ARRIVING HOME ON A VERY SPECIAL DAY

4th December

Today is a very special day for by beautiful little miracle (who is growing up, oh so quickly and not so little anymore) as it is his 7th Birthday.

His excitement on receiving a birthday present was so infectious - in his words "I didn't think I was getting any presents today because we just arrived home from America"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDAN

you are an amazing little boy and I am so proud to be your mother

 

  Jordan was so tired that evening that birthday cake had to wait until after breakfast the following morning - what a treat!!

HOMEWARD BOUND

2nd December

Arriving at Austin Airport after dropping off the RV we had a 6 hour wait for our flight - some planning on our part made the waiting time just that little bit easier as we found some outlets for the computers and set Jordan up with a movie or 2 and we settled in to watch the last couple of episodes of West Wing.

Although it was a very very long day/night as we flew from Austin to LA to Australia (our flight was changed from arriving in Sydney to flying directly to Brisbane - Yay!), our trip home was very uneventful which is exactly the way we wanted it to be.

waiting at LA airport for our flight which left at 11.00pm

MAKING OUR WAY BACK TO AUSTIN, TEXAS

29th November to 1st December

We are on the last leg of our holiday - lots of driving involved whilst we head on back to Austin, Texas.

Arriving back in Austin, the RV Parks were completely full which was quite a surprise but something that turned out to be a complete win for us.  We were recommended to try the State Park which was only 3kms away.  Surrounded by trees and deers, it was such a nice way to spend our last evening in the US.

Tomorrow we take the RV back and start on the journey home to Australia.

ARKANSAS

28th November

Arriving late in the evening last night we are staying in a little town just near Jasper and it is delightful.  Although it is not a very big town (probably total population between 20 - 50),  it has the most amazing ORGANIC cafe!!.  The owner of the RV Camp Park recommended this Cafe to us for dinner and after checking it out in the morning we decided to have a cuppa there - whilst ordering Paul was persuaded  the YAM Pie with freshly whipped cream was worth ordering and WOW, it was delicious.  I didn't even get a chance to take a photo - it was that good!!

 Main Street with Organic Cafe in the forefront

The exploring for the day involved a scenic route recommended in one of the information brochures.  Although we only covered about 1/2 of the loop, we certainly had a fun day with some beautiful scenery and a small hike to the Lost Valley.

  This is an example of the types of houses built in the area

ARKANSAS

27th November

Our plan is to spend the next couple of days exploring the Ozarks.  We will head North to Harrison and then south to Jasper where we will stay for the next couple of nights.
Driving along, in the middle of nowhere we found this little Bakery and what a find it was.  Full of Organic bread and baked goodies as well as a little organic shop - who would have believed!!

 

Another great find was the "Mystic Caverns"  which consist of 2 large caverns complete with stalactites, stalagmites, and some other formation.  The first of the caverns was originally used to house a distillery during the Prohibition era and unfortantely this has caused stains from the smoke and irreparable damage to the formations in that part of the cavern.  Thankfully there are still plenty of areas left in pristine condition and the 2nd cavern which was discovered much later on is also in pristine condition.

Did you know that if you touch any part of the formation it will stop developing or growing - hence why so much damage was done to the caverns in years gone by!!!   

  stalactites - forming on the cavern roof top

stalagmites - forming on the cavern floor

 Jordan holding a piece that has been broken off

 This was amazing but the photo cannot do it anywhere near the majestic justice of what it actually looked like

If you really look hard and use your imagination what do you see?

A dragon of course!  Can you see it?

A little hint - the stalagmites are running down the dragons back.

ON THE ROAD

25th / 26th November

We are heading West to Arkansas which will be a couple of full days driving but we are looking forward to seeing the Ozark Mountain Ranges.

Stopping for lunch at a Roadside Rest area, we went for a little wander and this is one of the photo's Paul took from across the river.

and talking of Roadside Rest Area's, the Americana's really do them well!

This shot is taken looking back up at the Rest Area as we were walking back from the river

 

 check out the Vending Machine house

Americana Style - bigger n better than anywhere else!!

can you believe this and that is only one side!!!

On the road again we drove through Nashville (totally disappointing) and the outskirts of Memphis - I really wanted to visit "Graceland" but Paul didn't want to drive the RV through the middle of the city to get there!

 so I made do with this.....

TENNESSEE

24th November

Today we are combining both nature and local history by heading to Cades Cove which is a tour of an old settlement area situated in the Smoky Mountains National Park.

On the way however we found this little road side market and tasted some of the local cuisine!  

Now for those of you who know our family well you will be wondering about this choice - not our normal preference of Organic Vegetarian but the meat is local, grass fed and we had heard "RAVE" reviews about the local SMOKED BBQ meat so decided we had to give it a try!  Our preference was also to support a small local business rather than a chain which seemed to be everywhere.

We tried both the Hickory Smoked Pork & Beef Brisket - I generally will not eat pork but this was BBQ smoked and not dissimilar to Asian style BBQ Pork but I have to say I preferred the Beef Brisket and probably would not try the pork again if the chance arose. 

Cades Cove

 

 

 

 This is the back up of cars because they were all looking for deers and driving at approx 5 miles per hour!!

 Gatlinberg after dark

 

 

 

NORTH CAROLINA / TENNESSEE

23rd November

Today we arrived at the Smoky Mountains and they are certainly spectacular.  A pity the trees have lost their Autumn leaves as that certainly would have been a beautiful sight to see, none the less they are still amazing.

Today is the first day it has rained during our entire trip but it by no means detracted from the beauty of the Smoky Mountains.

Arriving in one of the local towns "Gatlinberg" was not quite what we had expected - a mini Vegas!!

After a look around town we headed to the RV park for an early dinner and evening ready for some exploring tomorrow.

A big thanks to Sabrina who told me how to make Mexican Rice - look what we had for dinner tonight!  It was no mean feat making this in the RV as the kitchen has such a small  working area but it was worth the effort as it was delicious.

STH CAROLINA

21st November

We had a long drive ahead of us today which took all day to reach our destination and was mainly on highways.  Leaving  Florida behind us we started seeing signs of Fall, the trees look gorgeous with all their shades of yellow, orange and reds.

ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA

19th - 20th November
 St. Augustine, Florida

After bidding our new friends David, Sabrina, Hershell and Marissa a goodbye we set to packing up as we are also leaving today.   We are driving North to St. Augustine where we will visit Dave and his family.  Paul met Dave at the Boot camp in Austin and he graciously invited us to come and visit.  

Dave and Janna have 3 children (2 boys and 1 girl) and within minutes of meeting each other the kids were chatting and playing happily together.  Jordan especially took to Nathan who although a couple of years older was fantastic with him.

Dave took us to a "RAW FOOD" Cafe which was just amazing and I am feeling a renewed burst of energy since eating there - the food was delicious and I really can feel the difference when eating "LIVE" food!!

After lunch we looked around a historic fort and the downtown area of St. Augustine.  It is a really nice area with a European feel.

Fort

 

Down Town St. Augustine

Dave lives in a really nice area with a view out over a lake complete with alligator - yes I did say alligator!!  Apparently the authorities are keeping an eye on it but at the moment it is very shy and does more good than anything else.  We tried very hard to spot it but as I said it is very shy of humans.

Thank you Dave and Janna for your hospitality, we had a great time as I know Jordan did playing with your children.

PS - for those of you wondering why Paul hasn't been updating his blog - well he left his camera at Bob & Kim's house.  They very kindly posted it to Dave's place so he will be up and posting very shortly if he hasn't already done so and yes pictures on my blog today are care of Paul as I forgot to take my camera out with me.