Georgia on our Minds

Hello, hello, hello everybody!!

Well, as you could imagine a lot has happened since the last time I posted...right when I think I'm going to get all over this blog, it seems our whole lives change.

And change is probably the most common thing happening these days!

We have moved from our lovely spot in Sedona, AZ to an even lovelier spot in the Northeast Georgia Mountains. It took us 4 full days of driving to get here. Most of the drive was the same, lots of open barren land with big rock formations on the sides of the road, then we'd drive through a major city with the scenery changing back into vast openness. The majority of our trip was on I-40 so we drove through some cities and even states we had both never been through before.

[caption id="attachment_5488" align="aligncenter" width="480"] New Mexico[/caption]

My favorite part of the trip was right at Amarillo, Texas where we saw a bunch of people (off to the side of the interstate) walking through a big field of nothing, except for some things sticking up out of the ground. We turned around and went back to see what was going on and discovered Cadillac Ranch. How cool is this!?

[caption id="attachment_5464" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Art from 1947[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5461" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Leaving our mark[/caption]

We drove on through Texas into Oklahoma and it wasn't until we woke up in Shawnee, where we stopped the night before, that we noticed a huge difference in our scenery...green green green everywhere. Trees, shrubs, grass...everything around us was green, lush, so beautiful and so very different than what we've been used to seeing over the last two years! The more miles we drove across Oklahoma, Arkansas & Tennessee, the greener it became and that's where all of the rivers and creeks came in as well.

[caption id="attachment_5468" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Arkansas[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5470" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Georgia Roads[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5469" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Oconee River[/caption]

All in all we spent 4 full days driving and covered 1,900 miles and at one point we got 18 miles per gallon!! We decided to pack the van differently for the drive so we threw some things away, gave some weights and jack stands to Goodwill (getting rid of about 90 lbs.) and gifted some things to a nice homeless lady that needed them more than we did. We averaged about 13-15 miles per gallon, but that one day we got 18! woo hoo. We kept the bed down, the dogs totally digging that and packed the underneath side of the bed with most of the stuff we keep on the top. It worked out better than we had planned and gave us the mileage we were hoping to get!

[caption id="attachment_5494" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Where's all our stuff!!??[/caption]

Being back in Georgia after being gone for two full years is very, very different. We aren't just in Georgia, we are in one of the most beautiful places in this state, I believe they call our county the hidden gem of the Northeastern Georgia Mountains and also considered one of the greatest vacation meccas in Georgia. Pretty cool, huh!

[caption id="attachment_5477" align="aligncenter" width="485"] Welcome[/caption]

We are surrounded by cascading waterfalls, lakes, mountain vistas and fish filled creeks & streams. It's humid here, but with all of the water and canopies of trees around us, it seems to stay cool most of the day.

[caption id="attachment_5481" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Stonewall Creek Falls[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5482" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5483" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Abundance is flowing[/caption]

This part of Georgia is also considered a rain forest due to the amount of rain we get per year: over 55 inches (140 cm) a year and I tell ya, we had forgotten how much it rains here! The second night we were here, we were staying on our friends' property in the van and it stormed like crazy, at that moment we had realized we hadn't seen an actual storm in two years, it was thundering, lightning with heavy rain and a little hail, the van was even swaying! Our friends wanted us to come sleep in the house but to us, it was very exciting!

The future is wide open at this point, we will be here for the Summer due to being able to work for the season and get my medical stuff handled and then we hope to head back West, but we all know how plans go...believe us, two months ago we were going to Utah's Great 5 for the Summer...now we're in Georgia!

Dang making plans! haha

Wishing everyone the absolute best~

[caption id="attachment_5486" align="aligncenter" width="336"] PEACE[/caption]