Adventure 2012: Part 1

6/16/2012:

Ples and I have now been on the road for 47 days and it feels like we just started. I am not the least bored or regret any decisions we have made. I feel like our adventure has just begun and we have a lot more to look forward to. We have decided to split our trip into two parts, Part 1 was May 1st - June 7th and Part 2: June 7th until whenever. Part 1 consisted of a lot of visiting with family and friends and catching up on lost time. Part 2 started as soon as we left Denver and headed West!

Part 1: We packed everything we own into our storage unit, along with Red (Ples' toyota pickup truck). We both quit our jobs and made a decision that we have both wanted to do for a long time. We both have a desire to travel and see the world and enjoy the finer things in life. We could have come up with a million of excuses why we shouldn't quit our jobs and take this risk, but we traded stability and social expectations for the unknown. Well, we decided to take the path least traveled and we are enjoying every minute of it. Timing was perfect for the both of us; I was unhappy at my job, I was starting to feel peace after my divorce, my parents were stable and didn't need me around 24/7, and I was with the love of my life who wanted to do exactly what I wanted to do. Ples says that he always wanted to do this just never did and it is always nicer to do it with a good travel partner. I knew Ples and I would make great travel partners, and this is what makes us good travelers and partners: We both made it clear what our expectations of the trip were and we made some simple ground rules: 1. respect; respect eachother and our self 2. Put it back where you got it. I always knew that being organized was important to me but never did I realize how nice it is when you are with someone who is also organized and put together; I think it has made our trip more enjoyable; first, just because I function better when things are organized and I feel less chaotic. Being organized doesn't mean a loss of spontanaity or that we plan every moment because we don't, it just gives us more time to do what we love because we don't spend time looking for things and we know where everything is. We also have similar interests and important traits that we need in a partner. We are both organized; highly motivated; we have a strong work ethic; positive and happy people with lots of love to give. Ples is so easy going with an abundance of patience that I know when things go wrong or not what we planned that things will still work out and probably for the best. It is nice to get lost and still hold hands. Our similar interests and personalities bring us together and we make such an amazing team; our differences make us stronger and better people. I have a type A personality with something inside of me that makes me constantly go-go-go and Ples pleasantly balances me with his calming, easy going and his enjoyment of the little things. I have this problem with overplanning and trying to do a lot of things in one day, and Ples is simply ok with doing nothing. I am not good at doing nothing but that is one of my goals for this trip is to learn and be ok with doing nothing and to not have my mind twirling 1000x a minute and to enjoy the moment. Ples constantly tells me to look around at my surroundings because so many times I will catch myself so absorbed in my own thoughts that I don't realize the simple beauty that is around me. I try to remember this quote from Eat Pray Love that quotes "Your thoughts are slave to your emotions and your emotions are slave to your thoughts." Anyway, I am learning a lot about my self and growing as an individual and as a partner in a healthy relationship. There are many things that we have gone through already, new chapters that we have opened and old chapters that we have closed. Now that we got that mushy stuff out of the way we can start talking about the trip.

May 1st we drove through Colorado into Texas and spent the night in National Forest. Texas brought us: heat, "Modern Day Drifter", moths and birds, country roads and fields, John Deere and "Girl in a red sundress". The funny story about moths is that when we were camped Ples went to the bathroom and was attacked by a million of moths; and from that day on I always peek in before I open the camping bathrooms making sure that no creature will come out. For 2 days moths were coming out of corners and cracks of the truck; we would be driving down the road and a moth would come out of the air vent. May 2nd we drove to Palo Duro Canyon and went on a ride, see the bike post for pics and info. Basically, it was super hot, 100 degrees, and lots of flies! We camped in a state park for the night and the next day we went on a quick ride around the campground. At this point we were so ready to get the heck out of Texas. So we drove until we got to Louisana and camped in Kistachie National forest. I was a little sketched trying to find a spot in the dark in the back woods of LA but it turned out great as usual. It was a very hot and humid night with little breeze; I have learned that my new friend is 25mg of benadryl and 10mg of Melatonin and I sleep like a baby. We are big fans of country music so I may referr to country songs that illustrate or describe our trip; anyway on this day Dierks Bently, country music artist, was on the radio playing a song about "millions of memories every thousand miles" and "learning about life and love in the cab of this truck." Then our song came on by Zac Brown called Free "Just as free, free as we will ever be....Do things that lovers do just you and me.....No we don't have a lot of money, all we need is love...So we live out of our (truck) just you and me."
Palo Duro Canyon, Texas:
5/2/12:
 

Four days into the trip and my mind starts thinking and worrying about trivial little things. The nice thing is is that I can express my thoughts with Ples and he doesn't dismiss my worries but approaches it as something I can grasp that doesn't seem as bad as I make it out to be. My worries at that point were: Spending a lot of money, didn't expect to spend that much money on gas and camping; moving fast from one spot to the next and not doing much but driving; and then romance. I just started thinking how can we keep the romance alive when we are with eachother 24/7 and then I started missing those butterfly feelings that you have at the beginning and then it was a whilrwind downhill until once again my prince charming swept me off my feet and brought me back to reality and our love. The money issue was not really an issue because we knew this part of the trip was going to be the most expensive; we covered 6,600 miles in 5 weeks! We know that camping will be easier and cheaper in the west because there is much more public land in the West and we will also take our time in traveling and stay at places for a longer period of time.

North West Florida:

We drove through NW Florida along the Gulf Coast visiting Ples' old stomping grounds. Our first stop was Fort Pickens, Gulf Islands National Seashore where we spent the night in RV hell. It wasn't too bad because a short walk from the campsite we were enjoying the most beautiful beach and water I have ever seen; a white sandy beach with emerald green water. The water was so warm and it was not highly populated. We spent the next day being tourists and visiting Fort Pickens. Fort Pickens is the largest of four forts built to defend Pensacola Bay and its navy yard. The fort was begun in 1829, completed in 1834 and used until 1947, built by slaves. The Fort was used through WWII and now it is a big museum. Ples is a big history buff and I learned a lot from him.

Fort Pickens, Florida, 5/4/12:

We then drove into Pensacola and went to the crawfish festival. We listened to a band from New Orleans and ate some crawfish. I do not do well in the heat and then add humidity and I am a "damn yankee" mess; so we got back into the air conditioned truck and drove to Milton Florida where Ples is from. We walked around Milton, Ples shared stories about his childhood and then we found camping in the Black Water State Forest. We had to pay $20 for camping again but we have realized that sometimes it is better to just pay then drive around forever using gas to find maybe a free camp site or a cheaper one. We got up the next morning and drove to Ocala Florida. We stopped for lunch at
Mexico Beach and took a dip in the refreshing water and sunbathed.

Pensacola Crawfish Festival:

Crawfish jumbalia

Pensacola: the city of five flags

A Cajun's Toast

May there be crawfish in your nets.
And gumbo in your pot.
May the Sac-au-lait be biting
At your favorite fishing spot.May God's sun be shining brightly
When you need its cheerful rays.
May the oak tree shade you gently
On those lazy bayou days.

May a Bourree' game be waiting
When all your work is through.
May the fais-do-do bring pretty girls
To toss a wink at you.

And when your time is over
And your place on earth is gone,
May you waltz right into heaven
To the tune of "Jolie Blonde."

===============================
(c) 1973 Bob Hamm

Mexico Beach 5/5/12:

Stopped for lunch while touring Ples' old stopping ground.

Central Florida

5/8: We drove to Linden Florida to meet up with Ples' granny, aunt and uncle. They took us out for lunch and breakfast the next day at a place called the Speckled Butter Bean Country Buffet. It was so good, real southern cooking! For breakfast I had for the first time; grits. I was telling Ples' family that was the first time and some guy across the table said something in his southern country accent "mumble, mumble, mumble..Damn Yankee...mumble, mumble!" It was so funny! Ples and I had fun talking that way for awhile, until it started becoming an every day thing:)

We stayed in the parking lot of his uncle's church, where I ended up praying for a breeze or something cooling, it was so hot and humid! As you can tell I do not deal well with the heat or humidity; Ples didn't have a problem with the heat, only the poison ivy that he ended up with in random spots all over. We went to see Ples' granny at an assisted living facility and spent the day with her. We headed back to Ocala for one last ride before we left for North Carolina. I took a shower in the bike wash, what a dirty hippie?!
5/8/12: Linden, Florida:

Granny moved to Linden to be close to her Son - Doyle.
She lives in an assisted living, it is the nicest place
 I have seen: a beautiful, farm victorian house surrounded by
 greeen fields, cows and trees. Granny will turn 90
in January.

Home of Ples' granny, aunt and uncle:

The Speckled Butterbean. The best Southern buffet food I have ever had!

I ate my first true grits and tomater' gravy and I was called a
"damn Yankee"!

5/9/12: Ocala, Florida
We made it to Ocala at dark and found a spot in the N.F. We camped with large spiders, humidity and more bugs. We woke up in the morning and headed to Santos Trailhead to explore the riding. We ran into the owner of a local bike shop who ended taking us out on a ride (see bike trail info and pics). We set up camp right next to the trail head in a campground; just in time for it to rain the next 8 hours (I am an exagerater!) We then figured out that our fly is a leaker, so we spent the next few days drying things out. We then bought seam sealer and fixed that problem.
See bike page for bike pics of Ocala.

Rode 2 days in Ocala, FL. It rained for half of one of the days
so we spent the next day drying out stuff and working on bikes.
Stuff doesn't really dry in the south so we went to the laundromat.



North Carolina: 5/9 -5/24:

We drove to Franklin, North Caroina to Ples' parents and that is where we spent the next few weeks. We rode bikes, explored the blue ridge parkway, climbed and spent a lot of time catching up with ples' parents. Ples' parents are involved with the gem and minderal society and the historical society, so I learned a lot about ROCKS, rocks and more rocks! Ples' brother and sister-law and niece met us in Franklin for Mother's day.

5/20: We spent the day in Pisgah National Forest and rode a great trail called Pilot rock. It was nice to ride technical gnar-gnar again! We then drove to Hickory, NC to see an old friend of Ple's who he has done a lot of mountaineering with. We spent 2 night there with his lovely family. We climbed Table Rock Mountain and a route called Peek-a-boo. Ples and I are not quite in climbing mood this year, all we want to do is ride our bikes, but we still enjoy it. We then went to pisgah National forest again and chilled for 2 days; it rained most of time (imagine that). I am starting to get good at doing nothing. I sat around and read an entire book all day long; I have never done that!