Los Haitises National Park

Our first big activity in the Dominican Republic was Los Haitises National Park for which we had a guide named Halle.

We woke up early in the morning to catch a moto-taxi, or "moto-concho", down the 10 kilometer road to the park. The trip up the unpaved road was gorgeous! Unfortunately we were all hanging on too tight to get any pictures.

We started our day by going on a kayaking tour, which we wanted to do early because we were told that that would give us the best chance of seeing manatees. While we didn't see any manatees it was still an amazing trip. It started by going down a small river through the mangrove forest, similar to what we experienced in southern Florida. But it was much more fun to be out on the water.

There were many of the same birds as in the Everglades as well as crabs that were living among the roots of the mangroves. Unfortunately we once again don't have very many pictures of this part of the day, this time because we were all trying to avoid getting our electronics wet.

When we came to the end of the river it opened up in a small bay called Bahia de San Lorenzo, which is in the larger Samana Bay. We stayed in the Bahia de San Lorenzo, which was nice and protected and smooth for kayaking. We may not have seen any manatees in the bay, but we did see several dolphins. They were swimming fairly close to us and we hung out for a while just watching them. This time we didn't get any pictures because we were enjoying just watching them too much.

After hanging out with the dolphins for a little while we moved on to a small island where we docked to eat fruit and enjoy the surroundings. Halle brought us bananas as well as a guañabana, AKA soursop. Both were delicious. 

 

 

After the kayaking trip we had a few hours to hang out and get lunch at the Caño Hondo eco lodge while Halle took another group out on a boat trip. 

Caño Hondo is a huge hotel that is built into the side of the mountain. It had amazing architecture and amazing views. They also had a delicious lunch. 

 

The other major perk of Caño Hondo is their pools. They diverted the river into a series of swimming holes coming down the side of the hill. They were gorgeous and a lot of fun to walk around. The day wasn't as warm as we had expected though, and the water was quite cool so we didn't end up swimming. 

 

Anna considered booking us to stay at this lodge, but they said they were full. Which was a little funny because it seemed quite empty. Overall we were all happy with the place we stayed in town, and we got more of the local feel there. 

For the early afternoon section of our trip we took another boat ride with Halle, this time on a bigger motor boat. We went back  down the river and through the bay to caves in national park.

The first cave we stopped at was well known for its pictographs. The cave is full of them and they range in subject from ancient tribal gods to crosses representing the colonizing Spanish. There are also pictures that are thought to represent a slave being beaten.

 

 

The massive cave was cool in and of itself. There is evidence that native people took cover in the cave during storms. It was absolutely massive and a fair amount of natural lighting, so even Kathleen who tends to get claustrophobic felt comfortable in there. 

The second cave was right on the water and had the feel of the ideal cave for a pirate to hide treasure in. We docked on a beautiful beach. 

 

From the beach we took several cool boardwalks into the partially flooded cave. 

 

This cave was also gorgeous and had interesting ancient carvings. The cave is also known for being home to many bats, but we didn't see any of them. Their main roosting area is further back in the cave and is off limits to visitors. 

 

For the last part of our day we went on a fun hike on a trail that Halle and a Peace Corps volunteer helped to build a couple of years ago. It was absolutely stunning. The trail went through one of the filming locations for Jurassic Park. 

And in true Dominican fashion we went stopped and tried all of the different fruits along the trail as we went. 

 

Coffee

 

Bija, primarily used as a dye but also to add flavor to meat dishes.
Also apparently used in some skin care products. 

Star Fruit 

 

Chocolate. The white fruit around the chocolate is absolutely incredible and super sweet.
One of the best things we tasted on this trip. 

Halle had to work super hard to get us some chocolate fruit. We tried throwing things but were unsuccessful. But he was determined enough that he scaled the tree to bring us one down. And boy are we glad that he did. 

There were lots of other cool things on the hike as well, including trees that use thorns to store water and giant termite nests. The hike was a great end to an amazing day. By the time we got back to the hotel on our moto conchos we were very ready for a shower and bed, especially because we knew we'd have to get up early again the next day. 

 

Travel Update 15

After replacing our fuel tank, we left Tom and Joanne's house and headed to Atlanta before flying to the Dominican Republic. We mostly drove directly to Atlanta, but did take a slight detour on the Natchez Trace Parkway and had a day with really bad weather.

In Atlanta, we met up with Andreas's dad, Rüdiger, stepmother, Maggie, and half brother, Karl. We had a ton of fun playing around with Karl but we couldn't keep up with all his energy.

Andreas and Karl

Kathleen with Karl

Rüdiger showed us around town while Maggie was at work and Karl was in daycare. We took a walk along the Roswell boardwalk near the Chattahoochee Nature Center. After that we got a driving tour of quite a few parts of northern Atlanta.

The 14th was Andreas's birthday! We took an afternoon trip to Ponce City Market which had an open food hall with all sorts of options of food. It is connected to the Atlanta Beltline, a 22-mile multi-use loop, parts of which are still under construction, which encircles all of Atlanta on old railroad lines. 

Model of Ponce City Market

Doggy daycare at Ponce City Market

After a Caribbean dinner at the market, we met up with Kathleen's old classmate Allison and her boyfriend Christian at the Orpheus Brewing tasting room. We enjoyed a variety of their beer and got a surprise trivia night where we placed 2nd.

Trivia team name: #RVLife

On the 15th, we dropped off our kids at a dog sitter that we found through Rover, and got dropped off at the airport for our trip to the Dominican Republic.

Our kids enjoying a full sized apartment

Tornado Warning at Little River Canyon

On January 11th, we woke up to severe weather warnings in Florence, AL. We checked our phones to see when and where the warnings indicated it would be worst. It appeared to be coming west to east, so we decided to head out early and stay ahead of it.

We made it to Huntsville and the wind had seemed to fade significantly. We stopped for brunch at a dog park at the Indian Creek Greenway where Aiden could get energy out as well. Around 11am the wind picked up again, checking our phones we saw that strong winds were now indicated in Huntsville as well, but not much past it.

We continued with our plan to stay ahead of the bad weather. We made it into the mountains in the northeast of Alabama and thought we were safe. We decided to set our goal for Rome, GA, for the night, but no longer felt that we were in a rush.

It wasn't very windy anymore when we reached Fort Payne, AL. Just past the town, we came across Little River Canyon and decided to take the detour to see it. It was our first actual mountains in several months. The river and waterfall were gorgeous. We struck up a conversation with some white water kayakers who were pulling out for the day.

  

 

Leaving the second overlook, it started to rain again, and shortly after started to get windy. As soon as we reached the third overlook, we got a tornado warning on our phone telling us to take cover for the next 30 minutes. At this point, there wasn't much that we could do. We positioned the RV in to overlook parking area towards the center, so that no trees could fall on us and we turned on the radio, listening for weather coverage.

After a bit of heavy winds and rains, the wind started to let up and we decided we would head back to the Fort Payne Walmart and wait out the storm there. At least if something happened to us there we would have people around.

Driving back out of the scenic drive, we came across a downed tree on the road and felt lucky to not have been driving when the warning came to our phones. We were able to clear away just enough of the tree to squeeze by and continued on to Fort Payne.

All in all, we know this could have gone worse and feel lucky we avoided an actual tornado. Below is a map of where tornados actually hit that day. We do think that we did the right thing by trying to staying ahead of the storm front. We knew we were traveling faster than it and not being in a storm at all would have been the best outcome. We did get a bit complacent after reaching the mountains. We probably should have either kept moving or stopped in a population center. 

Image from Wikipedia

Natchez Trace Parkway

At Tom and Joanne's church in Texas, one of the members told us about the Natchez Trace Parkway. He only told us that is was a pretty drive. Since part of it was on our path and we had a bit of extra time, we decided to check it out.

We met up with the Trace in Clinton, MS. We had no idea what to expect so we got on it and drove only a few miles until we saw signs for a visitor center. It happened to be the Clinton visitor center, but it had plenty of information about the Trace. In the visitor center, we met two volunteer who were reading up on the best hikes in North Cascades National Park. They were planning a trip up to the northwest, so we had a fun chat about the PNW. They recommended a restaurant along the Trace which we'll talk about later.

The Natchez Trace Parkway is a 440-mile commercial free road that stretches from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN. The trail was initially forged by Native Americans and used for centuries before being used by European Americans. In the early 1800s, it was used by traders from Tennessee and Kentucky who would build flat boats to carry their goods down the Mississippi. After trading their wares, they would sell their boats for the value of the lumber and trek back along the trace. Eventually, steamboats made the return trip much easier on boats and the Trace was slowly forgotten until the 1930s when, under FDR, the U.S. government decided to commemorate the history of the trail with construction of the parkway.

There were lots of historical stops all along the trace. The older ones native American villages and burial mounds. We stopped at a few of them along the road and enjoyed reading all of the posted information.

There were also some stops with some more recent history including the old mansion location and family cemetery of the an old politician Cowles Mead. His property was destroyed during the civil war so very little remains.

Further up the Trace, in Tennessee is a monument to Meriweather Lewis. He was traveling up the trace to Washington, DC when he was found dead of a gunshot wound and is believed to have killed himself. We didn't make it that far up the trace but are hoping to loop back around and see this monument.

Along the Trace there is a historic town called French Camp. There are several things to see and do around town designed to show how early Americans lived. However we arrived fairly late and only went to the town cafe, The Council House Cafe. We had been told at the visitor center that it was run by a school for students with disabilities in French Camp. This was half true. It is run by a Christian boarding school in town, but the students were no disabled. Either way, the food was amazing and modestly priced. We had convinced ourselves to go and spend money because we were thinking of it as a charity, but the food was well worth it and we were glad we went.

We spent the night at the only free campsite along the Trace, Jeff Busby Park. For a free campsite it was rather amazing. It was fairly crowded and the spots were not well defined and hard to distinguish in the dark, but we found a place to park. There were nice flush toilets and in the morning we took a nice hike up the hill to a lookout.

Even though the parkway is not a "National Park", we decided that, like Big Cypress, it deserved its own sticker on the side of the RV.

A New Fuel Tank

Hey everyone, we know we're a bit behind on the blog. We spent Christmas with family in Austin, TX and took that time off from writing to enjoy as much as we could. We're still planning on writing about our experiences from the Everglades to Austin and will be pre-dating those posts when we get them up. For now, we're on our way to Atlanta! We're currently in Monroe, LA and are safe and everything is well. We also have an exiting new experience since Christmas to share.

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We left Austin in the afternoon on December 30th. Not wanting to go too far that night we stopped near Temple. We were committed to catching up on our blog, spending a couple hours per day at a library during our drive towards Atlanta.

On our second day, after making it the library for a couple of hours of blog work, we made sure to stock up on sauerkraut -- sauerkraut is a tradition for Andreas's family on New Years Day -- but were too tired for a festive night. We decided to call it a day in Brushie Prairie park, in Frost, TX.

In the morning we woke up to a bit of a problem; our gas tank was leaking. After calling Good Sam, they advised us to call the fire department as a dripping gas tank can be a fire hazard. They also told us given that it was New Years Day, very few places, if any, that would be open and able to work on our vehicle.

Fuel tank dripping slowly

The local volunteer fire department showed up at the park we were staying at and was able to patch up the hole with a bar of soap. They strongly advised against driving it as the soap is a very temporary fix. So, there we were, in rural Texas, in need of a fuel tank and no mechanics working on New Years nearby with the volunteer fire department of Navarro Falls: Darren, the fire chief and Joanne and Tom, an older couple who lived close by. Then, almost out of the blue, Joanne offered to put us up for as long as we needed to get someone to come out and fix the tank. She said she wouldn't want us staying there with a gas tank that could start re-leaking and in the cold. Before we knew it, Kathleen put the kids in Joanne's car and Andreas got in Tom's truck and we all drove to their house, just a few blocks down the road. On the ride over, she asked Kathleen if we liked sauerkraut. Apparently, sauerkraut was also a New Years tradition for her and she had gotten way too much for just the two of them.

  

The ceramic shed and our home for the week.

When we arrived, Joanne pulled out an air cot and some blankets and set them up in her ceramics shed. She gave us a space heater and told us to make ourselves comfortable. Just as we were settling in, they received another emergency call, their third of the day.

In the evening we ate sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and pork chops and were thankful to be in a warm home. We may have been strangers to them, but they were kind and welcoming. We met their dogs: Sammie, a super friendly Dachshund, and Duke and Duchess, two very shy Great Pyrenees mixes. We learned that Tom was a long-time trucker with over 3 million miles of accident free driving, who loved fixing things. Joanne works as a caregiver and is very active in her community. Luckily for us, they even had ESPN so we were able to watch the Rose Bowl!

Rose Bowl in the ceramics shed

After the game, Andreas and Tom discussed whether they could replace the tank themselves. The hardest parts would be making sure we found the right tank and getting most the gas we had in the old one there out before trying to lowering it.

The next day, Andreas decided to drive the RV the short distance to the house. After not hearing back from Good Sam, the idea of fixing it without a shop seemed more appealing, mostly because it would save on repair costs. After raising up the RV onto a jack stand, taking a bunch of pictures underneath,  measuring out the tank, and a lot of searching around online we went ahead and ordered one. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be there until Monday, the 6th. In the mean time, Andreas and Tom were able to remove the old fuel tank after draining most of the gas through a fuel line that used to be hooked up to a generator. 

In the next few days we got to experience life in rural Texas as well as hang out in our cosy shed. Tom and Joanne completely opened their house to us, telling us to help ourselves to anything in the fridge and having us over for dinner every night. On Sunday we went with them up to church, including the Christmas party after the service. The church community was very small, with about six adults and six kids.

At the party afterwards everyone was very friendly and welcoming. There was a potluck lunch with tuna casserole, ham and cheese sandwiches, hot dog pieces in BBQ sauce and Joanne's bean and bacon soup. As well as a million desserts. After eating we took part in a white elephant gift exchange (in which we got a new lantern and a five gallon bucket organizer) and a fun game involving trying to unwrap a present with oven mitts on. We won that game and won some candy and a Walmart gift card. We were also gifted a "Survival Kit" with a mini bible and some religious books. When you add to that the knitted blanket that Joanne insisted that we take, we left pretty loaded. Not to mention the free housing and days of food that they wouldn't let us pay them for.

 

Aside from one awkward evening in which we were trying our hardest not get drawn into a political conversation on topics ranging from Trump to global warming, we got along with them very well.

The new fuel tank didn’t show up until 8pm on Monday night. By that time, Tom had already left for work for the week and we’d have to get the new one installed by ourselves the next day. It turned out to be quite simple in principle, but not trivial physically. We removed the old sending unit (fuel gauge floater) and fuel pump from the old tank and wiggled them into place in the new one, using the new gaskets provided with the new tank. The most challenging bit was lifting up the fuel tank into a position where we could secure it to the frame of the vehicle. Once we get the bolts in, but before tightening them, we used the pictures we took before to make sure everything got connected up the right way. 

Once everything was hooked up and tightened, we got it to start after a few tries of just hearing the engine crank. To our surprise, we had no leaks at all! Everything was in and tightened up properly. Our repair bill ended up only being around $100 - the cost of the tank. It could have easily been many times that amount when you include labor. We’ve been checking for leaks at every gas station since, but haven’t found a drop! Needless to say, we’ll be keeping an eye on it a bit longer before feeling fully comfortable with it. 

With the fuel tank back in order, we loaded up the RV and got ready to leave. We were seen off by Joanne who was sad to see us go. 

We feel so incredibly fortunate that we broke down where we did and that we were welcomed and supported by strangers who housed us and fed us, wanting nothing besides that we pay it forward the next time we see someone in need of help.