Captain’s Log: RV Wanderlust 06-01-15

• Date: 06-01-2015

• Current City: St. Louis, MO
• Current Location: St. Louis RV Park
• Site Number: 13
• Wi-fi Signal: Verizon – Good / AT&T – Medium / Campground Wi-fi – Slow and Free
• Cell Signal: AT&T – Good 4/5 bars
• Mission: Work / Explore

• Compliment: 2 Officers, 2 Crew, 0 Guests
• Captain: Eric Highland
• Navigator: Brittany Highland
• 1st Mate: Trogdor the Burninator
• Deckhand: Rhythm Jasmine
• Guests: None

• Weather: Cloudy / 60°
• Precipitation: 0%
• Humidity: 80%
• Wind: 6 mph

• Fuel: 75 Gallons of Diesel – 3/4 tank
• Odometer: 112,161
• Generator Hours: 4621.8

• Estimated Date of Departure: Saturday, June 13th
• Next Destination: Lawrence, KS (tentative)

Special Orders: Return to the log! It’s been far too long.

Captain’s Remarks

11:27 – Work like a captain, play like a pirate! Argghhh I can’t believe that my last Captain’s Log entry was in October of 2014. We’ve been making other blog posts, but the Captain’s log has taken a walk off the proverbial plank.

So here is the fastest catch up ever. Ready? Just the highlights or this will be the longest blog post ever. Here we go.

10-21-2014 – We gave a social media presentation at High Point Market in North Carolina to a bunch of Interior Designers for one of our clients, it went really well and here is proof that Brittany and I aren’t always in flip flops and shorts or pajamas, although I confess that we are most of the time.

10-25-14 – We spent two glorious days in Savannah, GA. Right downtown. $12 for two nights at the Visitors Center. Not too shabby, eh?

10-30-14 – Spent some time in Jacksonville, FL and the surrounding area. We highly recommend you stay in Fernandina Beach rather than Jacksonville if you are going to be in this area. It was so much nicer.

11-01-14 – Went to St. Augustine, picked up a pretty ring for Brittany, explored the city and saw this:

Not really sure what to say about this… but wow! If you are ever in St. Augustine make sure you check out the Ice Plant Bar there. You’ll thank us later.

11-02-14 through 11-08-14 – Stayed at our condo in Kissimmee, FL while we had some regular maintenance done on Meriwether. We went to all 4 Disney parks and rode the Tower of Terror at least 5 times back to back to back. Brittany got her face painted too.

11-09-14 through 11-14-14 – Went up old highway 19 in Florida along the gulf coast. Stayed in a tiny little town called Sopchoppy and visited Apalachicola. This is a fun little area to explore if you have time and love small towns. All of Old Highway 19 was fun. I actually started a Captain’s Log about this place and got most of it done, but never finished it as we were off to Gulfport, MS next.

11-15-14 through 11-29-14 – We were in Gulfport, MS. We got to connect with fellow RV Bloggers Tim and Amanda Watson of Watsons Wander and we got to go and pick up the boys to spend Thanksgiving with them. We spent it on the base in Gulfport and had quite a feast. We frolicked in the gulf, went to old greasy spoon diners and did our own early version of Christmas.

11-29-14 through 12-01-14 – Arrived in Beaumont, TX. Spent some time with friends, Brittany got into Zumba. On our drive to Beaumont, we were having some engine power loss so we decided to find a shop that could take a look. Closest one we found was Iron Horse RV in San Antonio, TX. So we cut our time in Beaumont short to get Meriwether looked at.

12-02-14 through 12-03-14 – Iron Horse RV was amazing. They got us fixed and back on the road in record time. They became our go-to RV service center, and one of our latest clients!

12-03-14 – We sprung an oil leak! Got all over the back of Meriwether and we stopped at Camping World of New Braunfels to get it repaired. They couldn’t really figure it out quickly. So I got Daryl from Iron Horse RV on the phone. Put him on speaker phone with the tech from Camping World, and Daryl diagnosed and solved the problem, then he walked the tech through the entire procedure site unseen. Did I tell you that Daryl is a rockstar?

12-03-14 through 12-30-14 – We were “home” in Austin, Texas. We were staying at Pecan Grove and it was supposed to be a glorious time. But Brittany was sick, then I was sick with a kidney stone the entire month. My mother came out to visit and she was sick practically the entire time too. We still made the most of what we could. We were really bummed that my mother’s time with us and our time in Austin was so hampered by illness. It was a really tough month. We still managed to do Christmas though!

12-31-14 through 01-16-15 – We rang in the New Year with Brittany’s parents and her grandfather. We stayed at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, TX. We had a delightful New Year’s Day meal together as a family and did a ton of exploring with her grandfather Ron.

01-17-15 through 01-18-15 – Back at Iron Horse RV. We spent some time exploring the San Antonio area while Iron Horse replaced our air filter, fixed some interior drawers, worked on our door, got our hubcap replaced, realigned our awning and sealed the window above the drivers seat. So while they did that, we got to play.

01-19-15 through 01-30-15 – Stayed at Pecan Park Riverside RV & Cabins in San Marcos, TX. Really enjoyed our time there. Got to meet Josh and Marie of Ardent Camper, who we knew before they went full time. And also many other awesome folks. We even had an RV Wanderlust get together. Spent some time with Kevin Ewert, founder of NuRVers.com and of course the owners of the park David and Rachael Rowley. They became one of our latest clients. We swore at this point we seriously couldn’t take on any more clients! We have to play too, right?

01-31-15 through 02-13-15 – Went to Fredericksburg, TX and stayed at Fredericksburg RV Park. Absolutely loved this great little town in the Texas Hill Country! So much to do. Highly recommend the National Museum of the Pacific War, Hondo’s, and walking down main street. But the highlight of the trip would have to be seeing Brittany’s little brother Tim and his fiancee Hannah. We took them to Alamo Springs Cafe which is a must if you are in the area!

02-14-15 through 02-19-15 – Went back to Iron Horse RV. They got our parts in for our fan blade. They also fixed the radiator, the charge air for our turbo diesel, and our engine water pump. Took Brittany out for Valentine’s Day to the show Rain (Tribute to the Beatles) at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio after an amazing dinner at La Fogata which is pictured here. Make sure you try this place if you are ever in San Antonio.

02-20-15 through 03-01-15 – Stayed in Wimberley, Texas at the Green Acres RV Park. Another city in the Texas Hill Country that we love so much. Had a wonderful time meeting Heather and David Irvin (and their little munchkin) who blog at irvinwindsong.com. The highlight of the trip though had to be celebrating my father-in-law’s 64th birthday with Brittany’s parents at The Gristmill in Gruene, TX.

03-02-15 through 03-06-15 – Got our Vortex front end cap and our RV Wanderlust logo put on the front of Meriwether at Iron Horse RV! Now everyone knows when we’re in town. We’ve had tons of folks comment on it and several follow our adventures just from seeing it. We’ve even had some folks go and get their vortex front end cap done after seeing ours. We love our little bison logo and we sure do stand out now!

03-07-15 through 03-20-15 – South By Southwest in Austin. We stayed at McKinney Falls State Park, one of our favorite places to stay. This was an incredibly busy time for us because we run The Austinot blog in Austin. Our schedule was non-stop while we were there, but it was simply awesome. We hung out with the Verizon folks, the GoPro camera folks, Aaron Franklin of Franklin BBQ fame, and most importantly the locals and friends we’ve made in Austin. Our little Austin blog had nearly 2,000,000 impressions that week alone!

03-21-15 through 03-28-15 – We were making tracks to be able to be with the kids for Spring Break in Nashville. So we went from Austin all the way to Hot Springs, Arkansas. We wrote several articles about Hot Springs. It was amazing and one of our favorite places we’ve stayed so far. We stayed at Catherine’s Landing which was an incredible RV park with a ton of amenities. But the baths.. oh my… they were the best!

03-29-15 through 04-03-15 – We had to press on. We didn’t want to leave Hot Springs but we had to make it to Nashville by Spring Break, so we went further down the road to Memphis, TN. Brittany wrote an article about our time in Memphis. I think the highlight had to be the National Civil Rights Museum though. Dyer’s burgers was my favorite eatery there. (Get the triple), Gus’ World Famous Fried Chicken is also a must. The original is in Memphis. And of course make the obligatory pilgrimage to Beale Street.

04-04-15 through 04-11-15 – Arrived in Nashville. Spent Spring break with the boys. Took them to see the Natchez Trace Parkway, went to the Nashville Zoo and did all of those touristy type things. Stayed at Jellystone RV Park in Nashville. I wrote a review on it. I can’t recommend it at all. At least not until they make some changes. But the highlight was probably our cell phone clue driven Easter Egg hunt at Centennial Park.

04-12-15 through 05-31-15 – Arrived in Somerset, Kentucky. Stayed at Pulaski County Park near Nancy. We were there to spend as much time with the kids as we could before the oldest graduated from High School and joined the Coast Guard, and the rest of my kids moved to California with their mom. After just 10 days at Pulaski County Park (and some chain gang convicts had damaged Meriwether while cutting the grass) we moved to Lake Cumberland RV park which was much closer to the schools for the kids and had full hook ups. I had to take off to Las Vegas for a week for work with one of my clients but Brittany made the choice to stay with the kids during that time.

So much happened while we were in Somerset. My son Darius enlisted into the US Coast Guard, went to prom, turned 18 and graduated from High School. My son Javen got great scores on all of his 8th grade testing and we were able to put him into gymnastics for an entire month. We got to spend time with our family friends the Wrights and celebrate life with them. We also enjoyed meeting Darius’ girlfriend Mackenzie, and her precious family the Smiths. Brittany got a Yamaha keyboard for her birthday and it is so nice to hear her play again! On May 5th, Cinco De Mayo, we picked up a rescue kitten that we found at the RV Park, we named her Rhythm Jasmine, and she’s the newest member of the RV Wanderlust crew. We also got to take a trip up to Lexington and meet some other friends of RV Wanderlust in Kyle and Laura Norcross which was tons of fun. We found a great little shop called Book and CD Hut where the boys and I were able to do some tabletop gaming.

But the highlight of everything for me was when my daughter Ari and my son Silas got back into town with their mom the day before Darius’ graduation. Because all my kids were in one place, we were able to spend some precious time with the entire Highland family together. With Darius shipping off to basic training on June 23rd, we’re not sure how often or when we’ll get those kind of times again.

On May 31st after lunch with the kids and spending time with the Wrights, we got back to Meriwether and got him ready for travel. We headed out to Bowling Green KY that night to get a jump on the long drive to St. Louis.

A severe weather warning forced us to spend the night in a Wal Mart parking lot in Bowling Green. The next morning bright and early we headed out for St. Louis.

06-01-15 – We arrived around 2pm central to the St. Louis RV Park and went out to dinner together at an Afghan restaurant called Sameem which was pretty good. After that we came back to the park, connected with Robin and Jeremy Whitacre and a new friend Tiffany and all went out for drinks and desserts.

As you can see it has been a insanely busy time for us. Glad to get this recap done. Thanks to any of you who have bothered to read this far. This is just life for us. Crazy as it is.

Remarks: We have a huge list of things to do in this area. We’re hoping to knock off work today and head to the City Museum which has been recommended to us non-stop. Darius will be flying back from his vacation in Myrtle Beach to stay with us until his departure for basic training on June 23rd. I’ve been working with him daily to prepare him for what he is about to go through.

Navigator’s Addendum