Time at the property is pretty relaxed, we got to enjoy spring with lots of bulldozing and burn piles. Jim is making amazing progress on clearing the land and found time to refinish the table and chairs. I attended a work function in Fl, where we went to Universal. Then, we decided to avoid the crowds at the ‘normal’ places and go to Huatulco, Mexico. In Huatulco, there is a wet season and dry season, we got there at the end of the dry season, so things were quite brown. We quickly realized we both suck at relaxing by a pool, though we kept trying. We did several excursions, a boat trip to six of the seven bays, including snorkeling – a trip to two waterfalls, that we were able to swim in, and a fishing trip. Though the flights there were miserable (thanks Delta) and we missed the first night and planned excursion the following day, we had a blast. It was beautiful, the people were amazing, our guide, Isa, was amazing. He joined us in the waterfalls, talked about the trees we were interested in and even stopped the car to get wild plums for us to try. We had a great time. When we got back we did some kayaking and side by side riding.

I really like Gulf Shores… there is live music everywhere, history, awesome bike trails and a beautiful state park beach. We were able to visit several forts, built in the early 1800s, utilize their bike trails, and visit the USS Alabama, a battleship turned museum. Fort Barrancas, as well as a working lighthouse and the National Naval Aviation Museum are on the Navy base outside of Pensacola, which is generally closed to the public. Luckily, they opened for 2 days, and we happened to notice and were able to see all three. Fort Barrancas was built in the early 1800s right behind a Battery that was built by the Spaniards in the late 1700s. The battery is lower on the hill, where they shot cannons at a very shallow angle, ricocheted them off the water, and hit ships right at the water line to sink them. I never get tired of walking through the old forts and WW2 ships and subs, the ingenuity, hard work, and craftsmanship of that time period is amazing. In the small museum attached to the lighthouse was an original knee from the USS Constitution, that were were able to visit a couple summers ago. The knees for these large ships were often made from Live Oaks, which are plentiful in the area. While in Gulf Shores, we also picked up Pickle Ball, which is a blast, we played often.

We spent February in Fredericksburg, Tx, just north of San Antonio and with some friends we haven’t seen for a while. We got to hang out and experience wine country in Texas with our buddies, Alice and Gordon, of Roaming With the Ramseys. They picked up a new puppy, Stormie, while we were there and we had a blast spending time together. We kicked February off with a San Antonio parade, visiting the Alamo and taking the boat tour through San Antonio. We wandered Fredericksburg and saw the National Museum of the Pacific War, then the LBJ ranch, where Jim got the turkeys to get all puffed up and gobble repeatedly. We saw part of the San Antonio stock show and the bad ass kids who tug bulls and other animals around like it’s nothing. We were also able to see the other five missions and learn more of the history in the area. We spent a day in Waco and saw the silos, Mammoth National Monument and the Texas Ranger museum. We saw the Texas White House at the LBJ National Historical Park and then spent a weekend in Corpus Christie, visiting Padre Island National Seashore and the Lexington Air Craft carrier. Jim tried to cap the cat’s claws to protect our furniture…. which ended up with super glue covering my fingers for the next several days. All too soon it was time to head out, at least the cats are getting used to travel days.

We headed out to chase blue skies and 75 degrees, we didn’t find it. We did, however, get to see and do a buncha new things! We went to a huge Christmas light display, the Naval Museum to tour a battleship and WWII submarine, Galveston, some walks on the beach, and an NFL game. The battleship was amazing, but the sub was incredible. The entire sub was lined with gauges and dials. The ingenuity, craftmanship, and engineering that went into it was stunning. We were able to tour Minute Maid stadium, the pyramids (a rainforest and an aquarium) and an old oil rig. We got to board an 1788 tall ship that still sails and were able to learn a bit about how trade worked during that time frame. We went to the Space center and took a ferry to Port Boliver to tour Fort Travis, est. in the early 1800s. Because were were interested in the picture of a large monument was, we stumbled on San Jacinto, the place where the Mexican-American war was won. We topped off our stay in the Houston/Galveston area by attending Monster Jam and witnessed the unquestionable victory of Son of a Digger, the son of Grave Digger. Though the weather was pretty chilly. cloudy, and very rainy, we made the most of our time there, it was an incredible month.

This month flew by. Chayse and Britt came for Thanksgiving – which was a blast. Jim got to use power tools on the turkey, always a good thing. We got to show the kids around and ride in the side-by-side even though it was pretty chilly. We got Britt for 10 days and Chayse for a long weekend. Then Ash and the G-kids came out from 7-20th, Chayse came back down so that he could spend some time with them too. We took them around in the side by side on one of the few days we could get out – it was really cold and rainy most of the time. We had a blast, we played outside, went on deep poop hunts, went into town to see some lights, we saw deer and a possum, we played some competitive games of Hungry Hippos, Dinosaur edition, had an early 1st birthday party for Enolah and an early Christmas. Luckily the snow held off until everyone was safely home.

Jim celebrated his birthday, then we took off to see Five Finger Death Punch (including The Hu, Fire from the Gods and Megadeath) with Chayse before going to Indiana Dunes National Park. This is a weird setup, it’s really a State Park on the beach of Lake Michigan, with some small National Park designations around it. We got a couple good days in before the weather got cold and rainy – we completed the 3 Dune Challenge and were able to see the Houses of the Future that were moved after the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933. Then we headed to Mammoth Cave National Park in Ky, where Jim and Becky came to visit us. The Cave itself was a huge disappointment. We were unable to get tickets for ranger led tours and only went on the self led tour. We expected something along the lines of Carlsbad, but there are no formations, at all on the self led tour. It was a very short walk, with a World War II memorial and an informational board on how Salt Peter was mined there. No formations at all. Luckily, we salvaged the day by taking a chance on Kentucky Down Under where we were able to feed and pet kangaroos. We saw some Joeys poking out of their mom’s pouches, along with some wallabies, emus and a very friendly camel. Also, Jim got a deer and we’ve been enjoying homemade jerky and grilled venison. In his downtime, Jim finished the entertainment center and propane fireplace in the shed. Oh, and we bought an old bulldozer.

White Sands NP allows pets – so the cats were able to join Nickel and experience their first NP. They made quite a show of running around and playing in the sand. I caught a couple people taking pics of them – and Jim as he tried to get them to listen. We were able to go to the balloon launch, though, they didn’t actually launch. The blew up the balloons, then ‘hopped’ them over a dune, deflated them, and everyone went home. It was a bit disappointing, but still pretty cool, with gorgeous colors against the white sand. We were able to see the largest pistachio in the WORLD! Did a bit of riding (another first for the cats), then went to Carlsband Caverns to round out the trip. We were able to do one of the ranger guided tours (very worth it) and saw the bats exit the cave in the evening. The bats were incredible to see, definitely worth planning the trip for a time when the bats were there. Dalton was deployed and will be serving overseas for a little bit – our thoughts are with him.

We camped outside of Ouray and went riding the back mountain jeep trails. The San Juans are breathtaking – the scenery was amazing and we were able to explore more old mining ruins and several 12k+ foot peaks. It was incredible. We were able to explore Ouray, Silverton, and Telluride, then stopped at the Aztec National Ruins in the way out to New Mexico.

We headed out for a three week trip to see four National Parks, do some side-by-side riding, and see if we could survive that long in a truck camper with a dog and two cats. Spoiler alert: we made it, but all agreed that, though we’ll go back for more riding in Colorado, 3 weeks is too long in that amount of space. In Colorado, our fist stop was Trinity, then on to some boondocking on BLM land near the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Then we headed to Taylor Lake for some side-by-side riding up Tin Cup and Cumberland Pass (saw a moose and old mining ruins!), then on to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

We took the puddle jumper to Sunburst Ranch for camping then floated the North Fork of the White River for 12 miles. Nickel tipped Jim… so that was fun 🙂 It was a beautiful, relaxing weekend. The next weekend was rainy so we stayed home, then we were down to our last weekend before our 3-week trip, so hung out here to prep. We did escape long enough to see some lawnmower races at the Baxter County Fair, but due to my lack of interaction with the outside world, missed the entire week of the fair except for the last couple hours. We started to prep the kittens for life with us, so they were introduced to harnesses and leashes as well as car rides. Britt and Dalton took a trip to the beach and we got lots of pics of the G-Kids, who are growing like noisy little weeds. Tilly took her first trip to the library and E loves her jumping jack.