Ottawa -> Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana

Emily (scroll down for Dan's perspective):

After months and months anticipation, it felt pretty surreal to finally hit the road. It took a few days to shake the leftover adrenaline that came with finishing up at work, packing, and furiously cleaning the house for our renters, but after a couple sleeps I was in full vacation mode. 

The first few days were all about driving and figuring out how to maneuver around our new tiny home. I think I hit my head at least five times a day on the roof, and cooking our first couple meals were a bit awkward, but we are slowly figuring it out. We have been quite pleasantly surprised by how comfy the bed is!

Our first big stop was Huntsville, Alabama, to visit my high school friend Paige and her husband Michael. On our way, we made a couple quick stops in Virginia to hit up a disc golf course, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, to get a bit of climbing in. 

Back in 2018, we came to Chattanooga for our first trip together, so it felt pretty full circle to to come back as one of the first stops on our honeymoon. Unfortunately, we were a little too ambitious with the climbing this time and got our butts absolutely kicked. On the bright side, it was our first day of super nice weather, and we got to spend our first night in the van in nature, which was pretty magical.

Next, we made our way to Huntsville, AL. It was our first time in the state, and we both expected it to be super flat. To our surprise, our drive was incredibly pretty, with rolling green farmer fields (and an occasional gated community with outrageously large mansions). 

Paige and I have been good friends since high school. About two-ish years ago, she moved to Huntsville with her husband, Michael, who grew up nearby. Since then, we have stayed in touch over Zoom, watching episodes of the TV show Outlander together. We had the opportunity to continue our tradition this week and got to react to the outrageous twists and turns in the show together in person. It was the best.

Paige and Michael shared all of their go to “Alabama spots” for food in the area - “stuffies” (massive baked potato stuffed with bbq meat, cheese, chives and covered in Alabama white sauce, which is a delicious creamy, vineagary sauce), Mexican food, of course, Chik-Fil-A. A major highlight was eating our stuffies at a local lookout that overlooks Huntsville. 

Next stop - New Orleans! I think this was the coolest place I’ve ever visited. Dan and I spent a day and a half walking around to hit food spots, listening to the incredible brass music that would randomly erupt around us on the streets, and admiring the colourful homes - vibrant would be an understatement. The highlight for me was hands down the food. Every time I finished my plate, I was really sad I was done. 

On the first night we grabbed some fried chicken, jambalaya, etouffee, and a couple local beers from a little restaurant called Coop’s Place.

The next day we walked so much I thought my legs might fall off! In the morning we grabbed some beignets (fried pastry generously covered in powdered sugar)  and an epic brass ensemble started performing next to the restaurant. 

Then we slowly made our way to the other side of town where we tried Po Boys (sandwiches with meat or fried seafood with a fluffy French bun) and gumbo (the most delicious soup you'll ever have with meat, seafood, and cajun and creole flavours).

That night we grabbed some Cajun crawfish boil, which is crawfish boiled in delicious Cajun spices. It was so spicy that my right eye was crying the entire time I was eating, but so delicious I ate through the pain. 

Between all these meals, we needed a nap, obviously! We set up our hammock in the New Orleans’ “City Park” under the incredible live oak trees.

Next stop - Big Bend National Park in Texas!

Daniel:

A lot of work was done leading up to leaving for the trip but we managed to make it out on March 1st like we planned! Heading to the border was pretty uneventful and crossing the border wasn’t too much of a problem but the border guard seemed pretty upset with us and out life decisions. Maybe he was a little jealous although I don’t think he really liked the idea of living in a van for 5 months. Overall though it got me thinking how lucky we are to be able to take this time off and go on this trip. We need to make sure we savour as much of it as we can. 

We ended up driving quite a bit the first day and made it to West Virginia. I had a really nice relaxed energy driving. We weren’t in a rush and could just cruise down the highway. I told Emily I feel like I could be a truck driver because of my driving stamina now but that’s only lasted a couple of days. The next day we planned to keep heading down to Tennessee but in the morning I found a slight detour so we could checkout a disc golf course called New London Tech designed by Paul McBeth. (I realize that reference only means something to a small number of people) had a bit of a miserable round score wise but the course was one of the best I’ve ever played. After the round we drove to this crazy town called Pigeon Forge that I guess is where Dolly Parton is from. It reminded me of Niagara Falls but in the mountains. 

We wanted to go for a hike the next day but the weather wasn’t too great so we drove straight to Chattanooga where we hung out in our van waiting out a variety of thunderstorm, high winds, hail warnings, and tornado watches (where do you go if you’re living in a van and a tornado comes!?). We needed up camping at the base of T-Wall which is a climbing area Emily and I visited on our first climbing trip together. We managed to climb a bit the next day with some better weather. It was overall a good day but we definitely overestimated how used to climbing outdoors we’d be. We got pretty pumped on some climbs grade wise we felt should have been a walk in the park. That’s how it goes sometimes. 

Once we finished we headed of to Huntsville Alabama to visit  Emily’s high school friend, Paige, and her husband Michael. They were extraordinary hosts and showed us around town and took us out for some humongous stuffed potatoes and some really good Mexican food. I was also super happy to finally meet Michael who is disc golf obsessed like I am. We got to play a couple of local courses which I was really looking forward too. It was amazing how popular the sport is down there both courses were totally full. 

Last but not least…New Orleans. I visited this city on a road trip in 2018 and had so many good memories. We walked all over town and ate a lot of good food. Beignets, fried chicken, etoufee, jambalaya, gumbo, po boys, and my favourite of all of them a crawfish boil. It was also great hearing all the live music around town especially the big brass ensembles performing in the street. i could sit and listen to them all day.