Austin, TX

We arrived in Austin and stayed with our good friends Amity and James. Austin has a non-profit called Austin Pets Alive that is dedicated to making Austin a no kill city. This is Harold. We visited him and a few other special guys a couple of times while in Austin. This friendly guy almost came with us on the rest of our trip.


Ruby is around 3 and she lives with Amity and James. It took Pirate some time to figure out that Ruby likes to play rough.


We ate lots of yummy vegan food while in Austin. Fried avocado tacos at Torchy's.


At Mr. Natural we had tofu and sunflower seed tamales and some other tofu dish that I can't recall what it was called.


More good vegan food at Mother's Cafe. Here is James and Amity. Amity's sister, Emmaline, was also in town visiting.




Boys vs Girls Game Night. We played Catch Phrase, Taboo and then Pictionary. Good times. (The boys won!)


We left Austin for Enchanted Rock right as SXSW was kicking into gear. Enchanted Rock State Park has a pink granite pluton rock dome that raises about 425 feet above the surrounding terrain. We came to hike and try to do some climbing.


This is the view of Little Rock from the parking lot.


To the right is the Big Rock with tons of hikers making their way to the top. It was a Friday and Spring Break so it was packed.


Walking to our climb which was overrun by a guide group of well over 50 teenagers. They took up every top rope or sport route under 5.11. We had to hike further in and try to find something suitable to climb.


This was the next spot we tried to climb. As you can see, it is pretty much all slab. Not my strong suit.


Pirate at the base of our route. Super hot and very little shade. I would love to try this place again during a less crowded time. They actually closed the park around 10am because it had reached it's capacity. Crazy.

Orlando to Texas

Here is a quick glimpse into "van life". When we have to sleep in the van we usually find a Walmart parking lot. Walmart has an open policy allowing travelers and RVers to park overnight in their lots as a way to get weary travelers off the road...and of course into their stores. It is also nice to have a restroom to use as soon as you wake up in the morning.


Rebecca slowly waking up after a night sleeping in the van.


Living the glamorous life. Breakfast in a Walmart parking lot. Our first night in the van was in Panama City Beach, Florida. After parking the van, we walked into the store to use the restroom and quickly realized that is was Spring Break. There were college kids everywhere buying cheap beer, pushing bikini clad girls around in shopping carts, and generally being obnoxious. Good times.


Panama City Beach has some weird attractions. This upside down building is WonderWorks. This is what their website had to say: "WonderWorks™ is an amazing Panama City Beach attraction where scientific principles and fun come together to provide an unrivaled educational experience."


Ripley's Believe It Or Not.


Killer Whale attacking Pirate.


It was really windy and cold that morning due to the storms and tornados that passed through two days before.


After leaving Panama City we continued our drive through the panhandle. We stopped at this cute beach town called Seaside. We ate a great veggie lunch at one of these airstream trailers.






We ate our 2nd lunch at this little park and watched kids play football and throw around a frisbee. It was a beautiful day.


We spent that night in Biloxi, MS and then drove to New Orleans for an afternoon.


This square was really fun to walk around. There were tons of amazing artist selling their goods at a very reasonable price.



Next up: Texas, Texas, and more Texas.

Universal Studios

A big thank you and high five goes to our buddy Chris for making the visit to Universal Studios possible. Also, much love to Brian and Brad for letting us stay at their house and to Andy and Theo for putting up with Pirate.


Universal Studios!


As soon as we entered the park we high-tailed it to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Look! Snow in Florida!


At platform 9 3/4 waiting for the train to take us to. . .


Hogwarts!


Went to Olivander's Wand Shop to pick out my wand and look at owls.


All the excitement was making me thirsty so we got some Butterbeer.


Mmmmm, Butterbeer.


After waiting in line for about 45 minutes we got to go in Hogwarts for a dark roller-coaster-type ride. (Yeah, I'm a dork and I'm ok with it.)


Next up was Dr. Seuss World.




This was probably Rebecca's favorite part of the day, watching artists draw people's caricature. Some of these artists are simply amazing. This couple was giddy with anticipation.


Did you know that Donkey is Rebecca's long lost sibling. They both loooove to talk. Donkey was really funny today and Rebecca was star-struck.


Many of you know that I love Great White sharks and the Jaws movies. Here I am stealing a kiss from this beauty. Of course, I prefer my sharks alive but this plastic one will do. I was very disappointed in the Jaws ride at Universal. Not only was it too short, but the shark only came up on my side of the boat once!

We are now in Austin and will stay in Texas for another week or so before making our way to Colorado.

Back to Bradenton, FL

After our wonderful stay in Tampa, we headed back to Bradenton for another week with Rebecca's dad.


Rebecca, her dad and myself went to Stickney Point for a trail run and some sightseeing.




The bridges and wooden walkways made for an interesting trail run.


I know it is a common flower but this guy spoke to me.


The hard, grey seeds in this flower are called nickerbeads. We found a huge bush full of them. It is weird that something so hard grew from a plant.


Fun root structure on this tree.


MONSTER!




Inspired by Dan Price's "Moonlight Chronicles", Rebecca and I have been keeping art journals on our trip. This is her first attempt using water colors. Pretty darn good.


This was the view Rebecca had while laying down in her kayak one morning.


The last time I really drew was back in highschool when I took some art classes. Drawing lines feels extremely foreign to me. I brought a few old pictures on this trip with the hopes that i might be able to draw them. This is a sketch of my grandfather from a picture that was taken in 1991 when I was still rockin' a mullet. Later that year I discovered Nirvana and swapped the mullet for the floppy grunge haircut. Maybe I'll draw me with a mullet next.


The yummy Taco Bus and a penguin at the zoo.

Next: Universal Studios and our drive to Austin, TX.