Bama'd the appalachians for a perfect Tenn

Delfest!!!  Officially now over :(  So sad.  But good times dancing to my favorites ... Greensky, yonder, emmitt nershi, leftover salmon, sam bush, del mccoury.  Although my feet do be hurting a little bit now.   But that is ok... lots of time for them to recoup as we don't have much music for the next week or two.  (Well maybe my left foot as the right will be pushing on that gas pedal).

Getting to delfest brought some interesting sights.  Had my first firefly experience at Lake Lurleen in Alabama .  Crazy little buggers flashing up the night sky are as pretty as can be.  It kinda makes you think you are hallucinating at first... but then provides entertainment for hours :)  Free and healthy entertainment at that...the best kind

From Alabama we headed through the east side of Tennessee out to West Virginia. In Tennessee we stopped off at the Lost sea in Sweetwater...  home to caverns and the largest underground lake in the world.  The caverns were alright (always cool to see caverns but pretty meh compared to others), but the underground lake was awesome.  You take a boat ride out onto this majestic blue water which acutally has rainbow trout in them (tons of them which you can see).  As these trout lack any natural predators (cus there aight sheet down there) they are the largest trout in the world... growing up to 16 lbs ( that sentence was a little tour guide status... minus the parentheses part of course.  No cussing!  You know any lost sea managers out there...  I will be looking for a job here in the future... hit me up!).  But to ruin it for everybody.. the water is lit blue by manmade lights and the trouts were installed to see if there was any exit to the underground lake (which there is not).  So now they just live there and there are fed by the tour guides to keep them alive (of course don't think they would want me bringing this up in the tour).  Still really cool though.

From Tennessee we pushed it through West Virginia.  Good old West virginia.  Always been a sports fan... but I now understand why the university of West virginia has the mascot of the mountaineers.  West virginia is home never ending rolling mountains of lush green trees.  And never ending might be an understatement.... We would make it up one hill ... then another would follow.  Multiply that statement by a thousand and it starts to describe.  Truly epic... (of course when you're driving a 1991 Ford motor home trying to get charge it to the other side.. little bit of nervous eesshka involved.  But never a doubt delilah... love ya.).  I come from living in the Redwood forest... but those Appalachians in west virginia might be some of the most untouched lands I've ever seen. 

Today we head up to address the sights of Gettysburg Pennsylvania.  Might be a day late for memorial day but definitely not a dollar short to catch up on a little civil war history.  I'll be sure to take a some pictures.  :) 

pictures getting to MD

Go delilah go...

3 more days down.  And we be moving quick.  Gotta get to Cumberland MD by this Thursday for some  Delfest.. little 4 day music fest of some of our favorite bands.

Last couple nights have been good.  Had our first Wally's world night experience in Austin. (which was interesting... pretty convenient in these cities .. but interesting.  Something about the bustle of city folk <walmart city folk at that> constantly walking around your "home" i guess is going to take a little bit of getting used too ).   I really like Austin though.  6th street is filled with bars and music.  Everywhere you walk has a different person singing at the bar.  Seems like a hard place to have a bad time for some music buffs like us.  Of course didn't love all the music... but there always is the bar right there for relief. Its amazing what a few drinks will have you liking..music included in this generalization  :)

From there we went to Sea rim state park in Sabine pass TX and got our first taste of the Atlantic ocean.  And the water was hot....  like warm bathwater hot.  Gulf of Mexico at its finest i guess.  Played in the water a bit... but spent most of the time there (got there at about 3 pm) just walking the beach... looking for shells.  Overall the park was great.  Wildlife refuge sitting on the beach... with not a soul in sight.  Almost postcard status.

But I was a little weirded out getting to this place.  Got my first ever taste of oil and the effects of oil.  The park we stayed at was around an inlet (island pretty much) that went past Port Arthur and through the sabine pass.  And the Sabine pass might as well be called oil pass.  For it only had oil refineries, oil riggers and oil workers.  And a LOT of them.  Not one plant, 10 plants, not one ship 30 ships.  Pretty awaking when you have these massive structures all in your face.  It truly might be one of the most unnatural, ugly things I have seen.  My hippy side hates it.... Yet it provides the gas that powers the RV that gets me to go on this trip.  So in a sense ... I am grateful (?!?!?).  One of those catch 22 things that leaves your head spinning.  Truly don't really know what to think of it.   Just wish there was a better way. 

From there we hit the bayou.  Got a little dabble of New orleans and then headed down to Slidell.  New Orleans was alright.  Didn't know what to expect.. but it is very city though.  Maybe its that all cities kinda look alike to me but downtown New Orleans reminds me alot of downtown LA (with a few casinos and public drinking that LA doesn't have).  Of course it was a very miniature tour so that comment might be a little shortsighted.  We had planned on staying for a day or two.... But the craziness of big cities irks me a bit in general  .. Add driving around in and trying to park an RV to the craziness and we felt it was time to go.  Sorry Harrahs... i keep my money this time  :)   -  yes I would have lost some money on the Preakness today.  lol

Tomorrow we hit Bama.  Over and out

West texas Cowboys... all around

Just got to Balhormea(?) state park in West texas.  Nice place (well..maybe not so nice..lol/?) but definitely fits the Texas stereotype. Barren to put it mildly.  In fact this whole texas two step so far has been a whole lot of nothing.

It was an interesting drive though.  Drove through El Paso which is where Britni spent 7th - 9th grade.   Little reminiscence for her.  And got the secondary from border patrol at the check point.  California plates and a happy dog i guess set them off but .. sorry guys... no cigar.  

Last couple nights have been great.  Been state parking it.  Catalina state park outside Tucson and Rockhounds state park last night outside Deming NM.  Catalina had a great little mountainside view and at Rockhounds we sat pretty far up the mountain overlooking an immense valley below.  purty purty....

pictures are up !

Anyways.. slowly making the charge to New Orleans.  Plans have us for Austin or San antonio tomorrow... Galveston the next day and then the big easy.  

Talk to you'll soon

8pm... 97 degrees

The weather is hot and the time is a coming. Some 12 hours until we head eastward. Loved the few days out here with my dad. Been far too long since I have seen him... But pretemuch feels like I have never left. Of course a few things are different sine the high school days... The golf cart is gone.... And we have a few more in the house with us..(He has the wife and I have Brit).... But these are just great additions to the friendship and realness we have always shared. Love you!! I was able to frequent some of my old favorite places.... Good old papa dans pizza up the street tonight for some of that antipasto salad and pizza I so enjoy. Yeah I said it antipasto salad.. Ripe with those Italian meats that I haven't had in a year and half. We will see how my stomach we be feeling in a few hours....lol... But I Figured I would be going throughout the country where the BBQ is ripe and meats would be flowing. Wouldn't want to miss out on some of that. Maybe I'll revisit the no meat diet when we come back..... :) Besides that .... Just enjoying the pool and working on getting rid of this farmers tan that has plagued me for the last 6 years. Still there a little bit.... So maybe I have the hit some of the southerly or eastern beaches as well :) Did a little more rv work today. And pretty glad I did. Checked the water heater which works great. But also rechecked the tire pressure. Which was low. And this brings me back to the point a very smart man told me at the beginning of the trip....never trust anybody. Even a seemingly good hearted mechanic. I say that cus we took the rig the camping world in Valencia to get it all checked out. 22 point inspection good sam done advertised with their membership. And this was the big for me cus I knew the tires were low as the rig had been sitting in front of the Santa Cruz house for a couple weeks before we left. And that really the only thing i wanted to get fixed. Upon them giving the rig back....they told us they tires were perfect 80psi and ready to go. Huh!?!?! Yes i did question it but they reassued .... And assuming they were right... I said ok and took the rig home. And eventually out to the desert. Come today... All 6tires were low. 4 tires at 65/70 and 2 at 50. Wow... Thanks camping world. But no hard feelings... Well maybe some bitterness... Lol. But no hard feelings. Just glad everything is good now and Delilah is good and ready. Yep that's official her name Delilah jones. Delilah Britni and Corey... Mm, mm, mmm...

Los Angeles never looked so good

Corey - Day 3 here in la. Spent the last two days getting everything looked at, checked out, and rarin to go. And might I say everything looks pretty darn good.  Rv is purring, appliances are working and the got some toys to take along.  Special thanks to my papa for going the extra mile to get us where we needed to be to hit the great wide open.  Love you :) 

It was also great seeing some other family last night on our official Bon voyage shindig.  Jason and my mama doing it right as always with their masterful hosting skills.... Jason on the bbq and mama dominating the kitchen...  great food and great company, can't beat that.  Special thanks to my Mama too.  Nothing like a mama's love :)

Tomorrow we head for the desert to see pops and officially head into the unknown a few days later.  Every silver linings got a touch of grey.... but with the rig proved trusty and my lady by my side...nerves are pretty absent and excitement runs rampant. 

See you soon world