The Tiny House Travelers

Thanks to our horrible ordeal on our scheduled move day, our late night scramble to find lodging, and a few hours of fitful sleep-we didn’t arrive at Jim’s Campground in Milton, West Virginia until the afternoon of Sunday May 12. We were so tired that, once we got parked and settled, we opted to nap for several hours instead of exploring the town. We were happy to finally be checking West Virginia off of our list – we had driven around it several times but just never made arrangements to stop – but just couldn’t function without some rest.

We woke up feeling a tiny but more human and ran out for some fast food. Over dinner, we discussed our next plans. The drive to West Virginia had been tense because we didn’t have a lot of confidence in the repair to the house and kept stopping to check on things. We also weren’t in love with our current campground. While it did have full hookups (water, sewer, and electric which was paradise compared to the electric only hookup in Indiana), the entire campground was just a large gravel lot that kind of smelled like sewage. We were emotionally wrung out and panicking about our finances so we decided that we were cutting our stay in West Virginia in half and heading to Ohio a week early (that way, if anything else went wrong, at least we were surrounded by friends and family). Coupled with our late arrival, this dropped our time in the Huntington/Charleston area from two weeks down to one.

Thanks to friends Abby and Larry who went to school at Marshall University and frequently visit the area, we had a list of things to do and places to eat. I was had plans for Saturday to meet my friend and former zoo coworker Sarah for lunch so at least we had a few things to look forward to and to keep our spirits up.

On Tuesday night, we drive into Huntington to have a look around. Thanks to Abby and Larry, we had a few places in mind to visit and we made the most of our evening. Our first stop was the Marshall campus to visit the Marshall Memorial Fountain honoring those that lost their lives in the plane crash on November 14, 1970. We also took a stroll around the campus where John enjoyed the hammocks.

We also used our time in town to grab some snacks and a float at Frostop Drive-in, walk around Pullman Square for a little browsing, and then finished the evening by sharing some duck fat fries and a pepperoni roll at The Peddler.

On Thursday, John took a day off and we went for a tour at a local factory- Blenko Glass. Blenko Glass has specialized in beautiful, handmade glass products since 1893. I really fell in love with a particular quote on their website – “We all need, now more than ever, handmade possessions that are unique and inspiring.” Holy cow does that hit home for me. As we travel, the souvenirs that I find myself collecting tend to me hand made or unique items made by artists or small companies that are local to the areas we visit. When we settle down again, our home will be filled with tiny treasures that all have their own story.

This family-owned company creates a variety of products (which you can browse and order at www.blenko.com) but one of their most popular items is the 384 Water Bottle. This bottle is available in a variety of sizes and colors and we got to watch a batch being made.

The process starts with a craftsman gathering molten glass on a long rod. Then they put that molten glass into a carved mold and blow it so that it takes the shape carved into the metal form. From there, its on to the cooling belt which will slowly allow the glass to cool in order to keep it from breaking. When it comes off of this conveyor belt, it can be picked up with bare hands. It gets inspected and graded and stamped with the Blenko logo on the bottom.

They use a metal mold for the bottles but other items that are produced in smaller quantities are made using wooden molds that are hand carved by one amazing artist. We got to meet this man and he showed us several molds that he had made in addition to a handmade guitar-like instrument which our tour guide played for us while the artist accompanied on his vintage guitar. It was absolutely incredible.

In addition to their regular line of products, Blenko is always coming up with new art pieces and custom ordered items. Each item is handled by a variety of artists and expert craftsmen at each step of the manufacturing process – we couldn’t believe how many hands touch each piece and how rigorously each item is inspected. And, even though they were busy, so many of the employees took time to stop and talk with us and explain what they were doing. Everyone was so incredibly sweet.

For $20 each, we received a tour of the facility and a few souvenirs to take home. We also bought a few items in the shop before leaving. They have an outlet store on site for some of the lower quality merchandise (which was still all beautiful in my eyes) and the top quality items are sold online.

After the glass tour, we also visited the state capital – Charleston. The Capitol Building was beautiful so we decided to get out and investigate. We saw some black squirrels on the lawn then ended up inside in the Governor’s Reception Room (because why not?). The current governor is Jim Justice, who you may remember from his slogan regarding COVID vaccines- “Do it for Babydog”- imploring residents to get vaccinated for the sake of his beloved bulldog. If you don’t remember the ads- look them up because they are fantastic. Babydog was not in the office during our arrival but we saw her bed and got photos with a statue of her.

Usually, we move on Saturdays but I had already made plans to have lunch with my friend Sarah on May 18th so we would be making a Sunday move this time. My final West Virginia memory was hanging out with my friend and her daughter at a local restaurant. It was so much fun and exactly what I needed after a week of being stressed and depressed.

I had been doubting our decision to leave West Virginia and return to Ohio early but the feelings of love and support that I got from Sarah made me excited to go “home” and be surrounded by even more friends and family. We got up on Sunday morning and headed back to Ohio.

Okay. Maybe not the worst day ever but it’s pretty up there. Definitely top 10 worst days of our lives. John wrote the following as a review that was posted online regarding our experience but has since agreed to take it down in return for a partial refund but I still wanted to share this here with a few additions and corrections because this day had a HUGE impact on us – mentally and emotionally not to mention financially. I have marked out the faces of the employees and taken out the names of the companies involved.

The day started like any other move day – we woke up, showered, finished packing up and hit the road. We were leaving Charlestown State Park in Charlestown, Indiana and beginning what should have been about a 4 hour drive to Milton, West Virginia. I have mentioned before but I want to say again how I am so thankful that we drive separate because of situations like this. I was following behind the house and had just called my grandma to chat when I noticed black smoke coming from the back passenger side of the house. I quickly hung up my call and called John, yelling at him to “PULL OVER NOW – THE HOUSE IS SMOKING”. It’s always scary to see smoke coming from any vehicle in front of you on the highway but when it is everything you own in addition to your 6 cats and its connected to the truck that your husband is driving- it’s TERRIFYING!

John pulled over to the side of the highway and we got out to inspect. John quickly came to the conclusion that it was an issue with the wheel-bearing. We decided that we could not stay on the side of the highway so we got back into the cars and he slowly pulled into the right lane. We proceeded at a slow speed to the next exit (New Albany, Indiana) where we were able to find a strip mall/shopping center. We pulled into the alley behind the shopping center and started searching for roadside mechanics (we aren’t members of AAA or Good Sam as they won’t cover tiny houses).

The following is John’s summary of the next 14 hours. We have left out the name of the company as they have been somewhat cooperative with our complaints and we promised to take down the negative review:

We called a local roadside service company at 11 AM on  Saturday because one of my trailer bearings was smoking. The man that answered said that he would send out Terry. Terry asked that I send photos so I sent photos to the number given. I waited 10 mins and didn’t hear anything so I called to see if that was what he needed and he said that he would head out (11:30). At 12:59, I called to see where he was and he told me that he was sending out Brandon instead (a different company that they contract with). At 1:12, Brandon calls and says that he is headed my way and is 25 mins out. At 2:09, Brandon pulls up with another guy to help him out. After 3 hours we finally have someone on site to begin repairs to my trailer. 

They worked on my trailer to remove the wheel and then found that the spindle had swollen and they had to cut the spindle nut off. At 3:15, Brandon said that he needed to get parts and went and sat in his truck to look for them while his assistant finished changing my other tire since they had the trailer jacked up. At 4:15, he called me over to his truck and stated that the closest place to get parts was Kentucky and it was 30 minutes away. That sucks but it is a trailer so parts are probably harder to find. Not a big deal. 

He stated that he needed a deposit at that point and I advised him that I had a credit card. He stated that he wasn’t going to run it but just needed to hold onto it as security. In return he would leave his assistant and his trailer of tools. I gave him my CC and he headed out to look for parts around 4:30 after disconnecting the trailer. 

Around 6 I called to see what he was thinking timewise to get back and how long to finish the repair so that we could find a place to sleep for the night. My call was sent directly to voicemail. He called back about 6:15 and said that the store sent him to the wrong place and he had to drive the opposite direction to get parts and he would head back once he got them. 

The assistant was with us the whole time but wasn’t left a chair or anything so I got him a chair where he promptly fell asleep. No biggie, we are all tired anymore. After the 6:15 call he wakes up and starts to work on the spindle. I look over and he has nodded out (see photo below) while trying to rethread the spindle. He is holding the thread nut at a 45 degree angle to the spindle, pushing and twisting, while completely unconscious. For those of you not familiar, it is called nodding out and is a leading symptom of Fentanyl and heroin use. I told him to stop touching my trailer and I called the owner of the original repair company to tell him because Brandon was still not answering his phone.

The owner answers and I tell him what is happening and he acts confused that Terry isn’t there. I advise that Terry sent Brandon. He says he will get Terry out there immediately and we hang up. About 10 mins later I get a call from Brandon asking me to have his assistant call him. His phone is dead so Brandon asks me to hand him mine and then proceeds to fire him and tell him to just walk away from there and he is fired. 

The assistant hands me the phone and walks away towards the road. Brandon says that he will be back with the parts.  We continue to wait with no updates until I text him at 8:45 wanting an update. I don’t hear anything until 9:33 when he called to say that he was on his way back after finally finding the last part he needed. I asked where he was and he stated he was (again) 25 minutes away. 

At 10:15 he returned to our spot with yet another person in his truck. He started working on the trailer again with the new guy talking to us. The new guy said that he ran into Brandon while he was stopping by his house for parts. Now, keep in mind that he had every piece that he needed except the spindle nut at 6:15 when we talked. So he spent 4 hours looking for a spindle nut that he had at his house? Unlikely.

As Brandon is working he informs me that he didn’t find a spindle nut anywhere without buying the entire spindle for $300. I tell him that if he would have just told me that at 6 that I would have bought the entire spindle assembly at $300 instead of him driving around for 4 hours at $200 an hour. He then says that he never found the castle nut so what he is going to do is use one of his thread nuts as the spindle nut and will drill it and add a cotter pin like a spindle nut would have. 

About this time I look over and Brandon’s assistant that he “fired” was standing at the end of the parking lot. I mention it to Brandon and I walk over to be near my wife in case anything happens. Brandon walks back with the assistant and he climbs in the truck. About 30 minutes later I look over and the assistant is working on my trailer once again. Evidently, the “firing” was for show and Brandon just didn’t care about that anymore. 

They finally completed the repair and put the tire back on at 1:15 AM the next morning. For those of you following along at home, that is 14 hours after I called for assistance. 

I know that is a lot so I will do a quick recap – Called at 11am, arrived at 2:10pm, left at 4:30pm, showed back up at 10:15pm, completed the job at 1:15am. 

Now for the bill: $335 in parts. Call out, cleanup, and supply fee = $175. 8 hours of labor (while being on site for 5 total) $1600, Tap and Die was $1000, and then 240 miles of driving was $480. He then applied a discount of $390.22 for reasons unknown (I assume he knew I was going to be pissed) for a grand total of $3,423.76. I was not going to argue with anyone at 1:30 in the morning when it is myself and my wife with 3 random guys in a dark parking lot (one of which we know is on drugs) so I paid it and left. 

I have since called 2 other trailer repair places that have informed me that their suggested action would have been to replace the axle entirely since the spindle was swollen. Their estimated costs ranged from $1500-$2000. That is the cost of the axle and about 1-2 hours work to replace it. How was this not Brandon’s first thought when the spindle was swollen?  On Saturday afternoon when the swollen spindle was discovered, there were still places that we could have gotten the axle so we could have been back on the road by that evening and saved $1500 and several hours of us sitting in a dark, sketchy parking lot. 

I truly believe that there were failures at several points here. Terry blowing us off for an hour and then passing us off, Brandon allowing people that are actively high on drugs to work for him, the owner of the roadside service company for blowing off the fact that his company sent a drug addict to us, and then Brandon AGAIN for seeing an opportunity to take advantage of someone in a tough spot. But again, we were in no position to argue about it in the middle of the night in an alley behind a strip mall with three random guys.

That’s the end of John’s recap – now back to me:

Once we were on the road again, we were really nervous about the repair (not sure why we would have doubts, right?) and we had nowhere to go. Because of all of the delays and being unable to reach the man who was supposed to be helping us, we hadn’t been able to call any campgrounds to make arrangements to stay overnight Saturday. We were only about 30 minutes from the park we had just left but we knew that they locked the gates overnight and we would be unable to get in.

We decided to start heading towards our next scheduled campground in West Virginia but we were way too tired and way too afraid of another issue popping up with the axle (it being dark, I wouldn’t be able to spot any smoke as easily) so we decided to just drive until we found a truck stop and try to park there for a few hours to sleep.

The truck stop was full.

John had found a campground about another 45 minutes past the truck stop and we headed there, hoping that we could figure something out. We stayed on the phone with each other the whole way, partly to keep each other awake and partly because our nerves and emotions were raw after the ordeal we had been through and it was just comforting to know that at least we were there for each other.

We pulled into Elkhorn Creek RV Park around 3am hoping for a miracle and they definitely delivered. Things were off to a great start when we didn’t encounter any kind of gate or anything blocking the driveway. Obviously the office was closed but John walked up to the door hoping for an emergency after-hours number to call for check-in. Instead, he found a list of open campsites. We chose one (which was even a pull through site with full hookup) and used the provided maps to find it. We pulled right in, hooked up the electric, and promptly passed out in the bed. It just felt so good to finally be able to let our guard down and sleep knowing that we were all safe for the night. We made sure to set an alarm so we could be up in time to shower and checkout on time. John walked down to the office to pay and he told them how thankful he was for their organization and planning, especially after the day we had. Since we didn’t arrive until 3am and were checking out by 11am, they even gave us a little bit of a discount. It meant so much and went a long way to restore our faith in humanity. We wish we could have spent more time there because it looked like a nice park but we needed to continue on to West Virginia to the park we had already paid for.

We also want to take a second to call out and thank a few friends for offering help to us while we were stranded. Karen (the same Karen that invited us to her Derby Party) offered to bring us food and asked if there was anything we needed while we were stuck. And our friend David (who lives in Louisville) offered us a place to sleep if we had to leave the tiny house at any point – and not just us but our animals as well. We know that we are certainly lucky to have so many amazing friends in our lives.

**We did call the owner of the company on Monday and advised him of all of this. He did say that he would reach out to Brandon and threaten to stop using him as a contractor if he didn’t issue a partial refund. A few hours later, we did receive a $900 refund to our credit card which still left the total about $500 over the high-end estimate of the other repair companies that we spoke to. **

On Saturday May 4^th we rolled into Charlestown State Park in Charlestown Indiana to begin our weeklong stay in the Louisville, Kentucky area. Louisville was the first stop that we made when we first began our Tiny House journey back in the fall of 2022 so it is kind of a special place for us. We also have friends there! My best friend from high school now lives there with his wife and son and I actually made a solo trip to visit them a few years before we started traveling full time. John also has a friend that he met online playing Fortnite many years ago who also lives in the city with his family who we met in person for the first time during our visit in 2022. We were really excited to see our friends while we were there.

We somehow managed to arrive in the Louisville area the same weekend as the Kentucky Derby. We don’t really follow horseracing but we were excited because we had been invited to a Kentucky Derby Party! A very sweet lady named Karen who we met at Buffalo Trace State Park during our prior visit to the area had been following us on social media and was staying at the same park as us for this visit invited us to stop by her campsite for a party. I always get nervous hanging out with people that I don’t know and there was quite a crowd gathered at Karen’s camper but they made us feel so welcome! We were immediately greeted upon pulling in to the campground and as soon as we walked over we were offered drinks and food. We talked about our travels and things to do in the area, met a ton of hilarious and wonderful people, and watched a few races. After the party, almost everyone followed us back to our house for a tour and to meet Harley. Karen and her friends made us feel like celebrities with all of the attention!

On Sunday evening, we had dinner at Shirley Mae’s, which had recently been visited by celebrities that were in town for the Derby – including Bruno Mars! We figured if it was good enough for Bruno then it was good enough for us. The restaurant is a little hole in the wall and is carryout only- you give your order and money to a man in a doorway and he brings your food when it’s ready. They have a few patio tables to sit along the road but that’s it. It was HOPPING! We had to wait about an hour for our food but we passed the time sipping on sweet tea and kool-ade. We ended up getting ribs, chicken, chitlins and a variety of sides. Sadly, the food didn’t really live up to the hype for us. We also discovered that we do NOT like chitlins- but it was worth trying something new.

On Tuesday night, we met with my friend Nick, his wife Stephanie, and their son Blake for dinner at one of the El Nopal locations near us, then came back to the house to hang out and chat. It was amazing to physically sit down to dinner with people that we have known for so long. Our life on the road has really made us miss those face to face connections.

On Wednesday, John took a vacation day so that we could attend a baseball game with John’s friend David. We met him at Louisville Slugger Field to watch the Bats play. We got awesome seats in the second row along the first base line and enjoyed a great view of the game. The Bats ended up winning and I was able to add a new foam finger to my collection. We followed up the game with lunch at one of our favorite Louisville spots- Yummy Pollo.

We ended the week with a guided hike right in Charlestown State Park where we were staying. We had visited this park during our first trip to Louisville because, hidden inside this park, are the remains of an abandoned resort from the 1930’s! (The rest of this post will be about the Rose Island Amusement Park – I think it’s incredibly cool but anyone not interested can stop reading how).

On our first visit back in 2022, we arrived a little late in the afternoon because we were expecting a nice, short hike of less than a mile to the Rose Island Park location and then a .25 mile loop of the site, then less than a mile back to the car. What we DIDN’T expect was the short trail to the park was down a SUPER STEEP hill. We made it down the hill just fine but really struggled to hike back up to the car before it got too dark to see. We were huffing and puffing for sure and, while I wanted to visit the site again, I was NOT looking forward to that uphill trek. Thankfully, on this visit, the park was offering a shuttle to take guests down to the Rose Island site and bring them back up.

For this visit, we arrived for the guided hike and decided to walk down to the site on our own and we enjoyed the walk down. We definitely took the shuttle back to the top at the end, though! The guide met us with the rest of the group that had opted to ride down in the shuttle and we picked up a few more hikers at the bottom of the hill and began the tour. 

The location of the park is actually in Indiana but was intended as a getaway spot for people wishing to escape the hustle and bustle of life in the city of Louisville, Kentucky. The park itself sits not on an actual island as the name Rose Island would imply but rather on a narrow peninsula. In the beginning, the park was accessible by boat, by pedestrian bridge that ran over Fourteenmile Creek from what is now the main part of Charlestown State Park, or by driving a very long and bumpy road through the peninsula. White the park was known as Rose Island Amusement Park, by today’s standards we would probably classify it as a summer resort-think about the resort from the movie Dirty Dancing for the closest comparison I can come up with.

The park was originally called Fern Grove and was a well manicured city park established in the late 1800’s. The park was originally only available to local churches for picnics but eventually opened up to allow large gatherings from various community organizations as well. In the early days, the park was made up of rolling lawns with picnic spots but as more people started to visit and more events were held here more attractions were added. When the park was finally opened to the general public it included a dance hall, dining hall, and a small hotel.

In the 1920’s, the land was purchased by David Rose who had grand plans for this property. He put in a powerplant, running water, and amusement rides making this park a more luxurious vacation destination. Naming the park after himself and taking a bit of creative license with the definition of “island”, Rose Island opened in 1923.

In its heyday, the park included some amazing features including the dance and dining halls, picnic spaces, a hotel, guest cottages, a small zoo and even a roller coaster! At one time, a large cone-shaped fountain was built that actually housed baby alligators in it that were imported from the south for the summer each year! And perhaps one of the greatest attractions was the Olympic sized swimming pool which was quite the rare amenity during the 1920’s and 1930’s. The pool ranged from 4ft to 10ft in depth and also offered nearby shower/changing rooms, concession stands, and even a bathing suit rental stand (kind of gross sounding but hey, whatever worked for them).

People from Louisville wishing to escape the noise and smell of the city would often rent out a cottage for their family to spend the entire summer with wives and children staying at the park full time and the husbands coming to join them on the weekends. Records from 1926 show that the nearby city of Jeffersonville, Indiana held their community picnic at Rose Island there and had between 2,000 ad 4,000 guests in attendance.

Yes, business was definitely booming for Rose Island….until January of 1937 when the skies let loose and a heavy rain fell on the area for 15 straight days. The water level rose so high that it destroyed the park. Even the hotel was completely demolished but the unbelievable floodwaters. All of the cottages, the dance hall, the dining hall, the rides – gone. Thankfully, being the off season, the park was empty and no one was hurt but the glory days of the beautiful Rose Island Amusement park were over.

With so much damage to the park and the recent downturn in the economy (we were headed for the Great Depression), the park wasn’t able to be revived and it closed down permanently. During the war, a munitions plant was located nearby and workers would spend their lunches walking across the questionably stable but still standing footbridge and loot the park for any valuables they could find or any bits of metal that might be useful towards the war effort. The bridge was eventually torn down in the 1950’s and the old access road became overgrown. For the next 50+ years, the park would see no visitors aside from the occasional daring hiker or a few adventurous boaters.

Then in 2011, a new bridge was constructed and employees of the Charlestown State Park started to explore the area. By this time, the “island” was overgrown with grass, trees and weeds and anything that had remained of the wooden structures had rotted away. Metal and other artifacts had been carted away during the war years and most of the records of the park had been destroyed by either the flood or exposure to the elements over time so all that was left were stone and concrete foundations and walkways. Using these few remaining clues along with old photos and newspaper articles and interviews with anyone still living that had visited the park, researchers were able to piece together a good idea of what the park had once looked like. Much of this information came from a man named Marvin Bernhart (I might have bungled the spelling on the last name) who had lived at the park several summers during his childhood with his father who was employed there. His memories were the key to unlocking many of the island’s mysteries.

One of the most astonishing things, to me, was the fact that when they cleared the area around the swimming pool in 2011, the pool was in such good shape that it was still holding water! Sure, it was full of nasty mucky gunk and a few animal carcasses, but it had not cracked or leaked even after over 80 years of neglect and exposure.

A few pieces of the architecture have been restored, including several arches along the “Avenue of Roses”,  to give modern day visitors a clue as to what the original visitors would have experienced 100 years ago and the park has done an amazing job of putting up information about what Rose Island was like but for the most part, it feels like walking through a lost world. The park is incredible to visit on your own (the signage that I mentioned above makes it really easy to learn about this site) but we definitely recommend catching one of the guided tours if possible because the guides really make the history come alive.

We had purposefully left our final week in St. Louis free so that we could work in anything we had missed and recover a little of our energy before our next move. We had absolutely LOVED our time in St. Louis so far but we were absolutely exhausted so we decided that instead of scheduling a thousand things we were just going to play it by ear and do things at our own speed for the last week.

For our final Saturday, we opted to make our own little food tour in the nearby town of St. Charles, Missouri. Our first stop was at Loaded Elevated Nachos for lunch. We ordered the Texas Brisket (snack size for Angel) and the Top Nacho (full size for John) and they were pretty good. After lunch, we walked next door to Narwhal’s Crafted for a daiquiri flight (Banana Dave, Strawberry Basil Lemonade, and a Hurricane Tony). We liked all three but the Banana Dave was our absolute favorite.

For our last stop, we went across the street to Hot Box Cookies for an assorted half dozen (gooey butter, cookies and cream, peanut butter, gingersnap, red velvet, and Reese’s pieces).

To walk off some of the calories from our mini food tour, we drove over to the historic part of town. St. Charles is the 3rd oldest city in Missouri (founded around 1769) and served as the first state capital from 1821-1826. They have a beautifully preserved historic district where most of the old homes have been turned into neat little shops and restaurants! We found ourselves stopping at every building to read the historic plaques telling visitors about each place.

We went in so many shops and ended up buying a few gifts for family and some things for ourselves – including a beautiful set of Halloween themed Russian nesting dolls. Everyone that we spoke to was just so friendly! It was also apparently the day for prom so we got to see all sorts of teenagers in beautiful dresses and amazing outfits who had come to the area for photos.

On our way out, we picked up our final sampling of St. Louis BBQ from Salt + Smoke (which is actually Texas style BBQ). We got the sampler platter with brisket, burnt ends, pulled pork and wings with mac & cheese and hush puppies as sides plus the cheddar bacon popover. This was probably our least favorite BBQ yet. They forgot to send our hush puppies (which had been an upcharge) and the food just wasn’t that great. The meat was all a little on the dry side and we couldn’t detect any cheddar or bacon in our bacon cheddar popover but as far as the bread itself goes it was good. The mac & cheese was excellent. We also just felt it wasn’t a good value for the price. We did call to complain about the missing food and they very generously refunded part of our purchase as we were too far away to want to return to pick up the missing item.

On Sunday, we stayed home and started packing up for the move the following week. John has been working on adding solar to the house so he spent a lot of time on the roof making loud noises while I comforted the animals inside and let them know that the world was not ending- it was just John trying to make the house better for all of us.

We also took some time this week to investigate something that had been bothering us since we pulled into town- a restaurant called “St. Louis Bread Co” which looked suspiciously like Panera Bread. We were confused at first but then we learned- the chain we all know as Panera actually started out as the St. Louis Bread Co in 1987! When they expanded out of the St. Louis area, the name was changed to Panera but the locations here still bear the original name. We picked up a half dozen bagels and enjoyed them for breakfast.

I also made a trip back to Fitz’s for a few cases of sodas to take with us to Ohio as souvenirs for family and friends.

Finally, for our last little bit of St. Louis – we got some kolaches from St. Louis Kolaches in Arnold to snack on during our drive to our next stop. Of all of the amazing things we experienced in this city – the kolaches were probably what I would miss most as we drove off towards Louisville, KY.

Our third week in St. Louis, Missouri was JAM PACKED with fun experiences. We were starting to feel the crunch to squeeze in as much as possible and we really ran ourselves ragged this week. This is a long post but there are lots of pictures so hang in there!

On Saturday, we were doing something that neither of us had ever done before – going to an indoor UFL game! After doing 4 years of marching band in high school and attending every football game and being from Ohio and watching every game on television to support THE Ohio State University, I had drifted away from football in recent years. John had never been a huge football fan (preferring hockey). When we found out, though, that St. Louis had an UFL team and that they had a home game while we were in town, we decided to give it a try.

We got up early to grab some breakfast prior to the game at St. Louis Kolache. This would become one of our favorite foods while we were in the area and we ate here several times over the next few weeks. We could each get two kolaches and be completely full for around $15 so it was an excellent way to start the day.

The game itself was between the St. Louis Battlehawks and the Memphis Showboats and took place in The Dome at America’s Center. Although the rules and scoring were a little different then the traditional football we were used to, we had a great time and were super excited to watch the Battlehawks add another victory to their record. We had great seats and really got into the game along with the rest of the crowd. Although we aren’t huge sports fans, there’s nothing like a live game! And the best part may have been the official cheer for the Battlehawks – yelling “KA-KAW” at the top of our lungs.

After the game, we picked up some dinner from the Sugarfire BBQ location in Arnold. We had been told that the downtown St. Louis location is the best but the Arnold location was less than 10 minutes from our house so we decided to take the risk. It was really good! We got the sampler platter with baked beans and potato salad to share and an order of the pork belly hush puppies. We also got a bottle of soda and a strawberry jam bar for dessert. We really liked the pulled pork and the turkey! I enjoyed the brisket and hush puppies but John didn’t like them as much. Neither of us liked the strawberry jam bar but we both loved the soda and the potato salad. We brought our food home and had a nice little picnic outside. Harley begged from both of us and seemed to enjoy every single bite she was offered.

On Sunday, we had planned a visit to the World Bird Sanctuary and had reserved the 1:00 bird show. For $12 total, we were able to walk through their exhibits of non-releasable birds which included a variety of eagles, emu, owls, ravens, hawks, vultures, buzzards and more. All of the animals in their show or on exhibit are unable to survive in the wild either due to injury or imprinting on humans as babies. They have additional facilities that are not open to the public where they treat and care for birds that will hopefully be released back into the wild.

We had already reserved seats for the free show at 1:00 and it was so wonderful! We were able to learn about raptors and they work that they do at this sanctuary. We were in the front row for the show and were less than 10 feet away from some amazing birds including a bald eagle. At one point, a barn owl flew directly over our heads! It was such an incredible place to visit and we highly recommend it to anyone interested in birds or wildlife rehab.

Within a few miles of the World Bird Sanctuary, we stumbled upon Lone Elk County Park. Situated on 546 acres, this park is home to bison, wild turkey, waterfowl, elk and deer. For a donation (recommended amount is only $1 but we put in $5), visitors can drive their own vehicle through the park to view the animals! We didn’t get to see too many elk but towards the end of our drive, we came upon several bison that were laying right next to the roadway.

On Tuesday night, we decided to check out a Major League Baseball Game at Busch Stadium- the St. Louis Cardinals vs the Arizona Diamondbacks. We ended up leaving in the 6th inning (Cardinals were down 10-1 and the stadium was DEAD) but we had a nice night and enjoyed a beautiful view. Our seats were in the front row of the uppermost section of seats at the very top of the stadium. We were right behind home plate but because we were up so high, we had a full view of the entire field along with the iconic Gateway Arch in the background. I think this was the first professional baseball game either of us have attended in our adult lives so it was definitely a fun new experience. The final score was 14-1 but, again, we had a blast.

On Thursday, John took a vacation day and we visited the St. Louis Zoo in Forest Park. Parking is $15 per car, however the lots were both full by the time we arrived at 10:30 so we parked for free on the street a short distance away. Admission was also free so aside from money for food and souvenirs, it was a free day for us! The zoo is enormous and has a ton of large, natural looking exhibits featuring a wide variety of animals- many of which are not common in zoos that we have visited. We got to see Sichuan takin, dwarf mongoose, hyenas, and puffins in addition to giraffes, elephants, penguins, polar bears, and more. They have a great reptile building and several aviaries- including one that has been in Forest Park since the 1904 World’s Fair. We also ran into several friendly docents who were more than happy to chat with us about various species and exhibits.

While in the Forest Park area to visit the zoo, we also stopped for a walk around the Jewel Box and a few of the war memorials. Parking was free and admission to the Jewel Box was $1 per person. The Jewel Box is a greenhouse that was built in the Art Deco style and was finished in 1936. Today, it can be rented out for private events and weddings – I can’t imagine a more beautiful setting to say “I do”!

On the way home, we stopped off at Fitz’s SoCo. Remember all the way back to our stay in Bertrand, Missouri when we got the butter cake and a grape soda from the camp store? This is where that soda was bottled! In addition to making and bottling a line of sodas, they also have a restaurant. We weren’t starving so we split an order of chicken tenders and our waiter was sweet enough to have the kitchen split it onto two plates for us with sides. John had a root beer and we split a 3 Amigos float for dessert. We weren’t there during bottling hours so if you plan to visit, check their schedule if you want to see them in action.

After driving around the Gateway Arch for weeks and seeing it looming in the background, we were scheduled to visit it on Friday night. John got off work early and we headed into town for a bite to eat and a little sightseeing.

We grabbed lunch at Blues City Deli and wow! It was just a little place but the food was excellent and very affordable considering the large portions. We had the Original Roast Beef and the Bada BANG. They are only open for lunch so make sure you plan ahead for your visit!

Living a nomadic lifestyle sometimes has its difficulties. One of those difficulties is that we both love being surrounded by books- we actually used to own a bookstore. But tiny house living does not really allow for hauling around a bunch of books so we try to visit bookstores and libraries as often as possible. We took advantage of having a little free time downtown before our schedule Arch visit to visit the St. Louis Public Library on Olive Street. It is absolutely stunning! The building is GORGEOUS and they have so many cool features like tons of places to sit and read or study, a teen section, computers and 3d printers and so much more. One of the librarians even gave us a cool pamphlet as a souvenir!

After all of that running around, it was finally time to make our way to The Arch or Gateway Arch National Park as it is officially named. We spent a little bit of time walking around the museum which discusses the history of the St. Louis area from the Native Americans, through the Louisiana Purchase, and into modern times. It also contains some exhibits on how the arch was constructed.

Finally, it was time to go up inside the arch itself. Each side of the arch has a tram that is a combination between a Ferris wheel, an elevator, and an escalator that carries guests from underground all the way up to the top. It consists of a small pod that is mounted to a track and uses special brackets to rotate/shift as it moves to keep guests upright. It’s a little jerky but overall not too scary. The ride up took about 4 minutes, we spent about 10 minutes at the top, then the ride down was about 3 minutes. I am afraid of elevators but, as I said earlier, the tram wasn’t too bad (VERY close quarters but thankfully it was just the two of us in ours) but I was terrified at the top!

The top of the Arch was maybe 8 feet wide and it was so windy we could feel the whole thing swaying. It made us both a little seasick, honestly! It was 630 ft up! I was able to face my fears and push aside the nausea and look out the tiny windows. The views were breathtaking! We could even see right down into Busch Stadium where we had just been a few days ago for the baseball game.

When we came back down, we watched a short movie about construction of the Arch itself and let’s just say I am glad we went up BEFORE watching the video because I would NOT have set foot up there AFTER.

The arch was completed in 1965 and was built as a monument to the Louisiana Purchase and Westward Expansion- Lewis & Clark began their journey just a short distance away and is a must see for anyone visiting this city. If you are claustrophobic or afraid of heights, though, you may want to admire it from the ground and leave the journey to the top out of the equation entirely.

At the close of this crazy week, we found ourselves entering our last week in town. We were completely exhausted but thankfully we had planned ahead so our last week could be a little slower – we definitely needed a break!

We had already had a lot of fun in St. Louis but we were only getting started! For our first full weekend in town, we had a lot of things planned and were eager to get started.

On Saturday, we spent the day driving around and checking out various shops. Our first stop was Soulard Farmer’s Market. We walked (and snacked) around the entire market- eating some Mexican Street Corn and drinking a Smoking Lemonade. Then we drove over to Bolyard’s Meat & Provisions for lunch. After that, we strolled around the corner for some shopping at Penzey’s Spices, The Book House (where we played with kitties and bought a few books), and Fantasy Shop Comics & Games (where we bought a few comics to fill in our collections). It was a marvelous day and a great way to get familiar with the city.

We woke up early on Sunday and started driving towards town. We had an experience booked at 10am and hoped to find some breakfast on our way. We were not disappointed when we found Federhofer’s Bakery. The pastries were gigantic and incredible- and CHEAP! They gave us a wonderful little burst of energy to get our day started.

From there, we pulled into Grant’s Farm for our visit. This property was originally the home of Ulysses S. Grant and you can still see his cabin sitting among the fields. The property then passed to the Busch family (of Anheuser-Busch) and they built their estate there. Now, it is open to the public as a park!

We had prepaid parking online for $20 and got there first thing so we were able to park right near the entrance. From there, admission was free! We hopped on the first tram of the day from the parking area and rode through fields of animals (called the Deer Park) on the way to the main Tier Garten area.

When the tram stopped, we walked around the main area. We got to see a variety of animals and enjoyed a free animal show. They had baby emu, tortoises, chickens, rabbits, parrots and more! There were also tons of peacocks and peahens running around the place. Usually, peacocks make me extremely nervous but these pretty much kept their distance – even if you could occasionally hear them shrieking their little hearts out.

My favorite part was the baby goats! For $2, you could purchase a bottle of milk and feed them! They were greedy little monsters but their cuteness more than made up for it. We also spent $2 on an ice cream cone filled with goat pellet food to feed the adults. It was such a fun time for such a small amount of money.

After leaving the animal area, we wandered into the Bier Garten where we were offered two free samples each of our choice of Anheuser-Busch products. There were stables for a few of the famous Budweiser Clydesdales and a beautiful covered pavilion to sit and enjoy our beverages. Angel tried the Nutrl Blackberry cocktail in a can and the Kona Big Wave and John had the Mango Cart and Hoop Tea. We also bought a soft pretzel (because what snack goes better with beer than a soft pretzel?).

After that, we caught the tram back to the parking area and walked to the Clydesdale stables at the other end of the parking lot. There was absolutely no charge for walking around the stables and looking at the horses. If you are interested, they do have packages that you can purchase to get up close to the Clydesdales and they also offer photo packages but we were content with just the free experience.

On the way home, we made a stop at Adam’s Smokehouse for our first St. Louis BBQ experience. We have been fortunate to end up with a very BBQ heavy travel plan for this year. A few weeks ago, we got to enjoy some of the best that Memphis had to offer and we were excited to be continuing the trip with St. Louis style BBQ at this stop. St. Louis style ribs are meatier thanks to the way they are cut, the sauce tends to be tomato based with a lower sugar content and is thinner than Kansas City style sauce, and the ribs are often grilled rather than slow cooked. At Adam’s Smokehouse, we enjoyed some ribs and a burnt ends sandwich, along with baked beans and potato salad. Everything was REALLY good and the service was absolutely excellent. We LOVED the Cranberry Cayenne BBQ sauce and even bought a bottle to take home (which worked out well because we had a good amount of leftovers).

Unfortunately, this week is also when we had one of our scariest experiences. We had run out of propane and were getting ready to load up the tank and take it to have it refilled. Harley burst out of the house and jumped in the car so we decided to let her tag along, too. We always have her harness on her in the car and usually have her seat-belted in to the back seat but since she ran out to the car on her own, she wasn’t wearing her harness this time. I almost made her go back in the house since there wasn’t really room in the car with her AND our large propane tank. I almost went back for her harness but then I thought “she will be okay- it isn’t far”. We put Harley in the back seat with the propane tank and left. We are on a divided highway so we had to turn right then make a u-turn to go in the right direction so we waited at the traffic light and made our move when we got the green arrow. When we turned, the propane tank fell over and hit Harley. She got scared and tried to jump out of the way but we were turning at the same time and she fell out the window of the car and onto the highway as we were moving. She ran to the grassy median and thankfully the car behind us saw it and pulled sideways across the lanes to block any other traffic until we got her. She was a little dazed but came to us when we called her and got right in the car. She ended up with a little road rash on her back left leg but, miraculously had no other injuries.

On Wednesday night, we went out for dinner at a place called Das Bevo. We had first noticed this place the previous weekend when we had been exploring town and were excited to eat there. If you are in the St. Louis area, you can’t miss it – it’s a 60 foot tall windmill! The mill was originally established in 1917 as a rest stop between the Anheuser-Busch brewery and the Busch estate (which is now Grant’s Farm) and is still serving up food and drinks for the weary traveler. We chose to visit on a Wednesday night which is when they offer Schnitzel and Spaetzle for $10 each. We liked the schnitzel (breaded and fried pork) but thought the spaetzle (egg noodles with cheese and mushrooms) was a little too bland. We also got an order of soft pretzels with beer cheese, which was pretty good as well. The inside of the restaurant was really pretty and, of course, the 60 foot tall windmill was also neat. They do have outdoor seating options as well and the relaxed atmosphere really makes it a fantastic place to meet up with friends for a fun night out.

On Thursday night, we had scheduled a tour of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. On the way, we stopped at Gus’s Pretzel Shop which is located just across the express way from the plant. Holy Toledo. These pretzels were soooo good and CHEAP. This place has been hand twisting pretzels since 1920! They have a viewing window inside so you can watch the pretzel making process and their pretzels are absolutely amazing. We had the Bratwurst, the Jalapeño Pepper Jack Brat, and a Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel.

Following our snack, we drove around the corner to the brewery for our final adventure for the week. Originally opened in 1852 as the Bavarian Brewery, this St. Louis landmark was the first brewery under what is now the Anheuser-Busch brand that we all know and love. The property is ENORMOUS and spans several city blocks. We did the Day Fresh Tour and got to learn all about the history of the brand, the Busch family, and the products they sell.

We also got to see the original stables owned by August Busch, Sr which now house some of the famous Budweiser Clydesdales. The Clydesdales were originally presented to August Busch by his sons as a gift to commemorate the end of Prohibition in 1933- he received two teams of 6 horses which were used to pull wagons through the city to advertise the return of the famous beer. Now, the herd has upwards of 170 horses spread across 3 different facilities (the brewery, Grant’s Farm, and a breeding facility).

As part of the Day Fresh Tour experience (which cost $15 each), we received one free draft beer each while on the tour (option of Budweiser or Bud Light), a bottle of Michelob bottled right there at the factory just a few days prior, and a draft beverage of our choice at the end of the tour in their Bier Garten at the Visitor’s Center entrance. We really enjoyed the super informative tour and the amazing architecture- these were some of the most beautiful buildings I have ever visited. This is truly a St. Louis gem and is well worth visiting (even if, like me, you HATE beer) .

With two weeks down, we were starting to feel the pressure to do all of the fun stuff we had learned about! We had been having so much fun and were really starting to fall in love with the area. While the first two weeks had been largely about eating (and drinking) – our next few weeks are filled with activities like an arena football game, a bird sanctuary, the zoo, and a professional baseball game!

On April 6th we arrived at Covered Bridge RV Park in Fenton, Missouri. This park was conveniently located just 25 minutes outside of St. Louis and was only minutes away from shopping and dining options in Fenton and Arnold. After a few stays at campgrounds in the middle of nowhere, it was absolutely wonderful to be surrounded by so much civilization! As we were unpacking and getting settled, however, we realized that we had left the stairs to the house behind in our last campground which was about 2 hours away. Fortunately, we had planned to drive back in that direction on Monday to view the eclipse so we planned to pick them up then and got by using a step ladder to come and go for the weekend. We ventured out to have dinner at an all you can eat sushi restaurant (thanks to the recommendation from our new neighbor named Don) on Saturday night and spent Sunday driving around St. Louis and making some reservations for activities for the rest of our stay.

Monday April 8th was the day of the much anticipated solar eclipse. John had taken the day off work and we got up early to head to Cape Girardeau, MO to view the eclipse at their Sportsplex. Because we would also be picking up the stairs to our house, we took the truck. We weren’t sure how long we would be gone so we also took Harley with us!

We arrived at the Sportsplex and realized we were very unprepared. We had our viewing glasses and some snacks and drinks but we didn’t think to bring our canopy for shade. We ended up taking a few lawn chairs and rigging up a little fort using some blankets, tarps, and other miscellaneous items we found in the truck. It wasn’t pretty but it did offer shade while we waited. The Sportsplex had opened up their parking lot and by the time we arrived it was almost full. They also had food trucks and a local radio station playing music. The building was open for people to use the restroom and there was plenty of room in the parking lot and neighboring field for people to spread out. And it was in the path of 100% Totality. We were so excited!

I had forgotten to get a filter for my camera so most of the photos I took were through my cellphone using a pair of viewing glasses pressed over the camera lens. During totality, we were able to safely view the eclipse without glasses and use our cameras with no protective gear so I got a few photos with my good camera at that time. Neither of us had been super excited about it but we ended up being so glad that we took the day and went through the trouble of viewing the eclipse – it was absolutely magical.

Afterwards, we drove to the previous campground and picked up our stairs then started the drive back to Fenton. Unfortunately, the eclipse had drawn A LOT of people and traffic was really bad. There were several accidents that also added to the chaos. The drive from Magnolia Campground to Covered Bridge RV Park had taken around 2 hours the first time we made it. This time it took 5 hours. It was so worth it, though!

On Wednesday, we celebrated Harley’s 7th Gotcha Day! It’s so hard to believe that we adopted our girl all the way back in 2017. We have had so many amazing adventures and experiences together – I think all of our lives changed for the better on that day.

We also got our first taste of St. Louis cuisine this week- St. Louis style pizza and some toasted ravioli from IMO’s (which was conveniently located just a block away from our campground). We liked the toasted ravs and thought the pizza was pretty good – but we really fell in love with the house Italian dressing. Delicious! I was delighted to find it sold in the local grocery stores and bought several bottles to take with us on our travels.

We also took some time one evening to drive over to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. Located along the famous Route 66 in St. Louis, this place has been in business for 95 years! We gorged ourselves on a Chocolate Malt Concrete and a Cardinal Sin Sundae (hot fudge and tart cherries). Talk about a fun, delicious treat!

At this point, we realized just how much of a good idea it had been to plan an entire month’s stay in town because we hadn’t even scratched the surface of things we wanted to do as our first week drew to a close.

After several months spent revisiting Mobile, Jackson, and Memphis it was great to finally get on the road to somewhere new! We started the drive from Hernando, Mississippi to Bertrand, Missouri as the beautiful bald eagles that I had been stalking for two weeks but on a heck of a show above us.

Thanks to a low bridge on 55, we had to detour through the city of Memphis. The drive took us right down Elvis Presley Blvd – for about 30 seconds, my house was on the same block as the Graceland mansion! We also ended up crossing the Mississippi River on one of the worst rated bridges in the country. Thankfully, John declined to share that information until we had safely driven across with both vehicles, all of our pets, and everything we own in tow.

The rest of the drive was actually pretty boring thanks to the wide open country of Arkansas and southern Missouri. We pulled in at The Magnolia Campground and Store and were promptly greeted by owners Glenda and Rick. They gave Harley some love and made sure that we knew that the patio at the store is dog friendly. We were also given our pick of the available sites and were able to get one on the end of the row with some extra grassy space for Harley and room to park both of our vehicles. One side of the house looked out onto a neighboring field and gave the best views of the sunrise each morning. There was also a cornfield directly behind the campground which gave us some really peaceful scenery for the week.

During much of our stay it was REALLY windy so we spent several days just relaxing in the house. Harley had injured herself the week before and was having a hard time going up and down stairs and jumping up onto the furniture and her lawn chair so this gave us a great opportunity to let her rest and recover as well. Because we had only intended this stay as a stopover between Memphis and St. Louis, we had absolutely nothing planned for the entire week and it was glorious.

We took short walks around the campground every day – it was on the smaller side (about 14-16 spaces, I think) but was very clean. The sites were full hookup and there was also a very clean public restroom. The dumpster was conveniently located and each site had a fire pit with plenty of firewood. And there was also the store.

We walked over to check out the store on Tuesday afternoon. They had a variety of snacks and beverages but they also had a deli that served sandwiches and salads for lunch every day. In addition, every day the cafe featured a different hot menu item. Tuesday was tacos/nachos but we were really looking forward to Catfish Friday and made plans to come back for dinner then. We satisfied ourselves with a locally bottled grape soda and a slice of ooey gooey butter cake on this visit.

We also drove into the nearby town of Sikeston one night to have dinner at Lambert’s Cafe. We had eaten at the location in Foley, Alabama during our stay there and really enjoyed it so we were excited to visit another one of their restaurants. We both got the chicken fingers and, of course, enjoyed the fried potatoes and the rolls. For those that may not remember, the rolls were GIGANTIC and are served by being thrown at you from across the room.

We were very sad to hear that Rick, one of the campground owners, suffered a heart attack on Thursday during our stay. Thanks to some quick thinking by his wife, he was able to get to the hospital immediately and receive the care that he needed. As you read this, please send a prayer or positive thought to them. They are such kind, wonderful people and we want to wish them both the best and hope for Rick to have a speedy recovery.

Because of being in the hospital, the store was closed on Thursday. We really didn’t expect things to open up again for a few days but, thanks to friends of the owners and some folks in the local community, the staff were able to open the store and restaurant on Friday. We walked over for the Catfish dinner as planned and it was absolutely delicious. We enjoyed fried catfish, hush puppies, fries, coleslaw and beans and were so stuffed afterwards that we could barely move. If you find yourself in the area, even if you aren’t staying at the campground, be sure to stop in for a bite to eat.

On Saturday, our week was up and it was time to move on. We had enjoyed a quiet stay, although we really wish we had been able to spend more time with the owners but definitely understand how they were occupied due to the circumstances. We were sad to go but were excited about continuing our journey on to St. Louis. In fact, John was so excited to get moving that he forgot to put the stairs to our house inside when we left and we drove off without them. We didn’t realize what had happed until we reached the next campground about two hours later. Thankfully, even with all of the craziness they were dealing with, Glenda agreed to have our stairs moved to someplace out of the way until we could come back for them in a few days.

Thanks to the unexpected mad dash from Jackson to George P. Cossar State Park, the move to our next campground, Hernando Point in Mississippi, was only about an hour drive. We had already gotten a bit of a “practice run” when we took Dora to the emergency vet earlier in the week and it was mostly a straight shot down I-55. Aside from John taking a corner too sharply and bouncing the house over a curb, the drive was uneventful and went quickly. The park lies at the end of a long, dead end road and is built up on a hillside overlooking Arkabutla Lake. I was honestly a little nervous about being so close to another lake but this one was actually mostly drained due to damage to the dam that occurred years ago. Even with the lake level being incredibly low, it was still a really pretty view from our campsite. And, of course, the reason that we chose this park – it’s just about a 45 minute drive into Memphis.

Once we got settled, we went in search of food and were pleased to find that there was a Central BBQ location about 30 minutes away. Central BBQ had been one of our favorite restaurants up to this point and we were really looking forward to having it again. Last time, we had visited a location in Memphis but the location in South Haven, Mississippi was much closer and we were starving. Unfortunately, we were really disappointed and should have waited until we could go to one of the original locations in Memphis. The pulled pork nachos were really good but the rest was just a big let down.

We spent most of the week just hanging out at home. John worked during the day and the evenings were spent sitting outside and enjoying the nice weather….until the wind picked up and threw our gazebo down the hillside. John had to climb down and untangle it from a thorn tree. It had been staked down with 6 heavy, metal spikes. The wind ripped one of the tabs off of the gazebo (leaving the stake in the ground) and pulled the other 5 out and scattered them along the ground. We recovered 4 but were unable to locate the 5th. The gazebo frame is undamaged but now there is a giant tear in the roof that we will have to try to patch.

Despite the winds, we were able to enjoy some beautiful sunsets and were fascinated by a beautiful bald eagle that we saw flying around the campground every day. One morning, I walked outside with Harley and it flew by just off the hill at my eye level. I spent a lot of time stalking it but somehow never managed to have my camera when it was active. Then finally, one afternoon, I was walking Harley and happened to see the eagle in a tree in one of the other loops of campsites. I grabbed my camera and we were able to walk over and take a few photos. We saw it on several other occasions over the course of our stay, including watching it fly with “dinner” clutched in its talons. We even found the nest! It was truly magnificent and just made us realize how lucky we are to live a life that lets us see these beautiful things.

If you have been reading our posts since the beginning, you may remember that we already visited the Memphis area in fall of 2022. We have a good friend that lives here and when we discovered that Memphis was along the route from Jackson, Mississippi to St. Louis, Missouri we decided to stop and see our friend, Brian. John took a vacation day on Friday and we spent the day hanging out with Brian visiting some of his favorite comic and hobby shops and grabbing some bbq. In addition to 901 Comics, 901 Toys, 901 Comics East, and The Bat Cave we also grabbed lunch from two of the bbq joints we had been wanting to try. First, we stopped at Payne’s BBQ for sandwiches. John had the chopped pork and I had the sliced pork. We both got the slaw which was a weird must based slaw but, in combination with the bbq sauce and flavorful meat, was a absolute perfection. We then drove to The Bar-B-Q Shop and split a platter that came with ribs, pulled pork, brisket, and their famous bbq spaghetti. We didn’t really like the ribs or the spaghetti (although Brian really seemed to enjoy it) but we absolutely loved the pulled pork. John didn’t like the brisket but I thought it was pretty good.

On Saturday, we drove in to Arlington to watch Brian’s kids do an Easter Egg Hunt. Due to our inability to function in the mornings, we were about 8 minutes late arriving at the park and by that time it was all over. Somehow, a couple hundred kids scooped up thousands of Easter eggs in 8 minutes. We hung out while they collected their prizes then agreed to head back to Brian’s to hang out for a while. On the way, we stopped at Crave Sweets Bake Shop for some cookies (lemon, classic butter, and strawberry), a mini chess pie, and cheesecake treats. They were all amazing.

On Monday we had plans to visit Top Golf with Brian, his sister, and her boyfriend. Then we started getting hit with sustained 15-20 mph winds with gusts above 30mph. The wind was insane and kept out house rocking all day long. We also got some rain and thunderstorms in the evening. We were just starting to discuss rescheduling Top Golf for another day when the business actually called us and let us know that their kitchen was experiencing some issues and asking if we would like to reschedule. Perfect timing! We rescheduled for Tuesday night and spent the day relaxing at home and trying to soothe the animals, who were all VERY upset about the wind and storms.

Thankfully, we were able to reschedule for Tuesday night and were actually able to attend. We met Brian, Blair and Kartik at Top Golf and we had a blast. We did two hours of play and fit in a few different games. For anyone who has not been to a Top Golf, it’s a mix between a driving range and a bowling alley. The building has a bunch of bays with tables and assorted golf clubs. You can usually order food and drinks, although the kitchen was not operational during most of our visit and we were only able to choose from a few snack options instead of the full menu. Where the lane and pins would be in the bowling alley, there is open air for you to hit golf balls out into this large area that is enclosed by nets. There are targets throughout the area for you to aim for and, thanks to microchips in the golf balls, a computer tracks your shot and awards points accordingly. There are different games to choose from ranging from classic target practice to Angry Birds type games. Kartik was the only one who seemed to have even the slightest grasp of how golf works and he actually looked really serious and professional for all of his shots. He even made suggestions to the rest of us on which clubs to use. The rest of us insisted on calling the clubs “sticks” and were doing good to even make contact with the ball on a few of our swings. Kartik may definitely have a future in golf but (sorry to Brian, Blair or John if you are reading this) I think the rest of us shouldn’t quit our day jobs. One thing that all 5 of us had in common, though, is that we all had a blast. (At least, I think we did. Maybe they all secretly hate me and were only pretending. Or maybe that’s just my anxiety talking)

Back at the campground, we also had the privilege of meeting and talking with several other fellow travelers during our entire stay. One couple, Joe and Laurie, suggested a cookout for Thursday evening and we happily accepted. We toured their RV and spent some time just sitting around talking. Then we all came back to our house and cooked and ate dinner and talked some more. They run a page called 330-sq-foot – check them out if you get a chance.

For our last night in town, Brian and Blair had invited us out to dinner. Their dad, who we had spent a little time with when we were all back in Ohio, was coming into town and they said that he would get a kick out of seeing us. We drove into Memphis one last time to meet everyone for dinner at East Coast Wings. It was so much fun to catch up with everyone and spend one more night among friends before hitting the road. Brian’s dad, Jeff and Jeff’s wife, Mary, were even kind enough to buy dinner for everyone- us included. It was so sweet and really made us feel like a part of the family. We were talking with them at dinner and we just couldn’t stop telling them how nice it was to just be around people that we know. We meet a ton of new people all the time and have made some great friendships during our travels but there is just something about spending time around familiar folks that recharges our emotional batteries. We realized it had been 4 months since we had seen anyone that we knew before we started traveling.

On the positive end of things, visiting our friends in Memphis is just the beginning of seeing loved ones this year. We were set to leave Memphis the following day for 5 weeks in Missouri but the next stop after Missouri is to visit friends in Louisville, Kentucky which will kick off a series of stops full of friends and family for a two and a half month stretch.

Oh, and as we packed up and pulled out of Hernando Point Campground, BOTH eagles were out and putting on quite a show. I wasn’t able to get super clear photos, but it was so incredible to see them both at the same time – it really felt like they were wishing us well on our journey.

Next stop- Bertrand, Missouri!

Our first stop after our “downtime” in Alabama was Jackson, Mississippi. You may remember that we actually visited Jackson WAY back during our first few months on the road in 2022. We enjoyed the area and the campground and decided to make LeFleur’s Bluff State Park the first park that we had visited twice. We had already done most of the things we had wanted to do in town but there were some really good restaurants that we had remembered and the campground was in my top 3 favorites. It was also conveniently located halfway between Mobile and Memphis so we thought it would make a great stopping point and we could spend a quiet two weeks on the lake enjoying the scenery.

Our first visit to Jackson had been over Christmas in 2022. The park was beautifully situated on Lake Mayes and we spent our evenings sitting around the campfire on our waterfront site. Then the cold snap hit. While our family back on Ohio were dealing with temperatures below zero, we were sitting at about 14 degrees. Life in the city of Jackson ground to a halt as they were just completely unprepared for that kind of cold sustained over about 3 or 4 days. Pipes burst throughout town and water shortages closed many businesses. We were without running water in our house for a few days but were able to use the showers and restrooms at the park which, luckily were right across from our site. We made it through with no major issues and were really looking forward to enjoying this second stay at LeFleur’s Bluff much better. We learned our lesson there but more on that later.

One of the first things we did upon rolling into town was to secure dinner from one of our favorite restaurants of all time – The Crawdad Hole. This tiny little shack sat just across from the entrance to our park and just a few traffic lights down. They offer various seafood boils (whatever happens to be in season), gumbo, and tamales. They had run out of crawfish by the time we arrived but we were just fine with getting shrimp. Our meal came with SO MUCH perfectly seasoned and cooked shrimp, sausage, potatoes and loads of butter. It was a glorious feast.

John also snuck out the next morning and brought home donuts from A’HA donuts which was one of our other favorite places in town. We learned that they had opened a second location which was open for lunch and dinner, A’HA Crawfish Bistro, so we also had that the following weekend. Their donuts were amazing but the Crawfish Fried Rice had been my favorite dish there from our last visit. When we went to the new location for lunch, I opted for the Seafood Fried Rice which included crawfish, shrimp, and chicken and John had the Seafood Pasta. We also split a Bananas Foster Cheesecake Eggroll for dessert. It was all amazing and the staff at both locations are just the sweetest people on the planet.

We weren’t in any rush to see the sights (there’s really only so much in Jackson) so we were able to take a day to visit the outlet mall for a few purchases and fix some plumbing issues we had been experiencing on the house. We took a day and went to the post office to start the process of getting our passports (we had them previously but they had expired during COVID quarantines), visited a local comic shop for some comic books and Lego sets, and tried a few more restaurants. It was a such a peaceful week.

It was also at this stop that we had some interesting neighbors. We have met all sorts of people while traveling and made some lasting friendships. We hope we don’t offend anyone too much but when we say that the neighbors we had one night in Jackson were the best neighbors ever we really think you will all agree that they are hard to beat. John had gone out for a stroll and texted me that I needed to come outside. It turns out that a van full of puppies had pulled in a few spots down from us! The man breeds puppies to be service dogs for veterans and was on his way to drop off a litter. We got to play with the puppies for a little bit while he walked one of the older dogs he had brought. It was the absolute best serotonin boost we could have imagined.

Things changed the following weekend. On Saturday, the lake had risen and was surrounding our gazebo. It was still nowhere near the house and the ranger said he really didn’t expect the water to get much higher but offered us a different campsite anyway. We declined since moving would have been an inconvenience and no one really thought anything would come of the high waters.

We went out to the local farmer’s market and bought some pastries, vegetables, jams, and eggs. We were in a hurry to get back home to monitor the flooding so we spent the rest of the day watching television and snacking on our purchases.

On Sunday morning, we woke up to water under the house. The gazebo was now in water that was to our shins and there was ankle deep water at the bottom of the stairs. We decided that moving to a site on higher ground sounded like a good idea. We figured we would pack up the house a little (since we weren’t going far I wasn’t going to do a full packing job like I would to move campgrounds), move the house, then walk back over for our grill, gazebo, firepit, etc. and carry those to the new site. As we were starting to jack up the house to get it hitched to the truck, a ranger came by and advised us that they were evacuating the entire park. We quickly shifted into “Full Move” mode but the rate at which the water was rising also seemed to kick up a notch. We got the house on the truck first because it was obviously the priority – we could replace grills and lawn chairs and that kind of stuff easily but we DEFINITELY didn’t want water to damage the house or vehicles. Of course, that’s when the jacks stopped working.

Some wire or another had come loose and we ended up having to work as a team with John holding the connections in place while I operated the switches to raise the house all while standing in water that was up to our shins. I helped him back in the truck and get things hooked up. Once that was done, we returned to the gazebo to get it taken down. By this time the water was at our knees. John had to reach down into the murky brown water to pull out the stakes holding the gazebo in place then we had to drag it to some higher ground to be able to collapse it properly. Did I also mention that we thought we had seen an alligator in this water a few days prior? That added a bit of excitement as well.

In the process of moving the gazebo, we found an enormous spider that was easily the size of my palm that had taken shelter in the gazebo. We did not want him coming with us so we got him to land and thankfully he took off. After that we were in more of a panic and very nervous about whatever else might be hanging out inside so, in our rushed state, we forgot to take out the two rods that support the gazebo door. It turns out that if you leave those in, the thing won’t collapse and fold properly. We finally figured out the problem and got that squared away but we had lost a lot of time.

While we were putting the gazebo and lawn chairs into the storage space under the house, we saw a fish go swimming between the tires. Despite the stress, we did take a moment to appreciate this new and unexpected experience. Oooh, ahhhh, Nature.

The water was now up over the bottom step of the house. We decided to get Harley out of the house and put her in the car while we finished up the last few things. The poor thing could obviously tell that something was wrong and was in about as much of a panic as we were. She paused at the bottom of the stairs and looked at the water then up at me like, “um….what’s this about?”. I coaxed her into splashing down into the water (which came to her chest) and got her to wade over to the car with me. We usually don’t leave her in the car without us for any amount of time as it makes her really scared and she starts barking if we leave her sight. I think she understood the situation because for the 15 or 20 minutes that she was in there by herself, she didn’t make a peep.

We got everything packed and stowed and unhooked and hitched and were finally able to pull out. By this time water was covering our entire site along with part of the roadway to get out of the campground. The truck was completely fine but I did hesitate a little before driving the car through. At this point there really wasn’t another option so I just pushed on through and thankfully made it to the other side and out of the park.

Fortunately for us, we had considered moving early when we had first learned about the possible flooding the day before so John had already looked into a new other campgrounds to take us in. We figured, there isn’t really anything left here that we want to do so if we have to move sites we might as well just move to a new location. During all of the commotion of packing up, he managed to get a spot reserved for us at George Payne Cossar State Park about an hour’s drive north. We were cold and wet and tired from sloshing around through the water packing up but thankfully the drive went smoothly. I usually keep Harley seat belted in the back seat but for this move I let her lay on the front seat with me in hopes of calming us both down. She slept most of the way.

We pulled into the new campground on Sunday afternoon and were pleased to find that their lake was actually really low and not likely to try to kill us during our visit. We did spend our week dealing with a flat tire on the car that we had to have worked on twice, an emergency middle of the night visit to the 24 hour vet in Memphis (for Pandora, it turned out to just be a UTI and she is getting better already), a series of severe thunderstorms at 2am which brought down trees and blew our gazebo away (we had set it up to dry out from the flooding – we found it two sites away in the parking lot of the bath house), and John and I both being sick but at least we were safe and dry and together.

Oh, and the new park had some birds and basically nothing else. I spent a lot of time sitting in my lawn chair birdwatching or walking Harley along the dry parts of the lakebed. I had had all the excitement I could stand for a while.