Pictures

Florida Softshell Turtle.

Southeastern Lubber Grasshopper in Everglades National Park. 11/08

Having a blast at the beach...what a great ending to a very special day for us! 10/30/08

Outside the Obama rally. 10/30/08

Here's the bald eagle we spotted as we waited in line to enter the stadium for Obama's rally. Did I mention it was perched on a communications tower? "Calling all progressives, don't forget to vote!!" What a great omen for what came next!

During Obama's speech at the rally in Sarasota, FL on October 30, 2008.

Poop Master Brian taking a photo op break from dumping the tanks. Lake Lanier Islands, GA.

Gyan, Shanti, Kavi & Vashti...happy cousins.

Kavi, Deayne and Vashti after a trip to the Lego Outlet in Georgia.

You can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the girl. On this day, Vashti spent most of her time talking to Sofia in Austin and her Aunt Lindsay in Dallas.

Our mighty traveler at the bottom of Mingo Falls, N.C.

Poppy enjoying a little rest after climbing many steps to Mingo Falls, N.C.

One of the views from the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Once again our camera doesn't quite capture the beauty, but it was a really lovely day.

Our camera doesn't quite capture how incredibly beautiful the smoky mountains were this fall, but you get a little taste from this pic. Notice the moon?

Hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The kids had fun on their first ever pony rides at the fall festival on the Chesapeake Bay.

There were lots of great costumes in Colonial Williamsburg.

Cool kiddos.

The kids take every opportunity they get to climb trees.

Recruiters signing the boys up for the Union Army. Shanti got a little emotional talking to me afterwards because he didn't want to go to war or leave his family.

Reenactment of Union soldiers listening to a speech by Washington in Colonial Williamsburg.

Hanging out with Jason and Monica at Chesapeake Bay. We met them in Hershey, PA, and managed to meet up three times to camp together.

Monica is a no-nonsense kindergarten teacher, and Vashti loved being her little helper working on different projects.

Shanti with the other Jason and Monica

Daph in D.C.

This was the kids favorite in D.C. I'm not sure how many times we paid for them to ride the carousel, but Brian and Poppy got their fill :)

The kiddos striking some of their favorite poses inside the Washington monument.

WWII Memorial

Our native Texan at the WWII Memorial

D.C. sightseeing with Brian's Vietnamese sister, Ngoc.

Catching up

I can't believe how much time has passed since the last time we updated our blog. Right now we are camping in Everglades National Park which is at the southern tip of Florida (not counting the Keys). This morning, Brian and I rode our bikes for about 10 miles. We saw 3 alligators up close, a diamondback rattlesnake which was being harrassed by a mockingbird, a green garter snake which I gently caught and removed from the road, a black racer snake which was being harrassed by a silly human, a beautiful but dead corn snake, a yellow orb weaver which was 4 inches long, lots of beautiful birds, and a variety of fish (such as florida Gar and large mouth bass). We watched an Anhinga (a water bird) swim under water and catch a couple of fish. We are happy to be back in the Everglades.

Here's a quick synopsis of our travels since we left Ramblin' Pines:

We spent 5 days in D.C. where we visited museums, monuments, and friends. Then, we camped at Chesapeake Bay campground in Virginia which hosted a great weekend festival and had a wonderful hiking trail through the woods. The friends (Jason, Monica and Hunter) we made in Hershey, PA met up with us in Chesapeake and we all had a great time visiting again. We all took a day trip to Colonial Williamsburg which was educational and fun. After saying our goodbyes, we headed off towards Asheville, NC and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We were very fortunate to arrive in the mountains during the peak of the fall foliage, and it was truly spectacular. We enjoyed a couple of gorgeous days and 32 degrees nights (we put our faux fireplace to good use during those cold mountain nights)! Unfortunately, due to the limited amount of time we had left to get to the Everglades, we had to rush through North Carolina. So, after a couple of days we headed off to Georgia to camp with Brian's sister, Deayne, and her family. We camped on Lake Lanier Islands, and it was one of the nicest surprises we have had on our journey. The campground was beautiful and mostly empty. The hiking was fantastic! There were lots of pine trees and it was possible to hike along huge sections of the shoreline which alternated between sand, rocks full of mica, pyrite and quartz, and red earth. One day while we were on the island I went on a four hour hike by myself along the shoreline of the lake and through the woods. When it was time to leave Deayne, Paul, Kavi, and Gyan, we had less than a week to get to the Everglades, and a lot of miles to cover. We drove each day for three days straight, and then on a Wednesday stopped at a campground on the Peace River about 60 miles east of Sarasota. While we were there we saw a couple of alligators (one was a mother with her babies!), and lots of red shouldered hawks. We also discovered that Obama was holding a morning rally in Sarasota the next day. Excited (and nervous) about the upcoming election, we all decided that it was worth it to spend another day driving around if it meant we could show our support for Obama in person.
On Thursday morning, with the kids in their pj's, we headed out just after 7am. As we approached the stadium, we found the whole area buzzing with excitement. Sarasota is traditionally a Republican stronghold, but 12,500 people showed up for the rally (the stadium capacity was 10,000 but since some people stood on the field everyone got to go in). While we happily waited in line the crowd noticed a wild bald eagle perched on a tower just outside the stadium. The eagle's presence seemed auspicious and I think everyone felt like it was a good omen! Everyone was in such high spirits that we all cheered as Obama's plane flew overhead. The thing that struck us the most about the rally was the diversity of the crowd and the feelings of joy, unity, and hope that everyone seemed to share. After the rally, as we made our way back to our car, the bald eagle repeatedly soared overhead. Someone handed us a postcard for a Columbian/Mexican restaurant which ended up leading us to the best meal we've eaten out since we left Austin. We spent the rest of the day at the nicest beach any of us have ever been to. The beach is on Siesta Key and is 99% quartz which makes the sand extremely fine and white (so the sand stays cool even on hot days). The beach also has a very gentle slope which makes it super kid friendly. As some of you know, Vashti has been proclaiming that we are going to the beach since before we even left Austin. She finally got her day at the beach, and now she can't wait to go back!
After one more day of driving, we made it back to the Everglades. For now, it feels as though we have come full circle since this is the place that inspired us to sell our home and begin this journey. We will be here for at least two months, and then we will gradually head west where we look forward to visiting our friends in Austin and beyond.

Maryland update

Halloween at Ramblin' Pines in Woodbine, MD 10/4/08

Fairy Princess

Zorro

Halloween Hayride

One of Vashti's favorite poses.

Pumpkin Carving at Ramblin' Pines

Shanti with Great Grandmother Johnson

Masonic Temple in Elizabethtown, PA where Brian's grandparents live.

This visitor to our RV was about 3 1/2 inches. Beautiful!

Mini-golf at our Hershey, PA campground...we played a couple of times with Brian's Grandparents and at least every other day during the 2 1/2 weeks we were there. Even the kids were getting hole in 1's on a regular basis!

So much for Brown Widow spiders being a tropical spider....After feeling a sticky web under our picnic table, Brian discovered 3 adult females with a total of 19 eggs and a whole bunch of immature spiders. We still have or "Miss Spider" who currently has 3 eggs after 1 month in captivity. After doing a thorough search, Brian found a couple more of them under our RV with a whole bunch of eggs. Unfortunately, due to their toxic nature and their ability to repoduce quickly and in large quantities, we felt a need to dispose of the ones trying to set up house on our RV.

This is by far the most commercial thing we've done with the kids, but they offer a 20 minute free tour/ride on how Hershey Chocolate is made complete with singing cows. It was interesting to learn about everything Milton Hershey did to help his community especially during the depression.

Beautiful Johnson's

Sitting in a mini race car at the Masonic Temple's Fall Festival.

That's our girl...for every picture that Vashti smiles at us there are about 10 of her making funny faces or refusing to look at the camera (If it's not obvious she has a mouthful of spit bubbles in this one)....We wouldn't want her to be any different!

The kids at the masonic temple.

Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece: Falling Water in western Pennsylvania. At the end of the tour Brian turned to Shanti and said, "So, you know that an architect designed this home. What do you think would be different if it was designed by an engineer?" Shanti promptly replied, "Well, there would be posts all over the place." That particular point was not mentioned during the tour, and it is a great example of "worldschooling/unschooling" in action!

We are currently camped at Ramblin' Pines in Woodbine, MD which is a little west of Baltimore and a little north of D.C. Our primary reason for stopping here is they have a huge halloween celebration, and the kids wanted a chance to be around lots of other kids while partaking in a little sugar indulgence (or I should say over-indulgence). This is by far the busiest campground we have visited which is fun, but GOOD GOD WE WISH THEY WOULD TONE DOWN THE CAMPFIRES! It's like living in a chimney for the weekend! We all have stuffy noses and smell so strongly of smoke we can taste it. The entire park is covered with trees so we are slowly smoking ourselves. But not to be party poopers....we ARE having a lot of fun. We've carved a pumpkin, gone on a hayride, trick-or-treated, and played at the park. Once it starts to get dark we get to go on a spook walk, and I've never seen so many halloween decorations. There are fake spider webs and talking, smoking graveyards around every corner. Who knew there were so many pagans in Maryland! Another plus of being in this area is we have seen a lot more Obama supporters....we were starting to feel like outsiders in our own country because rural America sure flies a lot of McCain signs. Tomorrow we are moving down to D.C. for a few days.

Hershey, PA

We've been at Hershey for one week. When we first arrived at our campground I spotted an RV flying a pirate flag, and I commented that I wanted to park next to them. It just so happened there was a vacant spot right nextdoor. Turns out they were the first people our age we have had the pleasure of camping with since we started this adventure. Our neighbors have a son who is 9. He loves legos and bike riding just like Shanti and we all became fast friends. Unfortunately, Jason and Monica had to go back to work (although they did play hooky for one day so they could visit with us longer). The good news is they are going to come back next weekend to camp with us again, and then they will be meeting us down on the Chesapeake Bay 3 weeks from now for another weekend.
This has been one of the nicest campgrounds we have been to. The weather has been perfect (sunny with highs in the low 70's and lows in the mid 40's). We have visited with Brian's grandparents twice at their home at a large masonic village in Elizabethtown, PA, and they spent one day at our RV with us. They are in their mid 80's and l hope we are as spunky as them if we make it to their age! We took the kids to Hershey's Chocolate World, and had fun learning about how they make their chocolate. We also attended a huge fall festival at the masonic village with thousands of people and lots of free food. Brian's Uncle Dean and Aunt Barbara drove from Delaware to spend the day with us. For those of you who remember stories about our trip to St. Thomas, Dean and Barbara are the ones who lived their for many years. They have been back on the mainland for 5 years, and seem to have adjusted well.
Today we had a visit from a 3 1/2 inch preying mantis on the side of our RV. One of my favorite things about our travels has been seeing all the different kinds of bugs, spiders, birds, mammals, trees, etc. A couple of days ago we were hiking through the forest when I almost stepped on a large Eastern Box turtle. It was very pretty with lots of orange, and it made me think of Sam in Austin with his collection of reptiles. I'll post more pictures the next time we get a faster internet connection. Our general itinerary is to spend one more week in Hershey, and then we will be camping in D.C. for one week where we plan to visit lots of museums and see Jason and Monica (not the ones we met at the campground in Hershey, but the ones who live in Baltimore).

More pictures

We first started seeing this billboard on our trip to the Everglades last winter. The question is, "When did they get this picture of Vashti"?

This is a good perspective of the size of our rig!

Ice Age exhibit at the Cincinnati Natural History Museum...very cool!

Vashti and John

Daph's cousin John was a great guide at the Cincinnati zoo where he has volunteered for the past couple of years. 9/08

My dad's mom turned 90 at the beginning of August and she still doesn't have any gray hairs!

Enjoying a morning cuddle.

One of the cave entrances. 8/08

Shanti eating a boxed lunch (which hasn't changed since I last had one 30 yrs ago) inside of snowball cafeteria deep within Mammoth Cave.

The kids sluiced for minerals at Diamond Caverns which is where we camped inside of Mammoth Cave National Park.

This was taken during a 4 1/2 hour, 4 mile hike through Mammoth Cave. 8/08

Vashti with her triplets :-)

Today is September 11th. We made it to Pennsylvania yesterday, and we are staying at a lovely campground just north of Fallingwater (Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece...you can check it out at fallingwater.org). Vashti and I are getting over a short cold and the ragweed is high here, but I love this part of the country. Miss Spider is doing well. She rides in the minivan with my dad, and she is getting much fatter.

Pictures

This is Brian's Aunt Dorothy. Shortly before we were planning to leave Cherokee Landing for The Farm, we learned that we only had a small window of opportunity to see Dorothy before she had to go out of town. We decided to save The Farm for the next time we passed that way, and we enjoyed a wonderful visit with Dorothy. Besides being an attorney, Dorothy has started teaching Pilates and we had lots to talk about. Our campsite was really nice, and we were parked right next to a great playground and the swimming area seen in the next picture.

The kids getting their feet wet at J. Percy Priest Lake just outside of Nashville, TN

Proof that Poppy is still with us! We are so lucky to have him along for the adventure. 8/08

All gone!

Playing pool, TN 8/08

Walking back to camp after mini-golf at Cherokee Landing, TN, 8/08

Spiders and Bugs and Spiders, Oh My!

Katydid on my cousin John's head, Wilmington, OH 9/08

One of the many cool spiders we have seen on our travels.

Rhino beetle at our campsite in Kentucky 8/08

Daph's 38th Birthday in Tennessee

We have been camping in Wilmington, Ohio for one week. I have a little catching up and filling in to do so here goes....
If you have been reading our posts, then you may recall my birthday post last month. It ended with a comment about watching my dad and Shanti canoeing across a peaceful pond. Right after I finished the post, my dad and Shanti suddenly sounded distressed. I quickly road back to camp to see what the commotion was all about. It turns out that shortly before they got back to land Shanti realized there was a large female black widow right between his legs in the front of the canoe! Needless to say, he was not happy, but he did manage to keep it together enough that the canoe made it to land where he was able to jump out and run. Personally, I have always liked spiders (and snakes), but the poisonous ones do give me the creeps. While we were camping in Tennessee and Kentucky there was an exceptionally large quantity of large creepy spiders, and we ended up killing quite a few in the RV because I got a couple of nasty bites. I never made it a practice to kill spiders indoors in Texas since we had a large space to share with them; however, the RV just isn't big enough to share peacefully with the creepy crawlies. So now we are in Ohio, and the only spiders I have seen on a daily basis are daddy long legs and some large red mites. Brian was doing some general maintenance around the RV today, and he called me up to check out a spider which had set up a home inside of our RV hitch in the back of our pickup. It's brown, and it has a very distinctive reddish orange hourglass on its abdomen. It also had a very cool, and very large egg sac. Very carefully, with gloves on, we managed to capture the spider and its egg sac in a glass jar. While we were capturing the spider it pulled its legs close to its body and played dead. It was very easy to find photos and articles about the Brown Widow spider on the internet. Here's a website with pictures that look just like our catch if you are interested: http://www.247wildlife.com/brown-widow-spider.htm
We're not sure how long we will keep her, but she is safe for now and we dropped in some dinner for her.

Anyway, we're having a nice time, and have visited with my Ohio family. My Grandma turned 90 in August, and it has been nice to just sit with her (her hearing and vision are not so great). Daphnie's cousin John came out to our campsite to spend the night with us, and then he took us all to the Cincinnati Zoo where he has been volunteering in the summertime for a few years. John was great with the kids (I can't believe he's 17), and we all really enjoyed his company.