PBnJ5 Adventures

As the old Travis Tritt song says, “my best laid plans slipped right through my hands” pretty much sums up where we are at this point in the journey. All of the plans that we had made and all the reservations that were in place for March 31-May 25 have all changed. Let’s review the last week shall we.

As we watched more State Parks close in Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina we decided we better start changing some plans. Our next stop after Hilton Head Island was supposed to be the State Park in Myrtle Beach and then a private resort just down the road for more time in Myrtle Beach. So we cancelled the State Park and moved up our reservation at the private resort. It was right on the beach and we were hoping for one last beach hoorah before heading inland. We have loved our winter on the beach and our little swimmers and diggers cannot get enough of it. But as I am sure you know that all changed again. They completely closed Myrtle Beach including our RV resort and were not allowing visitors to come at all till the end of April. Okay, fine, I guess we will see it some other time. What do we do now?

On a side note, we were so fortunate, we got out of Florida in the nick of time. The day after we left they told everyone who had less than a 28 day reservation to leave the state. If you have never been to Florida in the winter you have no idea how many RV parks are packed with people. That was huge, and we missed it by the skin of our teeth!

Okay so now what? Well we might as well start heading to Wisconsin where we were already planning to spend most of the summer. Not really until the end of June but Denver is not a great option as we don’t have a place to park the RV with hookups, and the shelter in place order with the boys seems suffocating in an RV. But in Wisconsin we have full RV hookups at Luke’s parents farm, free parking, loads of room to run and explore, and best of all Mimi and Pops (also known as backup and the cure for my sanity that seems to be running very thin). So after planning and thinking and praying and planning and rescheduling and thinking some more we hit the road for the Great White North, which thankfully is not white anymore, it is after all the North West part of Wisconsin. So we left yesterday and made it to Sevierville, TN. 400 miles through some incredibly beautiful Carolinas and into the Smokey Mountains. Spring is coming in full force and the hills are full of blooming trees and wildflowers. It was stunning.

But I have to share the best part of Hilton Head before we move on too far. As I saw the trend in Denver and Wisconsin happening of shutting down hair salons If figured I better take my chance while I could. So I called around the island and found a lady who would see me. Now, this was kinda a big deal because I have been very loyal to my wonderful friend Hayley back home who has done my hair for over 15 years. But desperate times call for desperate measures. So I went to a lady named Dawn and it turned out to be the biggest blessing I could have asked for. During our time of chatting while she was doing my hair, I told her our story about living in the RV. That they had closed the pool and the beaches so we were getting a little stir crazy. She said, “No, the beaches aren’t closed, just the parking lots, that is crazy, your boys should be on the beach!” Well it just so happened that she had a pass to a private lot that we could park, and we had two glorious days on the beach to end our time on Hilton Head. We loved it! It is in our top three beaches we have been at during our whole trip. It was our first time really experiencing tide pools and the boys thought that was about the coolest thing in the world. And oh my goodness did we need to get out of the RV and get some good playtime in. And to top it off, she did a great job on my hair too. ☺️

We have enjoyed our day of rest at this great RV park in TN. It is right on the French Broad River and it is beautiful. It holds 50 RVs but there are currently 7 of us here, so pretty quiet. Which is nice since it rained almost all day here. As soon as it stopped we were out the door walking, riding bikes, and playing on the playground. Freedom to roam. So tomorrow we head out hoping to cover at least another 400 miles and end up somewhere in Indiana.

For those of you interested in our gray tank saga, it has taken a turn for the worse. We could not get the smell to stop no matter what we tried and it was making sitting inside very unpleasant. On Sunday Luke went outside to empty the tanks and realized there was water dripping from the underbelly of our 5th wheel that should not be there and also did not smell very good. So after some investigation, it appears that our kitchen gray tank is leaking/draining into the bottom of the underbelly somehow. It vents up into the bottom of the kitchen sink cupboard, hence the smell. SOOOOOO, now we have to take the rig into a repair shop when we get to Wisconsin. We are hoping that they don’t keep it too long and that they actually do a decent job fixing it, unlike all the repairs that we had done on our Class A in Denver. The good news is that it’s under warranty and should all be covered. And we also discovered if we leave the tank open so it drains right out into the sewer the smell has stopped. So at least there is a silver lining to our kinda dark rain cloud.

How is it that God in His sovereignty would wait for us to find the leak when we had already decided to head to Wisconsin. We have a place to stay for as long as we need while the RV gets fixed and we don’t have to deal with the struggle of getting it fixed on the road. Even in the midst of the chaos that is swirling around us, and all the failed and changed plans and disappointment that we are feeling, God still had a better plan for us. It is sometimes hard to see in the moment but we know he is still working it all out for good. 2020 was supposed to be our year of adventure and travel and seeing all the things. Just like I am sure you are also experiencing, life took a hard left turn and we are still trying to navigate a new path, but I am so thankful we don’t have to do it alone. A couple days ago in our favorite devotional book, Jesus Calling, it said “there is a time for everything, and everything in its time”. I hope that you can take those words to heart when it feels like everything is falling apart. I think I should get a farm house sign that says that. (Ashley ?)

Live your Adventure,

Julie