We realize that we have been very bad, in fact horribly bad about keeping our blog updated (there is always Facebook). While we feel it is too late to go back and try to detail all that we have done in the past month and a half (has it really been that long??), we will try to fill you in on where we have been and make a vow to be better at this blog thing. In hindsight, we really have done quite a lot, so here goes…

From New Orleans we made a mad dash to Apalachicola, Florida, home to Luis’ family.  We stayed with Luis’ sister and visited her family (her husband Danny and her two beautiful kids Alex and Maya) Tamara, Luis’ mom lives a block away from Marisa. We affectionately refer to Florida as the black hole (due to our inability to leave) and Apalachicola was definitely the hardest to leave. We had a great time, enjoying the beaches, scalloping, great coffee and food from Cafe Con Leche/Tamara’s Cafe, and much more. The best thing was the love of family (yes, we were spoiled rotten) for a little over two weeks.

Luis with the coolest ever: Maya and Alex

When we finally managed to break away from Apalachicola, we headed down to Miami for a couple of days to visit with friends, then headed to the Florida Keys for what we planned to be two maybe three days. Here again the black hole took hold and we found ourselves still enjoying the keys a little over a week later. We stayed at the Best of Florida Keys, a great little place in Islamorada (about half way down the keys). If you love sailing and the beach… this is the place.  They treated us like kings there, we kayaked, sailed, bar hopped, visited Key West (slightly over-rated), snorkeled and much more.

The view from our room at Best of Florida Keys

Sailing the Keys

Just another horrible sunset in Islamorada... can you understand why we did not want to leave?

Lacey having a rough day

On our way back north we couldn’t just drive through Miami without stopping again to stay with friends… we found ourselves in Florida for another weekend. Our “plan” after Miami was to head back west across the country and get on with our journey south of the border, but while in Miami, Fernando (the owner of Camping Lab) told us about a Land Rover rally that he was sponsoring/attending in Virginia that week.  We looked at each other and said: “hey why not? let’s drive to Virginia.”

On our way north to Virginia we stopped in Savannah, Georgia for a few hours, walked around town and strolled through the famous Bonaventure Cemetery (Lacey’s little obsession), it really should not be missed.

Beautiful Savannah, GA

The most beautiful and serene cemetery we have ever visited

In Virginia, we found ourselves the only Landcruiser paired with Fernando’s Four Runner in a sea of Land Rovers. Despite the obvious conflict, we had a good time, checked out some really nice rigs and met some great people.

Our spot at the Land Rover Rally in Virginia

Another good thing about the Virginia rally was that we were told (by a fellow named Jack) about the Blue Ridge Parkway which is a national park road through the Blue Ridge Mountains down the crest of the Appalachians. So we set out on a three day drive with some spectacular scenery. We were very fortunate enough that our timing was during the best of the fall colors.  Living in Arcata for so long, we forgot how nice it is to see the changing of the seasons, and you can’t get much better than the east coast for fall colors!

The Blue Ridge Parkway took us down through Asheville, North Carolina (a town that we really, really liked, kinda Arcata-ish in some ways) to the Smokey Mountains and the state of Tennessee. We were really blown away by the number of people in the Smokey Mountains and even more blown away by the tourist town that is located on the west side of the park (Pigeon Forge, home to DollyWood). After so many days of being on a small road with very few other people and camping in empty campgrounds it was quite a shock.

Yes the view is always this picturesque from the Blue Ridge Parkway

No, it is not a postcard... but apparently it IS the most photographed spot in the Parkway

As music lovers, we couldn’t drive through Tennessee without stopping in Nashville. We found a great little campground about 10 minutes from downtown, went back to town and did the tourist thing through the rows of honky tonks, had some beers and checked out the free music at all the bars. The following day on a whim we purchased tickets for the Grand Ole Opry. Only after we sat in our nose bleed seats did we find out that the Grand Ole Opry isn’t even the original! Oh well, it was still a great show.

Honky tonks along Broadway... great music and very cheap beer (no cover charge anywhere)

After the show at the Opry we decided to head on down the road. Lacey fell asleep and woke up somewhere in Kansas a bit confused… it turned out Luis had pulled an all nighter on the wheel.   We stopped in eastern Kansas for the night where the temperature was 24 degrees, needless to say there was no camping that night… we got a motel room (No Lacey is not that hardcore…  she will not camp in those temperatures). The next day driving down the highway it was so cold out we had inches of ice building up on the outside of to the car. Boy were we glad to arrive in the warm 40′s of Denver…

Ice build up on the Cruiser... not fun after being in 80 degree weather!