Florida -- Louisiana

Florida

Before we left NC, we had some ideas of the general direction we were headed, but did not have a concrete plan. Florida was not on the original list. When we got to Georgia, I began to do more research and make a schedule for the rest of our journey. That’s when we realized we would be passing right by Destin, Florida! At the time, it was cold and rainy outside the window of the coffee shop, so sunny-warm Florida sounded like a perfect addition.

When we arrived in Destin, we finished the work day beside the beach and then immediately went out to the water. It was very windy and a terrible storm was moving in, so we didn’t stay long, but it was perfect! I love the beach. I dipped my toes in the ice cold water and my soul felt refreshed instantly! I noticed later in the evening that some sand made its way into The Canoe. When dreaming about van life, I imagined the dirt and sand on the floor of The Canoe after a day of adventures. This was another moment on the highlight reel. A moment that is small, but one we’ve dreamed about.

After some time on the beach, we went straight to the bowling alley. T and I love to bowl! It is the perfect Tuesday evening activity. After leaving the bowling alley, we were heading to the Planet Fitness in Fort Walton when T spotted a small fresh fish store on the side of the road. He quickly whipped The Canoe into the parking lot and ran inside. He prepared the most delicious scallops for dinner. We had plans for dinner, but that is one of the beautiful things about van life, you can change your plans at any moment if something better comes up!

We had a very eventful night in Fort Walton. Around 2am, the tornado siren went off on our phones. I rolled over and ignored it as I would normally do when in a house. T woke up and read the details and said we needed to seek shelter immediately! Thankfully, we were staying outside of a 24/hour Planet Fitness, so we ran inside. The sprint inside was pretty scary! A strike of lightning touched down right near us! We ended up staying in Planet Fitness for about an hour before the tornado warning cleared.

2am in a Planet Fitness

While inside, we met some new friends! The Bus Boyz were staying in a skoolie in the parking lot. When they saw us run inside, they followed behind. We didn’t talk to them much then because we were all half asleep, but we did catch up with them the next morning as we were pulling out. They were super nice. Two brothers from Virgina. We connected on Insta and shared some stories. This was our first experience meeting adventure friends on the road. It was fun!

Bus friends parked beside us!

Not only were we dodging tornadoes, but the roof in the van was leaking. When we got back to the van to go back to sleep, we realized the bed was soaked. We had just put more sealant on the roof, so we were hopeful that we were coming back to a dry house, but that was not the case. We went to sleep and ignored it until the morning.

The next day, we moved on to Navarre Beach. I read in a van life forum about Navarre being a hidden gem. That forum was correct! A small town feel on the coast. We loved Navarre! After work, we stopped by a beach bar and had a drink. While in the bar, we looked out and could see The Canoe sitting in a parking lot across the street. We get giddy every time The Canoe catches our eye. We wonder how long we will look out and giggle. We hope this feeling of being in love with this life never ends! Van life is a dream come true and we plan to never take this opportunity for granted.

After a walk out on the pier in Navarre, and a quick toe-dip in the water, we drove along the ocean to Pensacola Beach. Beautiful views along the drive. I had also heard great things about Pensacola. We loved it! We had a delicious dinner at Shaggy’s with the most beautiful view of the sunset. Our time in Florida was a great mid-week reprieve before we headed to New Orleans for the weekend.

Mississippi

There is not much to report on Mississippi. We stayed the evening to earn the sticker, but we were so excited to get to New Orleans that we did not stay long. We passed through Biloxi and stayed in a parking lot in Waveland, Mississippi. T prepared a delicious rice bowl. When our roommates moved out, they left several boxes of rice, so most of our meals in the van have had rice involved. We think of our roomies every meal. <3

For Christmas, my sister gave T and I a couple's journal. It has one prompt for each day of the year and an area to write answers for three years. It has been the best gift! After dinner, we pull out the book and write down our answers to the question. Sometimes they are simple such as, "What is your partner's favorite color?" Sometimes they are deeper, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" It has been a great way to get to know each other even more and has been especially fun to have during this phase of our lives. We are excited to see how the answers form and change over the next three years!

New Orleans

Now for the good stuff… we could not WAIT to get to New Orleans! We chose to stay at an RV Park to be sure we were safe and that The Canoe was safe while we were not around. We stayed at Jude Travel Park. It was a great spot! The owner had a shuttle to drive us into the French Quarters for only $5/person. This was a huge perk! The park was also gated at night. We felt really safe.

The park had a laundry station. While T finished his work day, I did the laundry so we wouldn’t have to worry about clean clothes over the weekend. We are doing laundry once a week. Currently, we do not have a lot of storage for our dirty clothes. When we get back to NC, we are going to clean out a good amount of items that we ended up not needing. This will create more space under our benches for dirty clothes. It has not been a burden yet to do laundry every week, but it may be eventually, so we will have more space if needed.

We decided to take things easy the first night. We drank tons of Gatorade and water to prepare us for the weekend. We pulled out the awning over our picnic table and put out our special picnic blanket. T made delicious steaks. When we lived in a house, we ate steak at least once a week. This was the first steak T has made on the road and probably the longest we have been without steak!

After dinner, we decided to take a walk to a nearby grocery store to get some more water and a few other items. We walked around 100 yards from the RV park before we saw a twitchy woman with a machete doing some “yard work.” It didn’t look like she was actually doing yard work….so we made a quick turn around and decided to stay safely in the RV park for the evening.

The next morning, we caught the 8:30am shuttle to the French Quarters. We started the morning heading towards Cafe Du Monde for some beignets. The line was a little longer than we were able to wait, so we went down a couple blocks to Cafe Beignet. Cafe Beignet was delicious! They had chocolate drizzle on the top of their beignets. Count me in! There was also a self-playing piano in the dining area. It reminded me of my MooMoo’s (mama) favorite movie, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. I love a little sign from home when so far away.

After Cafe Beignet, we walked around and explored the French Quarters. We had brunch reservations, so we stayed close. We had time to go see the water and we watched a train go by. I love trains! We had brunch at Tujague’s. It was AMAZING! We had bottomless mimosas, the most delicious food, and the best service! We sat outside on the cute little patio in the sun. If you head to New Orleans, you absolutely have to go to Tujague’s for brunch!

After brunch, we enjoyed the sites and scenes of New Orleans with drink in hand. We danced on empty dance floors, made friends with strangers, and I tripped on a curb and got a nasty skinned knee/bruise. We were home and asleep by 11pm. All in all, it was a successful day in New Orleans!

The next morning, I wanted another beignet, so we went by the New Orleans City Park. Such a cool park! There was a pond, railroad tracks in the park, and beautiful trees. There was also a farmers market going on. We stopped in the Cafe Du Monde-City Park. We watched them make the beignets as we waited in line to order which was awesome! SO much powdered sugar! I enjoyed the experience of going to THE Cafe Du Monde, but honestly after the chocolate drizzled beignets the day before, it didn’t live up to the hype. I would definitely suggest going with Cafe Beignet instead. Although, I will take a beignet in any form!

We had the absolute BEST time in New Orleans! We loved the entire experience and cannot wait to go back!!

Lake Charles, Louisiana

We’d originally planned to spend the evening in Baton Rouge, but decided to go ahead and move on to Lake Charles, Louisiana to get us closer to Texas. It was a great decision! Lake Charles was gorgeous! We made some salads and enjoyed them while watching the sun set over the lake. It was a perfect end to a wonderful weekend!

We are loving the fluidity of our schedule. The schedule we have made is tentative. If we feel like driving extra one day to drive less the next day, we are able to do that. It’s very freeing! Next up, Texas!