If Bismarck North Dakota is not on your list of places to visit, you need to add it. This city has small town charm, but still offers many options to entertain the family. We found so much to do, if only we had more time to spend here. Read my ten reasons to visit Bismarck with your family.
Our travels through Tennessee led us to an unexpected location. A small town with lots of charm. Lynchburg, Tennessee might be known for it’s Jack Daniel’s distillery, but there is so much more to experience in this quaint small town.
Often when traveling we find that places are not always what we expect them to be. In our minds we have a picture or idea of how a place will look, but once we arrive we find that it is very different from our original sentiment. Upstate New York is a perfect example of this. While I knew that this part of the state was going to be rural, it was still very different from what I had pictured.
We finally made it to Maine! Our trav
els have been taking us up the East coast since spring and we have reached the northeastern most state at last. The New England states are beautiful and having this opportunity to see them is amazing. The people in the state have been so friendly. Our neighbors were so generous, they gave us a large amount of firewood and offered us free use of their kayaks. We were not able to take advantage of the kayaks due to my wrist still being injured, but the free wood sure kept us warm. Our first stay in Maine was near Augusta because of course we had to go tour the capitol building. We found a nice place to stay right on a lake. The Augusta West Kampground had a small beach where the kids loved catching some craw-fish. They also enjoyed participating in the Saturday night sing along! Maine is a wonderful place to enjoy the outdoors.
Some of the main concerns when visiting a large city are traffic and parking. Houston definitely has it’s share of both. We decided to stay in an RV park on the east side of the city in a small town called Anahuac. It was a decent place, but most of the sites were rented on a monthly basis and we typically only stay in a place three or four days on average. It was a little farther from the city than we had anticipated, but things usually tend to work out as they should and we were comfortable there for a few days.
The choices for camping near Madison are not abundant and mainly in county parks. We chose one close to the capitol building knowing this was to be one of our destinations. Unfortunately, it was on a very busy, noisy road with only a chain-link fence between us and the road. Other than the noise (which basically lasted all night) it was fine, although the showers were not clean and to be avoided. Fortunately, it was close to town and a laundry mat, which we were desperately in need of. The roads in Wisconsin are pretty rough, I guess due to the cold weather, so it was a pretty bumpy ride especially with the trailer hitched up.
I would also warn people to beware of the parking situation in this city, because (at least so far) it was probably the worst city parking ever. There was no free public parking near the capital building. Also the parking garages require you to pay up front, meaning you have to guess how long you will be there and hope whatever you are doing doesn’t take longer than you expected. It was just so unlike any other parking garage I have ever parked in. I am sure this will not be the strangest thing that occurs in our travels.
