Our departure date is less than 3 weeks away! Bernard stopped by the house so we could go over our travel plans. We mulled over maps, discussed people we hoped to meet up with along the way, and time lines. I had to keep reminding myself, “It is the journey, not the destination”. I have a habit of choosing the shortest (read fastest) route from point A to point B. If you have ever traveled with me, you know that when we stop for gas, make sure you use the bathroom, get something to eat, and stretch your legs, because we will not be stopping again until the fuel tank reads “E”.. With the use of my GPS, this has actually gotten worse. The built-in arrival time seems to push me even harder to try to maintain or beat the arrival time. But, with this trip, we have agreed that we are going to be laid back, travel if we want to, stop to see the sights, or even, take a detour, yes a detour. As you notice we have adopted the tag-line on our blog site and our journey as mentioned before, “It’s the journey, not the destination. Leading fast paced lives and travelling as we have in the past, I hope this is not a problem! We intend to get off the beaten path and mingle with the locales. Tourist towns, and attractions will be secondary at best. We hope to avoid these over priced areas as much as possible.
So as we began to map out our route, we decided to take it in small sections, so as not to over plan. The first leg, was determined that we would stop in Mobile Alabama. This should be a good days drive after leaving Augusta Georgia. We will stay overnight there, enjoy the town and the ocean, and then on to our next stop of Lafayette, Louisiana. Bernard has secured us accommodations and even a cooked meal using an online community called www.couchsurfing.com This is a community of travellers (not gypsy’s) that offer their couch for people travelling through their area. It is a great opportunity to meet people and hear their stories of their travels. When you need a place to stay, you just put out a couch request and wait to see who responds. There is a rating system and bio’s of the hosts and travellers so you can match compatibility. Check it out it’s a pretty cool concept, that we hope to take advantage of as much as possible along our route.
In Louisiana, we have been offered an open invitation to have a real Cajun meal prepared for us by the infamous Chef Bourque! He is a family friend from my childhood, that I have not seen in well over 20 years. We are looking forward to this stop, as it will be as an authentic Cajun experience as possible. Check out Chef Bourque on youtube here:
After we leave Cajun country, we are off to Beautiful Houston Texas! Bernard has a cousin here that has agreed to fire up the bar b q grill. There is nothing better than a grilled meal prepared by a local in Texas. You know, they say everything is bigger in Texas! I hope the meals are no exception. Bernard’s cousin (to be named later), has agreed to let us use his yard to pop up the roof top tents. The neighbors ought to get a kick out of that. Hopefully he doesn’t live in a restrictive neighborhood, with the nosy neighborhood association. I imagine there isn’t a bi law in place for roof top tents…..yet.
After we “camp” in Houston, it is off to a city that Angela and I have vowed to visit for some time, San Antonio Texas. We are really excited about this stop. We cannot wait to ride a gondola down the canal and walk the sidewalks along side. Bernard, having been in the military, and already a world traveller, has friends here as well. They too have agreed to put us up, and show us around. As an alternative, there are several military installations locally, that offer camping facilities. if needed. We intend to stay for 2 or 3 days to take in all of the sites and activities that this historic area has to offer. I am sure there will be an entry in the future dedicated soley to this city, so watch for it!
When we finally decide to leave, we will be heading for the Mexican border! Finally our Central America trip begins. It is approximately 2-1/2 hours from San Antonio to the border crossing. The plan is to get up early (6-7 am) and get through the border crossing as early as possible. We hope this will help with traffic and our rusty skills crossing the border with limited Spanish abilities. Once we cross the border, it is about three hours to Monterrey. This will be our first official destination in Mexico. From there, the sky’s the limit. We are totally open to any direction we feel like going (although ultimately we will be headed to the west coast). We intend to travel along the coast all the way down to Southern Mexico. So as we figure out our direction, we will post them for you. Do you have a recommendation or “must see” to share? Please let us know by “replying”. Stay connected!