Heather, Author at A Happy Hive

McKinney Falls State Park, Airstream family meet-up and we eat our way through Austin {Texas}

Shared March 15, 2016

Austin-Texas-McKinney-Falls-State-Park

Travel dates :: February 20 -26, 2016

After a restful few days at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe RV Resort we headed west to Austin, Texas! This has been on our short list for destinations since we hit the road. We had a 5-night reservation at McKinney Falls State Park and we were meeting up with two other traveling Airstream families – Advodna and FollowTheSun.Earth. We had never met these families before (in real life) but had followed each other on Instagram for sometime. . . you know, Insta-friends. That seems to be how we meet all of our favorite traveling families these days.

McKinney-Falls-Airstream-loop

We were able to get three sites, all in a row, at McKinney Falls State Park within a quiet loop. The spots were HUGE with lots of space between our sites. The hook-ups were only water and electric with just a short walk to a clean bathhouse for showers. Cost was about $20/night.

Hammock-Airstream-Friends

We spent the first night sharing stories, food and letting the kids run around playing together (ages 8, 5, 4, 3 and 18 months). We love these get togethers with other traveling families. It gives our kids an opportunity to play with other kids and allows us to socialize, too.

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Thousand Trails Lake Conroe RV Resort Review {Texas}

Shared March 14, 2016

Lake-Conroe-Thousand-Trails-Review

Travel dates :: February 17 – 20, 2016

After eating plenty of beignets in New Orleans and camping overnight in Lafeytte, Louisiana we headed west to Lake Conroe, Texas. After a busy couple weeks we opted to take it easy for a few days. We knew there was a lot to do in Houston but we also knew we needed to slow down for a bit – for our sanity and to catch up on life. So we skipped Houston (and it’s traffic) all together and headed north about an hour to Thousand Trails Lake Conroe RV Resort.

Thousand-Trails-Lake-Conroe_TX

Thousand Trails is a national camping network that you can join via a membership fee. Broken into regions around the country your membership allows you to camp for free (or a discounted rate) at campgrounds within your region. We know a lot of full-time families who have Thousand Trails memberships and tend to stay at Thousand Trails locations for long stays.

We personally don’t have a Thousand Trails membership and have never stayed at a Thousand Trails campground before – so this was a first for us! We weren’t quite sure what to expect but were pleasantly surprised when we pulled in. They seemed to have great security – having a gate that seems to be staffed for early to late in the day and you’ll be given a gate code to get in after hours.

Campsite-Lake-Conroe-Thousand-Trails

Our spot was in a row on a slight hill giving you a nice view of the valley. It was easy to back into and perfectly level. I love it when I don’t have to worry about leveling the trailer! The electrical box and hook-ups look like they had been upgraded recently and were in great condition. Although the spots aren’t huge, we didn’t feel as cramped as we had at some other campgrounds. And more importantly I loved our location – just a short walking distance to the playground, the miniature golf course and the pool/hot tub.

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New Orleans – French Quarter, beignets, a steamboat cruise and more {Louisiana}

Shared March 13, 2016

New-Orleans-Louisiana

Travel dates : February 11 – 16, 2016

After leaving Mobile, Alabama we continued West and pulled into New Orleans, Louisiana. We arrived the Thursday after Fat Tuesday. . .purposely timing it to show up after all the craziness from Mardi Gras (we had our Mardi Gras fun in Fairhope).

Bayou-Segnette-State-Park-campsite

We had heard there was an RV park right in the French Quarter . . . at $100+ a night you pay for the convenience of walking to the bars and restaurants of the French Quarter. That sounds like an awesome place to stay if you’re kid-free and fancy-free but we opted for Bayou Segnette State Park about 20 minutes outside of downtown. At $20 a night – and beautiful, spacious spots, this is more our style.

Bayou-Segnette-State-Park-Campground-boardwalk

The park had a lot of green space and was well maintained. The bathrooms were some of the nicest we’ve seen! We had a short walk on this boardwalk to the restrooms (and playground). We saw LOTS of adorable wild rabbits scurrying around this area – they catch you off guard when they start skittering alongside the path and we also spotted lots of birds.

Hadley-Biking-NOLA-Bayou-Segnette

Hadley was thrilled that they had paved roads and she ended up riding her bike quite a bit (actually she’s on brother’s bike in this photo). I was happy that there wasn’t a lot of traffic and overall it was a quiet, comfortable place to stay!

New-Orleans-Ferry-to-French-Quarter Panoramic from the ferry

Being about 20 minutes away from downtown you could drive into the French Quarter and try to find parking. But because our truck is ridiculously big we opted to drive 20 minutes to the Algiers Ferry terminal and take that across the Mississippi, dropping us off right downtown. You can find free street parking near the ferry terminal or you can pay $5 to park in a lot (we did both during our stay). It cost our family $8 each way to take the ferry (exact cash, they won’t give you change) and was well worth the cost of NOT having to drive into the city (and pay for parking). PLUS the ferry was lots of fun to ride and took about 8-10 minutes, it was so fast!

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Ask your questions! What do you want to know about living fulltime in an Airstream?

Shared March 13, 2016

Fulltime-Airstream-Living-Family

About 7 months ago we did a post, We answer YOUR questions about full-time Airstream living and travel and I think it’s about time we update our list with your newest questions!

Check out our FAQ post and then leave a comment on this post with any questions we haven’t covered! We will do our best to answer your questions.

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Ending our days with “Today I’m grateful for. . .”

Shared March 9, 2016

Today-Im-Grateful-for

I’ve always thought gratitude was one of life’s best remedies. Being grateful seems to be the perfect antidote for feelings of entitlement, frustration and anger. It doesn’t matter if you are living the American dream in a 2,000 square foot house or traveling like a gypsy around the country in 180 square foot Airstream – I believe that living a life of gratitude is one of the best life choices you can make.

Gratitude is so important to us that as soon as our kids were toddling around and old enough to converse we talked about having “a grateful heart.” Whether it was a tantrum in the store because they wanted a toy. . . or not liking the food on their plate – we talked simply about being grateful. Not in a “you must be grateful!” way but instead we created a dialogue with our kids that discouraged entitlement and helped them find joy in what they had or the moment they were in.

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Help us plan our spring and summer travels :: Southwest, Northwest, California

Shared March 8, 2016

Southwest-Northwest-Travels

Will you help us plan our spring and summer plans? We are trying to pencil out our plans for the rest of the year. There are SO MANY places, we can’t possibly hit them all. We have tentatively picked this route for our travels based on family and friends we have living in the area and places we want to personally see.

Here is what we have so far . . .

MARCH 23 – APRIL 11 – Mesa, Arizona
Visiting Heather’s Grandma and extended family in the Phoenix area

APRIL 11 – JUNE 15 – Arizona, Utah, Southern Idaho
Sedona, Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Salt Lake City, Idaho Falls, Yellowstone

JUNE 15 – JULY 15 – Western Montana, Northern Idaho
Bozeman, Missoula, Wallace, Post Falls, Priest Lake

JULY 15 – AUGUST 5 – Western Washington
Spending time near family, friends in Seattle/Tacoma area.

AUGUST 5 – SEPTEMBER 15 – Oregon
Portland, beaches, Cottage Grove, Crater Lake

SEPTEMBER 15 – OCTOBER – Northern California
Would love to spend as much time near the coast as possible.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER – Southern California
Would love to spend as much time near the coast as possible.

This is a HUGE area to cover in one post, but we’d love to know which places you recommend along this basic route that we should make a point to see. National Parks, historical sites, state parks, boondocking spots, favorite campgrounds. . . . we’d love your ideas and we can fill in our map and refine our timing based on your suggestions.

Leave a comment here and let us know what we shouldn’t miss. . .

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Our first Mardi Gras parade, eating crawfish and King Cake, and touring a battleship {Mobile, Alabama}

Shared March 6, 2016

Mobile-Alabama-Airstream

Travel dates :: February 8 – 11, 2016

We had a wonderful 10 days in Montgomery but with a deadline of getting to Phoenix by March 20 we needed to keep on moving down the road west. After Montgomery we headed south back to the coast to Mobile, Alabama for a few days.

Mobile-Alabama-camping-meaher

We had a wonderful spot at Meaher State Park right on the water with beautiful views. I think knowing that this was one of the last places camping on the coast for awhile made us appreciate it even more. There were signs by the water that said something like “watching for alligators. . .” so we didn’t play much near the shoreline. 🙂

The first day that we got to Meaher State Park we got a tip from an Instagram follower that the nearby town of Fairhope was having a Mardi Gras parade that night. I was a little hesitant at first because I assumed all Mardi Gras parades were filled with debauchery, flashing and drinking. I also didn’t realize that Mardi Gras is a multi-week celebration across many communities – not just New Orleans. I was assured that the Fairhope Mardi Gras parade was very family-friendly and a lot of fun. . . so we ended up going that first night in town!

Liam-Reading-Bookstore-Fairhope Liam reading at the bookstore in downtown Fairhope

We got to downtown Fairhope a few hours early and scored a great parking spot near the parade loop. We spent a couple hours walking around and browsing the charming businesses located downtown. We especially liked the bookstore the Page and Palette – definitely look it up if you make it to Fairhope.

We settled into spots along the parade loop about an hour before the parade was set to start, enjoying hot chocolate and popcorn, and trying to stay warm – it was a cold and windy day!

Mardi-Gras-Parade-Fairhope-AL-kids

The parade started around 7 p.m. and it was SO MUCH FUN! The floats were all family-friendly, the music was wonderful and they tossed out SO MUCH STUFF.

None of my photos turned out, but I’m sharing them anyway, because I think they really show just how much fun we were having.

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ASTC Passport Program :: FREE admission to museums nationwide

Shared March 5, 2016

ASTC-Passport-Program-How-It-WOrks

Early in our full-time travel journey our sister-in-law recommended checking into the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) – we are so glad we did! This association represents science centers, museums and related institutions across the country.

When you have a membership to a participating museum in the ASTC program you qualify for the Travel Passport Program – allowing you FREE admission to participating ASTC museums across the country!

Only a month or so into our travels we picked up an annual membership for the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana while traveling through. The annual membership cost our family of four was $85 (although we would have spend $48 in admission fees during our first visit, so our extra out of pocket was only $37).

Museum-of-the-Rockies-Outside

Since then, we have used our Museum of the Rockies membership to get FREE admission for our family to science museums, children’s museums, zoos, natural history museums and many other institutions all across the country!

Microscope-museum-minneapolis

We have conservatively calculated that we have already saved about $317 in admission fees (that’s factoring in the initial $85 investment in the membership). And more importantly it’s provided us the opportunity to learn at these amazing institutions all across the country.

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Montgomery, Alabama – Visiting family and learning about the Civil Rights Movement

Shared March 4, 2016

Selma-To-Montgomery-March

Travel dates :: January 29 – February 9, 2016

After wrapping up our time in Florida (see Florida panhandle post here) we jetted north to Montgomery, Alabama. This was on our list for a LONG time and it was a bit of a relief to roll into town. We had 10 days scheduled in Montgomery while we spent time with Jeremy’s brother and sister-in-law and their two adorable kids who are close to our kids ages. Jeremy’s brother is in the Air Force and he was able to sponsor our stay in the Family Campground on the Air Force Base. The sites were clean, well-maintained and included FULL hook-ups for $180 for 10 days – a steal at $18/day. We are so grateful to stay here during our visit.

Cousins-Alabama-fun

While in Montgomery we spent a LOT of time just playing with our sweet cousins. We have a small extended family – just 3 cousins and two of them are in Montgomery, so this is a big deal. It was a special time to bond and hang out. We went to our nephew’s basketball games, bought girl scout cookies from my niece – and watched the Super Bowl over at their place.

Playing-With-Cousins-Montgomery

The kids spent a lot of time playing outside in the sunshine. Riding bikes, playing Nerf guns and playing with the neighbor kids. It was so much fun.

But during the work week – while they were at work and going to school – we spent a lot of time exploring the local area. Most especially we spent a lot of time exploring places of historical importance.

Edmund-Pettus-Bridge

Selma to Montgomery National Historical Trail – We took a full day and drove the hour from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama along the general route of the Selma to Montgomery National Historical Trail. The 54-mile trail symbolizes so much about the Civil Rights movement and has three interpretive centers along the route. Our first stop was at the Selma Interpretive Center – right on the corner in downtown Selma after you cross over the famous Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Part of the National Parks system it is a small visitor’s center, but has some important displays . . .

and it was here that our kids completed the Junior Ranger badge (the same badge is available along the whole route).

Bloody-Sunday-Edmund-Pettus

You can walk across the street to the site of “Bloody Sunday” attack at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. On March 7, 1965 a group of 600 African Americans peacefully marching were attacked on this bridge by local law enforcement. 50 people were hospitalized. Two weeks later another group would start their march here and ultimately make it to Montgomery.

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We updated our travel map. . .and thoughts on where we are headed

Shared March 3, 2016

We updated our travel map with all the places we have stopped so far – including all the amazing places we visited in the East Coast that we haven’t gotten around to blogging about yet (hopefully I’ll have time to do this in the next couple months).

You can see the places we stopped and a short description of that location by heading over to the map page clicking on a red marker. If there is a corresponding blog post there will be a hyperlink to take you right to the post. If you’re looking at the list, the places with photos generally are the ones with corresponding blog posts.

It’s amazing to look back and see how much ground we have covered and to really sit and think about all the experiences we’ve had. From watching a Boston Red Sox game in Fenway park to swimming with dolphins in Florida – we have had such a wonderful time on the road.

Pulling out of our driveway, day one of our adventure

Looking ahead

Our initial plans were to only travel for about a year. When we left last summer (June 16, 2015) a full year seemed like a LONG time and honestly we weren’t even sure we’d last that long. We originally planned to pull into the Portland, Oregon area in late April/early May 2016 and have Jeremy start looking for a teaching job for the upcoming fall. We planned to enroll the kids back in school and get back to “regular” life.

That was our initial plan. But after being on the road 8.5 months, we are all so happy we can’t imagine stopping in just a couple months. What once seemed scary and daunting (traveling full time and towing our home) has become second-nature. We have discussed it a lot as a family and have collectively decided we want to keep traveling. . .

Hadley looking for as far as she can see, Tower of the Americas, San Antonio, Texas

Currently we don’t have an end date in mind. We’ve discussed it a little bit – possibly 6 additional months, maybe a year? We don’t want to put a date on it just yet. As long as we are happy and having fun, can still afford to travel without pulling from our nest egg/emergency fund/house fund, and we believe the kids are benefiting from the experience . .. then we’ll continue to travel.

Camping at a winery/farm in Pennsylvania

Where will we end up? We don’t know the answer to this either. Some of our favorite people (friends from college) are in the Portland, Oregon area and we have always loved the Pacific Northwest. But after traveling the country our eyes are open to many other possibilities. We love the sun and would love to settle somewhere warmer without the continuous gray skies.

Taking a ferry into New Orleans

Only time will tell how long we travel and where we will settle back down into suburbia. We are fairly certain that we don’t want to do this forever. Although we see great benefit to full-time travel we also see great benefit in our kids playing sports, doing gymnastics, going to summer camps and making long lasting friends at “regular” school. We still have a LOT of time for this to happen before they get to junior, middle and high school – which is when we personally think these things are most important.

The beauty of all of this is – we can choose and we can change our minds. And if we change our minds tomorrow we hitch up the Airstream and head to the place we want to put down roots. And we do.

Until then adventure awaits. . .

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McKinney Falls State Park, Airstream family meet-up and we eat our way through Austin {Texas}

Thousand Trails Lake Conroe RV Resort Review {Texas}

New Orleans – French Quarter, beignets, a steamboat cruise and more {Louisiana}

Ask your questions! What do you want to know about living fulltime in an Airstream?

Ending our days with “Today I’m grateful for. . .”

Help us plan our spring and summer travels :: Southwest, Northwest, California

Our first Mardi Gras parade, eating crawfish and King Cake, and touring a battleship {Mobile, Alabama}

ASTC Passport Program :: FREE admission to museums nationwide

Montgomery, Alabama – Visiting family and learning about the Civil Rights Movement

We updated our travel map. . .and thoughts on where we are headed

Looking ahead

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