Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Life is more fun with kids

What do you do when you want to explore and have little ones? Either stay inside or...
Take them with you!

 

Plans change

The plan was for us to stay in Colorado Springs/Canon City for 3 days, exploring the Royal Gorge suspension bridge and the rich area around them, but nature and unforeseen circumstances had other plans.  

We didn't get far on our path to Colorado Springs. In fact, as we climbed the pass that crosses from New Mexico to Colorado, red lights on the dash started flashing, so I pulled over immediately. There was an oily (but not oil) liquid that had bubbled over, and I knew that we were running hot. I found the nearest truck shop that could handle a big rig like this, nearly 37 feet long with a Catepillar diesel engine. Luckily, one was nearby. They weren't able work on it immediately (I'm learning that this is normal). So, we stayed the night in Trinidad, Colorado, a quaint little town at the foot of Fisher's Peak which is the highest point of the Great American Plains (9,631ft). When the mechanics looked at the rig the next morning, the best of all possible scenarios was the problem, a extremely dirty radiator caused the overheating which in turn caused the lower oil pressure due to lower viscosity of the oil resulting in antifreeze boiling over. There is a science lesson for sure in this as well!

A steam clean and test ride and we were on our way.

At our unexpected stop in Trinidad, we found out that the RV camp and entire Royal Gorge area had been burned by the forest fires recently. In fact, much of the area that we had planned to visit had lost all buildings and was "closed indefinitely." I will have to find a new place to complete the content for my gravity lesson now. Although the fire's aftermath would have been a good video lesson on nature's fury and the necessity of occasional blazes, for safety reasons, I decided to travel North and camp closer to Denver. We are now in Golden, Colorado with plans to check out the absolutely incredible area around us for the next few days before heading West to Utah, Oregon, and Washington.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Swamp ride video sample

Here is a sample from the footage that we shot on the boat in Morgan City, Louisiana.


Sunday, June 23, 2013

So far it's been amazing!

I am now in New Mexico! After driving through the night from Morgan City, Louisiana, we are now at the base of Capulin Volcano. This is an unexpected stop; I was just too tired to go on to our planned stop of Colorado Springs. While we are here, we will explore the volcano and create a video from the experience to go along with our videos from the Bayou as well videos from our drive across the Plains.

In the Bayou, we ate more Crawfish than we could handle, Catfish, and Frog legs. I have eaten a bite of Elk, Bison, and pickled Quail and haven't been in the campsite for more than an hour! These are all unexpected experiences that have enriched this experience all the more.  

What will tomorrow bring? That is the excitement right now!

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Until we get Internet...

We are on our way to Colorado via West Monroe, LA. Until we can find a place with wifi, feel free to follow @t3joyner on twitter, instigram, and/or Facebook.

Check out the new links page for details.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

We are off!

We left Statesboro, GA Sunday after a full day of packing and organizing the RV. We drove to Montgomery , AL. It was a wake up call for us. With the two little ones, 2 and almost 1, Laura was constantly changing diapers and getting drinks. Her mother was a stewardess on an airline, but Laura was quite motion sick. We used time in Montgomery to get our sea legs back before driving in the night to Mobile. What a beautiful site! The kids woke up feeding ducks in the pond, but we are on a mission so off we went.

We have some  mechanical issues that have to be addressed, so we are FORCED to stay in New Orleans in the French Quarter for at least a night while a part is shipped overnight to nearby Slidell. Hopefully, we will get the part changed and be on our way, but if not today, we are having so much fun learning and playing that I doubt we'd mind another day in the Big Easy. I can't wait to get to the Bayou though. I haven't filmed much yet. Mostly driving.


Sunday, June 9, 2013

The first step of our journey happens to be only 90 minutes from home!


After having to postpone 6 weeks ago, I finally was able to do something that I have always wanted to do but never had the opportunity for... SKYDIVE. It is an exhilarating feeling to accelerate from a plane at 14,000 feet. I cannot wait to share this experience with my students as we begin our lessons on the force of gravity and rates of acceleration.