I am assuming that my friends and family will be the only ones reading this but in case someone stumbles across this, I thought it might make sense to give some background. In 1990 I went to work for Corporate Marriott as a Chief Maintenance Engineer (thanks to my Dad and a family friend that worked for Marriott) They asked me to give it one year and if I didn’t like it, they would write me a letter of reference and help me find a different job. I became a General Manager 3 years later and then a regional manager, I ran small to large hotels and loved every minute of it, (this is the condensed version lots happened in 17 years from dead bodies, to Police surrounding hotels, a briefcase of cash, but one day I’ll write that blog called “1000 Days With No Sleep” ) but after 17 years I knew I wanted to do something else and it had always been my dream to own an Ace Hardware Store. In 2007 my oldest brother (Scott) agreed that he would go in and be a partner and help me open up an Ace store in Charlotte, NC (where all my family lived) after 4 months of meetings and preparations in the 11th hour… literally… he backed out, and said… sorry I just can’t commit! At the time this was incomprehensible!!!! (turned out to be a blessing) I had no idea what was going to happen next, and without boring you with the details, I was very fortunate to still be able to have the opportunity to open my store on my own In Summerville, SC. In Aug of 2007 I opened my store, “Ace Hardware of Summerville” and after the most challenging and rewarding 9 years of my life I sold the store. I’m truly not sure what the next chapter in our life will be, but after 27 years of 70 hours a week I though it made sense to take some time off, my wife (Missy) and our dog (Bailey the perfect Sheltie) agreed, so we bought this RV and started to plan our Journey. Had we known what was going to happen on Day 1… We would/should have considered other options!
Day 1-
Day 1- 8am and we’re ready to go so I go to pull out of my driveway and I have my bikes on the back of the RV and the wheels sticks out about 6 inches past the outside of the RV on the passenger side, as I go to make the turn out of my driveway my wheel catches a branch of a tree (a Washingtonian Palm) and bends my handle bars like a pretzel and the bike bracket holding both bikes on. You can imagine how proud it made me feel, I couldn’t even make my 1st turn. After 2 hours of repairing things I finally get everything back to normal… mostly… my handlebars will never be the same :>)
10am- Ok we’re on our way and I have made it out of my neighborhood without killing anyone :>) according to our GPS we’ll make the Outer Banks about 6pm. We told ourselves that we don’t want to arrive at night to set up for our 1st time. (yea that’s not going to happen)
2pm- It’s 90 outside and the RV is warming up inside (the AC for the driver and passenger only cool the front because the coach is so big), so we pull off for fuel and I fire up the generator, like I have done 10 times before, and it starts great, I turn on the air and we take off and 5 minutes later it quits… As I proceed to cook Missy and our dog I pull over try and fix it, but no luck. So we’re not far from a generator dealer in Fayetteville, NC so I pull in about 3pm and proceed to wait for 1 ½ before they tell me they don’t have time to look at it. I finally figure out with the help of a guy in the parking lot that the fuel pump is bad, and of course they don’t have one! Now it’s 4:30 and if we have no other issues we’ll still make it by dark, so we decide to just drive on knowing that it’s going to cool down as the day goes on. Here comes the really fun part…
8:30 pm- We are 20 miles away from the outer banks and our 1st destination on a 2 lane road with no emergency lanes and the solid steel pin that is locked with a key that hold the tow dolly with our 3000 lb car on it breaks!!!!!! at 55 mph. The entire car is swinging across both lanes of the road by only the safety cables like an excited Labrador’s tail wagging when it’s owner comes home, and is pulling the entire RV around. In my 25 years of trailiering I have never know anyone to have a pin break… It’s never suppose to happen, it’s truly is a solid piece of steel ½” thick with a keyed lock at the end. It takes me 30 seconds to safely try and control the 3000 lb swinging vehicle (as my brain is telling me we have just totaled the car) to get the RV stopped. So the ONE thing we said we didn’t want to do was drive in the dark… and you guessed it… it’s dark… and there are no lights, no street lights, no moon, no nothing. I unhook the car because I can’t see the damage very well by flashlight as the mosquito’s are biting the crap out of us, I park the RV on the side of the road so I can start to figure out what to do next and to assess the damage to the car. (At the time I was crazy upset because the car was new and this start to what we thought was going to be an incredible journey wasn’t supposed to be like this, and what had I got us into!! BUT in hind-sight we were crazy lucky that there wasn’t any traffic because if a car was coming from the other direction we would have killed them, so I’m grateful for that). I will admit, I told Missy and Bailey if we had anymore issues I would sell everything and we would just go back to Australia for a year and give all this up. After about 15 min a very nice police offer comes upon us and adds a lot of light, as I explain our situation, I think he thinks I’m crazy explaining our predicament, because like me he knows this is NEVER suppose to happen, he asks me if someone was tampering with the tow dolly and I tell him no, you have to have a key. I ask him if we need to do a police report and he says no, because I was the only victim and it was only going to affect my insurance rates, as he says… “I have never heard of this before” I ask him if he knows anywhere we can go buy a replacement pin for the trailer and he tells me that 20 miles back there is a town with a Wal-Mart that is open until midnight, we find an Auto Zone before the Wal-Mart 18 miles away and we buy a new pin and head back to the RV.
10:30 pm – I’m afraid to tow the vehicle on the back of the RV because I still don’t really know what the damage is, other than 2 big dents on the rocker panels under the mirrors of my car so I have Missy follow me to the campground.
11:00pm- We get to our very 1st destination … YEA !!! We were pro-active and called the office before they closed to let them know we would be late and they said no problem, we’ll leave your paperwork on the door at the office, and you can come by in the morning to register. We pull in grab our paperwork go to site 40… and it’s occupied!!! REALLY…. no way this can be happening. This is way to “movie like” right, who could ever imagine our 1st day would be like this. The very nice person in spot 40 is outside his camper and I asked nicely if there is a mix-up on paperwork, and he pulls his paperwork and there isn’t… he is registered on 40 also. It’s Summer the park is supposed to be sold out… so now what do we do? We walk the entire park find 1 open spot decide since now it’s midnight that we’re going to stay there and hope for the best. We’ll work it out the next morning. This is where the bad movie ends… THANK GOD! we spent 4 beautiful days at the Outer Banks and have moved on, with no issues. The few people I have told this crazy story to all agree we got all our BAD luck stuff out of the way on day 1…. I do hope so :>)
I have promised everyone Photos so here we go!!!
6-14 to 6-18. We were afraid to go anywhere for a few days so we just hung out on the beaches and took the ferry to Okracoke
This should have been our 1st camping/RV photo, but I was so rattled I completely forgot to take one, so as always Bailey and Missy get to fill in.
6-18 to 6-20 Cape Charles and Virginia Beach
Next Stop is Cape Charles on the Chesapeake Bay (By Virginia Beach) and The Chesapeake Bridge Tunnel … If you aren’t aware, it is a bridge across the water that then goes UNDER the water on 2 different occasions for a mile, I will admit driving a vehicle that only has 6″ of total clearance between the top of the tunnel and the sides was VERY nerve racking, BUT… no drama here we made it without incident. Is this not amazing!
![1isl[1]](https://travelingjohn.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/1isl1.jpg?w=697&h=734)
I’m not sure why I didn’t take more photos in VB I guess because we were there walking the Boardwalk, which I can tell you is beautiful !!! It’s 3 miles long very modern and very wide. .. I’m Learning…..On to Washington DC
6-20 to 6-24 Washington DC
View from the Lincoln Memorial. When Mark and I were kids we ran the steps from the top to the bottom of the Washington Monument
If you get the opportunity to go to DC I had forgotten just how cool it was, the memorial’s are truly amazing.
We Spent 1 day in Baltimore, at the Harbor and Mark told me to not go to far outside of the downtown area… boy he was right… there was a street change that we weren’t aware of and we lost our car for about an hour… yes a little scary.
6-24 to 6-27 New York
NY has always been one our favorite Cities, we set a goal on non-travel days of walking at least 20,000 steps which is 11 miles and in New York we crushed it and walked 22.34 miles and we could have kept going but we needed to go feed Bailey.
6-27 to 6-29 Boston and Newport Rhode Island
6-29 to 7-2 York Maine and surrounding areas
7-2 to 7-9 Our 1st National Park – Acadia
7-9 to 7-12 We’re off to Montreal, Canada
Basilique Notre-Dame
7-12 to 7-15 On to Niagara Falls
7-15 to 7-17 Finger Lakes in New York
7-17 to 7-19
Cuyahoga Nalt Park
Since there wasn’t much to do here, we decided to hang out by the pool and slow down like were suppose to do and read…
7-20 to 7-27 Off to Roger and Donna’s place in Levering MI…. and the UP of Michigan.
Sorry It’s been so long on photos, I haven’t had any connectivity!!
Heading to the “UP” Upper Peninsula of Michigan
This was Tahquamenon Falls Park it was absolutely beautiful.
On to Mackinac Island
This will be very hard to explain, this floating platform is on a “Natural Spring” see the cables in the back. you turn a big wheel, like a ships wheel, and it goes across the spring. The water is always 45 degrees and it fills the spring from the bottom at 10,000 gallons a minute.
Welcome to Sleeping Bear Dunes
This was called the “Tunnel of Trees” It was 20 miles just like this along the lake
YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!!!
7-31 to 8-8-16 Going to Kentucky to see Missy’s Mom and Mammoth Cave
8-9 to 8-10- 16 Minneapolis and St. Paul MN
8-11-16 Sioux Falls South Dakota on our way to Sturgis
8-12 to 8-19-16 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and Surrounding area.
I think they missed the boat on the cruiser concept… can you see a 250lb guy with a belly riding this?
Story ended their… dented car, drowned like a cat… back to the RV to dry out!
Off to the Badlands
8-19-to 8-21-16
8-22-8-24-16 Onto Billings Montana
8-24 to 8-31 On to Yellowstone…. This is very existing!!!!
On to the Grand Tetons 8-31 to 9-2-16
osprey
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Beautiful bird 
This Little guy wasn’t shy at all!!
Pretty Good Photo King !! :>) 
My 1st Moose… can’t tell how big but she is about the size of a horse 
So Cool!!! She had a baby… see below 
Aaaawww They were rubbing noses 
This was in the town square of Jackson Hole…. I did not realize that every year Elk shed there antlers, and within 2 days they start to grow back. 
On to Craters Of The Moon
Millions of years ago the “hot spot” that now are in Yellowstone from all the Gruyeres you have seen in my pics are here, this entire area was an active volcano 
Everything you are going to see was/is lava 
A Lone Tree 
This was a huge lava pile, about 1/4 mile high… the walk was straight up my photo won’t do this climb justice 
This is a photo from the other side of the lava hill we were at the very top!! 
Walking across Lava fields 
We climbed inside this crack on the lower left 
The view from inside the cave 
This is what we crossed to come down from the cave 
The small hole in front of the big hole is where we popped out!! It was very cool!! 
Trails through the lava fields that led to the tunnels Good bye to “Craters”
9-29-16 Finally I have Connectivity Sorry It’s been so long.
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
9-15-16 Glacier Nalt Park
A very large Bald Eagle 
These pictures won’t show the color very well but it as deep blue/green as any water in the Caribbean I have ever seen 
Just a cool mushroom… I have another REALLY cool one in a few more photos 
This was amazing to see, it’s the root structure of a tree 
9-15-16 North Cascades
Once Again the picture doesn’t show how blue this was…. 
Ok I say amazing too much, but this dam really was.. You can see the stains in the pic it was curved 
A shot from above the dam 
This looks boring, but it was very tall 9-19-16 Mount Rainier
King…. I still got it!! :>) 
Our 1st day here was all snow and fog, pretty but no visibility 
Mt. Rainier once the weather cleared 
Walked around a corner, and several deer were just looking at us… didn’t care 
This is a Marmot, it is like a huge Beaver, but it eats plant, it just sat there and ate we were only 3′ from it.
More Friends 
This was my coolest mushroom pic 
This picture won;t do this justice… it’s about 80′ below us 
You were only suppose to have 1 person at a time on this bridge… wasn’t that high off the ground we both walked it :>) 
The inside of a tree that had fallen over 
These trees were over 1000 years old, there both still growing but the right one had it’s top broken off 
Once again pictures don’t do it justice, this tree is about 10′ wide 
Mount St. Helens
So this is Mount St Helens, if you look at the center right where the mountain is missing, this is where it erupted, the whole thing is gone 
These were the 200 plus steps to get to the viewing area for the photos below… this little guy didn’t make it, he had to ride on his dad’s shoulders 
The white area on the water is all logs… yep logs… when the mountain blew up it shot all these logs into this lake… they call them log flows but there is no place for them to go 
More Log flows 
Most everything up here is still bald… they are very excited when a 1″ flower will grow. 
After almost 40 years you still have tons of trees that are still just bleached white sticks from the explosion 
Another shot of the steps up 9-23-16 Olympic Nalt Park and Rain Forest
This Nalt Park is the farthest West and North in the US, you can just about throw a rock and hit Canada, The HOH rain forest get as much as 14 feet of rain… making it one of the wettest places in the US 
No zoom on my camera came around the corner leaving the rain forest heading to the coast and this is what we saw, about 5′ from us!! 
There was a very big seagull on the top of this rock but it was too dark to show up well 
At low tide you can walk to this “hole in the wall” normally it’s under water… 
This was the goal… looking at the hole once we walked through it 
A better photo from a distance 
In this area the ocean is eroding the sandstone caves under this area of land. They are very deep. 
Take a look at the black items on the left side of the wall about half way up, they were birds climbing up like a bat and then hanging on the face, there were a bunch of them… very weird, but cool. 
Tidal Pool with anemone’s 09-27-16
Several RV Parks at Crater Lake are closing so we are heading their and then back to the West Coast
There are so many colors here that I can’t begin to describe it 
The opposite side of the lake, still very pretty 
Just amazing all the fires in the parks, this one has been burning since June… crazy hun!! 
These next 4 photos help describe the science behind Crater Lake all these “stacks” you see used to be underground and they were the exhaust tubes that allowed steam and lava to flow to the surface, as time went on the area around them were softer than the tubes so they stood firm and the land eroded around them 
This is the tallest waterfall in Oregon 200 + feet not wide this time of year but tall 
Back to the West Coast and the beaches that we love
Over 260 miles of open beach… just so cool…and so much to love 
With beaches that are hundreds of feet wide 
This is called “Spouting Horn” These 2 photos are very similar but if you look at the center left that is sea mist that comes up through a small hole in the rock.. after the wave crashes under 
This was called Seal Rocks… because yes, you guessed it, seals;>) 
This is the Devil’s Punchbowl 
Seals, just hangin ! 
Note the one in the water, he was trying to find a place to squeeze in!!! the girls weren’t having any of it!! 
This is the worlds smallest inlet to a harbor, see below 
This is what that small inlet leads to 
This was the view from the bottom looking up at the bridge we crossed 
This is a young Gray whale breaching the water… so exciting, there is a viewing area by a large feeding area right off shore in Oregon the whales will feed here for months and then head to Baja This was shot through a window so pic isn’t great 
Bailey wanted to let Debbie know she was enjoying the beach:>) 
So if you’re a offload junkie like me you would be in heaven, this is a 40 mile area by or directly on the beach that gives you unlimited access to play. There are dunes as high as 500′ 
10-5-16 Heading to Redwood Nalt Forest
Direst Sun It’s Height is 304′ Width 21.6′ Age 1500 years 
This is Fern Cannon it was very cool 
Just a cool pic !! 
This turned out to be a VERY cool park wait until you see the Cinder Cone pics at the end!!! 
This is Cinder Cone it’s 700′ Tall but it’s over 1000 steps up to the top at an angle of over 30 degrees. So far this has been the Hardest thing we have done!!! Because it’s all loose volcanic stone for every 2 steps up you slid back down 1. Man it was worth it the top was so cool 
I couldn’t get any good photos of the bottom, but you can see a path in the center curving around to the bottom. I said “uncle” I didn’t think if I hiked down I was up to getting out, it was crazy steep also 
A view from the top looking down toward the trail. 
We were in Carson City Nevada on our way to Lake Tahoe you don’t see many of these and I forgot that it had a 383 V8 …. very cool!! 
Lake Tahoe, this is Emerald Bay 
10-12-16 On to Yosemite
You could hand feed these if you wanted to… 
El Capitan
El Capitan on the left, Half Dome in the center a climbers paradise.
This was outside Yosemite in a forest walk… fun fact the bark on these trees can be 12″ thick and feel like a sponge 
Stupid Tall…. I don’t know how tall 
I’m not sure I have ever seen a granite mountain… but the lines in the rock are amazing to see, looks like a counter top in large format :>) 
If you can’t read this. 72 cities, 24 states, + DC 2 provinces in Canada 16 National Parks walked 1,241 miles 10-15-16 Heading to San Francisco
Coit Tower in the background 
This was just a very small 2 bedroom for rent…. really!!!! Crazy Hun 
China Town, always very cool to walk around 
Golden Gate Bridge On Our way to Alcatraz
Welcome to the Rock!! 
Showers…. it was a much simpler time 
A view from outside the warden’s office 
Look at the top right, the devastation from the elements is amazing 
A view from the bay looking at downtown SF 
Monterrey Bay One of the prettiest places on the west coast !! 
This is at Pebble Beach, it’s called “Lone Cypress” 
All those black sandy lumps are harbor seals… just warming up!! 
This was just a cool photo by out campsite 10-18-16 Pinnacles Nalt Park
This is a new Nalt park as of 2016 
This park caters to rock climbers with a few caves thrown in… see below the caves had a few surprises!!! 
As were were driving to this park I saw what I thought was a tarantula running across the road but couldn’t stop fast enough… as we entered this cave his cousin wanted us to know they were represented in Pinnacles Nalt Park…. yea this cave was pitch black… we stopped here and said hell no!!!!! 10-23-16
This is the 2nd largest tree in world 
Tough to really show how wide this is 40′ …. amazing 
This is called a fire scar 
This tree is laying down on its side and its so big you can walk through it 
This looks like it could be a postcard… 
10-25-16
This was a trail….. no slipping aloud!! 
Worlds Largest Tree 
You can’t tell by looking :>) 
So this was Heather lake, ans it was a crappy little lake, but what we didn’t know was that is was a 1900 foot elevation gain to get to it, and on the shadowy side of the mountain it was crazy cold and we were soak with sweat from climbing 
10-27-31
This little guy was very sweet he just looked at the car and then kept on walking 
All the white you see is salt flat after what little bad water was here evaporated you can not drink ANY water from this region, not campgrounds, homes wells, nothing!!! 
Lowest place in North America 
You can’t read this, but that white sign says Sea Level, 
We climbed through this canyon 
This is a look down from the top of the trail 
Not very wide 
Really cool scenery…. but wouldn’t want to live here 
The colors don’t show well but they were beautiful 
10-28-16
So we have done Vegas a lot of times due to trade shows but never old Downtown Vegas or Fremont St, it was very cool! 
There are 2 levels of zip lines all the way across the top, was a blast to watch them 
This is like a train wreck, I couldn’t look away….. had to take a photo!! 
A view from the top looking straight down 
So this was a truly cool spot we did a Dam tour and this was about 400′ down the face of the dam looking out the vents 
The vent tunnel we walked down to take the above photos 
This was the original Railroad trail cut through several mountains to supply the dam with products and workers. It took only 5 months to cut through all mountains 
This one was long enough to not have much light 
This was the Vegas show La Reve 
Not my photos it was too dark and you can’t use your flash 
10-31-16 Zion Nalt Park
Zion Nalt Park 
This was a valley view from the lower part of Angels Landing our most technical hike yet, by far… you will see 
For most of the trail you had chains 
So 6 people have died on this climb, you free climb the right side up to the very top, Angel’s Landing I was very proud of Mis she was a trooper it’s a 1000′ foot fall if you slip. We were very tired once we got back to the bottom, but both agreed we were glad to do it and didn’t chicken out! 
This is a California Condor there used to be only 6 now there are 400 but it’s rare to see them, maybe it figured we were going to fall and it was going to pick our bones :>) 
Not much to hold onto 
A cool rock formation below, I didn’t waste much time here too close to the edge 
A view from the top 
A view looking down 
Have to love Bighorn Sheep! 
Have to love a herd!! 
11-04-16
11-5-16
So this is not a National Park but so far it has been our most fun hike. We heard about this from a person in Yellowstone and man were we glad there were 2 slot canyons Peekaboo & Spooky that we did 
Yep crawled through it all :>) 
A view from above ….. 
Below this rock was a 10′ drop into this canyon 
This was the most narrow 10″ wide…. we both made it through 
Look closly at the wall these are petroglyphs (indian drawings) they are very very old 
Cassidy Arch, named after Butch Cassidy 
All the black rocks are volcanic stones 
So these are “Cairns” people use them for lots of reasons but out here they are trail markers… they wanted people to make sure they didn’t miss the trail 
Looks like a face 11-7-16 Moab, UT
So this was crazy we were on a trail and all of a sudden this guy jumps off this cliff and then pulls his chute!!! Picture is deceiving he is actually way in front of the cliff 
Look at the photo below…. this is where he was headed 
Everyone on this road was rock climbing straight up these walls…. crazy!! 
11-8-16
This group of rocks was called the 3 gossips pretty cool 
Ballance Rock 
This Arch is longer than a football field 
11-9-16
This was called Whale Rock 
These are Puebla dwellings…. amazing, they have been around since the 1190’s some of the large dwellings housed 700 people 
This dwelling was on the top 
This was multi level 
This was crazy huge 
Absolutely Amazing Craftsmanship !!! 
Bailey Struck me out then ran the bases to gloat!!! 11-12-16
So this Elk was a big as a horse picture doesn’t do it justice 
This was just to show the angle… it was about to kick my butt!!! 
It’s 10 am so we decided to hike from the top of the Grand Canyon to the bottom and back to the top, at the time we knew it was tough but didn’t think much of it, we had 8 hours before dark…. should be a problem right? …… almost killed me! This picture is about 1/2 the way down 
Almost to the bottom, 2 hours… just in time for lunch. 
Tunnel and the last 1/2 mile to our lunch spot… 
Colorado River … We made it, had lunch, enjoyed the bottom of the Canyon and then said we should head back. SO… it took us 2 hours 20 min to hike down….. it took almost 5 hours to hike to the top, I ran out of water…. both my thighs locked up about 1 mile from the top…. really wasn’t sure if I was going to make it….. Mis was tired but didn’t get dehydrated like me…. we made it to the top 30 min before dark, it took over 40,000 steps and 21 miles to hike it round trip… the elevation gain on the way to the top was 4800′ double the most we have ever hiked before, I did some research after …it is strongly recommended to make this hike in 2 days! definitely not in one day, the average time down was 5-7 hours and the time up was estimated at 12 hours…. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger right!! :>) I took no photos on the way back…. just glad it was over! On to Route 66 and then Sedon and Flagstaff
This was a beautiful park outside of Flagstaff 
Bailey taking advantage of us and sleeping under the covers :>) So cute!! 11-21-16
This park is all about Cactus!! 
I have never seen a Cactus like this 
Dose this put it in perspective !!! 
11-23-16 This is outside of Las Cruces in New Mexico,
Looks like you are driving through snow… they call it sand… but it’s really Gypsum… the same as in Sheetrock. 
Not a lot here but it was very cool to see. Take a close look, this is the Rio Grand in Albuquerque, NM Hard to believe hun!!
11-25-16
Santa Fe New Mexico
If you haven’t heard about the “Miracle” Staircase you should go google it
Notice there are no supports
Look closely at this picture, this was the staircase before handrails!
Loretto Chapel
11-27-16
We have been to Mammoth and Wind cave… nothing prepared us for this…. absolutely amazing!!!
Hard to tell how long this is to the bottom….but it’s a long way… 45 minutes at a fast walking pace…. straight down.
How would you like to climb this latter down!!! It use to be over 100′ into a black abyss
11-28-16
It has been so dry in the west and southwest that there is hardly no water anywhere
Agave Plant… If only I knew how to make tequila
We never saw much Fall color….
11-29-16 On to San Antonia and the River Walk
Tis the season… very cool with all the lights
This is the 1st time we walked the entire river walk…. it’s easier to get lost than you think :>) 12-3-16 Austin TX Sorry only 1 photo! it rained almost all the time. Couldn’t resist going by the Moto GP Track… we’ll be back there in April… for the race. Hopefully not raining !
12-5-16 Heading toward the gulf coast and southern Texas
It was very weird to have huge areas of beach that were protected, we could have walked forever… very pretty
This was into the sun, but it’s an ultralight with a parachute took him 3 seconds to take off.
USS Lexington in Corpus Christi
This was out of the window of Chick Fil A the gulf normally doesn’t have waves but they were very big and windy, couldn’t even walk the beach this day
They called him Lefty… right front leg was missing it’s …. claws? … Hand? It didn’t bother this young lady at all.
A little hard to see but these are Military boats, they were very big
You don’t see many Heron on land, it just keep walking around
12-19-26 Moving through Louisiana toward Florida for warmer weather
This turtle was very big about 12″ in diameter I don’t have a good reference because I was NOT getting my hand by it. 
This is my space!!
This was a Bird in a tree but instead of sitting there it had it’s wings wide open. Thought is was injured but it wasn’t they were all doing that.
12-23-16 On to Miami for VERY warm weather, 81 degrees :>) This turned out to be a great 4 days in Miami… very fun town, lot’s of culture.
Awww little guys were sooo cute!!
Okay made me a little nervous
Merry Christmas we’re at South Beach in Miami 81 degrees
Wynwood Walls in Miami absolutely AMAZING!!!
One of my favorites
Nothing short of amazing!!
Sarasota Famous Sailor Kissing A Nurse It Happened in Time Square To Celebrate the end of WW II 
Lighthouse in St. Simon GA our last stop before home. 
travelingjohn 
Wow. We were blown away. This blog should be published. You had us laughing till there were tears in our eyes. Then you really made me cry when you included our pic of Bailey. So happy you’re having such an amazing time. Please keep sending your blog. Wishing you love, hugs, and belly rubs. Leo thanks you for his.
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So glad y’all are doing this! I am incredibly jealous of all the great pictures!!! Hope y’all are having a blast!!
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You guys have been busy! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this post. After seeing the photos of Michigan’s UP, I definitely want to visit! Keep adventuring and please keep posting photos!!
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We have all been enjoying your posts from Lowcountry Ace it looks like such a fun and beautiful adventure.
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Some of these pics look like postcards! Sure you’re not putting some in your blog? Please keep the updates and pics coming, look forward to each new post. Have fun,safe travels.
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