The BeeKewall Family Travel Blog

Atlanta, December 19th After Birmingham we drove into Atlanta and took Charlene to a muffler shop to fix the broken muffler.  While it was being fixed we dropped Ziggy off at a doggy daycare. Then we got an Uber to town. First, we went to the Aquarium. (It was apparently the largest in the country.) We explored a small cave-like exhibit, and saw some cool fish. There was actually some spots in the cave exhibit where there were other animals swimming above you, including big fish and alligators. Then we went to a really cool dolphin show, and the dolphins did flips, jumps, and splashed us. They also carried the trainers on their noses and backs. When we got out, we were soaked. Then we looked at some sharks, and learned that you can't keep a Great White in captivity because they need a lot of room to swim.  After, we went to the Coca Cola museum. When we first got in, we were in a room with a lot of old Coke artifacts.There was also a person there that explained what some of t...

 Joshua Tree  December 6th, 2023 After leaving Cottonwood, Arizona we b-lined it to California.  We pulled into Joshua Tree National Park late at night and woke to a beautiful setting.  Joshua Tree National Park is the confluence of two deserts and this makes for a wild looking landscape.  That day we drove through the park and stopped at various sites along the way.  We strolled through the Cholla cactus garden and met a nice couple Samara and Rod who were heading to Baja with their two pups. We saw beautiful Ocotillos as well as Joshua trees, which we had fun trying to imitate. The best part was hiking by Skull Rock where we bumped into Samara and Rod again! Skull Rock is exactly what it sounds like, a rock that naturally looks like a skull.  After leaving the park we stopped for late lunch in the little town of Joshua Tree.  This was the furthest West point of our journey and from here we started the trip back home.   By Kate

 Big Bend After checking out the caves, we headed to Big Bend State Park. It took us five hours to get there so we arrived at night. It was beautiful because we were in a dark sky area, but we realized that we don't want to miss any of the scenic driving.  The next morning we woke up at one of the best campsites yet! The Wi-Fi wasn't great, but the pool was awesome! We swam and swam and swam. It was so fun! After a half day of school, we heard that mom had booked us a horseback adventure for the next day! So fun! Also after school, we went for a mountain bike ride. Dad chose to ride extra, so he went a different way, but our ride was great! It was not as flat as in Wichita Falls, but nothing like the riding back home! That night, we called a shuttle bus to bring us from the campground to the fancy golf resort restaurant. Our server was really nice, and he also was living in a mobile home! So cool!!  When we woke up we went for a little swim and then jumped in Charlene to ...

From Dallas to Ruston, LA and Jackson, MS A blog post by Sasha W We drove from Texas into Ruston. In Ruston, we got some lunch, and each of us tried some traditional Louisiana food, including onion rings, red beans and rice, meat pockets, catfish etouffee, and more!  Then we went on a short, fun mountain bike ride.  -a statue from when we entered Louisiana. Then we went from Ruston into Jackson, Mississippi, and stayed in a hotel that night. In the morning, me, Annalee, Stella, and Kate walked around Jackson for a bit. There were quite a few run-down spots around the town. Out of the whole spot we walked around in, we only found one place to eat, a donut shop. There were many signs around town that had information about some history of Jackson. We then went to a smallish museum about civil rights and black history of Mississippi.  -me, Annalee, and Stella at the old Jackson capital building. We also did drive through Birmingham, AL and stopped and walked around an outdoor...

White Sands, Cloudcroft and Carlsbad December 10th  After Mesilla we headed to White Sands NP for the day. We stopped at the visitor center to get a sled for the dunes. At first it didn't really work but after a few runs we made a nice track and we were flying!   It was supper fun to go down but quite the work out going up because the sand was so soft it would just give way and then you were running in place, but it was still supper fun! After a while we were too tired to do more so we made sand angles.   Ziggy hade a lot of fun too; it was his favorite NP.                                                                                                                      ...

 Back to Wichita Falls and on to Dallas After Big Bend NP we headed to Wichita Falls TX to regroup and visit our family again! In the morning our Uncle Tod made us eggs and bacon for breakfast. My dad and cousin Grant worked on fixing a torn CV boot in Charlene. A CV boot holds the grease in to protect the constant velocity joint and keep it clean.  It must have torn on one of our off road adventures.  After a lot of stress and hard work, it was fixed! Dad also did another oil change because we've gone 6,000 miles already.   My uncle Todd didn't eat eggs though, he had peanut butter and sausage! Then, after saying goodbyes we had to boogie over to Costco to buy a new bike for my mom and then to the airport to pick up our friend SASHA! She flew alone from Boston to DFW airport. After we picked her up we found a restaurant in the middle of Dallas to get dinner. (It was near go karts and an arcade.) After dinner we made our way to the go karts but the next race was...