2024 Journey Begins

5/13 - 5/22/24

We hit the road with Ben and headed towards St Louis around 10:30. We were outside of StL when the van began to act weird. We pulled off and checked the tires, and the back driver’s side was super low. We got it pumped up and drove on to Aunt Marie’s. It was good to see her looking better than she did last time we visited. Carolyn and Marian were there and KC came by to show us photos of her trip to Japan. As we left we realized the tire was low again. We tried several shops but weren’t able to get an appointment until the next morning, so we spent the night at Carolyn’s. After replacing the two back tires (there was a nail in the one and the tread was beginning to separate) we were back on the road. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating and the rains were so heavy that driving was difficult at times. Since we lost a night we decided not to go to the spot we intended to camp at along the Ohio River, which probably was a good idea anyway because the river was very high and the place we intended was probably very muddy. We ended up just boondocking at a Bass Pro shop outside of Chattanooga.

We arrived at my mother’s in the afternoon. We just hung out on Thursday and picked up Cam and Derek at 1 am from the Jacksonville Airport. We kept looking for them and they said they were there, but we couldn’t find them. Turns out they were on the Departure level rather than the Arrival one. Friday mom and I got pedicures and then we packed up to drive to Skidaway State Park for a mini family reunion. Mom, Al and Stephanie stayed in a yurt, as did Jennifer, Mia and Daniel. Jimmy, Mona, Tatiana, and Laylynn stayed in a cabin. Alan, Rachel and Luke stayed in a hotel nearby, Matthew and I stayed in the van and our boys stayed in a tent that Jimmy and Mona brought for them. Unfortunately their cat had peed on the tent and it smelled awful. We went out for dinner to a delightful restaurant I found called Sweet Potatoes Cafe - the food was amazing and the staff was so friendly.

It rained hard all the next day and the tent the boys were in leaked like a sieve. Cam stayed in the van with us Sat night and Ben and Derek stayed in Jimmy’s cabin. The rain prevented us from going to Tybee Island so we hung out and played games instead. 

Peekaboo across from our campsite

We celebrated Cameron’s 32 and Derek’s 23 birthdays

Luke wished us Peace Out as we all left with plans to do this this again sometime

We managed to get back to Woodbine in time to see Karrionna perform as a turtle in Finding Nemo

On Monday we said goodbye to Cam and Derek

On Tuesday we met up with Larry and Betsy for some delicious Mexican food

Al was wiped out from all the activity - and so were at least 3 of the cats

Ben wanted to spend his last day beachcombing so we went to Fernadina Beach for the day and the weather was perfect

This good sized gopher turtle was leaving as we were

We dropped Ben off at the airport and went back to Mom and Al’s for one last night.