The Nomadic Butler Clan

Blog Post #13 - Written May 31, 2025 Stay: May 14-16, 2025 Our next stop along our southern journey to the panhandle of Florida was Birmingham, AL. We stayed at the Cherokee Campground & RV Park in Helena. This campground was interesting in that it offers attractive long-term pricing ($540/mo, which includes electric, water, and sewer! not bad really...) so we met a lot of long term campers here, some of whom have been here for 8 years! 😲  But hey, I get it, it has a private fishing lake the kids had fun splashing in and catching frogs at, a rec room with free books, movies, workout equipment, puzzles, and even some putt-putt golf! Z caught many little frogs here  :)                                            D also loves the frogs haha We tried fishing, but no luck. So the kids splashed their feet in the water instead and got soaking wet without actually jumping ...

Blog Post #12 - Written May 25, 2025 Stay: May 11-13, 2025 5th Stop - Little River Canyon National Preserve (AL) Our adventure down to Sweet Home Alabama begins on Mother's Day in Tennessee. Megan found a church on our way, 1.5 hours into the drive, that began at 10am. So we hustled to be ready to leave by 8am. We figured that since our children wake us up at/before 6am everyday anyway (they wake up with the sun, and the sun wakes up really early on the eastern edge of the Central Time Zone!), we should be able to do it in 2 hours.  Ha. Haha. Hahaha! Such optimistic naiveté. Breaking camp for normal RVers (sans offspring) is an ordeal. With 3 kids, it's a feat of human endurance, patience, careful coordination, and ingenuity. I probably started us off on a slow foot by making a big, elaborate, delicious breakfast, since it was Mother's Day. That took an hour. Then several things delayed us, like having to 'walk' the sewage uphill (pretty crappy start to Megan's ...

Blog Post #11 - Written May 21, 2025 Stay: May 8-10, 2025 4th Stop - Fall Creek Falls State Park (TN) From Mammoth Cave, we continued southward through the hilly, mountainous, windy roads of KY and TN (oftentimes wondering if our trailer would make it or fit, white-knuckling the wheel on many occasions) until we made it to our next destination: a Harvest Host spot run by Kurt and Maria Howland. After digging some big divots in his freshly laid gravel driveway (woops, sorry Kurt!), he helped back me in next to their house. And Z and Q's favorite kind of welcoming committee (of the canine variety) came our to greet us. D has historically loved dogs from afar, but feared them up close. But these two dogs (a German Shepherd named Star, and a little Yorkshire Terrier named Sassy) helped her overcome her fears and she absolutely loved them the whole time we were there. All 3 kids just wanted to play with the dogs the whole time and a weeks or so later when we asked them what their favori...