Friday, December 14, 2012

Pics of our trip!

Here is our link to see all our pics, its been quite the adventure so far.   (copy n paste)
https://plus.google.com/photos/112037325646005786708/albums?hl=en


Thursday, December 13, 2012

Update

Hey all, we are taking off tomorrow for Orlando Florida. We've spent a few days here in Navarre/Pensacola and have seen some super beautiful white-sand beaches. The water is unbelievably clear and we've seen a few rays and some flying fish jump out of the water. No turtles or pufferfish yet, but we've been blessed with some awesome scenery along with a few wildlife sightings :)

-Devin











Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Where we are landing for Christmas! (Dec.15th-29th)


This is where we will be for Christmas:
Thousand Trails Orlando Rv Park 2110 US Hwy 27 S Clermont FL, 34711
Unsure of our spot number yet, but can just put ATTENTION: Rick Haughton on the front.

Sooo it would look something like this:

ATTENTION: Rick Haughton
Thousand Trails Orlando Rv Park
2110 US Hwy 27
S Clermont FL, 34711

Or... can send to Bill and Rita's house and they will send it to us.
3949 N Magnuson St
Coeur d' Alene, Idaho 83815

-Devin :)

Christmas tree!

We got a 4-foot tall artificial Walmart Christmas tree!! Makes the trailer a little more 'home-ie'. We will be putting up some indoor and out door lights too once in Orlando :)
-Devin

Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida!

Alright everyone.. we have made it to Florida!! We are currently staying in Navarre, which about 25 miles east of Pensacola. As you may have heard from my mom, the drive here was pretty crazy. We all woke up in our Louisiana trailer park somewhere around 5 o'clock because of a ridiculous thunder, lightning, and rain storm. Since we had wanted to make good time driving that day, added onto the fact that we couldn't sleep, we all got up at around 6 and headed out at 7. We had to stop and refuel/get some breakfast snacks at a gas station around 8, so we all got out of the car. At this point there is only one thing to say: It was wet. I do not think that i have ever been in rain that was coming down as hard as it was then. Once we had stocked up on some water and a few convenient-store-pastries, we bolted back to the truck and took off. A few hours later we made it through the storm! We were all very happy about that because there had been numerous reports on the radio about violent storms and tornado warnings and my dad had even got a text message from the National Weather Services. Every hour or so afterwards we would stop to stretch or get some gas but if we waited too long the rain and wind would catch back up with us. It was almost funny, until one of our trailer tires got a hole in it... great. So dad and i went out in the rain and fixed it (kinda) and we took off once again, and broke through the storm, once again. Later on we went and had the tire filled up at a tire shop because the air at the gas stations didn't have enough pressure to do the job. At 3:30ish we finally made it to our campsite. It is a nice little park right on the water of the Santa Rosa Sound. We will be leaving on either Friday or Saturday for the Thousand Trails Park in Orlando, FL.

-Devin








Friday, December 7, 2012

Texas (Dallas,Austin,San Antonio) Nov.25-Dec.9

We made our 3 day trek from Tucson, AZ to Plano, TX with two overnight Walmart stops.  One in Las Cruces, NM and the other in Midland, TX.  

We stayed a week in Plano, Tx and got to see where Mike and Kit live and work. We enjoyed our visit with them and appreciated their time they took to show us around.  We did take an afternoon to go into Dallas and visit the JFK museum ,which was a unique experience.  Rick was able to work at an HP office a couple days while here and seem to appreciate this.  We noticed the difference in humidity in Plano, and had a few restless night sleeps.  Being raised in Ca. and coming from the dry air up north, humidity is a first for the kids in and I.  Rick has experienced it before and doesn't seem to bother him much, says "its good for your skin".  On our push over to Texas we noticed Farley not acting himself.  On the 3 day trek, each truck drive he seem to be extremely anxious, excessively panting and climbing up on the boxes in the truck instead of staying in his nice designated area he always does.  Excessive drinking and loose bowels.  Decided to have him looked at by the local animal hospital and with further evaluation we had some blood work done and his teethed cleaned.  Blood work came back great, and except for a night and day of being drugged,  Farley was good to go. :)  We left with 14 days of antibiotics, a tick/flee collar, a 6 month dosage of parasite preventive treatments (since we are traveling south), clean teeth, better smelling breathe, and a loopy dog.. :)  Oh, and a prescription for something to calm him if needed on our big truck trips, which we don't plan on using unless we have to. 

Our next stop was Austin, Tx.  Our rv park was 25 min outside of town and after a day of driving around the area we decided our time here would be brief.  We enjoyed seeing the Capital building and going to a Sunday church service, but felt a pull to move on into San Antonio after a 3 day stay.  

We are now on our 3rd day in San Antonio, Tx.  We like the area thus far, although on the south side of town we only have a 3 mile drive right into the heart of downtown.  Our days are still consisting of kids schooling and Rick working, but we were able to get out wed evening to see The Tower of the Americas and take a boat ride on the famous river walk.  The tower is 100 feet taller then the Seattle Space Needle and the observation deck goes all the way around the top.  Not liking heights much I was a bit nervous to take the ride up the elevator that looks out over town, but I made it and the view was great, specially the sunset. The river walk boat ride was amazing, it is its own little city down there, and all lit up for Christmas time.  I would like to go back when we have more time to just walk the area and see more.  Yesterday the boys and I took a bike ride on the river walk path that starts behind our rv park.  After about 3 miles we came across a park to stop at for Farley to get some water.  While there we saw 6 dogs who appeared to be homeless and fending for themselves.  3 of them had broken legs, and all seemed to once have been pets who were just abandoned.  My heart went out to the young female who looked to have had babies at one point and very thin and malnourished looking.  After 3 calls to different shelters I was able to give them our location and description of the dogs.  A police officer pulled up shortly only to tell me that there are over 100 parks in San Antonio and there are dogs at most of them.  One park, he said, had 15 dogs at it.  He went on to tell me that since the law past that they cannot put them down any longer, once the shelters fill up that its, they dump them; along with people who have lost their jobs/homes, etc..  So hard to see.  We went back later in the afternoon and brought them food and water and we will continue to check on them and feed them till we leave.  

Tomorrow is our last day here and we plan on visiting the Alamo, visiting with some high school friends of Rick's and checking our the North side of town.   

Part of our decision making over this last week has been based on where we wanted to land for Christmas.  We felt it would possibly be San Antonio, but after thinking it through we decided we would stay in San Antonio 4 days. From here we will make a push over to Pensacola, Fl. for a 5 day stay before landing in Orlando, Fl for a couple weeks for Christmas.  We the Ethridge family at the CDA Rv park before we left, who were doing the same thing as us, (renting our their house and living in a trailer and traveling down to Fl).  Their push to Florida was a bit faster then ours since they needed to be in Florida by Nov 1st for their sons swim team.  Although a couple months behind them we will be landing in the same Thousand Trail Rv Park in Orlando for Christmas time and hope to meet up with them.  

---Jenn