Last night I fell asleep to the sound of gunfire and dogs barking. The gunfire was a distance away so didn’t bother me so much, the dogs barking were next door.

There’s some good news and some bad news today. We’ll start with the bad news.

The compressor on the vans air conditioner has broken and they can’t find a replacement part. And even if we manage to find a replacement, it’s going to cost at least $500 in labour to fix.

The good news is, they didn’t charge us to tell us this. Also, we’ve not seen any more scorpions.

I am slowly trawling through all my footage trying to make it into videos. Mike is slowly making progress on the van. He’s putting some curtains up and fixed all the doors that keep swinging open while we are driving. Kevin fell over in the heat and his nose fell off, so Mike has fixed that. You’ll meet Kevin soon in our videos.

We still need to mount some solar panels, and also cover our toilet with something as it’s creepy preparing food so close to the loo, especially since it started smelling. I really want to put a composting toilet in, but they are ridiculously expensive. So we went to Home Depot, the US equivalent to Bunnings, and bought the bits and pieces we need to make a table over the loo. I also bought some spider and scorpion spray and tomorrow we will give our van a really good spray while we’re not living in it.

Everyone down South calls me Ma’am and I really don’t like it. At first I hated it so much I almost asked someone to stop calling me that. But I’m getting used to it now, and have downgraded from hating it to not liking it. But, it’s how they do things down south. Mike gets called Sir. I think he quite likes it.

The cleaner comes tomorrow morning, so tonight will be spent cleaning the house before the cleaner gets here.

The alarm goes off at 6am, and we take Tootsie for a walk, just a slow amble around the block. We are usually accompanied by other dogs. A little terrier, almost always comes with us. She’s a little character and struts along like she owns the place, so confident for something so small. She likes to wind up the other dogs in the neighbourhood who are stuck behind their fences. Another dog which often comes along is a husky, but we haven’t seen him for a few days.

It’s an interesting neighbourhood. It’s in Camp Swift which was an army base during WW2. The people living here are mostly Mexicans, and Jane refers to herself as the “old white lady.” Most of the houses have an eclectic mix of knick-knacks adorning their front porches, and a jumble of cars out the front. Chickens and roosters run free, clucking and crowing, and every house has a few dogs.

There is a “NO TRESPASSING” sign on each house. I asked Jane why they have a need to say that, I mean, in NZ we know not to trespass. But apparently the police won’t do anything about intruders in your back yard if you don’t display this sign. So that kinda makes sense.

As we walk around the block, a stark building surrounded by a barbed wire fence is on our right. We both assumed it was an army base, but it’s not… It’s a prison!

We walk alongside it, a security car patrolling up and down. All is quiet in the prison at 6am, but later in the day we can see the prisoners out playing sports. Sometimes baseball, or tennis. Jane refers to it as a prison resort.

After our walk, we have our breakfast. This morning we had to drop our van off in town to get the air-conditioning fixed. I took Janes car and it was my first time driving in America. It was ok, just weird making sure I was sat in the right place on the road. I found I tended to keep to the edge too much, but used my mirrors to centre myself.

After dropping the van off, we took a stroll along the river, which was very nice. Lots of other people making the most of the cool morning to get their exercise in.

Bastrop is a quaint little town, and we’ll do a vlog on it at some point. We saw an orange jeep in the Main Street with a kiwi on it, and Aotearoa written on the side. It’s nice to know we’re not the only kiwis here.

Today we saw a racoon. Thankfully it didn’t come too close to the house, but the cats decided to check it out. You don’t want to get too close to one, as they carry rabies.

To think I was scared of ticks, when a freaking scorpion just scurried across the kitchen floor. Thankfully Mike noticed it, put a glass over it, then slid some cardboard underneath and took it outside. I told him to kill it, but he didn’t want to. Hope it doesn’t come back in.

But now I’m worried. Are his family here somewhere? Are they going to crawl into bed with me? Holy crap, I knew Texas had scary things but I didn’t expect them in the house!

So, as well as ticks, we need to beware of scorpions, loose dogs, gun wielding people, snakes, it’s terrifying! As well as that, I’m covered in mozzie bites and they just don’t stop itching!

On the positive side, Mike has fixed the windscreen wipers and is in the process of fixing the rear vision mirror. We are still waiting to get the airconditioning fixed, hopefully tomorrow.

The waste tank in our van was starting to smell really bad, so we managed to find somewhere to dump it. It’s not like NZ where dump stations are free. But we found a campground and It was only $5 to dump. It still smells though, so we might have to get some de-odouriser for it.

The dog has a bladder infection, so Is on antibiotics. The only way she will take her pills is smashed up in some cat food. I’m actually hoping the scorpion came in on the dog and it’s a once-off thing. The thought of an infestation terrifies me.

The weather has cooled down to 30 degrees which has been quite nice, but it’s going up to 40 degrees on Thursday for a few days. Hope we get our airconditioner fixed before then!

Today we bought some bikes! We found a couple of cheapish bikes we liked and bought a bike rack for the van, and are looking forward to doing some cycling. Except there are a lot of loose dogs around this area, so we might need to drive somewhere to use them.

The vans air-conditioning packed up today. I think it’s quite common in the hot weather, but a pain for sure. Just hope it can be fixed and doesn’t cost too much.

Jane treated us to dinner. We went to a BBQ place and it was so delicious. The smoked brisket was something I have never had and it was soooo good. They smoke it for around 12 hours and it just melted in my mouth, and oh so tasty. I also had lamb ribs which were also delicious, and sides of potato salad and Mac n cheese. Mike had the pork ribs, but they weren’t like the ribs we’d get at home. The pork was smoked and tasted more like a ham. I didn’t like it.

Jane leaves to go to France on Sunday, so we are driving her to Austin airport. We might have a look around Austin while we are there.

We arrived at our housesit and met Jane, our housesit host. We’re staying in a 2 bedroom house that’s been recently renovated, and the most important thing is, it has air-conditioning. We are on 1 acre of property so quite private, although there are other houses around.

We are looking after a 15 year old Rottweiler called Tootsie, and two cats which are still scared of us. Our job is to walk Tootsie at 6am in the morning, and basically just feed the animals.

Jane said one thing to be aware of, is that in Texas, most people carry guns. So every now and then we might hear gunshot around the place, but it’s usually people in their backyards just firing their guns. Still, a scary thought.

Jane doesn’t go away until Sunday, but has let us camp here and to get used to the animals before she goes.

Mike is working on our van, with a list of things to fix, while I am trawling through all my footage and trying to make videos out of it.

After a long days driving, we finally made it to Bastrop, Texas. We pulled into the state park, about 7 miles from our housesit. The camp office was closed, so we chose a spot with full hookup (water, power and sewer) This place is really good value for $35 per night.

It is fricking hot in Texas, so we cranked up the air-conditioner.

The next day we both woke up feeling really crappy, but we dragged ourselves out of bed at 7am and went for a walk, the plan to avoid walking in the heat. But it was too late, by 7.30am it was already stinking hot.

We did a short 30 minute walk from the camp and lots of spiderwebs crossed our path. We also saw some poos on the side of the path which we thought might be bear, but it was more likely bobcat. We got back to the van and Mike tried to unlock the doors using the central locking, but they didn’t unlock.

“Shit,” he said. “I think we got a flat battery.”

Turns out the previous evening after the long drive, Mike forgot to flick the switch to disconnect the battery. I should have double checked him.

We thought, no big deal, we’re in a campground, lots of people about to jump start us. But after negotiating with Paul, he advised against jumpstarting a completely flat battery. (sparks and explosions were mentioned). Instead, he suggested swapping our house battery with the engine battery. Then we could charge the engine battery off the converter/charger that charges the house battery.

Mike put the house battery into the engine, and the car started. Yippee! But there was another problem. The converter/charger connectors did not fit on the engine battery. But no problem, a short trip to auto zone to buy more parts fixed this.

The rest of the day I spent sheltering inside the van with airconditioning going, and catching up on some editing. It was a nice rest day.

Tomorrow we meet our housesit host and camp out at her place for a few days until she leaves for Europe.

Having arrived at the carpark late the previous evening, we had no idea what was in the area. As we left and continued our drive up the coast, the beaches were stunning white sand. And at 10am, nobody was about. Had we known It was so beautiful we would have left earlier and had breakfast at the beach instead of a crappy carpark.

If we took the interstates (motorways) to Texas, we could be there in 8 hours. Mike prefers to drive off the motorways so our travel time Is just over 10 hours, but in places it’s way more picturesque.

We were cruising along nicely, when we saw a road closed sign ahead. Mike wanted to ignore it, god knows why, but I made him turn around. Next thing we know, we’re Google is navigating us to a Space station. We drove up to the barriers and the guard carrying a gun told us we couldn’t go that way. I worried he might pull his gun and tell us we had five seconds to get outta town.

But he didn’t. We told him we were lost and he was very helpful. He explained there was no way we could avoid the interstate for this section. So for the first time on this trip, we drove on the interstate.

Things move much faster on the interstate, lots of trucks, people tailgating each other. We much prefer the slower pace. So we drove on it for about 30 minutes, then exited onto the minor roads again.

We basically drove all day. There would have been plenty to see, but we bypassed New Orleans and all the tourist places. It’s stinking hot here and humid as hell, and there are just so many people out and about for the long weekend. So we’re sticking to our plan to fast-track it, but on the slow roads, to Texas.

We stopped at about 4.30pm at an RV park resort. Sounds flash, but it’s just a bunch of RV’s parked and there is a pool and a casino. But we have water, electricity and sewer right at our camp, so we’re all hooked up.

We fired our rear airconditioner up, and after about 30 mins the van had cooled down nicely and I had an afternoon nap. Then we had corn chips and home made guacamole, followed by a salad wrap for dinner.

We slept in the Crackerbarrel carpark and it was very noisy. Cars doing burnouts, trains honking and people turning up playing loud music. Mike slept through it all.

After a terrible coffee from the crackerbarrel we ready leave around 8.30am, full of confidence the car would start. But it didn’t. Same problem as yesterday.

Mike decided to Hotwire it directly but I thought I’d call Paul to double check this was the right thing to do. I’ve been so used to talking to him this time of day, but this time he wasn’t on the night shift so I woke him up.

But he was so helpful. He said we’d have to disconnect the Hotwire from the battery each time we stopped to avoid draining the battery. Something Mike hadn’t thought about. Then he suggested a switch to disconnect it.

Luckily there was an auto zone (like Repco) across the road. Mike got all the bits he needed and spent an hour wiring it all up. And guess what? It works!

It was a long day of driving today as we left Florida, drove along the coast through Alabama, and arrived in Gulfport in Mississippi at 8pm.

We parked in the far side of the island view casino carpark which is free to sleep in our van. Then we went in the get a parking permit and they gave us a $20 food voucher and $20 slot machine voucher each! So not only are we getting a free place to sleep, we’re getting food and gambling money!

We could have eaten at the diner for our $20 but we chose the flash restaurant in the non smoking side of the casino. We had a huge yummy salad to start. Mike ordered the petite steak and it was huge. He couldn’t even eat it all. I had salmon which was also a big portion I couldn’t eat all of.

Our dinner with our discounts came to $30. But then I won on the slot machines. I had no idea how much I won but I pressed the cash out button and it printed me a slip.

I proudly handed it to the cashier, announcing excitedly how I’d won. As she was processing my money she asked if I wanted security to escort us back to our car. I declined. Then she handed over my $8.75.

So our grand total for accommodation, meals and gambling cost us $20.

We left the casino about 11pm and it’s still really hot outside. They have a free shuttle that would take us to our van but we preferred to walk. It was good seeing security patrolling our area.

Our sleep in the far corner of the carpark wasn’t so good though. It didn’t seem as noisy as the previous night but there were sirens and trains.

Hopefully we’ll find a campground tonight as we need showers and need to top up our water and empty our tank. Everything has been full up due to the long weekend. RV parks have been chockers. But we’re moving away from the coast today so here’s hoping.

This morning I got up at dawn to go Otter Spotting. Mike was still fast asleep, as I ventured out on my own in the early morning light. Firstly, I walked out onto the floating pontoon to see if there were any alligators, but all was calm on the water.

As I walked further around the lake, I heard a growling sound coming from the bushes. I thought that can’t be good, the camp owner had told us there was a black bear in the park. So I headed back to the car where the growling noise got louder and more insistent. 

I looked around, but there was no sign of a bear. I walked closer to the trees, and the noise started again.

I woke Mike up to tell him to come and listen to the bear. But by the time he got up, the noise had stopped. And I still haven’t seen a bear.

I did see an alligator though, but they are becoming as common as squirrels.

We were going to stay another day, but we decided we should get heading towards Texas. We drove down to Florida, and followed the coast along the Gulf of Mexico. We stopped to look at a house made of glass bottles. While we were there, some big bug latched onto me and started gnawing away at my skin. I’ve had so many things biting me over here and I’m already covered in bites. So I hopped back in the van and smothered myself in bug repellent.

Then Mike got in the car and tried to start it, and it wouldn’t start. It turned over like it was going to start, but didn’t fire. We kind of panicked a bit, and rang roadside assistance, They said it would be 1.5 hours before a tow truck arrived. But then, 1 hour later they sent and updated text saying it was now 77 minutes before it would arrive. Then again 30 minutes later it said it would now be 78 minutes as it was coming from Tallahassee.

Anyway, it was Friday afternoon with a long weekend coming up. We did not want to spend 3 days stuck outside a glass bottle house. So we called a local mobile mechanic, he came had a quick look, said he’d get us back on the road today, and he’d be back in an hour. 

Then the tow truck turned up 78 mins early according to the text messages, before I had a chance to cancel it. He insisted he had to tow us to a garage around the corner. I rang the garage to make sure they could look at our car, and they insisted they could. So he towed us to the garage and when we got there they said they couldn’t look at it until Tuesday. Arrrrggghhhh. And the mobile mechanic won’t come and fix our car at someone elses garage.

So we asked the tow truck to take us back to where we’d broken down. That was the shortened version of our mickey mouse day.

Anyway, 3 hours later, the mobile mechanic finally came. He’d been very busy with a lot of breakdowns. He spent two hours diagnosing the problem, and not finding an answer. He swapped a few wires around the place, and eventually wired it up as it was originally and it worked. So it was possibly a faulty connection somewhere along the line. But he apologised he couldn’t fix the root cause, and said he couldn’t guarantee it wouldn’t happen again. But he’s shown Mike how to hotwire it to get it started if need be.

He spent a good two hours in the stifling humidity and only charged us $75. We gave him $100 for his time.

We drove two hours to Panama City and are now parked in a free carpark at Cracker Barrell (A restaurant/gift shop). It’s pretty common to be able to park overnight in Cracker Barrell and Walmart carparks. There are two others camping here tonight.

Still 16 hours drive to Texas.

We don’t know what time it is! The clock keeps changing on us. My phone says one thing, my watch the other. I would trust my phone, but when there is no internet, it doesn’t update. We are both so confused.

Today as we were leaving the campground, I got talking to a local. She told us about another place which was good for spotting alligators, so off we went, alligator spotting.

I got some good photos of this one, which was lurking near the free campground there, apparently hoping to be fed. He started swimming towards us. I think he was attracted to the fuzzy microphone on the GoPro, so I asked Mike to put it in the bag. As soon as he did this, the alligator started swimming away. It’s pretty cool to be able to see them though, in the wild. No need to pay to go to an alligator farm now!

After the alligator spotting, I spotted a big turtle. That made my day as well. 

Then, the rest of the day was spent driving. I was navigating to Lake Talquin State Park in Florida, just west of Tallahassee. But when we got there, there was no visitor centre or camping. I double check where I had navigated to and realised my mistake. I had navigated to the Talquin state park instead of the Talquin state forest. Geez, I assumed they’d be the same thing. It was a 30 minute backtrack to the camping, which I didn’t want to do. 

So we continued on towards the coast. Mike find a free camp down a rutted dirt track, but I didn’t like the look of it, surrounded by trees, and nobody else about. 

It had gone 7pm by this time and the sun goes dow a lot earlier in Florida. About 30 minutes later we stumbled upon a really nice campground overlooking a lake. It’s absolutely beautiful, and only $20 a night. We may stay here a few days as it’s a long weekend here, and everything along the coast will likely be booked out.

Even though there are alligators here, people are still swimming. A family were just here and they were trying to talk their daughter into going in the water, but she was scared of alligators. Can’t blame her. We might try our inflatable kayak out tomorrow.