The Roadtrip with the Renovated Airstream Begins: Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama

I guess it’s time to update on where we have been the last month on the road! We’ve been so busy playing catch up from the renovation that I haven’t taken the time to record where we have been. Although its mostly for our benefit, so that we can remember our travels, I know some one out there may find the information helpful as well.

When we left Indiana we drove 3 hours and overnighted at Kentucky Horse Park Campground. 

It was a nice place but we didn’t really get to explore it. We were in a hurry to get to Knoxville to spend time with Jonathan’s family before we took off on our journey.

When we got to Knoxville, we had hoped to moochdock (staying with friends or family on their property) with a friend but we didn’t want to overstay our welcome so we opted for a week at VolPark Family Campground. It’s nothing fancy and a bunch of run down RVs that live there permanently but their weekly rate is reasonable and it was a convenient location to our Knoxville family. We have stayed there before but it’s not a place that we will likely stay again. 

At any rate, it provided a good base to do some more purging, selling and organizing as we tried to figure out exactly how we were going to live in our new Airstream.

Of course we enjoyed our time with Jonathan’s family. We only stayed a week as we were so anxious to get back to our normal life. Traveling, seeing new places and just being together as a family. The renovation took a toll on our family dynamic and it’s time to get back to the way things were. 

We left Knoxville and headed south to Birmingham, AL. A really sweet lady named Katie invited us to stay at her in-law’s pottery studio. Sweet! We pulled up and were greeted with smiling, friendly faces of this sweet family. They also have 4 children that our kids instantly started playing with. We toured the pottery studio which is really impressive. They do a lot of pottery for local restaurants and their work is top notch. 

The kids got a chance to throw pottery on the wheel. Earthborn Pottery offers classes and if we were in the area for any length of time, we would totally sign up. The kids had so much fun. Jax and Ada especially loved it. Jax has already asked if we can get a wheel in the Airstream. Sorry, buddy. Not going to fit. 

It was really great to meet Katie and Nathan and their kids. Thank you so much for the tour and parking spot! Hope to see you all again sometime! (ignore the dog... so inappropriate. HA!)

Time to head south!

We overnighted at Meaher State Park. We always love this state park but the ants can be a problem. They even suggest that you spray when you pull in. We didn't and made it out without an infestation, thank you Jesus! 

Have you heard of Boondocks Welcome? We signed up and we love this membership! There are several businesses, as well people with property, that will allow you to park for the evening or a couple days. Some even have hookups. We contacted Jason from Big Daddy’s Grill in Fairhope, Alabama and he had a place at his restaurant we could park for a couple days. This was our first few days of boondocking and seeing how it our solar panels would work out. We tilted them and had no issue charging our batteries.

Fairhope is such a cute little town. They have a great walkable downtown with a really cool park not too far away as well as a pier which is great to watch the sunset. 

We had actually stayed near here about a year ago when Jonathan’s parents came down to meet us before we headed west. 

It was a great stay at Big Daddy’s Grill and we are thankful for Jason having a place for us to park and rest. 

When we were asking the kids about where we should go (before we even left Indiana) they said they just wanted to go to a beach. So, we did our best to get to one as soon as possible. Which leads me to our next stop.

Creole, Louisiana.

We pulled onto Rutherford Beach early afternoon and the wind was really whipping the sand and Ada and Jax were crying that it hurt having the sand hit their legs... Not quite the beach we all envisioned. It was completely full of litter. Some washed up and some from people who are idiots and can’t throw their own trash away. 

It’s really frustrating to go to all these places that could be really cool and they are full of trash. We spent an hour or so collecting trash from the shore and ended up with a huge garbage bag full. 

This is a place that could have been a great stay but bad weather forced us out early. With tornado warnings, flood warnings and sever weather alerts, we asked the kids if we should leave or try to stick it out.

They said, we'll just build a trench and we'll be okay. So, they started digging.

Once I received a text from a friend saying she hoped we were okay due to the tornado warnings...we decided to head into town for the night to stay away from the storm. We overnighted in a wal-mart parking lot and regrouped. Trying to figure out where to go for the remainder of the week so that Jonathan could work. 

We found this really cute little city park campground called Intracoastal Park and it was a gem of a place.

We watched the boats pushing the barges all day. Kids had a blast waving to see if they would wave back. Most did which I thought was really sweet. We met a neighbor who was fishing and the kids asked him all kinds of questions about what fish he was hoping to catch and how to clean them. Then the kids remembered that we had fishing poles in the very back of the truck (not easily accessible) so we dug through trying to find them. 

They had such a blast sitting on the dock trying to catch fish. We didn’t catch a thing but they had fun. 

With our beach trip turning out to be a bust and us dying of the humidity in Louisiana, we decided to keep heading west. We were ready for red rocks and low humidity. 

Follow along with us as we head west. We don’t know where we are going yet, but that’s the way we like it. 

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About the Author

Ashley Longnecker is the fiercely independent tattooed and dreaded half of Tiny Shiny Home. She's a woodworker, photographer and maker of delicious baked goods. She loathes schedules and makes every day an adventure.

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