December 2002 pictures leave us at Embassy Suites in Austin, TX. On January 1, 2003 Greg Hudgins, one of our best friends in Austin came to visit us at the hotel with his daughter Erin. We met Greg at Dell and became instant friends. Greg is also an integral part of the Jon Barry Project – an instrumental Jazz band and one of the CD sets regularly in our player. Check ’em out – www.BWrecords.com.
Did I say Greg Hudgins? I meant David Spade. Greg is a great friend and actually got married in our backyard. Our Greg’s dad was the Chaplain that married Greg and his wife in our yard. The Greg (David Spade) performed after the wedding with JB and the rest of the band for a great night of music. Greg Hudgins is a great dad, an awesome friend, and someone we will always love. Yu might remember him from his dramatic, but accurate description of our mini van days.
Greg and Erin are goofy crazy Austin people that we go bowling with or whatever when we are in town.
Jenn’s favorite Gregs. She loves these guys even though they can bore her with too many technical discussions. But we are good friends that love each other a lot.
We left Austin and went to Nashville, TN. It was very cold there but we enjoyed the stay and experienced the World Famous Nashville Palace. We decided we needed to get warmer climate and have never visited Florida. On the way there we stayed just north of Atlanta and a couple of nights in Lake Park, GA.
On the way to Jacksonville, FL we found out there would be a Shuttle Launch so we passed through Jacksonville (anyone seen Fred Durst?) and headed to Florida’s Space Coast to watch the Columbia Shuttle Launch.
We stayed in Titusville, FL at Seasons in the Sun RV resort and visited many places around the area.
It was really cold but we managed to take a picture on the Atlantic coast. There wasn’t a lot in the area we were staying in, so we just drove around and checked places out.
The beach was very beautiful and we caught a great sunset.
Days after the launch we experienced the Kennedy Space Center. This was days before it started snowing in Florida! It was very cold in Florida and Jenn’s friend Kerrie was coming to Phoenix, AZ from Alaska to visit her family. We haven’t seen Kerrie since May ’01 when we left Issaquah. Florida was cold. Phoenix warm. USA our neighborhood. So – cross country trip!
We were able to hook up with Greg’s Dad (Jim) and brother (James) for dinner when we passed through Houston, TX. There goes Dad taking his funny pictures, he always does that.
You see what I mean. All the time.
Uncle James is a great uncle and is totally different from Greg. Uncle James is definitely cowboy material, loves hunting, and digs country music. Greg is a rocker, loves swans, and stalks rock concerts from a mile away. With all this we all get along great and always have tons to talk about. When we visited him this time, Jenn was hugging him when she accidentally knocked his cowboy hat off and onto the ground. Though we hadn’t seen him in about a year or so, he threw Jenn to the wayside to save his cowboy hat from touching the ground! He is so funny! We love seeing him when we can.
Cracker Barrel rules. Dad’s photo abilities do not.
What’s wrong with this picture?
No, really. We don’t know. What’s wrong with this picture? Truck stops are awesome to sleep in! If you’ve never slept around dozens of purring 500+ horsepower diesels you should. Some say they are full of prostitutes and drugs. We find that freaking hilarious, we have never seen anything like that. Get real people.
We made it to Phoenix in just a few days. 2100 plus miles. Wren is on the bottom – he’s Kerrie and Randy’s son.
Kerrie and Jenn need to get a room. These two caused more trouble at Issaquah Valley Elementary School than all the kids combined. Maybe you don’t understand. Kesley and Wren went to Issaquah Valley Elementary School. Kerrie and Jenn were Moms at the school!
Starbucks in Phoenix. Paradise. This was on the Air Force Base that we visited. We bought a bunch of cool crap.
Randy and Kerrie are the only friends we have that want to spend hours at the VW dealer with us. We jumped in all the different VW’s, out the tops up and down on the convertibles, and loaded the kids in all the cars.
Eventually the kids got bored and found ways to entertain themselves as we were hopping in and out of cars turning the radios up loudly.
Wren scored some bling bling from da Kes. Nowadameen?
And we’ve actually heard home-schoolers miss out on socialization? How many public or private schools field trip like us – check out our Ace Tattoo experience.
We went looking for RV parts in Phoenix and were blessed to meet Kendra who is the daughter of the guy that runs the RV parts shop. She showed us around the shop that converts buses into limousines. Here she is with the kids inside one of them.
The kids were loading up on all the free sodas since they couldn’t legally drink or gamble in the limousine.
There’s a place in Phoenix called Bobby McGee’s (sp?) that is a really fun restaurant. The staff dresses in costumes, the place is really loud and fun, and is half restaurant and half dance club. Going to the restrooms through the club was a real experience.
Our waitress was Wonder Girl and saved us from some tragedy to become our hero.
These are the guitar guys that sang all kinds of fun songs. They even pulled off ‘One Week’ and ‘If I had a Million Dollars’ from our favorite – the Barenaked Ladies!
And here is Shannon that was making some awesome balloons. Why do we take photos like this? No really, why do we?
We left Phoenix, AZ and came to San Diego, CA where we are camped at a great site on the bay near our friends the Nodlands. The weather is beautiful, cool at night, warm during the day. The Mexican food is incredible! We have never been to San Diego and are very excited to be here. Hope to bring you more experiences soon.