Not So Hotlanta + Ocean Pond + Alexander Springs

February 23, 2017





















Getting settled into Atlanta from Chattanooga was a little bite of a struggle. Britney's hopes may have been a little too high. For some reason, she has been convinced for a few years now that she would love Atlanta and want to move there. As we have said before, city travel isn't as easy as we thought that it would be when we started this trip. We try to stay optimistic but, as usual we didn't have any specific plans. We were just excited to be there and head towards our first stop - Piedmont Park. It's the cities largest open space and would have been a great place to get some exercise. Unfortunately parking isn't as simple when traveling in a 26' Honey Wagon. After a small meltdown, we decided to try our luck just outside of downtown in an area called Buckhead, with the idea that we would head back into downtown once we had settled in. Turns out Buckhead has everything we need in two square miles. So despite our good intentions, that's were we stayed for 75% of our Atlanta stay. We found a Sprouts, a gym, a yoga studio and a sprawling park all right next to each other. Although its not in any City guides, you should definitely check out Chastain Park if you are in Atlanta anytime soon. Since we don't have much to tell you as far as site seeing or Atlanta history, lets talk about the homes. Atlanta you are doing it right! Brit found six dream homes within the first five minutes of our walk. Huge beautiful yards, propane burning light fixtures, cooper roofs, and ivy are the way to her heart..... and chocolate. Our days mostly consisted of exploring our fantasy neighborhood, working on our fitness and planning to go back downtown. On our last day there we meet up with family and finally made that happen. We had brunch at an iconic diner called OK Cafe. It was really nice to catch up with family that I hadn't seen since I was eight or nine years old. After our meal we had an auto tour of the city that really opened our eyes to what we had been missing the days before. Its really such a beautiful city and we were really glad to we got to see more of it even if it was for just one day.


If you have been reading at all lately, then you probably know what we are going to say next. That's right, we headed south to a National Forest! We cruised over the border with the windows down and the radio up while we listened to Florida Georgia Line. Osceola National Forest was a couple hour drive away for us and we go there in time to squeeze in a work out and hit the water for some evening fishing with a new friend. I met an older gentleman named Al while I was on a walk and he invited me out on his fishing boat. We were only out on the water for an hour or so but managed to catch one Crape and watch the sunset. The next few days we putz around camp and mingled with the locals. I met a Dutch man from Poland named Elbert, who was a very opinionated physicist with a positive outlook on life. I enjoyed his company and maybe one day we can meet him for a cup of coffee back in his homeland. Elbert also gave us a recommendation on the next campsite to go to. So we took his advice and headed towards Alexander Springs in Ocala National Forest. This campground was like we were instantly transported into a tropical paradise. Large palms and magnolias drapped over the roadways. Providing just enough shade to keep this ginger skin from getting too crispy. The coolest part about Alexander Springs was the natural pool housing the famous Blue Spot. The Blue Spot is a large snorkeling and scuba diving location where you can observe the natural habitat of fish, eles and alligators. As usual, I made some more friends and Brit hid inside the RV hoping that I would stop talking to them before it became obvious that she was avoiding conversation. No luck! They turned out to be such interesting people! Jay and Mae invited us to an after dinner campfire and we listened to endless stories recapping his wild early years. He told us about having mob connections that got him into crazy New York City parties, smuggling alcohol and "other goodies" into every kind of event and hob knobbing with the Connecticut royalty at their mountain chalets. We didn't get a word in edgewise, but we enjoyed it just the same.

Next destination - Tampa Bay!


- Blake
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The Great Smokies + Chattanooga

February 19, 2017





















Hey There! Happy Monday! 
Once we left Kentucky with my parents we were ready to get out of the cold and head towards the mountains for a few days. That seems to be a pretty good balance for us. A few days in the city and then a few days in a state park or national forest. It's good for us and good for the dogs. I get a little paranoid about ticks but someone has to..  (Blake actually just had one on his leg and it was one of the grossest things ever - I had to pull it out in a parking lot with tweezers right before a gym class and it took me a minute to recover.) 
The Great Smoky Mountains were only about 4 hours away and we were hoping to get there and have hookups so we could get through the next few days without our tanks freezing. Thankfully - it didn't get cold enough because there weren’t any hookups in the side of the park that was open! You mid- southerners and your winter hours! Seriously everything has been closed - but there were still several really pretty spots in this little campground near Cades Cove. 
Cades cove is an 11 mile loop inside of the Smokies with these amazing views of the mountains and these gorgeous meadows. It was like a scene from a painting or a movie. We parked and went for a walk along the one way road that goes through the park. Most people drive it but it is open to pedestrians and bikes and is really the only place in the park where dogs are allowed. I always complain about that rule but I understand now because there were deer everywhere! We saw at least 20 on our first day just walking about 2 miles. They are so beautiful but I am kind of scared of them. If you read my instagram post from Mammoth Cave then you saw that this is an on going thing for me. I like nature but as soon as any wild life larger than a rabbit is within 50 yards of me I’m out of there. I’m an admire from afar girl - there are no pictures of any of those deer on my phone because I read the signs saying “stay back - interaction could result in death” (unlike Blake) who hung out near the road long enough to get a few photos of a buck that was about 10 yards from the trail. 
We got into the Cove on SuperBowl Sunday and Blake was a little disappointed that we probably wouldn’t see the game. We thought about staying in Knoxville but our desire not to sleep in another Walmart parking lot won so we figured it was a long shot. As soon as we crossed into the park both of us lost cell service and I could tell Blake was bummed. When we got back from our walk though we tried the TV to see if we would get any channels at all - and after a quick auto scan we got 3. The TV flipped on, and there it was you guys - the only channel that came in clearly was the SuperBowl. I was hoping Atlanta would win so I was a little sad but Blake said it was one of the best football games he’s every watched so I’m glad we had it.
The next morning we got up and geared up to do the full 11 mile loop. The weather was a little wishy washy so I wasn’t very sure how the day would go for us and I was also really paranoid about bears... Blake would start talking about something funny or telling me a story and I would be so distracted looking around in the woods and over analyzing every sound. There was a stretch where I kept checking to see if there were branches nearby that I could use to scare one away with. 
I know I’m a crazy person - I don’t know when this happened to me! Anyway! We really enjoyed the park. They have an auto tour that you can follow along with and it was really cool to walk with as well. They give you information on all of the homesteads on the property and it nice to learn the history of the park. We have definitely added this to the list of places to come back to sans dogs... sorry guys, love you!

After 3 days with no cell service we were ready to get back into real life. We made the short trek to Chattanooga and found a place to stay just outside of downtown. The next day we went downtown so that Blake could hit a yoga class and I walked the dogs along the river and down around the city. I always mean to take pictures during these walks but I get too wrapped up in podcasts and forget. I really liked it there though. The people were really friendly and I was even invited to a running club meeting by the girl at Lululemon. I was so tempted to go but the rain made it less appealing - especially when I don't have a hot shower to come home to. 
Instead, we took our chances with another Civil War Battle ground and it was so spooky! We learned that it was one of the most deadly battles in the Civil War with nearly 12,000 casualties. The fog was really thick so you could barely see the memorials and the canons around the field. The view was supposed to be fantastic and we did a hike on the outskirts that was gorgeous! I feel like this whole post has just been about my irrational fears but here's one more - I was prepared the whole time to have a ghost encounter. (I'm half joking...) but Blake was trying to freak me out and it was working - I almost hightailed it out of there more than once. 

 We were kind of hanging around Chattanooga waiting to hear from family and once we did we were ready to hit the road for Atlanta! I have always wanted to go there and was so excited about it soooooo more on that next time! 

 Thanks for reading, and sorry that this recap was a bit boring! As fun as traveling full time is, it's not always very glamorous or action packed. Sometimes it's a few days in a row of bad weather and bad moods where we only take out the camera if something ranks above an 8 on the interesting scale. Other days, we go on an insanely long walk, then hit a gym class, shower and grocery shop. Not super great blog material - but the point of writing this little blog/journal is to remember all of it, even the boring parts! ;) So thank you for following along!

 -Brit
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Mammoth Cave + Kentucky

February 13, 2017

Kentucky, USA

























Have you ever driven a five-ton RV with your entire family and everything you own onto a sketchy looking ferry? Well we hadn’t either and let me tell you, it was AWESOME! Mammoth Cave park is located about an hour southwest of Louisville and we were told that it was a must-see destination.

Mammoth Cave National Park offers multiple tours throughout the day to see the world’s largest cave system. We decided to go on the Domes and Dripstones tour. Not knowing what we were getting ourselves into, we geared up early and like two six year olds on their very first day of kindergarten - we were bright eyed and bushy tailed. Ironically we were told to meet at the visitor center where they loaded the touring group onto large school buses that chauffeured us to the cave entrance.

After we arrived to the entrance of the park, we off loaded and made our way down a couple flights of outdoor stairs. We ended up right the middle of a gigantic sink hole. Half made by natural disasters and the other half by three bundles of dynamite. The dynamite was a strategic detonation performed by the land owner back in the 1920’s. His plan was to blast away at the bottom of the sinkhole to discover where the water was traveling. Well this plan ended up with the creation of an entrance to a cave system that descends over 350 feet below the surface. He was able to make a living bringing in tourists to see his amazing cave discovery.

After we wrapped our minds around the history of the cave, our tour guide opened the steel door encased in concrete and the journey began. We had to duck, crouch, bend, lean and even suck in our guts to make it to the first resting area the cave. But it was well worth because at this point we were 250 feet below the surface of the ground and the only sounds were water droplets from the stalactites. The scenic tour lasted about two hours and covered a mile of the cave system.


Much of the cave was only ten or so feet in width but the end of the tour ended in a open area that was absolutely breath taking. It looked like something that you would see in a horror movie; you know where the guy kills the villain in a creepy cave and the gorgeous girl is saved and waiting for him and they have a corny make out scene? Sort of like The Goonies. Anyways, not to get side tracked. If you are ever in Louisville, it’s worth it to go to Mammoth Cave National Park and explore the cave system. The rangers were awesome too and one made a comment about being nicer "than the rangers in.. say, Colorado." He didn't know we were from Colorado... but apparently you rangers have a bad rap. 

- Blake 

From there we headed into Louisville to meet up with my parents! I was so excited to see them, and to sleep in a hotel bed for a few days. The first day we tried to get settled in pretty quickly so we could rush out to see the sights! Unfortunately we didn't made a solid plan so we didn't know that Kentucky has "winter hours" which is basically just where they close anything thats cool for 4 months. That would be our luck though. We still had fun driving around and catching up. We stopped by Churchill Downs and tried on hats and looked at pictures of the winners from years past. It was  neat to see even though we skipped the tour. That day sort of ended with us walking around downtown just to kill some time before dinner. We did a little bourbon tasting at Jim Beam and then headed back to the hotel for the night.

The tricky thing about visiting Kentucky is that everything is pretty far away from the city so you have to drive quite a ways to see the big sites. The next day we woke up and planned to head to Abraham Lincolns birthplace - we ended up seeing the Lincoln family homestead.. we think. The whole thing was a little confusing but we do know that Abraham Lincoln was there at some point. From there we went to a small town called Perryville which was the site of a Civil War battle. We have seen quite a few of these battle field sites on this trip so far and I find them so interesting. My parents are super into stuff like that too so its fun when we travel together and see things like that. Unfortunately we hit some more winter hours and weren't able to see a few of things that were on my moms list but we did make it to the Makers Mark Distillery! I would recommend the tour even if you aren't that into Bourbon. It was so cool! All of the bourbon is distilled at that site and packaged and sent out. You can even dip your own bottle after the tour and it's really fun! My dad is a pretty big fan of Markers Mark so he was really excited about this tour and I think we all ended up enjoying it.
That night we made our way back into Louisville and after a few more bourbons we wanted a late night snack and ended up at White Castle. Have you guys ever had White Castle? My mom is super nostalgic about it but it's not good!! Its not good at all - I really don't get it. Blake ate 9 burgers though so maybe he disagrees with me. 

From Louisville we made our way to Lexington - the horse capital of the US! There are some really beautiful farms on your way there. The landscape of Kentucky is just so pretty. We stopped and walked around some cute little towns and just took our time getting there. We spent that night just kind of hanging out and enjoying the hotel. Kind of lame I know but its was really nice to just sit in a living room and spread out - we got all of our laundry done and ate a bunch of chocolates left over from Makers Mark. After checking out the next morning we had a few hours before my parents had to leave to go home so we drove around some more! 

As far as sight seeing goes, Kentucky was a little bit of a bust but it was so nice to hang out with my parents. I miss them a lot on this trip so I'm glad we've been able to see them as much as we have. 

Blake and I said bye to them and then made our way to the Great Smoky Mountains! Check back in for that post later this week - happy Monday everyone! 

- Brit



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