On The Road Again... South!

I'm getting really bad at updating this blog, my apologies! Lots has transpired since we last spoke. Camille arrived a couple days after Christmas and was tiringly forced to meet all sorts of family and friends in a very brief time. She handled it all very well.

Her right of passage with my brother was to shoot his AR-15. She hit targets so consistently that I'm now questioning whether or not she may be an undercover spy.

Then we went out to dinner with my Dad, sister and family friends for my Dad's 60th birthday. It was Camille's first time going to a Hibachi grill. It was a lot of fun but unfortunately no photo evidence, so maybe it didn't happen.

Then New Years. The plan was to go camping but mysteriously no one was interested in camping in -10 degree weather. So in classic Gudmand fashion, Keira and Christian had everyone over. Food was consumed, alcohol flowed and shenanigans commenced. 

Then Camille and I waited until the last possible minute to pack the car for our trip. Unfortunately that's the only way I know how to operate. On the morning of the 2nd we hit the open road in search of warmer temperatures. This is our tentative plan (With other stops along the way):

As soon as we got out of the snowy northeast we gave Saturn Jr. a well deserved bath to free him from salt and sand.

And I forced Camille to experience one of my favorite places in the country... Waffle House. Can you tell that I'm excited?

On day 2 of driving we explored Knoxville and Memphis. Still too cold to really explore much. Need to keep going South!

The Bass Pro Shops Pyramid in Memphis provided bathrooms, warmth and overnight parking. That store is the most ridiculous retail building I've seen thus far.

We took a small detour to visit Hot Springs National Park. The park is just a section of the town Hot Springs, AR. Apparently January is a quiet month and all but 1 of the bathhouses were closed. The 1 open bathhouse was $33 for the most basic bath offering and had an hour long wait. We passed on that, did some hiking, ate some Vietnamese food and continued South.

A long night of driving brought us close to Austin Texas. In the morning we finished the drive and headed straight to Barton Springs Pool, a spring fed pool that is free in the winter. Most importantly it has hot showers! Our first showers of the trip and they felt glorious. It's sunny and in the 50's here. And apparently we just missed a huge snow storm back in New England. Good timing, I suppose. Time to explore more of Austin and plan our Mexico border crossing.