This vacation was a biggie and we knew it! 2020 was supposed the Schmitz Mobile Chaos Units trip to Alaska but the 'Rona pooped all over that in grand fashion. We held tight until the beginning of June awaiting the Governor of Alaska to address the rest of the world who may have wanted to go to their most excellent state and figure out how big of pile of poop we would have to scale to enter confines. The news on June 2nd was NOT in our favor so, against much wailing and gnashing of teeth, we officially pulled the plug on that vacation for this year and sacrificed a bit of shickles that had been paid on deposits.
We had been generating a back-up plan, and by "we", I mean my bride. Lesley had been carefully planning another trek that would get Caleb 6 more states and would also get us and Robby caught up at 49 states at the conclusion of vaca. Caleb is now at 44 (I think!!) with Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and Alaska... uh, maybe Texas???
This would also be one of MANY proper places to pay dividends to my wife's planning as she is up against 3 males who don't plan much of anything and complain about nearly everything! She laid this thing out in amazing fashion and without much time. Robby was the #1 complainer as he didn't want to come with us at all, but Caleb and myself complained our fair share like little pieces of poo who didn't have proper respect for all that we have and were experiencing. Lesley put up with that in professionall fashion even tho she shouldn't have had too... :-(
Never-the-less, not too long after we committed to the Southeast trek as opposed to Alaska, the Covid numbers in Alaska smoothed out nicely while the numbers in New Orleans, and Florida, with Orlando being a bit behind Miami and other large beach based cities, but Orlando was squarely a focus as Mama and Robby were going to the Harry Potter village/world/harem or whatever they call that... Caleb and I had no concerns for such silliness so we planned to go do other stuff's that you'll see in future posts.
Covid be d@mned, we started everyone on a daily cocktail of vitamin C & D about 2 weeks before we lifted off and we were off.
We took 'Rona wipes (clorox wipes) with us and wiped down every aspect of every room just as we entered it as our first line of defense. We will cover our level of satisfaction with the different areas that we visited thru the upcoming posts.
I would say that all went well and we were all impressed with hotels, restaurants, various facilities and so on until we were nearly finished and arrived in Gatlinburg, TN. The restaurant was fine, and my favorite music store, The Rythym Section, was cool tool, but the rest of the town was out for tourist money and did not give one hydro-electric dam for your health. We spent part of one day in the main area of town and decided to get out and stay out. All of this you will see in future post should you find my ramblings interesting enough to join us on our 2020 journey.
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| Google Maps wouldn't allow me to add all of our stops in one map, so, I broke it into two with a bit over overlap. |
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...and hence, the back 40 of vaca.
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The first real morning of vaca, where the excited kid woke up, got ready and is raring to go looking like a rock star...
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The other lad who pleaded to be left at home and NOT participate in any type of vaca. He was still lamenting the fact that he had to participate at this point.
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| We stopped because... uh... one of us had to "produce", so to speak. This was a smallish grocery store in Tallualah, Louisiana. I do not mean this as offensive in any way, shape, or form, but my family, including the Asian Caleb, have never been MORE WHITE IN OUR LIVES!!! Our family's take away from this quick visit was that if black peeps (or ANY other ethnicity!) in Aloona/Pleasant Hill Iowa (Oor ANYWHERE!!!!) feel like we did in this grocery store, then we have a lot of work to do! Nearly everybody in there was cordial to us and there were no issues, however, it was BEYOND obvious that there was white folks (with an Asian kid) in "their" store. There should not be alerts that "go up" about different folks in the local stores... At all, anywhere. Pretty eye opening. |
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Not gonna lie, I have no friggin' clue where this pic was taken. I am the primary driver, which is probably best for everybody but likely open to debate!
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I'm pretty sure that Lesley took this as we were passing over the Mississippi river from Arkansas into Mississippi.
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Crossing the Mississippi into uh, Mississippi, ready to visit Vicksburg.
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