Onward to the Keys!

Today we will be leaving St. Petersburg to head down to Bahia Honda State Park in Big Pine Key. We ended up spending two nights here in St. Pete's due to our first hiccup on the trip: van problems! We are making this trip in a 1998 Chrysler Town & Country that Ben grew up riding around in and learned to drive in as a teen. We had it serviced before leaving, but Wednesday morning when we left Pensacola we realized we had a leak...inside the van. We have been in rain ever since leaving Birmingham Tuesday afternoon and realized that somehow water has been pooling under the hood, and then begins to leak into the passenger floorboard as we drive. Hopefully we can prevent it by trying to drive in the rain as little as possible and covering the van with a tarp when parked. Besides that, staying inside has been helpful while we both recover from being sick!

One of the most helpful resources we have had while planning the trip is the website bringfido.com! BringFido provides dog friendly accommodations (campgrounds, hotels, motels, vacation rentals), attractions (parks, beaches, trails, shopping), restaurants, pet services (pet sitters, walkers, groomers, kennels, vet clinics), air travel, and events. Basically it's the best thing ever if you have a pet. For instance, today I learned that Key West has 39 dog friendly restaurants, they are allowed at the Shipwreck Treasure Museum, the Tropical Forest and Botanical Gardens, and we can even take them kayaking or on an eco-tour to see dolphins! At times we had been worried that having Pavlov and Sasha along for the ride would get in the way of things we wanted to do, but by utilizing BringFido we realized we can do everything we'd like! (Besides, I don't think either of us could've lasted 3 months without them!)

We somehow managed to fit our loft into this storage unit. I probably referenced my years of packing experience and tetris proficiency 100 times. 

Here we are with our van all loaded up just before take off with our pups, Pavlov the pug and Sasha the daniff! 

...And We're Off!

It's a strange feeling to wake up in Motel 6 in Pensacola and realize you are living your dreams. Yesterday Alexa and I finished moving out of our loft and set off on our adventure. We spent the past few weeks packing and getting everything set up for our trip, from van repairs to buying gear and finishing our route. After finishing our last errands yesterday we hopped in the van and drove for about 6 hours to make it to Pensacola, saw a Whataburger with a Motel 6 across the street and we knew we had found home for the night. Today we are back on the road and headed towards the Florida Keys, where we plan to camp in Bahai Honda State Park for about 5 nights. It's about 12 more hours to the keys from here so we may spend the night in St. Petersburg to cut the drive in half. Also we got a little behind on updating this thing so you may start seeing short daily updates to make up for it.