Appreciation Post

Although it may seem like life on the road is a sequence of bad things happening over and over again. We really are blessed to be able to do this. I'm an extremely chill person so bad things happening honestly doesn't phase me. But if you know Joe then you know he's the opposite 😂 

But as I always sing, thaaaat's lifeeeeeeee 🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵- Frank Sinatra 

A trip down memory lane- 

Our shakedown trip in Chatham Lakes, OH

Everything went well. EXCPET we ended up getting locked out of the trailer in the middle of the night during a really bad storm. Thankfully I had another set of keys at Joe's mom's house. We were 40 minutes away. So we drove there and back at like midnight. Cats survived and I wasn't an anxious mess lol.

Lesson: The make and model of our trailer is known to lock you out of the trailer. Lots of people have spares all over or leave windows open for this reason. Some installed the keyless lock. We just got more spare keys lol. 

Our first time finding spring water. I was so excited because I've always wanted to be close to spring water!!! We only drank spring water the entire month and a half in Michigan. Including the cats. Spring water only!!!! Lol. 

We passed this sign every time we went this route. I really wanted to meet the guy lol. 

We drove into Wisconsin and decided to take a random dirt road with a very sketchy sign. We ended up in the most beautiful spot with NO PEOPLE

Cherry looking stunning.

They've been in the truck before but never for this long of a trip. Cherry must know what's going on at all times. So here she is very concerned. 

Our first time walking the nature trail at our campground and finding so many berries!

The second spring we found not far from our campground. This one is still our favorite today. 

Cherry's first time at a bonfire. The next door neighbors were camping for one of the guys' 21st birthday lol. 

This was also when I discovered Johnny Cash was almost killed by an ostrich lol. 

First time going into a mine and looking like a fool. I felt like I was channeling the song The Mountain. I was not lol. 

When we walked down 500 something stairs and had much regret once we had to climb back up.

First time at a dispensary. We gave away half of the stuff we got and still have edibles from here today. Because we are scared of them hahahaha. We don't do well with the reefer. 

Our first ever month stay somewhere. Summer Breeze in Iron Mountain, Michigan. Our first trip honestly was the best. So a high standard was set early on. Compared to the reality of this lifestyle lol. 

Cherry's first time outside on a leash in foreign territory.

This lake was right by our campground. This side was Michigan and if you walked over the old bridge that used to be a road, you were in Wisconsin. 

Iron Mountain Farmer's Market was one of the best.

At Kitch-iti-Kipi out on the spring. We saw the cloud covering the sun and the reflection creating a rainbow. 

After Kitch-iti-Kipi I looked for parks in the area and found this wildlife area with the most mushrooms we've ever seen!

Checking out the historic church at night and walking backwards to take a picture of the pretty church. I ended up falling backwards into the front fountain. A few seconds later a cat was running up to me and meowing like crazy.

We did a sunset cruise of Pictured Rocks and it was the best. 

This is the cat that rescued me from the church fountain lol. 

We attempted going to Copper Harbor and ended up turning around. We had no service and the dirt road got a lot more difficult the more we followed it. There was also a storm coming. 

Notice how the leaves are already changing color in early August! I was in heaven. 

I was making dinner and Joe was starting a fire. The cats were being super weird. I turn around and Cherry had what looked like a string hanging out of her mouth. I walk up to her and found out that it was in fact a mouse tail lol. She ran around with the mouse and let it go back into the trailer. Figaro then got it in his mouth and also ran around with him until we got the mouse outside. I swear they're good kitties lol. 

One of the bars in Wisconsin that we ended up falling in love with. 

We ended up coming here for dinner and meeting people! Before we left the U.P we had another dinner here with these friends!

Realizing we had this overlook right by us. Perfect for sunsets. 

Crossing the Mackinac Bridge on a rainy and windy day. Of course lol. Seriously such a stunning bridge though. Longer than the Golden Gate.

Our campsite in Mackinaw had this view for our front yard. 

Our Mackinaw campsite had so many places you could walk. We were basically surrounded by water. The view of the stars here was nuts.

Oktoberfest in Frankenmuth. I thought this would be a good photo after a few beers 😬

We met a crazy man who was banned from Germany while here lol. 

This was the sunset when we left Iron Mountain. 

Found this gazebo on Mackinac Island. Ended up watching this movie when we got back to our trailer. Really good movie! Mostly filmed on the island!

Grand Hotel on the island. It really was Grand. Dress code and all. So we stayed in the gardens lol.

We went to a bear sanctuary while out this way too. We watched the cubs fight/play with each other for 30 minutes. They were very entertaining lol. 

There was a truck parade over the bridge. We tried to get the best shots lol. 

One of our last days in Michigan and we finally found Petoskey stone!

Basically an ironworker museum in a pizza shop. This was all the history of the Mackinac Bridge and for the men who died. Joe was in heaven here. This was our second visit lol. 

Ended up putting the trailer in storage from October 2022-May 2023 to deal with family stuff💓 back home. This is us moving back in knowing we can finally do this full-time!

We found the perfect bar while in Cosby, Tennessee. No card, cash only. No food. Beer buckets were like $5. The company was good. We met a lot of awesome people. This is a stop on the Appalachian trail. So lots of the dollars had their info on them. We have one hung up too! 

There was a members only bar down from where we were staying in North Carolina. I read reviews that they were nice to travelers. So we decided to try it out one day. I took a picture of this van because we loved it. 

Ended up sitting next to the owner of the van at the bar. We talked and shared some memories. He offered us a ride in the van, we said YES. Rode around North Carolina listening to Beach Boys. One of my favorite memories. 

Joe's favorite flowers are poppies and we passed so many random poppies along the highways in North Carolina. Naturally had to stop and take pictures. 

My best friend got this done for Joe and I. A gift before we left for the road again. 

This was the route I planned. We had a Dead and Company concert in Indiana at the end of July so I made it around that.

Our first stop on our full-time journey. 

We wanted to do a hike this day in the Smoky Mountains. We went into the park and there were hundreds of people. The hikes we wanted to do just weren't going to happen. I had seen an entrance to the park closer to our campground and wanted to check it out. So we pulled in and drove until we decided to stop. This was called Ramsey Cascades. We went into it with no information since there was no cell service. The hike was pretty but it was also so hard. I felt like I almost died a few times. I don't know if I'd say the falls were worth it lol. It was nice and we had it to ourselves. They were roaring, said the locals. So I'm glad we at least got to see them fuller. It was also getting late or else we would have spent more time here. And been more prepared, lol. 

A cute little store that we passed. We ended up going back another day and getting some tie-dye from the owners. Talked to the guy a bit and had some laughs. 

Staying at the Alice and Wonderland themed Hipcamp in North Carolina!

Going into the Smoky's we saw a mama and her cubs right away. 

The Hipcamp we stayed at in NC was awesome and the owners were still new at owning a campground. They just got a puppy and she'd always come by hoping Cherry would come out to play lol.

Our first Buc-ees experience (and probably last lol) was in Alabama. The amount of people here was frightening 😂 But we still ended up spending a bunch of money to have this stupid (cute) beaver's face on clothes and what not 😂

First time trying boiled peanuts. I was instantly obsessed haha.

First time being river rats and just hanging out in the river for days on end. Also the first time ever being at a campground and feeling unwanted (not by the owners, they were awesome)

We ended up becoming friends with the people at the campground across the river. They ended up giving us the tea on the people at our campground lol. 

Went to Pensacola Beach and ended up getting extremely sunburned. Joe couldn't walk for 3 days. So we didn't do much for a few days in Alabama lol.

Went back to Flounder's because three years prior we had been down to Florida for a wedding and went absolutely off the rails lol.

First and last time experiencing Louisiana heat. There is nothing like it. It is unbearable. The people who live here have to be insane 😂

I don't think there was one day that it did not rain while we were in Mississippi. We went to see Elvis childhood home and were running around like crazies in between the rain trying to see everything. 

Our time spent in Kentucky was also full of storms. Our second last night here and the ranger knocked on our door to let us know we should evacuate. There was a tornado warning. This is where my anxiety about leaving the cats really peaked. Basically made me go crazy and I never wanted to leave 😀 I also gained a new fear in thinking the trailer will blow over at any second 😀

Found this cave in our campground and came here a few days in a row. 

Went to Cumberland Falls since it is known as "Niagara Falls of the south"

We weren't that blown away. There was trash everywhere here. The falls were okay. Did Eagle Falls after and they were much better falls. And no people. 

Would have been nice to see the moon bow! 

Arrived in Indiana for the show. What a great farewell tour. Awesome show. Met awesome people, like always. This was when the air quality was insane because of the fires in Canada. Everywhere looked extremely foggy. I planned the rest of our journey to get to Wyoming while in Indiana. 

Heading west is when everything started to go wrong 😂 But that's for another time.