Our Road to Tinysville, Floriga: The Where...

When our travel day comes, we are definitely headed South to warmer winters. As a cable installer, my husband spends a lot of time working outside in the weather. We have experienced brutal winters the last two years so, we took a last minute trip last February. My husband literally said “get off work cuz we are headed South”. I asked “How far South?” and he replied “Until there is no snow and it’s not cold”. We packed up the 4 dogs and got in the RV and headed towards warmth. I remember how excited we were when we could see green on the side of the road instead of the large mounds of dirty snow and salt. We rolled the windows open and just breathed in air that no longer hurt your lungs and no longer left a sting on your cheeks. We drove late into the night to avoid getting stuck in a snowstorm that was on its way. Good thing we did because Kentucky got up to a foot of snow during that storm.

Our first night we spent trying out the “boondocking at Walmart” thing he had read about on websites and watching Youtube videos. I think that term is funny because it reminds of the word “boondoggle” and an old “Waltons” episode, anyways. I have to admit I waited half- awake the entire night waiting for that knock on the door to tell us to leave but it never came.

The second day we drove into Georgia and stayed at Stone Mountain state park. I had visited there one time when my sister lived in the Atlanta area and thought the area was beautiful. The day we pulled in it was over 80 degrees out. We walked around with the dogs in short sleeved t-shirts and felt astounded that the date was the same here as at home and they were enjoying such incredulous weather. We wondered what the dogs thought. They are in the cold, go into a little building and come out and it’s warm??! It rained that night and we woke up to a more “normal” temperature for that area during that time of year, of around 50 degrees. Still nice but we had the bug. We had tasted what it was like to be warm in February and we wanted MORE! We pulled up camp and headed further South. My husband had never been to Florida so we drove a few miles into the state to the welcome center. We then went back into Georgia and found a campground with a fenced in dog run area. That is the great thing about having internet access. Years ago, I would be with my parents looking in camping guides and looking for signs for places to camp. It would say they had swimming pond and you would arrive only to find a small muddy hole for swimming. Now many campgrounds have virtual tours and you can always find reviews, good and bad from those who have stayed there. After one night there, we went back up a few miles North and stayed at another campground which offered fewer amenities but was very clean and friendly.

The next day after a day at the drag strip watching racing, yes RACING, in FEBRUARY, we headed back North. We took 2 days to get home, sleeping one night at another Walmart and stopping to nap one day at a roadside rest. The dogs were well behaved and loved all of the one on one attention they got and numerous walks. While I missed my cats, never once did we miss all of the “things” we left behind and both secretly wished we never had to return home. This was the spark that started the fire that is burning brightly in both of us now and fueling this life change.