We are surrounded by beautiful souls in our lives and on this trip, we got to visit some of our favorites and meet some new ones along the way.

I have known Eddie and Michelle for a LONG time. I met Michelle when she came to work at Killip Elementary School in Flagstaff in maybe 2000? Two years later I got a cancelation for a Grand Canyon River Trip and they joined us. Later that fall, in October 2002, Ellen and I got married and we fashioned our wedding after theirs from the previous year. So, our anniversary is one year and one week later than this sweet couple.

This is a spray paint artist we watched in Progreso, Mexico. He was quite good and I STILL can’t figure out how anyone paints anything worth hanging with spray paint. What talent.

We spent most of our time in Houston with my cousin David. Our fathers were brothers, both now deceased. Bong, his husband as of March 26th, could join us on occasion as he was still teaching school when we were there. Dave is retired so we played, a LOT. Looking forward to more time in Houston.

On one of our bayou bike rides in Houston, we came across a wall of murals on the back walls of a strip mall.  This guy came out of one of the doors and we asked if he was one of the artists and he said YES! What are the odds?

A creepy little guy selling clothing in Galveston.

This guy had caught a yellowfin tuna and wanted someone at the fish market to filet it for him but they had already closed for the afternoon so he had to walk his poor tuna back to his boat, dragging its nose along the dock, to filet it himself.

We fund several folks on the South Padre Island Beach searching for treasures.

This is the beautiful couple now living in ellen’s childhood home in Harlingen, Tiffany, and Rudy. They were gracious hosts, let us wander into each room, and even sent us off with a Texas treat bag.

This guy was fishing off the end of the pier at Fountainebleau State Park on Lake Ponchatrain. He caught s small ray of some sort.

This is our very knowledgeable Voodoo Museum guide who took us all around New Orleans and had great stories. And this beautiful voodoo queen ran the cash register in the museum.

This is the artist who makes the mardi gras masks. They are exquisite.

Back at camp, we were approached by Erin who invited us back to her pad to meet Andy. They own the only Four Wheel Camper in the south! Ok, probably not but it’s the only other one we saw once we left Arizona. It’s an early 1990s Granby on a ’73 Ford 100. They live in it full time and travel in between Amazon warehouse jobs. Quite the interesting couple.

I first saw this colorful character coming from behind us, walking down a side street toward the parade. Once she was in front of all the bands she came alive and began dancing along with the music as she made her way down the avenue.

Only in New Orleans…

We stopped to visit ellen’s sister Ruth who happened to be staying with her son and daughter-in-law in Poplar, Mississippi.

THIS was an interesting conversation. We stopped in this coffee shop in Houston, MS looking for help in finding the road and house Ellen and her family lived in 1969-70ish. Ellen mentioned the high school where she was a freshman and this lady lowered her voice and said, in a soft southern accent, that the old high school had burned down in 1973 under suspicious circumstances. When we asked what happened she lowered her voice, even more, looked around, and said that was the year they elected their first Black homecoming queen. Yikes!

We drove from Mississippi to Dollywood then on to Weaverville just outside of Ashville, NC for a day to visit our old neighbors from Flagstaff, Trish and Paul. They were wonderful hosts and gave us the lay of the land and Paul’s signature egg muffins for breakfast.

From Ashville, it wasn’t far to Hillsborough and cousin Wendy and her two charming children. We stayed three days, saw some beautiful country, hung out with amazing people, and talked to our granddaughter on the lid of a trash container.

Then it was the big drive to Ohio! We stayed there for six days and had some wonderful family time.

Evonne and Akacia showed us their favorite places.

Rob spends a lot of time on his craft as a tattoo artist.

Chelsea joined us for Mother’s Day morning coffee.

Rob got to join us on a sunny day downtown.

We went to Evonne’s place of work on our way out of town at the end of the week. They all love her there.

We met these two lovely folks at Sugar Bottom Campground outside of Iowa City. We hope to run into them again in our adventures.

We spent two days at the family farm in Nebraska where we extracted honey from bee boxes with this amazing lady, Becky Puncochar, my half-brother’s Aunt. We also learned about and got to ride a folding bike which we have incorporated into our camping rig, and got to wander down by the Platt River with Jonathan who came to visit from Denver for the weekend. It was a busy two days.

Our final stop was Denver where we got to walk the niece and nephew to school.

Hang out with Chelsea in Idaho Springs and hot tub.

Have dinner with the Prow family.  I taught with Laura at Killip in Flagstaff some years ago. Timothy is a master plumber and Nate hales from Ethiopia. We love this framily.

We had days mostly to ourselves as Chelsea took the week off but got sick and spent time sleeping, everyone else was either at work or school.

Except for this guy, he seemed to be the neighborhood watch guy. Creepy.

People, it’s what travel is really all about. And if they live in cool places? it’s a bonus.