were able to snag seats right at the front of the boat on the upper deck. The weather was warm and sunny and it turned out to be a perfect day.

We watched in awe as the captain threaded his way through all of the boats and buoys in the harbor. We hadn’t been moving long when we spotted a few small groups of porpoises swimming alongside us! We even got to see one seal. I was feeling a bit sad because we didn’t get to take any photos of these animals because they were just moving too quickly. I was worried about not being able to see or get photos of the whales. I shouldn’t have been concerned.

The captain took us to a spot where some whales had been sighted earlier in the day and within a few moments we were watching these giant creatures slide through the water all around us. We think we saw about 5 in total – a combination of Humpback and Minke whales. We would see their back come up out of the water in one spot, then see and hear a burst as they spouted water somewhere else. Occasionally we would see a tail flip up out of the water as well.

I was already so excited that I had tears running down my cheeks. We had been told that seeing a whale isn’t a guarantee and now we had seen several. This was even better than I had hoped for and I was absolutely sure that I would be returning to the dock a happy girl. Then we saw one breach. The captain said that we were lucky- that this is what everyone hopes for but not many actually get to see. To watch something of that size just pop up out of the water was unbelievable. Even though they twisted and kind of side/belly flopped back into the water with a huge splash there was still something really elegant about it.

We floated about for a little while longer and the captain came on the speaker and said that we would be moving on as it appeared that the show was over. Then we saw a second breach.

I don’t usually like to brag but I am damn proud of myself for snapping photos of both of these events. It was absolutely amazing to witness and I would have been happy going through life with that in my brain but to have photos of it (and video that John managed to capture), we can relive it over and over. We were so lucky and thankful!

We did eventually tear ourselves away from the whales (I think even the captain was reluctant to leave them) and made the hour long ride out to Eastern Egg Rock where a colony of puffin are located. The island is very small but there were so many birds – puffins and seagulls and cormorants and more. We also enjoyed spying on the little shack and tents setup in the middle of the rock – an outpost for scientists to study the puffin. The puffin weren’t super active because it was a warm day and they usually like it a little cooler but we did get to see a few floating in the water off shore. We even got to watch them dive. The hour long ride back to the harbor was really peaceful and everyone was smiling after the incredible luck we had had.

We had a great time on the tour and would recommend them to anyone visiting the area. They often have openings for walk-ups but you can schedule ahead by visiting https://www.boothbayboattrips.com/. We checked out several different tour companies but went with this one as we wanted to see both whales and puffins so be sure to shop around for the option that works best for you.

On Wednesday, we found ourselves back on the water in Boothbay Harbor. This time, we boarded a boat called the Bennie Alice which would ferry us to Cabbage Island for a clam bake. We booked through a company called Cabbage Island Clambakes on the recommendation of my aunt Penny who knows two of the owners. We tried to book about a month ago but they were booked solid! Thankfully, we were able to get on their waitlist and the contacted us a few weeks later with an opening- we said yes immediately!

A little history about Cabbage Island Clambakes – the island is currently owned by the Moore family. It was purchased in 1986 by Wayne Moore as a summer retreat. Previous owners had created Cabbage Island Clambakes but the business had ended when they sold the island. At the urging of local fishermen, Wayne and his brother, Bob, along with their families, brought back the business in 1989 and has operated annually since. The Bennie Alice (the boat that transports passengers to and from the island) was named after the matriarch of the Moore Family who loved spending time on the island and spent her summers running the gift shop. She passed away just a few years ago at the age of 100. For full history and to make your reservations, be sure to visit https://www.cabbageislandclambake.com/. They do book up so be sure to reserve well in advance but don’t completely give up if they don’t have openings when you check – just join their waitlist and you might still get to go! This was a truly unique experience and we loved every minute.

The experience started with an hour long tour of the harbor and bay. The captain pointed out lighthouses and private islands and told some great stories. We learned that actress Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch from the original Wizard of Oz) lived on one of the islands for many summers. She would take her boat into town to get groceries from Hannaford’s. We learned about one island that is now a private spa where you can stay for just $25k per week.

The island is around 5 acres and has rocky shores with lots of green vegetation in the center. One end of the island is more open and we were able to see a huge osprey nest in a tree. We were told that it isn’t uncommon to see seals sunbathing in the rocks but there were none there that day. Near the middle of the island along the coast was the clambake area and as the boat approached the dock we could see the steam rising up from the piles of delicious food.

Bob and Wayne were there to greet us as we disembarked. We walked up the hill from the shore and found several different areas with picnic tables. We chose a seat and were soon greeted by our server. We were provided with tea, water or coffee for free or could order drinks from the cash bar. We were served steaming cups of New England Fish Chowder which were absolutely perfect.

Suddenly, a bell rang and everyone started lining up. The line moved quickly and several members of the Moore family spoke to guests in line. When it was our turn, we were each handed a tray with two lobsters, steamer clams, an ear of corn, a potato, an onion, and an egg. Back at the table, our waiter was kind enough to show us how to eat our clams and lobster and we were very inexperienced. He was so helpful and didn’t make us feel dumb for asking for help.

The food was amazing. I have never eaten a whole lobster before but I have had plenty of lobster rolls, lobster tail, and many other dishes containing lobster. This was the best I have ever tasted. John, who is not a seafood eater, was worried that he wouldn’t like anything on the menu but he was willing to try it for the experience and because I was so excited about it. He loved everything. After lunch, we were also served a gigantic slice of blueberry cake. John especially loved the cake and at his and half of mine.

After dinner, we said hello to Kathy and Ryan Moore (a request from my aunt) and set off to explore. Kathy had told us that the path behind the gift shop leads to the end of the island and that, at low tide, you could actually walk across an exposed land bridge to a smaller island. The water was low enough while we were there so John made the trek over for some solo adventuring. My knee had been bothering me so I opted to stay on the connecting bit of land and check out all of the cool rocks. We were both in our own happy places. We made it back to the boat just in time for boarding for the return trip. We were super full and very happy and enjoyed the ride back to the dock in contented silence.

I am always happiest on the water and was so happy to have been able to spend two days on the water. Boothbay Harbor is an amazing town and the views are gorgeous. Our first week in this area had been wonderful and we still adventures planned for next week and will have the Lobster Festival to attend!

At the beginning of January, we had been nearing the end of our time in Hattiesburg and looking forward to coming to New Orleans and seeing what adventures lay ahead. At the end of January, we were so frustrated and really beginning to question if staying in one place for two months was the best choice.

Monday January 30^th started out like a normal day. John still wasn’t walking the greatest so I had been primarily in charge of taking Harley outside so I put her harness on her and headed out for our morning trip to the dog park. Because the park was so small and there was essentially no grass, there was a designated “dog park” at the front of the park just behind the front fence. Because Harley isn’t always friendly with other dogs, we tried to take her at times when it wouldn’t be busy. As we left our house and started walking down the driveway to the entrance, I looked both ways for approaching dogs and, seeing none, turned out of our spot and headed toward the front.

Suddenly, two other dogs from down the driveway came after us. They were both bigger than Harley and kept jumping on her. One, another pit bull, kept biting at her face and neck. I was scared to death and I could tell that Harley was also distressed so I started screaming at the other dogs. John heard it and came running out of the house as the other dogs’ owners eventually walked up, too. The other owners, a man and a woman, grabbed the leashes that were trailing their dogs and we finally got them separated. Thankfully no humans were bitten and Harley only had some minor irritation to one eye. We weren’t able to get any vaccine info from the other people as they became obscene and slightly threatening. Like even though I was just walking my dog (on leash) to the dog park and their dogs, who were technically “on leash” as the leashes were attached to the dogs but no one was holding them and they weren’t secured to anything, it was somehow my fault. The man said that Harley had barked at their dogs (which she did AS THEY WERE RUNNING UP ON US) and that had provoked them to come after us.

We walked Harley on down to the dog park (John tagged along in case anything else happened) and they kept following us, most likely trying to start another confrontation. We alerted the owners of the park but nothing was really done about it, even though other long time residents had also had altercations with these same people. Apparently the other owners were permanent residents at our park following a housefire and didn’t have plans to leave any time soon. They did eventually move from their spot towards the middle of the park where we were located to the very back corner but they also continued to bring their dogs down to the dog park if they saw us there with Harley and gave us dirty looks every chance they got. Thankfully, nothing else happened during our stay but it definitely added an unpleasant element to our stay. And, although it WAS NOT our fault that this happened, we did start using a “gentle leader” collar on Harley to give us better control and try to stop her barking at other dogs.

Aside from the dog encounter, it was another quiet week at home. John’s foot was healing up nicely so we decided to head out for the weekend to our first Mardi Gras Parade! When we got to New Orleans, we didn’t understand that Mardi Gras was not just one weekend of parties and parades – it’s a season that lasts almost 2 months with multiple parades all around the city every weekend leading up to Fat Tuesday. Each parade is hosted by a different “krewe” – like a group or club- and each parade had a different theme. Most of the parades are family friendly, although a few are not. We had wanted to go to a couple of the early parades but, due to John’s foot injury, we didn’t feel it was a wise decision until now.

Our first parade was one of the adult themed krewes which is well known for adult humor, political themes, and papier mache genitalia. This was the Krew De Vieux parade. While a lot of the political references went over our head due to focusing on local politics – specifically issues with New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell- a lot of the floats were funny and kind of impressive. The costumes were fun and, while everyone seemed pretty dedicated to showing their contempt for their current government officials, the overall spirit was festive and friendly. John and I walked to a nearby shopping center for beignets and sodas then settled in on a bench along the parade route for the procession.

We received a few beads along with some magnets, wooden tokens, rubber chickens and some more adult favors but the coolest part of the night was completely unexpected and took us both by surprise. I had dressed up in costume for the parade wearing a purple corset dress with a long black cloak. I had taken my leather jacket in case I got cold but my cloak kept me warm enough. John, in his t-shirt and jeans, had NOT planned for the temperatures to drop after dark and ended up wearing my cropped leather moto jacket. Towards the end of the parade, a man on a motorized cart was stopped in front of us (the parade often has lots of stops, starts, and delays) and looked over at John. We had been smiling and waving to everyone in the parade and we did the same to him. He smiled back, pointed to John and motioned for him to come over. The man was wearing a home-made hat – a cardboard football helmet with a foam dome attached to the top with the whole thing covered in twinkling fairy lights- and he took it off and gave it to John! John thought he was just meant to try it on and tried to return it but the man waved him off and then drove on when the parade starting moving again. Our first parade and John got a custom souvenir! After the crappy few weeks we had, this definitely put a smile on his face.

We finished out our week with a busy day on Sunday. We got up and headed east out of town, across Lake Pontchartrain, to the town of Slidell for a tour of Honey Island Swamp.  We had such a great time! The boat was a long, narrow boat with bench seating inside. It was not one of the airboats but did have a very large engine and our guide was able to really fly through the water. We got to see alligators, racoons, snakes, and several different bird species. We were hoping to see some wild pigs but, unfortunately, they had other plans.

In addition to the wildlife, we got to see all of the houses and cabins (called “camps”) along the edges of the swamp- some built right on the waterways. Some were really nice, cute little homes and others were dilapidated shacks that defied the laws of physics by still standing (although some had finally succumbed to gravity and fallen in). We even saw one house built on a floating platform that had broken away from it’s tethers upstream (probably during the recent storms) and floated downstream. Who knows how far it had traveled (but our guide wasn’t familiar with it) but it had ended up stuck around Honey Island. The guide said that eventually the owners would notice it was missing and come looking for it, paying someone to tow it back upstream to wherever it belonged.

We learned that for many people, these camps are just weekend getaways, while others live there -with their families- full time. This is made even more impressive by the fact that there ARE NO ROADS accessing these areas. The only way to and from these residences are by boat on the waterways through the bayous. Everything must be brought in by boat. Children and adults who go to school or work outside of the home must pile into their boats each morning, go to the dock, and either catch a bus or drive in to the city and then get dropped back off at the dock and take their boats back home. Talk about a crazy commute!

After the swamp tour, we drove home to walk Harley and to load up our GlowForge (laser cutter) which we had finally found a buyer for. They lived in Pensacola, FL but had agreed to meet us half way between there and New Orelans in Biloxi, MS which was about an hour and a half drive for each of us. We met in the parking lot of a well known bbq joint, The Shed, where we had dinner afterwards and fed the stray cats who hang out on the property before starting the drive back home. It had been a crazy weekend but it felt so good to be back to exploring!

After a week full of mosquitoes and rain, we were at a loss on how to spend our Saturday. We had really enjoyed the restful week and it had been great to lounge around on the new couch (so comfortable!) but we were starting to get tired of being cooped up in the house. After some brainstorming and talking to a few locals, however, we decided to take a snacking tour of the coast.

We started our day by driving to Brunswick, Maine to visit Frosty’s. This was recommended to us by a friend of John’s and we are so glad that he made this recommendation as they were by far the best donuts we had all day. We had the raised twist, an apple fritter, and a lavender blueberry tea. The twist was about as long as my forearm and the fritter was the size of a plate. They were fairly busy when we walked in but the staff moved the line through quickly and we found a small table where we could sit and enjoy our treats.

After lunch we walked around a very cute downtown area and checked out a few shops. We also discovered that if you ever want to kidnap or murder us, just lure us away from the crowd using signs for a bookstore. We ended up in an alley behind the main strip and stepped through a back door to a claustrophobic, musty little store with stacks of books. It was heaven. We browsed for a bit but didn’t see anything that we couldn’t live without so we hopped back in the car and headed to our next destination.

We decided that we should probably have some actual food instead of just eating junk all day so we stopped at Otto in Yarmouth, Maine for lunch. We had eaten at one of their other locations in Brookline, Massachusettes several years ago and really loved it so we were excited to eat here. We got the Mashed Potato, Bacon, and Scallion pizza and the Two Cheese Garlic Breadsticks (it turns out that this is not a quantity of two cheesy breadsticks but a platter full of garlic bread covered with two different cheeses). The food was just as good as we remembered.

Our next stop was Toots Ice Cream, just about 10 minutes from the pizza restaurant. We hadn’t realized that this wasn’t just an ice cream shop but the actual dairy as well! We got a small blueberry and a small strawberry which we ate while we strolled through the farm. We met cows and chickens along the way and thanked them for their fine work.

Next, we were off to Portland, Maine for Hi-Fi Donuts. We found street parking a few blocks away and walked to the restaurant. They also seemed busy but moved through the line quickly. The had so many choices that we would have liked to try everything but we limited ourselves to three – a Salted Honeydew Cooler, a Strawberry Shortcake, and a Boysenberry. We were still stuffed from lunch and ice cream so we took them home and tried them later. The Strawberry Shortcake and the Boysenberry were delicious. The Honeydew Cooler was better than we expected but was a little strange. Still, we are glad we tried it.

We were delighted to find a bookstore nearby so we stopped for some browsing. We also happened to find a terrarium store along the way back to the car and I just about fell over when John suggested going in. I LOVE plants but I am absolutely and totally incapable of keeping them alive. I have killed cactus. I have killed bamboo. John is always telling me not to buy more plants but I am always buying more and bringing them home to die a sad death from either overwatering or underwatering or being eaten/laid on by the cats. I actually checked his head for signs of fever before finally accepting that he had just gone insane. When we walked in the shop, I immediately felt at home when I saw the skull and crossbones mosaic on the floor in the entryway.

The store sold individual plants and some ready made terrariums and planters but they also offered the option to build your own! You select the container and the staff will supply everything you need and walk you through the process. Customers can even order a beer while you are working! The surprises kept coming when John said that we should build a terrarium. He even let me buy a little T-rex to put inside.

We chose a large jug and started filling it with a layer of gravel followed by a layer of dirt. While we were working, a staff member would flit and flutter about, plucking cuttings from this plant and bits of that moss, and drop them on our table. We used very long tweezer/tongs and a dowel rod to place our plants and move everything around. The final step was having a staff member add a few bugs (to eat the dead plant matter and fertilize new growth) and spray in some water and then we were walking out the door with our new terrarium.

Our last stop of the day was at Holy Donut for two of their potato donuts – a glazed and a Blueberry Holy Cannoli which were both also very good.

Saturday evening, we hopped on our bikes and rode around the campground checking out the Christmas decorations for Christmas in July weekend. Several of the campsites had put out a few decorations but there were a few who really went all out. We stopped and chatted with a few folks and made a few friends.

We woke up early Sunday to a text message that our whale watching tour scheduled later in the morning had been cancelled due to bad weather. We rescheduled for the following morning and spent our day grocery shopping and watching television. We did run out for lunch at Red Barn which had been recommended to us from several sources. The fried clams were the best! The Lobster roll was good but small for the price. The rest of the fried seafood was okay but the breading lacked any flavor.

The tour on Monday was also cancelled. We decided that maybe this just wasn’t in the cards for us this week. It turns out that we ended up being thankful for being home all day because we were there to receive our Amazon packages that we had ordered almost a week ago! We were also there to notice when the air conditioner quit blowing cold air.

Ever since the A/C condenser fell off of the house during our first move back in October of last year we had been worried that we had a slow leak and it turns out that we were right. John checked the freon and we have absolutely none. He made several calls to have someone come out and work on it but hasn’t been able to get ahold of anyone. I don’t know that John cared about me being hot but when he saw how badly Harley was panting he announced that we would be going to Home Depot to buy a portable unit to keep us cool until we could get the other one fixed.

We purchased a Toshiba 8000 BTU unit that vents through a window and only required drilling a small hole in the floor to run the drainage tube out. We were able to run it through some dead space near the wheel well so once we no longer need the portable unit we can fill the hole and it won’t even be noticeable. The house is so much cooler now but this unit pulls almost double the amperage as the old one so we have to be more careful of what appliances we are using at one time – especially because this campsite only has 30 amp power instead of the usual 50 that we have gotten used to.

John also opened up some of our Amazon packages. The first was a new camera for filming his YouTube videos. This is the DJI Pocket 2 Creator Combo and he got a great deal last week between Prime Day and ordering an “open box item”. It turns out that it hadn’t been opened but had some minor damage to the box. That’s all. It is brand new and works great. For anyone who is interested, here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HWCCS6S?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Next, we used the new camera to film the unboxing and assembly of our Gazelle G6 Camping Gazebo. We added an awning to the house back in June but had also been thinking of purchasing an additional portable canopy. We had been checking out different sporting goods and big box stores for the past few months but hadn’t found anything we were in love with that would also be portable enough for us to disassemble, pack away, get out, and reassemble every few weeks. The mosquito situation here really confirmed that we needed something with walls or screens so we were so happy that this finally arrived. It took John almost exactly 4 minutes to open the packaging and assemble the canopy – including losing the directions a few times. You can check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TB6DBV8?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

We also ordered a Jackery (portable battery) and a dash cam for the Kia (which we will try out later this week).

With the gazebo set up, we decided to spend the evening outside. We moved the grill into the gazebo and cooked hotdogs for dinner. We sat in our lawn chairs while we ate and used the Jackery to power a fan and John’s laptop so we could watch “Acapulco” on AppleTV while we were outside. I think we have finally reached perfection.

We also had some additional entertainment in the form of a visitor to the gazebo – a young black and white cat! He was super friendly and, after a few puffed tails and hasty retreats, even made friends with Harley and played with her through the screen. We shared a few bites of hotdog before he got bored with us and went scampering off into the darkness. We found out a few days later that he actually belongs to the manager of the campground and is NOT supposed to be outside. We told her that he had joined us for dinner and promised to keep an eye out for him for the rest of our stay just in case he broke out again.

Our last adventure in this area was a fancy dinner on Tuesday night. John had made us a reservation for the Chef’s Table at The Oak Table & Bar and we were excited to visit. We had a great time talking with the chef and watching him cook. The restaurant was small and, even though the “Chef’s Table” was a long bar which we shared with 6 other people, it was very intimate and cozy. And the food was incredible.

We opted for the Four Course Tasting Menu so that we could sample eight dishes in total. We went with the New England Cheeses, Burrata Salad, Apple Glazed Sunchoke, Fried Brussels Sprouts, Local Charcuterie, Panko Crust Eggplant, Seared Atlantic Scallops, and the Grilled Sirloin Tips. We also split a Snickerdoodle Crème Brulé for dessert. For cocktails, we enjoyed a Pina Colada, I Wish You Roses, Blueberry Mojito, and Acadia in Summer (which contained Maine Sweet Pea Syrup which was surprising but delicious).

We spent the rest of the week relaxing at home watching television and playing video games. It felt kind of weird to just be spending our time on the couch in the evenings but with the schedule we have for the next few weeks, we decided to get as much rest as possible while we still could.

Next week we will be posting about our move from Leeds, Maine to Nobleboro, Maine in preparation for the Lobster Festival. This will be our final move North/East for the season – in a few weeks we will turn around and start our slow crawl back south for the winter.

Because John and I were together for almost a decade before we got married, we still celebrate our dating anniversary each year and, this year, it fell during our time in New Orleans. We made reservations at Landry’s – a restaurant built right on the water on Lake Pontchartrain – and got ready for a “date night”. Dinner was okay but not as good as I had hoped although eating lakeside did offer some pretty views. We had the New Orleans Crawfish Bread, Mixed Grill (lobster tail, filet, bacon wrapped shrimp enbrochette, and asparagus) and the Prime Ribeye with Shrimp and Crab Scampi. Because we weren’t super impressed with the food, we decided to pick up dessert elsewhere and take it home.

We ended up stopping at Angelo Brocato and picked up a Mezza Crema and a cannoli for our desserts. They were amazing!

The next day I realized that I had left my sweater at Landry’s and when I called they said that they were holding on to it for me. We headed over to get it after John got off work and also used the opportunity to take our new e-bikes out for a spin along the waterfront.

When we left Ohio, I had taken my bicycle (which was gifted to me by a friend) but John had sold his bike. While my bike was perfectly acceptable for leisurely rides, John’s was a high-end street bike which he used to ride in the Pelotonia fundraiser in Columbus each year for the past few years. My bike was no match for his. When it was time to buy a new set of wheels for John, we actually decided that we would both just get e-bikes. These bikes are made for riding on pavement, gravel, dirt-whatever. They have pedal assist capabilities to help when riding up steep inclines (or for when you just get really tired) and the battery life is about 60 miles. They are heavy as hell (about 70lbs each) but they fold up easily for convenient storage and transportation and would put us on equal ground. It was an expensive investment (about $2500 for both bikes and accessory packs) but it was worth it! We took advantage of a great sale at the end of the year and ordered our bikes while we were still in Hattiesburg. We had them delivered to the park in New Orleans and they arrived just a few days after we did. After much research (internet research on ratings and reviews, watching several YouTube videos, and talking with other e-bike owners we met on our travels) we had gone with the Lectric eBike XP 3.0 – one in black for John and one in white for me (which I promptly began covering in stickers).

I would like to mention here that we LOVE our bikes. We did have one issue with my bike when it arrived – my display screen was cracked when it came out of the packaging. We contacted the company and they sent us a replacement with absolutely no issues at all. John was able to switch them out and now everything is as good as new.

We had had the bikes for a week or two and had tested them out around the campground but since the park was small and the neighborhood was bad, we hadn’t had a lot of experience on them. Coming down to Lake Pontchartrain was the perfect time to really see what they could do. The lakeshore on the southside near our current home was all paved and had stairs leading down to the water and a large section for walking or biking at the top of the bank. We rode a few miles down the shore and back, then took a longer ride through a neighborhood and around the docks out to a small peninsula to really enjoy the views. All told, we road about 7 miles and were able to get our bikes up to around 20 mph when using it in “full throttle” mode. I could tell that we were going to love these bikes!

While we had a blast on the bikes, we realized we had a big problem the next day. John has had issues with his Achilles tendon in the past that had caused him to be out of commission and in a boot for almost two months back in 2021. Apparently, riding bikes without stretching was enough to trigger the injury again and he woke up unable to walk the next morning. Thankfully, this injury wouldn’t take as long to heal as it had the last time this happened. Unfortunately, it meant that we wouldn’t be doing much walking for the next few weeks and would miss a few of the early Mardi Gras parades but we still made the best of things.

We did make it to Metairie for some shopping (I shopped while John sat on a bench) and saw some really cool costumes on display in the mall there.

We also went out for lunch at a restaurant called Deanie’s (partly because we heard it was good and partly because that is the nickname we use for our cat Heraldine). We had our first experience with charbroiled oysters and ate a ton of fried seafood. It was also at this restaurant that we experienced something new and unexpected – instead of a basket of bread served with the meal you are given a basket of cooked potatoes. We were a little confused at first but we figured “when in Rome, right?”.  They were delicious and we quickly ate the entire basket.

It was now three weeks into our time in “The Big Easy” and we still had so much to do. We hoped John’s foot would heal quickly. Little did we know that this was just the first of our New Orleans injuries and that we would spend the rest of our stay trading off issues between the two of us.

Our fourth week started out with some nasty storms blowing through. We had some high winds and heavy rain but thankfully all the severe weather and tornadoes missed us. Because we were up all night, though, ready to grab the cats and run for shelter at a moment’s notice, we didn’t get any sleep. We spent the first few days of the week exhausted with me sick and John still injured. We decided to take things pretty easy this week.

While we took this opportunity to stay close to home, we did get to try out a restaurant that was just a few doors down from the gate to our park. Natal’s didn’t look like much from the outside but the food was amazing! We had fried shrimp with corn and mashed potatoes that were just so good and comforting and a really delicious Po’ Boy Sandwich. In addition to the restaurant portion, there was also a section that had a few snack items and beverages so we also got to try some local chips and sodas. We would definitely be eating here a few more times before leaving town.

Since John didn’t feel like getting out and doing much, we used our evenings to book campgrounds for our return trip from New Orleans to Ohio. Due to healthcare needs, vet appointments, and just being homesick we decided to swing back through our hometown in May. We didn’t want to head north too quickly – we had learned during the unseasonable cold spell in Jackson that we didn’t want to deal with freezing pipes- but we figured mid-May would be safe. We also don’t like to drive too much at a time so we ended up planning our route and booking stops in Mobile and Auburn in Alabama, Macon and Atlanta in Georgia, Rocky Top in Tennessee, and Falmouth in Kentucky before returning to Delaware, OH on May 7^th. I started planning activities for these stops and John took care of all of the campsite reservations.

We did venture out on the weekend for a mini adventure. We had lunch at Willie Mae’s – Fried Chicken and a Chicken Sandwich on Saturday followed by a slow day at home.

On Sunday, we went out for a drive around town – this time crossing the Mississippi and heading west through New Orleans. We drove over some really cool bridges and found a few cute parks. We also passed Destrehan Plantation and decided we wanted to visit. While John was starting to feel better, we didn’t want to rush things we so planned a visit for a later date, grabbed lunch at Camellia Grill (I had the potato omelette and John had a burger) and spent the rest of the day at home hoping that by next weekend we would be able to get back to normal.

On July 8th, we packed up the house and pulled out of our campground in New Hampshire. Getting ready for the move had been a bit more time consuming that usual due to us remodeling the entire back 1/3 of our house but we finally got things tucked away and strapped in and hit the road for Maine. It was just about a 2 hour drive from Carroll, New Hampshire to Riverbend Campground in Leeds, Maine and, for once, the drive actually went super smoothly. We had filled up both gas tanks earlier in the week so we didn’t even need to stop. The cats all made the trip inside the house and Harley rode with me in the car. We have a fairly level pull-through spot and nothing was destroyed or broken in the house so there really wasn’t a lot for me to straighten up once we arrived, either. We got settled quickly and found ourselves with a novel problem – what were we going to do for the rest of the evening?

As we were sitting outside on our HUGE lot, an employee of the campground wandered over and offered me some fresh made popcorn. I am a tremendous lover of popcorn and was immediately delighted. We were told that they were having a food truck on site at 5:00 and would have a band playing at 7:00. Our spot, aside from being so large that we were initially confused by it, is also located directly across from the activity center and catty-cornered from the pool. We decided to do something crazy – something we had never done before (certainly not for a really long time, anyway) and SPEND THE EVENING AT HOME DOING NOTHING! Usually on move days, something goes wrong and we have to spend the evening fixing things or cleaning up or running to the store. We often are so worn out after a move that we don’t feel like cooking so we venture out in search of dinner from a nearby restaurant. In this case, the food and entertainment were coming to us!

We walked down the lane to the office/store and bought some ice cream snacks. The lady working the office was super friendly and wonderful and we chatted with her for a while before heading back to the house. At 5:00 we walked over to the food truck and got dinner and ate in the house while watching some television. The truck was called “Shut Up N Eat It” and we had the Mac Dog, the Slop, an order of fries and a Fried Dough.

When we were done eating, we walked back over to the activity pavilion and chatted with a few people. We retired back to our site, pulled out some lawn chairs and talked to several other campers who stopped by with questions about the tiny house and we listened to the band play for a while. Another staff member came over once the music was underway and talked for quite a while. He gave us lots of information about the surrounding area and a few recommendations on things to do. After he left, we eventually came back inside and got ready for bed. This was absolutely the best campground we had been to in a long while and we slept contentedly all night.

On Sunday we decided to drive into the state capital, Augusta, which was only about 30 minutes away. We found a well rated brunch spot in a town called Gardiner, Bintliff’s Corner Brew, and enjoyed a Kennebec Breakfast Sandwich and a Librarian Omelette along with two local sodas then took a stroll through the cutest area imaginable.

We shopped in a small department store and stopped by a gaming shop for a few packs of Magic the Gathering cards (we have decided to start playing again- we already told you all we were nerds) then walked along the Kennebec river on the way back to the car. We ran a few other errands (including finding a roadside Strawberry stand and a small farm market where we bought some pastries) and took a drive through Augusta (where the streets are lined with giant painted fish) then came back home for another quiet evening of television and relaxation. We could definitely get used to this life!

On Thursday night, we were bored so we took Harley for a ride. There are several lakes near us but most of the lakeshores are private property. We did finally find a spot to pull over and stretch our legs in Livermore Falls at the Livermore Dam. Harley kept trying to drink from the water but it would splash up in her face pretty often and she soon grew tired of trying. We couldn’t get over how fast the water was moving! We also found a little trail area but were attacked by mosquitoes (like seriously swarms of them) and retreated to the car after about 2 minutes. We ended up back at the house where John made stir fry beef for dinner using some mushrooms, onion, and garlic scapes he had picked up from a local farm stand and some beef from the grocery store.

On Friday evening, the campground had another food truck. This one was called Hero’s on Wheels and is a local veteran-owned truck. We had the Steak Bomb and an order of Chicken Fingers with fries. Of course, we had to get the fried dough for dessert. It turns out that’s a thing in Maine and we aren’t upset about it at all.

Other than that, it’s been a pretty quiet week. Between the rain nearly every day and the insane number of mosquitoes in the evenings and other bugs during the day, we haven’t ventured out much. We typically love doing outdoor things but we also prefer to not be eaten alive by swarms of insects so we have been spending time on the couch watching television and movies. We have been trying to knock off movies that we have never seen before so we ended up watching Good Will Hunting and Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania which we both really enjoyed. Television wise, we watched (and HIGHLY recommend) The Bear (season 2 now streaming on Hulu) and Acapulco (3 seasons streaming on AppleTV- we just started season 2).

We did order a few things from Amazon but, due to shipping delays from the Prime Day rush and the fact that we are very much in the middle of nowhere, our 2-Day shipping has turned into 6 day shipping so I will be sure to talk about our purchases and give brief reviews of those next week. And yes, we know that Amazon is not a great company but our lifestyle sometimes requires items that are hard to locate in stores wherever we happen to be that week (bags for our composting toilet, various pieces and parts for the house, specialty electronics). We try to shop local as often as we can but sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way.

Coming up next week: Christmas in July and so many donuts!