Across the South

 

The Sands Boardwalk
Point Royal, SC

 Greetings to all,

Ok, I know the last blog wasn't up to par with what we normally blog. Don't worry, I will not cut anyone short on this section of our journey. This will be a longer blog than normal. Now off to South Carolina from Branson, MO. We headed to South Carolina to visit more family and friends.  We headed south through Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia before getting to South Carolina. Why? Diamonds, baths and the Natchez Trace.

Bathhouse Row
Hot Springs, AR

The Grand Promenade 
Hot Springs, AR

       First stop, Hot Springs National Park, Hot Springs, Arkansas. We have been to Hot Springs before, but it has been over 17 years ago. So, we decided why not make another trip. Hot Springs NP seems different than other National Parks I have been to. It seems to be out of place, almost like it should be on the National Mall in D.C. instead of in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. This was only a stop on our way to another place though. Our main goal for coming this way was to, Dig for Diamonds!

Crater of Diamonds State Park
Murfreesboro, AR

      Can you really dig for diamonds? Yes you can, at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. We have wanted to come here for many years, but have never made the trip. Kind of hard to believe since I lived in Arkansas for over 20 years. Well, we made it......, but we did not get to dig for diamonds. That's right, we came but we did not dig. See it started raining on us when we left Branson, MO and it didn't stop for 5 days. So, this part of the trip got really soggy and literally put a damper on our plans.

Vicksburg National
Military Park
Vicksburg, MS

Natchez Trace
Parkway

       Another bucket list item we have tried to complete for some time is to drive the Natchez Trace Parkway. This is a NPS property that extends 440 miles from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN. It is great for biking and even hiking. There are no commercial vehicles allowed so it is a peaceful drive with many, many stops along the way. UNLESS.....it is nonstop raining. We didn't really get to enjoy this as much as we wanted, but we did get to drive 200 miles of the Parkway.         

     Ok so I mentioned we were headed to South Carolina to visit family and friends. I am sure you noticed the picture at the top of this blog. This is one place we visited while there. It was a really nice place to spend a sunset. While there we spent time with Jennifer's brother and family, and Katlyn and Zac, and Zac's family. We were so happy to finally see some sunshine after all of the rain that followed us. We got to spend some quality time with family and we hunted shark teeth, walked on the beach and enjoyed some really nice bike riding. Well I will finish here with a group of pictures, and a promise of more chapters of our travels to come. Happy Travels

Hunting Island, SC

Family Tradition

     Look who we found in Branson, Missouri, well we actually met them there for our annual family vacation, This has been a tradition for our family for many years now. We decided not  to participate in the hustle and bustle of Christmas gift giving when our daughter was a young  child. It was then we made the decision to make memories every Christmas season for as long as we can. So this is our vacation for Christmas 2018 in Branson, MO. 

Just a selfie on Table Rock Lake. Such a beautiful day in a beautiful place.

We started our vacation with a trip to Table Rock Lake. Here is Jennifer looking for
arrowheads. They still wash up to this day. Of course she could just be looking for rocks.
She has been known to pick up a rock here and there.

Of course you can't go to Branson without a trip to Silver Dollar City. This place is
awesome all year long, but it is absolutely amazing during the holidays. With over
6.5 million lights and the best food you can find anywhere, Silver Dollar City has
been called the most illuminated theme park on earth. This picture was taken in
Midtown. They also have a new Roller Coaster called Time Traveller. The world's
tallest, steepest, fastest spinning roller coaster. It is pretty awesome!

Here is the entrance to Midtown

This is inside Bass Pro Shops Wonders of Wildlife Museum in Springfield, MO.
If you have not been to the headquarters of Bass Pro Shops in Springfield, it is definitely
a must see at some point in life. It has a top notch aquarium and amazing displays of live and
mounted animals. I know this is not the most adventurous blog we have written, but this is
also a family tradition. Therefore, it is also more private than most, so I will end it here.
Lord Bless and Safe Travels

Time to Get Movin! Again

Good Morning,

     Or whatever time it is where you are. It is time to be back on the road and have some fun and relaxation. We have a busy 2 or 3 months planned so maybe we will have time to blog, who knows. Well we have left Colorado and headed to Nebraska and then down to Missouri and Arkansas. Not much relaxation yet, but I know we will have some one of these days. So lets get started!

     Ok so first I will talk about our mode of transportation. We have had a Subaru Outback for a couple of years, but we were still having to tent camp or rent lodging since we travel mostly in the colder months. So we bought us a teardrop camper that would not limit us on destinations. This is the Outback edition. Funny huh? We wondered if we should change our blog to Outbacking Believers. LOL!

These stickers represent many of the places we have driven to and from. The stickers at the top are
from National Parks we have visited. There are 58 national parks and 418 NPS properties. Top of
my bucket list is to visit all of them. As we journey we will add more stickers, so here we go, lets
add more stickers.

November 16th, 2018
Ready to head out on our 2018-2019 winter road trip. 

Buffalo Bill Cultural Center in Oakley, KS

The Geographical Center of the Lower 48 states.
What this means is if you made a map of the lower 48 of equal thickness across.
This is the point where the map would perfectly balance on a point.
Pretty neat Huh?

The Homestead National Monument of America
This place commemorates the Homestead Act. This Act allowed people to claim up to
160 acres for their family as long as they resided on it for 5 years and improved it.
Would't that be nice now? 

I have always loved travelling across the Midwest. The wide open prairies and beautiful sunrises and sunsets always seem to amaze you no matter how many times you see them. The people are some of the nicest you will meet, and the wildlife is always in abundance. I have heard some people say how boring it is to drive across Kansas and Nebraska. Well, I wonder if they ever stop and look at the beauty that is around them, because there is beauty everywhere. Imagine setting your cruise control 5mph under the speed limit. Stopping at all of those little brown signs along the way and actually enjoying the trip more than the destination. This is travelling.

Lord Bless your travels,
Grounded Haug

Changing of Seasons

Greetings from the road,

I know, we haven't blogged for an entire year? Well I have a whole bunch of excuses, but the truth is we have just been lazy and life happens. Oh did I mention we have been busy? Katlyn married the love of her life and that took a toll on us. Lol We have talked about blogging though if that counts for anything. Well anyway we are back on another road trip and enjoying each day as if it was our last. Here are some photos of the last year, then I will move on to what we have going on now.

Stopped by here on our trip to Mexico

This is Newspaper Rock, they sure had much to talk about back in the day.
This was their social media

Notice how sunny and warm it looks in the middle of winter

All of the rocks you can see are petrified wood. 

This is part of the Painted Forest. This was such an awesome place.

This is Monument Rocks in Kansas, YES Kansas!

I had to take this picture just in case I needed to show it to Jennifer.
Those of you who know Jennifer, knows she loves to collect
rocks. She did refrain from taking any so we should
all be proud of her. LOL!!

Family Christmas 2017

Hello to all, and Happy Spring! We said we would start traveling on December 1^st and we did until now. Again we have seen some amazing things and we have met some amazing people also. Oh yeah, and KatyDid got married!

Well, I think I will have to break up this blog up in to multiple parts, since we have seen so much. So here we go.

We started out by going to one of our favorite places for Christmas, Branson, MO. We started by going to a few shows. First the Dixie Stampede where to food is always great and the action is even better. Second we went to the Sight and Sound theater where the play the Miracle of Christmas was showing. If you have not been to a Sight and Sound theater before, you should put it on your bucket list now. Then of course we went to Silver Dollar City where there are shows behind every door, and roller coasters to ride between them. Silver Dollar City is an 1800's themed park with people dressed in period dress and others preparing the most amazing food, which fills the park with the smells of pure bliss. Did I forget to mention that the park was called the most illuminated park on earth by USA Today. It has over 12 million lights. We finished up our visit by going to SIX and finally taking a dinner cruise on the Showboat Branson Belle.

The family on deck of the Showboat

Katlyn enjoying the beauty

       

Then we were headed to Alabama and on to South Carolina. We spent a few days there and then headed to Nebraska for Christmas! Nothing really eventful happened during this time, because we were visiting with family and friends.

Captain loves the Nebraska winter.

So does the Subie

Now the trip back to Colorado via Minnesota, South Dakota and Wyoming simply because we had not been to these states yet. So, we finally made it to Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands of South Dakota. Absolutely Awesome! I am sure the Badlands are nice in the Summer but in the winter with snow on them they were Outstanding. The bighorn sheep and Barbary sheep were like pets almost. We almost had both parks to ourselves also because not too many people go to these places in the winter. I will stop this section here and pick back up in January.

The Badands

Only one state left

Almost home but just for a short time.