Destination Unknown

Mei - Agustus 2022
  • John and Kimberly Haviland
Traveling in our van in search of the setting for the next chapter of our lives. Making sure to have a blast along the way. Baca selengkapnya
  • John and Kimberly Haviland

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  • Texas hot is a whole new beastie!

    29 Mei 2022, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ⛅ 88 °F

    Daaang!! Sweaty! Because the Potters are in such a nice community and neighbors were out and about, we did not want to run the generator last night. For those of you who don’t understand the ramifications of that… No air-conditioning! When we went to bed it was 93° in the van. Let’s just say you should envision naked starfish on top of the sheets! Thank God we have a king size bed in here because we wanted to be nowhere near each other!!!
    This morning we drove all along the lake and checked out communities and campgrounds.
    Headed into New Braunfels and had some lunch at a local brewery.
    Checked out the town of Gruene, which is on the Guadalupe River. John was so sweet. He was encouraging me to do a little shopping, but I was so damn sweaty that I wasn’t enjoying myself. Wanted to dunk my head when we walked down to the river edge. Really cute little town, but you would not have believed the amount of people. I asked the shop owner if it was because it was memorial day weekend and she replied, “No, it’s because it’s summer. It will be like this every weekend now.” Too crazy busy for my liking. The water sure was beautiful though.

    We scored a campsite on Canyon Lake for three days tomorrow. We can’t wait to get on the water!
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  • Real estate & water

    30 Mei 2022, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ⛅ 86 °F

    H.E.B. Plus??…YES PLEASE!! We started out in new Braunfels today getting groceries for our upcoming three days on Canyon Lake. OH MY GOD! The biggest, most gorgeous selection of veggies and fruits I have seen in my life. Varieties of meats & fish as far as the eye could see! We were literally walking through the store with our jaws hanging open. We could have spent hours in there! The first time on our trip that I wished for a fridge that was 10 times bigger. Unfortunately, they are only throughout Central and Northeast Texas.
    Anyway…. Drove back to Canyon Lake to check into Potter’s Creek campgrounds, only to be told that we couldn’t enter the park until 3 PM (it was 12:10pm 😕).
    Not a whole lot of businesses in the area, so we started driving around to the different waterways, boat ramps and neighborhoods. We found that we prefer the north east corner of the lake. Less people and traffic. Probably not doable for us. We really want to be on or close to the water and those homes are over 1 million.
    Our campsite is awesome and the lake is a gorgeous clear blue. Not many people since clearing out memorial day weekend campers. Hoping the wind dies down in the next couple of days so we can check out the inflatable paddleboards.
    Deer are grazing by the van!
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  • 2 Days of leisure on Canyon Lake, TX

    1 Juni 2022, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ⛅ 86 °F

    Not really a fitting title because no day in the van is leisurely. It’s surprising how much work it is to live in a small space. Nothing can really be left laying around and re-organizing is constant.
    We had two beautiful days to swim and make plans. The paddle boards would have been a pain in the ass with the high winds. We weren’t too thrilled about that, but the water was perfect in every way! ♥️
    Heading back to New Braunfels tomorrow morning to re-supply and get some laundry done.
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  • Initiation into Texas BBQ

    2 Juni 2022, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

    Saying goodbye to Canyon Lake and heading out to do laundry 😖.
    John researched the best of the best in Texas bbq. We will hit a few places on our way up to Travis Lake.
    Lockhart today - which is considered the states official bbq capital of Texas. We will hit “The Big Three” in the next 24 hrs.
    Smitty’s Market for lunch today.
    Kreuz’s Market & Black’s Market for lunch & supper tomorrow.

    Eww, how much barbecue can one person eat in such a short period? I would get sick of it really quick. Yes, those were my thoughts exactly, until I tasted my lunch this afternoon! Holy shit… I can’t wait for tomorrow! Food was otherworldly and atmosphere pumped! ♥️
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  • Chasing BBQs

    3 Juni 2022, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

    Personal hygiene can become very public while living in our van. Because we had no cell service at our campground last night, we parked in a nice shady spot in town to make some phone calls and update banking. Our van slider was wide open because it was a nice breeze. A delivery truck, clearly on his lunch break, parked next to us and was watching me give myself a pedicure. John was booted outside to clip his toenails so that there weren’t any escapees left on the van floor. You get used to funny looks!
    Still on our quest to find our favorite barbecue while in Texas. Had lunch at Kreuz’s Market today. John liked his jalapeño smoked sausage better than yesterday, but I did not care for mine today. The bbq sauce tasted more like A-1 sauce to me. John agreed and felt it was very vinegary like Kansas City style, which he doesn’t care for. Nothing like the bbq sauce at Smitty’s yesterday (nummy!).
    We decided to hit the local cinema to see Top Gun Maverick. We wish we had taken a picture, because it was such a small establishment. Clean though and had kettle corn, so I was happy!
    Afterwards, we poked our head into Black’s bbq and it looked awesome! Unfortunately, after seeing the movie, we felt it was getting kind of late to be arriving at our Boonedockers Welcome location, so we headed to Lexington in preparation to get in line for Snow’s bbq by 7am tomorrow morning.
    Our Boonedockers location is in really beautiful country! We seem to have left the humidity behind us…for this evening anyway. Beautiful green pastures & woods all around. Nice breeze coming through the van. A joy to not have the air conditioner running!
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  • Barbecue and Disillusionment

    4 Juni 2022, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ⛅ 88 °F

    This part of the trip was all about world famous Snow’s Barbecue in Lexington Texas. I was up and in line at 6:45 am. Kimberly joined me about 7:30 am. They are only open on Saturday and start serving at 8:00 am. I was 112th in line. They actually opened early, a little after 7:30 am. The free bar opened as well. Yes you heard me, free adult beverages. They have beer and vodka drinks like Bloody Marys, Screwdrivers, etc.

    Miss tootsie the 87 year old “pit boss” came out and greeted everyone. There was a lady taking photos and going to do a piece in National Geographic on working and longevity. Tootsie was one of the people she was including in her story. Kimberly had a really touching moment with her when they talked.

    Anyway, amazing brisket and the whole experience was totally worth it. We met amazing people. The one thing that I have to say about Texas is the people are great. I have never met complete strangers who are more friendly, genuine people in my life.

    On to the highland lakes north west of Austin. The drive out of Lexington was beautiful. Amazing rolling hills with beautiful pasture land, until we got to Round Rock north of Austin and traffic and urban sprawl like you can’t believe.

    We made it to our Harvest Host stop for the night by Lake Travis. Lake Travis is million dollar homes packed in around super steep hills of Limestone on and above Lake Travis. We were not fans and even if we were there is no way we could have afforded anything.

    The lake is at 61 percent capacity, take a look at the photos. Those are boat docks that are supposed to be on the water. Imagine paying millions (literally) of dollars for lakeside property and being high and dry.

    Not really any public lake access due to the drought and only private marinas with guards in place. Still no paddle boarding!!!

    Off to more lake areas north of us tomorrow.
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  • Heat wave & questionable water!

    5 Juni 2022, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ☀️ 90 °F

    Well, the Highland Lakes aren’t really standing up to their reputation (“clear, blue water”). Canyon Lake was gorgeous, but too windy. Now that we are on the chain of Highland Lakes, the water is murky and quite choppy. We drove all around Lyndon B. Johnson Lake, Marble Falls Lake and sections of the Llano River. None of the areas with public access are nice enough for us to want to get on the water.
    We had lunch in Kingsland and the café that I picked out just so happens to be the original house from the Texas chainsaw massacre. Funny!
    When we arrived at our Harvest Host location it was a very nice, grassy area. The deer have been in the yard and all around the neighborhood. Very nice to watch in our air-conditioned van! 101° Today and will be rising all week.
    We aren’t sure where we’re going from here!
    ** Last pic: everything is bigger in Texas. I put the rubber ducky up against the window for a size reference. It was even bigger than it looks in the pic!!!
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  • Finally!

    6 Juni 2022, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ☀️ 88 °F

    Headed north up to Ink’s Lake State Park and scored an amazing shady (this is a big deal with cooling and refrigeration!!!!) spot right by the water. Not the clearest water, but at this point, we will take what we can get.
    Unfortunately, once we got to the campgrounds, we realized we had zero cell service! Ended up driving back into town so that we could let Susan know she wouldn’t be hearing from us for the next three days. Loaded up on groceries as well.
    We both feel like chuds after sitting, eating and drinking for the last week. We can’t wait to try our new boards out. We had to purchase inflatables, being that there was no way to efficiently transport our epoxy boards. Paddle boarding is such an amazing workout if your form is correct. Looking forward to sore abs, hams & shoulders!
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  • Ink’s Lake State Park

    8 Juni 2022, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ☀️ 88 °F

    Our objective on this journey is to check out areas with more affordability for relocation. When planning this trip, we decided it wasn’t realistic to bowl through state after state, while the summer was wasting away. Thus the stops at Natl’ Parks and lakes.
    We’ve finally figured out that with school out and our route fluctuating, choice locations on weekends are not going to happen. Knowing that, we haven’t been making plans on the weekends knowing that we may have to sleep in parking lots. Sunday through Thursday we can usually get into pretty choice sites at campgrounds. Places really clear out during the week and it gets nice and quiet. Very peaceful!
    Our stay at Ink’s Lake has been nice. My inflatable paddle board is a little irritating, as I knew it would be. This type of board feels more like you’re riding on top of the water -vs- being connected to your board and cutting through the water. We both feel they have too much bounce and limited maneuverability. We figured that was the case after researching inflatable boards.
    Still worth it! Being out on the water always recharges our souls. It’s such an adventure to go around a bend of the lake and see different wildlife or something different in the landscape, etc.
    As far as moving to Texas…I’m not so sure. The people are extremely nice and engaging. The landscape is very diverse, so we know we could find something we like. Many of the small towns are quaint with a lot of social activity. But the only water I would want to live on so far would be Canyon Lake or the Guadalupe River, both of which are overpriced and overcrowded! And the heat is mighty intense!
    Heading north out of Texas from here.

    **(I know we’re not supposed to feed wild animals, but I had some mushy blueberries and couldn’t help it.)
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  • Heading to Dallas

    11 Juni 2022, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ⛅ 93 °F

    Super excited to have scored a cat sit in Dallas with a pool, just in time for even more extreme temperatures! Unfortunately, when we got here, we were informed that the pool has an algae problem and is unusable due to chemicals just being added 🤬!
    Anyway…it was a good time to do some catch up. Serviced the van, packaged and mailed some items, laundry, etc.
    First on the agenda though was making tacos and actually watching Netflix/Hulu. We’ve been going through books like crazy! It’s kind of nice that we can’t watch tv at campgrounds. WiFi just isn’t strong enough at most.
    Dropped into a taproom where Rob & Vicki Thiessen’s good friend has a pop-up burger stand in the downtown Dallas area. Enjoyed our Burger-Schmurger and beer immensely!

    Susan is weighing heavy on our minds being that she and Christian are moving into their first apartment this weekend. Thankfully Cathie and Pablo, Christian‘s parents, have been very involved. They moved all of Susan‘s things out of her house while she had to work on Friday, along with providing them with essential grocery items. So happy they are there for them!
    The house we are sitting at is beautiful in a high end north Dallas neighborhood. We will be here until Sunday afternoon. Kitties are sweet!
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