The Museum of Life and Sciences in Durham, North Carolina was one of the most amazing museums that we absolutely must go back to. It was like an epic STEM museum and a great zoo had a baby. The kids and Mom spent most of the day, and still barely saw a tiny fraction of what was available. One of our focus points along our travels has been to make
While staying in South Texas, we had many opportunities to explore South Padre Island. This resort town on the Island of the same name had a lot of activities to do and explore. Of course, the thing we explored most was the beach! South Padre Island (SPI)’s main draw is its miles of white sand beaches on either the Laguna Madre or the Gulf of Mexico. The island has tons
One of the highlights of my winter as a pirate was seeing all the development and testing of SpaceX’s Starship prototype at the SpaceX Starbase in Brownsville, TX. SpaceX, if you don’t know, is a private space travel enterprise. They have had a lot of commercial success in the past few years. Some of their achievements include sending 21 unmanned resupply rockets to the International Space Station with their Dragon
While we were wintering at Resaca de la Palma State Park, we had many opportunities to explore Brownsville, Texas. One of our favorite spots to return to was the Gladys Porter Zoo! We visit a lot of zoos. This is made possible on our slim budgets thanks to our membership to the Red River Zoo in Fargo, ND. Both Gladys Porter and Red River are AZA members, so our membership
As we stayed the winter at Resaca de la Palma, we had lots of opportunities to explore the many parks and playgrounds that Brownsville, Texas had on offer. Dean Porter Park Dean Porter Park, located across the street from the Gladys Porter Zoo, this sprawling facility is actually a collection of facilities. There are 2 playgrounds that we enjoyed, coming back to the pirate ship playground multiple times. The park
This winter we based ourselves out of Brownsville, Texas. Mom worked for Resaca de la Palma State Park, but I was free to find other work. Previously, I’ve had a lot of success working as a handy person through the app Task Rabbit. Unfortunately, Task Rabbit doesn’t support areas much further south than Corpus Christi, about 3 hours north of us. For a while, I tried another app Handy, through
While we were in South Texas we got to celebrate The Boy’s Birthday! While driving to Resaca De La Palma State Park we saw a few billboards advertising pirate cruises. Knowing that The Boy has been pirate-obsessed since he was 3 or 4, we knew that this would be the perfect birthday present! The first thing we did was book online with Black Dragon Pirate Cruises, based out of Port
While we were in South Texas for the winter, we were based out of Resaca de la Palma State Park outside of Brownsville, TX. Mom got a job there as a work/camping volunteer. In exchange for just 24 hours of her time a week, we got a free spot to park the bus with full hookups! Resaca de la Palma State Park is a sprawling wildlife refuge surrounding an oxbow
Another stop on our run south from the Sugar Beat Harvest. The Dancing Bee Honey Farm and Winery is a member of the Boondocker’s Welcome network of free camping sites across the US. It is located in Rodgers, TX, just off Highway 190. As for a campsite, it’s not much, just a gravel lot with lots of sunlight for solar. Adjacent to the railroad and highway, it can be a
Our first stop in Texas on our run south from The Sugar Beet Harvest. Lake Quitman West Dispersed Camping was a great place to cool our heels for a bit and recover from a simply horrible cold that was going around the bus. Located 20 minutes or so outside of the town of Lake Quitman, it’s a little off the beaten path, but not so much as to be inaccessible.