Day 1 of driving
We got 5 and a half hours away from Fort Lauderdale. We have to drive much slower towing this huge camper and we must stop every 3 hours or so for gas so driving is a tad slower!
I'm grateful for a few things today. The first few things that comes to mind are as follows...
1.) I'm so, so glad I started following the tone it up girls again and was encouraged to do my morning "booty call" (what the tone it up girls call your morning workout!) at the little gazebo near the old apartment.
I've been feeling so lost lately in my workouts. I want to do yoga all the time but know I need to keep up with cardio and weights too! Especially with my crazy traveling lifestyle that leads to an ever-changing sleep schedule and not always having access to the highest quality food. I just hate workouts that don't make me feel good and aren't fun. However, now that I started doing the TIU girls workouts again I enjoy them. Yay! It felt so good to stretch out and do some cardio abs/weights for arms when I got back. One last walk was good for my soul in that beautiful neighborhood that will be missed and looked back upon with such fond memories.
2.) Another thing I'm grateful for is the book "The Mastery of Love." I swear it's going to save my relationship on this road trip across country! If you haven't read it, ITS A TOTAL GAME CHANGER.
3.) The third thing I am grateful for is finding the first place to sleep this evening with such ease! We used an RV park app and I simply matched up Dave's travel route on his maps. The RV park app shows the top 15 RV parks in an area you chose off the map so I was able to locate the city we wanted to stop at and call and reserve a spot just like that!
We just actually parked in our spot for the night so it's time to go organize the trailer! I wrote out a whole map of where to store every last item in the trailer so I can't wait to put everything away! It's going to take ages but will be so nice to have it all organized in our sweet little home on wheels.
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Morning of Day 2
Lake city Florida
Good morning!
Last night it took hours to get the little place somewhat organized but now it is simply lovely. Per usual, I woke up this morning hours before Dave and was able to get my TIU girls workout done in the beautiful clubhouse across from our camper.
We have never owned a TV and I barely ever turn the TV on in hotels during work trips, so it was fun to catch an episode of the Real Housewives of NYC while I did my 45 minutes of TIU video workouts!
Now back in the camper with my mini essential oil diffuser burning peppermint and rosemary and incense burning. I have to say, it is just so peaceful in here. So quiet. I feel good about where I've decided to store everything, thanks to the little map that took me hours during our drive to write out yesterday. I feel good about the journey ahead of us. I just feel good, like I am where I should be in life. At peace.
Everything I disliked about Dave's apartment we have here! Things I love that were missing in the old place include a bright kitchen, the huge and super comfortable dinette seating (which reminds me of a Denny's booth!) a toilet that flushes quickly and the insanely comfy bed thanks to the nicest 1AM impulse Walmart purchase EVER: the best Walmart bed topper we could find. ;) Oh, and even though I hope to not get lazy and use it often, we now have a microwave here too which we never had in Dave's place!
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Morning of Day 3
Childrenburg, Alabama
At a campsite right next to a strange small empty wooden children's amusement park
It's a good morning in Alabama!
Soft Brazilian jazz is playing (think Girl from Ipanema type music) and enjoying our French press, hand ground coffee! It's been easy to enjoy the simple pleasures and quiet moments when the excess and mayhem is subtracted. Life is more peaceful. I'm liking this new life a lot thus far.
I can't even explain how weird our view is this morning. We are looking out at an empty wooden children's amusement park. There is music playing and it's just completely empty in the middle of a wooded area. Bizarre. Feel like I'm in a dream!
Anyways, yesterday we had a lovely lunch at Olive Garden which was a wonderful choice. The soup, salad and bread stick deal is so cheap and we aren't embarrassed to ask for an insane amount of salad refills! Since I'm eating gluten free now and vegan, I pass on the bread sticks, eat around the croutons and the noodles in the minestrone soup and it's perfect.
Yesterday our drive was so much prettier compared to driving on Florida's turnpike the previous day. It was really beautiful, actually. We woke up in Florida and drove thru the entire state of Georgia and into Alabama on a quiet road which took us thru little towns and farm land. Both states are so green with many lush areas.
Last night we were too tired to do much. We drank sketchy wine from a gas station stop we picked up that was made locally and tasted like juice from a juice box, even though it was very strong. We slept so well once again thanks to that splendid Walmart mattress topper!
Now, I am off for a workout and a run with Dave before heading out.
With love,
Kate
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Night of day 3
Wall Doxey State Park
Holly Springs, Mississippi
Good evening from Mississippi!
What a different experience it is staying in a state park tonight. Completely wooded and quiet. Today's drive felt so easy. I read my "Beauty Detox" book and we listened to the "Serial" Podcast and the "This American Life" podcast, an episode on refugees in Athens.
I spent the past few hours organizing and now we are off to Walmart to get some food to make for tonight and some other items.
Morning of day 4
Mississippi was good to us. Who would have thought that Mississippi of all places would have been such an epic part of our adventure. As you can see in the photo, the place I found to work out at was seriously amazing. I did a meditation, TIU hiit workout and some yummy yin yoga.
We enjoyed a breakfast of sweet cherries, a green cold pressed juice and oats with our coffee. I did some more organizing. It feels simply amazing to find the perfect spot for every last thing in our sweet little space. It is like that "ah ha" moment! I've fallen in love with organizing every last storage space just so. Life is already becoming such a breeze now that everything I need in life is so organized and only feet apart from each other.
We are currently driving in a thunderstorm and I can barely see out the window. Tension is high haha so here is a little side note to keep my mind off the terror that is going on around us! HAHAHAHA....
Another huge step for me is making strides towards living a less toxic and more all natural lifestyle. I have my skin care and body regime mostly down and now I've moved on to cutting out all the chemicals out of everything I use to clean and scent my home. Did you know that these days the air in our own homes is more toxic then the air outside? After hearing this fact and doing some research, I am happy to say I'm finding better ways to be a little Suzy homemaker. ;-) I threw out the concentrated room sprays I had been holding on to for far too long and now use an adorable little diffuser to scent our place by mixing up essential oil blends from my little essential oil kit. Both the essential oil kit and diffuser were inexpensive off of amazon. I spent quite a while searching for both and am so happy with the selection I made.
As far as cleaning the home goes, if you like the scent of vinegar, you can make your own home cleaning spray by searching online out of the many recipes or buy this awesome one already mixed up and in a spray bottle! I'm lucky that Dave LOVES the smell of vinegar and every time I use it I feel so good that I'm not spraying harmful, scary and toxic chemicals all over that we will inhale later. The spray I am using I found at Walmart not by the cleaning supplies but in the regular Vinegar isle. It is the citrus mint scent vinegar spray by the four monks brand. It is so pure you can even use it to clean your veggies with, which we now do too.
