Our First Airbnb Cancellation and the Recovery

 Kansas City, MO

Cancelled!  Oh No!

Out With the Old

Yesterday eagle eyed readers or just readers that read the post, saw that we got some bad news yesterday.  We were given notice that our Panama City FL month long (actually more than a month) stay was cancelled.  The reason the owner gave was that construction was being done but we looked and it looked like he has raised is prices and he might be cancelling so he can get more money during the time we were going to be there.  We won't know for sure and in the end, it doesn't really matter why.  If any stays were going to be cancelled (and this does happen), we are glad it was Panama City.  The only thing that was somewhat bad about this cancellation was that it was a REALLY cheap stay so we were going to use it as a home base and camp around in Florida and finish all of the counties in Florida this year.  

Recovery Planning

At first we were a bit annoyed.  I was one day away from booking all of the stays on the 2 week trip from Baltimore to Panama City.  It was a happy accident that I was lazy and decided to delay a day because the plan was in place.  We spent the first 6 hours or so looking for new stays and it wasn't going well.  It takes a lot of searching to find the right place for the right price with the right amenities for a month long stay.  At the end of the day we gave up and went to bed without solving the problem.  The stay is 2ish months away which seems like a lot but there is a lot of competition for good places right now.

The next morning we looked at it with fresh eyes and a clear head and stays started popping up all over the place.  It's funny how hard it is to choose a place to stay when you can stay "anywhere".  Pretty soon we were emailing properties back and forth to each other and coming up with stays that we were actually excited about.  The Panama City Cancellation was starting to look like a great opportunity to improve our trip.  Just after our oatmeal breakfast Donna found a stay in a city that I had never considered.  Thinking outside the box you have created for yourself is key to finding good stays and having good adventures.  It's how our "racing the moving van across the country" turned into putting our stuff in storage and going nomadic.  After we both scrutinized the new stay in mind we booked!  We have a place to live and now we have an amazing new plan!

The New Place

Red Stick!

We decided on staying just an hour and a half away from our December stay in New Orleans.  We are staying in the heart of it all near the college in Baton Rouge, the capitol of Louisiana.  This will give us a chance to see more of Louisiana with less driving and take our time visiting the capitol building and climbing to the top of the tower. We will also have time for the museums and botanic gardens in the area.

And We Don't Miss Out on Finishing Florida

The Florida State Park Planning is going well

I spent the day yesterday planning our route while Donna thumbed through this awesome Florida State Park book to find parks we really wanted to stay in and visit.  We have 20 days between Baltimore and Baton Rouge, so a lot of time to stay visit Florida State Parks (which are way better than I know you are thinking right now).

Florida progress as it stands now

We will be camping in / visiting great state parks like;

Constitution Convention Museum State Park  and the replicated convention hall features the debate of delegates Robert Raymond Reid, William P. Duvall, David Y. Levy and Thomas L Baltzell. These life-size, audio-animated mannequins offer a realistic demonstration of the debate and process of drafting a state constitution.

Ponce de Leon Springs State Park and the amazing 68 degree year round natural spring (with no alligators we hope).

Stolen from the State Park website

Florida Caverns State Park with a cave tour in Florida!

Another borrowed image from the Florida State Parks website

All totaled, we will be visiting at least 13 of Florida's State Parks on this leg of the trip.  As you can see, we are very excited about this Panama City cancellation.  It has opened up great opportunities for us to rethink the weakest part of our trip with new learnings from the road.

That's really all we did today.  We had planned on going to a history museum but that can wait.  We still have 13 days left in Kansas City, MO.  

If you missed yesterday's adventure you can check it out here.

Day 101 on the Road

 McKinney, TX

I took this photo using the screenshot tool on my computer.  Does that count?

Planning for next year

It's day 101 (Did I miss 100 or think 101 is cooler than 100?) of our Great US Road Trip.  We are closing out our last week in McKinney, TX and then moving on to Tulsa, OK for 2 nights.  We have Tiki, Pinball, a brewery, botanic gardens and museums planned for Tulsa so it will be packed with more than we can do during our short stay.  After Tulsa we drive to Kansas City, MO where we will be staying for a month.  We have a bunch of cool stuff planned for there too.  After KC we do a 2 week road trip with camping and hotels and then end up in Baltimore, MD.  We watched the whole series of Homicide: Life on the Streets preparing for our month in Baltimore.  

It's a great show.  It isn't streaming because they used a lot of contemporary music for the time and the expense of clearing it for streaming would be costly.

After Baltimore we do another 2 weeki-ish road trip down to Panama City, FL where we will be staying for a little over a month.  We plan on finishing up the Florida counties during this time and seeing some of Florida's beautiful state parks.  In December we will be in New Orleans for a month.  We have a friend that lives there and will see some sights with him and his wife and hopefully we will have 2 sets of visitors staying with us.  We ended up with a 2 bedroom 2 bath place so we hope to get full value out of the place by sharing it.  That takes us to January 5th 2023.  On January 8th we pick up a good friend or 2 and maybe 2 soon to be good friends and head to Disney World for a week. The group is already talking about what we want to do so it is sure to be an action packed week there.  

Donna and I hamming it up in Florida last year.  I am sure more adventures like this are in store for us.

Me in front of Spaceship Earth last year.  This will happen again.

Tron being built.  We are hoping it will be open by the time we get there next year.

After our 2023 Disney World trip we... , well that's the problem, we don't have any booked plans after January 15th 2023.  This is the problem we are working on now.  Where to after Disney World?

Hunting for the perfect month long stay

A month long stay needs to have;

- Parking for our van

- A comfortable looking couch with a TV

- A bed

- A bathroom

- A place to cook

- An accommodation for Francis

- Temperature control 

A month long stay should include;

- Easy access to mass transit

- A downtown or interesting area within walking distance

- A coffee maker

- A storage place for our bins

All of these checklist items go through our head when we are looking at Airbnbs and furnished apartments.  We also have to think about our monthly budget for housing.  It's basically what we had been spending on rent, internet, and utilities before we hit the road.  Some of our monthly stays end up over budget but then others end up under budget.  The hotels and camping fees also feed into this "housing budget" so the more we camp, the more we have to spend on stays.  As I type this, Donna is narrowing down places for the next stay we are planning.  It's a place I have visited but haven't spent much time exploring.  I will let you all know our new plans as we book them.

Now, what are your questions?  :)

If you didn't catch up on what we did yesterday, you can read all about Texas Liquor Laws here.

Packing and Cleaning Day

 Denver, CO

Someone did a custom job on this old Plumbing and Heating van in our neighborhood.

Packing Day Discovery

Today is packing day.  We have one more day in Denver and we will hit up a museum but we chose Sunday to stay in, pack up, and do a bit of cleaning.  We got to Denver just about a month ago and have done so much and time has just flown by.  While doing a bit of cleaning we found 2 month old baked potatoes that we had cooked but then forgot about.  It reminded me of this Mitch Hedberg Potato Joke.

Baked, rested, and aged potatoes

We spent the day with Create TV's This Old House marathon running. They are reshowing This Old House Create Showcase: New Orleans Rebuilds.  We will be in New Orleans for a month in December and early January so whenever they mentioned a neighborhood we had researched it got our attention.  While This Old House was on in the background we re-found our 9 travel bins and our Igloo cooler and hunted through cabinets for our items being careful to leave the items that were already here.  It doesn't take a whole day but it is nice to take breaks and spread it out between dog walks and grocery shopping.  

We are almost all packed.  There are just a few things that we need to use on the last day that aren't packed.  On Tuesday we get up early, pack all of our stuff in the van, and head out.  Our plan takes us down I-25 and out the bottom of Colorado then over to Clayton Lake State Park for a night of camping.  The next day we head into and out of Oklahoma to touch that state for the first time and then into Texas and on to Amarillo for a night.  It will be our first time being in Texas together too, not counting our short stop over at Dallas Fort Worth Airport in April on the way back from Costa Rica.

It's hard to believe that our first two stays are pretty much over.  Trip has been really fun and we are heading into areas we have not explored yet so that is exciting. 

Oh and last night The Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in Tampa Bay.  We were watching TV and paused our show to listen to our neighborhood and the whole city celebrate the victory.  It's always special being in a city when a championship is won.  We had the same experience when we were living in San Francisco and The Giants won the World Series.  

If you didn't see yesterday's post, we went to the oldest bar in Denver for lunch.  Check it out here.

Home Base, Denver Colorado

 Denver, CO

Our front door

Our new home for a month in Denver

We have made it to Denver Colorado for our month long stay.  We are staying here.  Don't try to book it because it is fully booked through April 2023 apparently (I just looked it up).  Our drive from Silverthrone was only about 1h15m and took us through the Eisenhower Johnson Memorial Tunnel (The Johnson, Eastbound side to be precise).  I didn't get photos because I was driving but you can look it up.  It's a really cool tunnel that takes you through The Rocky Mountains and under The Continental Divide.  We arrived at our Airbnb and moments after unloading the van we were treated to a thunderstorm.  It's our first thunderstorm of this trip.  Our Airbnb is very comfortable and appears to have everything we need.  Our day was mostly getting settled and then figuring out what free TV services we get.  Turns out we get Apple+, Amazon Prime, and Hulu.  I have a list of things I want to watch from all of these services so yay!  We also took a walk through our neighborhood with Francis and stopped by a new brewery, Baere Brewing Company.  We had a pint and enjoyed the patio and then picked up a 4 pack to go.

Wide open spaces for Francis to dance in the living room

A gas range for all of our cooking needs

A breakfast nook that we will use for dinner too

A king size bed

Francis got settled more quickly than we did

Our list of goals for Denver (I just learned how to spell Capitol vs capital.

The cute neighborhood we are in

More cuteness

A local movie theater we may go to

Stickers!

Beer we bought for when we visit our Star Wars IPA fan friends

Now it's time to settle in and experience Denver.  I also have a lot of highway logging to do.  I haven't logged Utah, Colorado, or Wyoming yet.

My CA highway map is looking pretty good.

Check out yesterday's adventure here.

Cancelled Plans Don't Cancel The Day

 Los Angeles, CA 

Spoiler Alert, we ended up at the beach

The Change

Yesterday (well really it was the day before yesterday because I write about yesterday today) we got a call from the friend that we were planning on hanging out with today and he was feeling under the weather.  We were supposed to go to The Academy Museum.  He sent us the tickets and said to go without him and that we would meet up later in our stay.  That didn't sound very fun because we wanted to go with him so I looked into it and you can change the dates of your tickets (in the Covid time you have to pre-arrange some of the things you plan on doing because Museums and places are limiting the number of people that can attend each day).  He got back to me and said the tickets were successfully changed for a future date to be blogged about later so we had a free day!

The Pivot

We spent the morning catching up on some life stuff, going over future plans, blogging, reading two newspapers (The LA Times and The Seattle Times), and Donna contacted one of her college friends, Dana.  They had talked about getting together but never made solid plans.  It ended up that today was the day to meet up.  We would meet for lunch at The Redondo Beach Brewing Co.  Donna kept me informed of the plan while she was texting Dana so I looked up the brewery to research which beer I should have.  Turns out it is more of a tap house than a brewery.  They have a bunch of different beers on tap that they don't brew themselves.  Cool!  I saw some good beers and I decided what to eat while in my lounging attire (the future really is fantastic, you can go to places and see things before you ever go there).

Doing the thing

Today was the first day we had to use our car since getting here.  Getting it out of its tight parking spot was easier than getting it in (you can read about that here).  We plotted a course to Redondo Beach and hit the road.  Both Donna and I don't ever recall being in Redondo Beach so this will be something new we never did when we lived in the area.  The drive took us from CA110 to Interstate 110.  I never realized that the freeway changed from a State Route to an Interstate.  We also noticed other road geekery stuff like the fact that some signs say Route 91 and other signs call it 91 Freeway.  I didn't take photos because I was driving but it is this kind of stuff that got me into Roadgeekery and noticing things like this.  We got to Redondo Beach and secured metered parking. There really isn't any free parking down there.  The Brewing Co didn't have a parking lot.  It is just what you expect when living here / visiting here.  

Lunch was great.  We caught up with our friend Dana and met her partner Fernando.  I had Dingo Magic by Modern Times Brewing.  It was a solid IPA.  Everything Modern Times does except for their growth plans.  I had Nachos for lunch which were great but I am regretting as I type this the next day.  Heartburn!  After lunch Fernando treated us to a coffee from HI-Fi Espresso.  We had a nice walk along the beach talking about surfing and volleyball as I got distracted by birds.  

I don't drink coffee much in the afternoon
but when I do it's great!

I didn't take many photos because I kind of got lost in the moment.  The weather was great, the coffee was great, and the company was great.

This is the only other photo I took. 
It's a Picasso and it will be priceless one day.

They had afternoon plans and we had some real world stuff to do (buy coffee and dog food) so we said our goodbyes and vowed to get together again before we move on to the next place (Denver).  

On the way home we stopped by Trader Joes and bought coffee.  This was our first trip to Trader Joes this year and I doubt we went last year.  It is a big change from going there every week at points in our lives.  After Trader Joes we swung by PetSmart and got Francis a bad of dog food.  When we got "home" I was able to easily get the car back in its tight space and we watch some of our free TV and had a slice of pie for dinner.  It ended up being a great day and we still have the day that we originally planned to look forward to!

Yesterday we got a wonderful tour of Downtown LA from a friend.  Learn all about it here.

Looking Back - 4/15/2022 MacKerricher SP CA to Portola Redwoods SP CA

  Road Trip MacKerricher State Park CA to Portola Redwoods State Park CA

This morning we woke up refreshed again.  It will still dry so everything was in good shape.  I made coffee and we ate the last of our Raisin Bran.

Yep we do this every morning and I take a photo every morning

After breakfast we packed up and hit the road.  The drive was predicted to be 6 hours so we didn't want to dilly dally.  We had a somewhat twisty drive back to US 101 but then it was smooth sailing.  Donna suggested that we stop by Russian River Brewing Company to pick up some to go beer.  That sounded like a great idea so she started looking at directions.  While looking she asked about Henhouse Brewing and I said we should go there instead.  It was close to the freeway, they have great beers, and we had never been there before.  

Their outdoor singe isn't very impressive

They only had beer to go until 4pm.  There are only
enough parking spaces for the brewing staff
so they open parking up to onsite visitors after the staff leaves.

Cool art on the walls

And more cool art

We grabbed a 4 pack of Camden Eclipse Double IPA and got back on the road.  Our rout took us over The Golden Gate Bridge and through San Francisco,  We have 10 years of history in SF so it brought back great memories and we whished we had time to stop.

San Francisco, open your Golden Gate...

After passing through SF, the drive took us to Sand Hill Road where we exited the freeway.  If we had made a left we could have gone to Stanford University and then swung by Redpoint Ventures gotten some venture capital investment for this blog, but we made a right instead and passed through giant estates just outside of Silicon Valley on our way to Portola Redwoods State Park.

The road leading into Portola Redwoods State Park is very narrow and twisty.  The speed limit is 15 miles an hour and in some points there is only enough room for 1 car to get by.  The turns were blind at points so we were glad we didn't run into any other cars and we were also glad it wasn't raining.  

We got to the park and checked in.  We headed to our campsite and it turns out the parking pad was very unlevel.  It had a steep grade and was slanted to the left.  This wasn't going to work for us because we sleep in the van so we walked back and asked for another site.  We had 2 in mind and one of those 2 was available so we swapped.  

The sun was out at Portola Redwoods

After setting up camp we went on to Step 2.  

Step 2 of camping setup

Using Redwood Trees as power line poles

Trillium!  Sadly no flowers

We made Shanghai Rice Cake Sir Fry with Greens for dinner.  It's a seriously awesome and easy meal for camping.  

Donna testing the rice cakes for doneness 

After dinner we settled in and then went to bed pretty early.  When we are camping we tend to get up with the sun and go to bed with the sun.  We get a lot of sleep this time of year.  

Bonus Content!  (aren't you lucky)

Portola Redwood State Park is a prime nesting site for the Marbled Murrelet.  They nest in the tops of tall Redwood Trees and then spend most of their lives in and on the ocean.  They are in major decline due to habitat loss and predation.  They only lay 1 egg a year and the eggs are susceptible to predation by Ravens and Stellar's Jays.  The park asks that you leave no food scraps and be very careful to not leave anything around that will attract those birds to the area.  When you get to the ranger station they walk you through what needs to happen and make you sign paperwork saying you will obey the rules.  I hope it makes a difference and the Murrelets make a comeback.

Learn a bit more here 

Looking Back - 4/13/2022 Silver Falls SP to Humbug Mt SP Oregon

 Road Trip Silver Falls State Park OR to Humbug Mt. State Park OR

Buried but alive!

This morning we woke up to 3 whopping inches of snow (which is a lot for April in the area, a record in fact).  I wasn't surprised because I knew it was going to precipitate all night and I didn't hear rain so it must have been snow.  We were pretty warm in the van with our down sleeping bags.  We have done below zero temperatures before.

I put on my boots and took care of restroom stuff for me and then helped Francis.  

Snow!

More Snow!

My next task was to assess the bins.  We stack and cover the bins because they don't fit in the van with the bed made up.  They looked fine but there was a peanut bag under the picnic table.  Upon further review, there were multiple things under the picnic table.  It turns out, in my haste to set up in the snow, I neglected to sort the bins according to food vs non-food.  The plan was to always keep the bins containing food in the van and put the bins containing clothing and household items under the tarps.  Some creature had gotten into one of our bins and helped themselves to a few peanuts and a giant bag of granola that Donna had made for us.  The bag of granola was completely gone.  I wish we had footage of the squirrel or racoon dragging the 1.5lb bag of granola away but we don't.  This bin will need to be sanitized when we get to LA.  

I used my need to get the coffee making stuff out of one of the bins as an excuse to put all of the bins in the Gazelle Gazebo and tidy up the violated bin.  I removed handfuls of peanuts and a few other shredded paper goods.  While the water for the coffee heated up.

Coffee, coffee, coffeeee! (our coffee song sung to
the tune of the conga, conga, congaaa song)

While I was finishing up the coffee making Donna picked up the litter that ended up under the picnic table.   We sat in the gazebo and drank our coffee and discussed how we were going to get out of there and contingency plans if we couldn't (keep in mind we don't deal with snow very often so it wasn't obvious to us at the time that escape was going to be fairly straight forward).

After coffee we packed up and chained up.  It was my first time putting on the new fangled cables.  Donna and I both read the instructions and after a half hearted "doing it my way" failed attempt, I followed the instructions and things went smoothly and we were off!

Off we go!

The roads really weren't that bad but it was good practice.

Soon we were out of the park and on a freshy plowed road.  We pulled over and I set out a tarp and attempted to take off the cables.  I didn't follow the instructions, instead I unhooked the front of the cables and attempted to back off.  20/20 hindsight reveals that my plan was not going to work 100% of the time.  For some reason my foggy survival brain thought I could back out of the chains with the back of the chains still hooked.  Luckily the right cable unhooked itself and came off but as I should have expected, if I had thought about it for half a second, the left cable wrapped around the drive shaft.  I only went about a half a rotation but that was enough to make me dig around and unhook everything and do a bit of tugging.  It could have been way worse but my plan all along was to only back off a tiny bit and if it wasn't working to reassess.  I did reassess, and figured it out without hurting anything on the car, or the cables, or even myself.  (while typing this I was reminded that I should pull the cables out of the roof rack and let them dry out).

While I as trying to unhook the right cable I went through all of the worst case scenarios and told myself, "When we get through this I am going to get something good for lunch" to keep me going.  Since the unhooking went quickly and there was no disaster, that need faded but I figured I would mention buying lunch to Donna.  She thought it was a good idea so she rerouted us through Keizer OR to, what I believe to be, the northern most In-N-Out.  

There are no In-N-Outs in New Jersey or New York
or even east of Texas

Here is our recorded drive for you highway and map nerds.

We arrived in Humbug State Park OR and it was raining lightly.  We set up camp quickly happy it wasn't snowing.  

The Dodge Grand Caravan that is making it all happen

The rubber boots we bought in Costa Rica worked fantastic!

We kept it simple for dinner.  We had Raisin Bran and Beer.  It was a good evening!

Local Hopwater is essential