Wow! It's been almost 5 months since Nate and I got married and hit the road!
That's just crazy! If you've read our story, you will know how simply awesome this whole thing is from start to now, I can't say finish because we are far from finished here.
We left Louisiana and headed for Florida where Nate was introduced to my crazy, awesome Florida families. Tim(my son)Melanie(wife) and(grandson)Andrew LaRose, Sara(granddaughter)was sick so she wasn't able to meet Nate. Then we have Gene(son) Maleana(wife)and Max(Gene's step son). My son Douglas, son Matt, his wife Stephanie and
their daughter, my granddaughter Annika.
We stayed at Royal Coachmen RV Resort, at
this time the social distancing and masks were in full bloom. The pool, clubhouse, laundry, library and the work out room were all open but limited to a certain amount of people at a time.
We also stayed at the Winter Quarters in Bradenton for a few weeks and met a sweet couple, actually her and her husband stalked us(I say that in a most loving way). We were leaving to go to the place we love to hate, Walmart and stopped to drop off our trash and she parked right across our path preventing us from going anywhere until she was able to come and introduce herself and her husband. Nathan is used to people recognizing him, but it was a first for me, a very pleasant first I must say, shout out to Debbie and Steve Winters!!
The many places we visited while in Florida, Mote Marine Aquarium, Anna Maria Island, Siesta Key Beach, Marina Jack Sunset Cruise and on our way out of Florida we visited the Automobile Museum in Jacksonville, FL compliments of Harvest Hosts, we actually stayed right on the grounds of the museum.
Our next stop was Georgia where we stayed on the property of Adamson Oaks, Goat and Alpaca Farm.
Another shout out to Harvest Hosts for this amazing night! We toured around this beautiful farm in a Mule, which when I heard the word "mule" I assumed we were going to be traveling on the backs of donkeys! I'm kinda glad I was wrong, I would much rather be in an automated 'Mule". We saw goats, I actually held a brand new baby goat named Rudolph, we wanted to take him home with us but remembered that goats grow up LOL. We chased around an Alpaca named Gandolf, he was quite the snob, wouldn't let us get to close. The owner was so cordial and very informative, we bought a few things including a jar of home made Muscadine Jelly. We never heard of this kind before and it's delicious. We also purchased a bag of freshly hulled Pecans, still munching on those babies!
Next up is Alabama, where we stayed at Jackson Lake Island. This is where the movie Big Fish was filmed in the fictitious town of Spectre, Alabama. We spent the night overlooking this little town and it was within walking distance of our campsite. Unfortunately the inclement weather held us back but Nathan managed to get a few amazing videos out of it. Nathan spent the day in Spectre even in the rain and cold, you just can't keep a good film maker down! In fact. The goats were the highlight to me, they were everywhere, about 70 in all, they were very friendly and even jumped up on you looking for food.
Apparently they are wild goats and a family from the town near there bring food. They sleep under the church where they are sheltered from bad weather. In one video you can see one of them nibbling on Nate's shorts LOL
From there we continued back to Louisiana. This completes our first installment of our trip. Please come back the next blog, in the meantime a reminder from Nathan "wherever you're waking up, whatever time it is, make the best of your day, do something for someone else, pay it forward and let's make this world a better place". From Marion, "Be kind to each other, it's a rough world out there, we love you all".
It was really nice to have a recap of the beginning of your travels!