The BeeKewall Family Travel Blog

 Clayton and Brevard, December 21st and 22nd After our chaotic day in Atlanta, we decided to pop in on one of my dads old friends; Sarah. It was an impromptu visit and she was so happy to see us! She said, and I quote, "this is the best Christmas gift ever!" I think that my dad agrees. Its always a blast to see old friends.  She's 6'2" and we really connected over the height thing! Her house was amazing and while we were there, Annalee decided that Sarah's house should be what we model our house on. We also played Left Right Center with her, and an Uno game that took way to long!! Then, we watched Dolphin Tale!! That is such a great movie, mainly because I've seen it a thousand times!  The next morning, we woke up to Ziggy and Buddy, her dog, needing a pee break and had lots of fun playing outside and she also decided to come and camp with us.  We drove up to Gorges State Park on a super steep windy road (which was hard for Dad and Charlene) and went on a...

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...

Mesilla/ Las Cruces  After our exploration, we got back on the road and headed towards Las Cruces! When we got there, it was late and super cold, we had planned to stay at a Loves Truck stop, but decided that we'd be better off if we connected to power. We don't want the pipes to freeze! So we found a campground right in Las Cruses and spent the night there. When we woke up, my mom found us a little breakfast place in Mesilla- the old part of Las Cruces. Once we arrived in Mesilla, and parked, we walked around the corner to a really cute little restaurant. As we were enjoying our food, which was incredible, the dude who owned the place asked if he could sit down to tell us a little about the building we were sitting in, and Mesilla's, history.  Of course we wanted him to sit, and what he told us was way better information then we were getting from the Wikipedia page.  My mom got some cute shoes at his shop and he even gave Annalee and I popsicles after a tour of his shop!...

 Tucson At The Tuxon (And More!) After our days at Campground Glamis North, we headed to Tucson! We got in late, but decided to spring for a fancy hotel called The Tuxon. It had a really cool vibe, and I thought that we were all going have the best sleep ever, but my mom said that she sleeps way better in Charlene. Oh well, it was my first time booking a hotel, after all. The next morning my dad had to work, and we wrote our blog posts, but all Annalee and I wanted to do was swim! There was a giant heated pool that we got to swim in after we finished our posts! We had to hurry because we were checking out that morning though.  On our way out of town, we went to check out a street fair! It was really cool, and we got jewelry made out of coins! Mine is a necklace that has an octopus stamped into a penny!  Also at the street fair, we got lunch. I got some street corn and we headed on the road towards Catalina State Park! It was a pretty drive, but the best part of the day wa...