Across the Country in 6 Days!

Due to the Polar Vortex that was gripping the nation, we decided to drive to Florida from California quickly. We basically said that we weren't going to stop until we could wear flip flops again. 

Along the way, we finally saw sand dunes in the desert!  We had thought that all of the desert, or at least a vast majority of it, would be very sandy and filled with saguaro cacti.  Again, another misconception bites the dust! 

 

 The route that we took closely followed the boarder between the US and Mexico for much of the way.  You can see the small fence between the two countries, on the other side of these boarder patrol cars.  We totally thought that we'd see a family walking across the boarder at any time...we never did, but we kept looking.

We were in the truck for about 12-15 hours each day.  My new phone has a huge screen, and we were grandfathered into unlimited data with our carrier, so Mae was able to watch movies on Netflix the whole way.  Crossing the country isn't the time to worry about screen time.  :)

 

We did take one full day off, in Biloxi, Mississippi.  The day was beautiful and we were right next to the Gulf of Mexico.  We were very impressed by the wide sidewalks, palm trees, and white sand beaches.

 

 

It was nice to walk barefoot on the beach again.  The white powdery sand holds a special place in my heart after our 9 years spent living on the Gulf down in Florida.  We asked some locals if the beach improvements were made with Exxon money after the oil spill.  They told us that some of it was, but most of it was Hurricane Katrina money.  It's amazing how long it takes a town to rebuild and replant after a devastating storm.  The news doesn't mention it any more, but the people are still living with the aftereffects.

 

 

We spent the day making sand castles, walking around and resting up.  We were more than ready to arrive in Florida.  Ahh... our first rest stop in the Sunshine state.

 

As an extra special treat, George booked us into Disney's campground for a week.  Maddie was off exploring the woods behind our spot at Fort Wilderness before the RV was even unhooked!

 

We were very happy to be in Florida.  The plan was to stay in the Kissimmee area until the end of March and then mosey up the East Coast in April and May.

Lost in the Sands of Time...

I got a new phone right before we left San Diego.  You know the drill of transferring everything to the new phone...2,000 pictures is normal isn't it?  I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I managed to lose track of some pictures.

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day, she was ready to go.  I'm guessing, but I bet her motivation was getting to the ice cream shop quickly.

 

 

 

 

Snuggles on the beach, with your Daddy, life doesn't get much better than that!  We enjoyed the beach on Coronado a lot.  It's kinda crazy to be able to view another country from your beach chair... but when in Rome.

 

 

 

 

Yup, that's Mexico behind Mae and her giant clam.

 

 



This is one of my favorite pictures from Coronado.  I'm still impressed on a regular basis with the quality of pictures you can take with your phone these days.  FYI, this was from my old iphone.


Here is some more beach fun.

frameable beach art

professional sandcastle builder...we thought it looked like Hogwarts

umm.. ice skating at the beach?  Yes!  Too bad we missed it.

 

 

 

This is one of the last pictures we have of Mae's security blanket, Nani.  We lost her shortly after this day.  Mimi came to the rescue and make a new mini Nani and mailed it to us in Florida.

 

 

Before we headed straight to Florida, we spent my birthday in the desert at a campground with some natural hot springs.

 

 

 

 

Here we are hiking up the "hill" behind our campsite.

 

 

And there is our house and truck from the top of the "hill."  The views were amazing.

 



 

 

We took a short hike into the desert one morning.

 

This looked like a perfect place to play babies....so she did!

Ohh la la, we got to walk along a stream made by one of the natural springs!

 

Ok, we left the desert and boogied across the southern boarder of the US as we headed to FLA.