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	<title>Gator Road Trip - AJ&amp;#039;s Blog</title>
	<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php" />
	<modified>2026-06-15T19:20:51Z</modified>
	<author>
		<name>AJ</name>
	</author>
	<copyright>Copyright 2026, AJ</copyright>
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	<entry>
		<title>Boo... the trip is over</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070503-095651" />
		<content type="text/html" mode="escaped"><![CDATA[Well, we and our immediate families have known for a bit, but our trip was cut short unexpectedly. We had a ton of fun and saw things that some people might never see. I hope that everyone gets to experience everything that we did. If you can, let this website and our experiences help you out. There are so many things in our amazing country! We are truly blessed to live in one of the most beautiful nations in the world. Thank you all for tuning in and sharing this trip with us. I will miss it...]]></content>
		<id>http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070503-095651</id>
		<issued>2007-05-03T16:56:51Z</issued>
		<modified>2007-05-03T16:56:51Z</modified>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>boo, no blogging!</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070411-114942" />
		<content type="text/html" mode="escaped"><![CDATA[:-p  we are so busy!!! i never get a chance to sit at the computer and blog. sorry guys. if i do get a moment at the computer, i have to do my taxes or check on my visa or something... but its all good. :-)<br />we are having a lot of fun here in california. sherer met us in LA and Collin flew out to san fran for the weekend. so we had a full RV! we had a blast and it was really great to see some other faces! we are going to redwood today! im excited to drive my car through a hollowed out tree. there is so much that we have done since i blogged last. i cant even begin right now, but hopefully i will have a free moment where i can catch everyone up. we have just been realllllllyyy busy. ]]></content>
		<id>http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070411-114942</id>
		<issued>2007-04-11T18:49:42Z</issued>
		<modified>2007-04-11T18:49:42Z</modified>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>no blog since vegas</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070328-213739" />
		<content type="text/html" mode="escaped"><![CDATA[vegas was really fun. we are in san diego now and i have pretty much almost forgotten about vegas and the stuff in between here and there... we had a lot of fun in vegas... saw just about everything, ate really good food for cheap, and went to a magic show. we saw rick thomas. he picked me out of the crowd to go on stage and be a volunteer... pretty sweet. we did a lot. we left vegas and went to a small town called bullhead city on the border of nevada and arizona. they had a pretty nice campground. we went across the beautiful co. river to go into nevada to watch the game in a casino. we also went to the grand canyon. i think its a little over-rated. maybe we are just getting really spoiled on this trip. dont get me wrong the grand canyon was really amazing, but it wasnt as great as i was expecting. we went and only stayed for about and hour and a half. chris lewis got sick shortly after this. so i drove the RV from bullhead to about 60 miles east of LA (about 230 miles) this was the first time anyone has driven the RV other than him. it wasnt that bad driving it. we didnt leave until late too, so i drove from 6pm to 1am. we had to stop a few times and pull over because chris needed to get out. driving the tank wasnt bad at all really... chris talks it up to be really exhausting and such, so i was expecting it to be more difficult, but it wasnt that hard to drive. we lef the RV east of LA at a campground, and drove to san diego, we are staying with some of julia&#039;s family... awesome people! thanks so much. we went to tijuana today and the beach and all the touristy stuff. we are getting up early and driving up the PCH to LA. we will probably make a few stops at beaches and such. well... i will hopefully have a little bit more time to blog in the future.]]></content>
		<id>http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070328-213739</id>
		<issued>2007-03-29T04:37:39Z</issued>
		<modified>2007-03-29T04:37:39Z</modified>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Vegas!</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070319-102802" />
		<content type="text/html" mode="escaped"><![CDATA[so we left Utah... and we are in VEGAS! i love it here. everyone thinks new york is the city that never sleeps... dont know why... vegas is definitely jumping all night long. we were out last night (sunday night) and it was crazy all night long. everything is amazing here on the strip. all the buildings are beautiful and big. the lights are awesome. we have seen so much here and we havent even started yet. but we have a lot of time here. we got an awesome deal at the stratosphere! 33 dollars a night! what???!!! we found a deal online, couldnt book it, so julia called the hotel to see if they would honor the 45 dollar rate... the guys said no, but he had something cheaper! haha, so we are staying all 4 nights in the hotel. the RV is parked in a secured parking area. we were all very happy with 33 dollars a night. we are going to ride all of the rides that are at the top of the stratosphere... theres 3 i think. but i am very excited about that. they have cheap food here too... all the time. i love it here! :-p well... needless to say, we will probably be nonexistent as far as blogs and phones go. hanlon and i want to stay up for 72 hours.... but i dont know if we really will. haha. ok gotta run. bye]]></content>
		<id>http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070319-102802</id>
		<issued>2007-03-19T17:28:02Z</issued>
		<modified>2007-03-19T17:28:02Z</modified>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Utah!</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070316-213808" />
		<content type="text/html" mode="escaped"><![CDATA[Well... Utah is surprisingly nice, but before that... When we left Denver, we headed to Utah. We wanted to go to Arches National Park. after being on the road for 2 or 3 hours after denver, we stopped to get gas. when we got out of the RV, the straps that hold the car on the trailer were pretty much hanging off of the wheels. the roads were so steep and rough, that it forced the straps off. pretty crazy. :-p my car very well could have been laying on the side of the road. but all is well, that ends well. after we saw that, we decided that we should drive the car behind the RV. so, hanlon and I drove through CO and Utah in the car too. we stopped in Vail. We really liked it. we were only there for 45 mins and pretty much decided that we would definitely be back at some point. after leaving, we headed into Utah.   none of us expected Utah to be a very fun place. There are some awesome parks and places here. Arches was amazing. we hiked a ton of trails and saw some pretty amazing things. we climbed some fun rocks and of course, had a ton of fun there. they had red sand inbetween this one sectino of 300 ft. high rocks. it was just liek siesta key sand. then we left for a town called richfield. we decided, that for the price of driving the rv to salt lake city, that we could easily drive the car, arrive there hours sooner, and stay in a hotel! we got a great deal on a hotel in the city... they had temperpedic beds! going from my cardboard like mattress above the drivers seat to a very comfy bed was very nice. :-) we saw a ton in salt lake city... we went to temple square, and learned a ton about the mormon religion (read julia&#039;s blog for more about that... lol). we werent allowed into the temple because we werent mormon, but we still got to tour a lot of the buildings, and learn a lot about them. it was a little boring! :-p we went out, ate at a great mexican joint called cafe rio - it was awesome! such great food. we saw olympic park, and U of U as well. one night i drove chris and julia to the gateway so they could have a date night. hanlon and i thought that we would go out and have a night on the town... haha! we found a place online that said that the &quot;port&#039;o&#039;call&quot; club was the hottest place in salt lake city to meet young people. we drove by to scout it out... it was about the complete opposite of the best... there were old people in the club! so we decided to head up toward campus and see if we could go out with some college kids. nope... nothing there either. so we gave up. :-p we went by the great salt lake the next day to check it out. nothing good about it at all. the sand was gross and the water was weird. there were dead seagulls all over their &quot;beach&quot;. maybe we are just spoiled in FL, but man... not good. it was nice that their were mountains all around the lake. it was pretty from far away. we left salt lake and headed south to zion national park! we stayed in a nice rv park... hot tub and all!:-) Zion natl park is amazing! it is by far the most beautiful area i have seen so far. massive rocks and mountains surround amazing grass filled valleys. streams, brooks, and rivers flow every where. god really gave utah something special there. we hiked several trails again - weeping rock, the narrows, and the emerald pools. they were all awesome. we hiked up a mountain for the emerald pools. there were 3 different bodies of water that we saw. the highest was the coolest, it was almost a 2 mile hike. the water was clear, and the bottom was green (emerald) and cold! we climbed rocks around it and convinced hanlon to jump in from a rock. didnt take too much convincing, he likes to be crazy. i dont think he was expecting it to be so cold... the video is pretty funny. we met rulan gardner&#039;s cousin (a famous gold medalist wrestler... Lee (sp). he was really cool. he told us so many things to see around california and wyoming. that pretty much catches us up. tomorrow we are going to bryce canyon... i am very jealous of anyone who will be in savannah for st patty&#039;s day!:-p but we will be having fun in the middle of nowhere, hopefully it will be just as amazing as zion. we all were pleasantly shocked by utah. goodnight! and thank you all who read our blogs and check our site... we really appreciate it.]]></content>
		<id>http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070316-213808</id>
		<issued>2007-03-17T04:38:08Z</issued>
		<modified>2007-03-17T04:38:08Z</modified>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>COLORADO!</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070311-092201" />
		<content type="text/html" mode="escaped"><![CDATA[I really really like CO.  what a beautiful state! Colorado Springs was a cool little town in the mountains. awesome place. pikes peak sat in the background of this little town. we went to the garden of the gods there. amazing park. these orange/red rocks just stick out of the ground like they fell from the sky. the balanced rock is there too. we ate at michelles... a famous ice cream/ chocolate place downtown. i had a piece of cheesecake dipped in chocolate. it was amazing! we toured co. springs for a day, before we wanted to hike pike&#039;s peak. we parked in a walmart parking lot again. taking showers was an experience. we drove all around town to find a laundromat at midnight. finally found one. i fell asleep on the folding table. haha. we had sooooo much laundry. it was ridiculous. the next day we woke up late of course, and had to pack our bags for the 2 day hike. we packed and packed and bought stuff from walmart for the day. finally we left. pikes peak was really cool. we were hiking the trail, about an hour into it (during a 4 mile vertical climb) my head started to hurt and i felt a lot of pressure in my ears and head. hanlon had been talking about altitude sickness all week. so i decided not to risk it and head back down. :-( now the other day at white sands, during sledding, i killed my tailbone! on the way down from the trail, my tailbone was killing me. man, the best alone time ever! i went back to the RV. i got so much done! and when you are cramped into a giant moving tin can with 3 other people for over a month... every ounce of alone time is incredibly valuable. we love each other, but you know how it is... so the next day, they called me when they were coming down, i made them dinner (i knew they would want some hot food) and brought them some hot food when i picked them up. :-)  they were all very excited to see food. and they were dead! i was refreshed and recharged, and they could barely walk.... haha. the next day, we took the hour drive to denver! what a great town. the rockies are awesome. we went out in denver the first night. we tried to go to a nuggets game (allen iverson plays for them). but we couldnt get tickets. i handed my ID to the guy at will call and told him 4 tickets for alan iverson please... he laughed, looked at my ID, and then started looking for the tickets. haha. :-p i told him i was joking, we didnt have tickets, but it was pretty funny and would have been really cool if we could have gotten floor tickets from the basketball player allen iverson. before trying to get tickets, we went to a sports bar/grill (the #1 in denver apparently) and happened to be in the same bar as the Denver Gator Club. there were a ton of alums and people from gainesville. it was awesome to walk into a sea of orange and blue for a game when we are 2000 miles away. we had a blast with the denver gator club. of course we won the game. after finding out we couldnt go to the nuggets game, we walked around denver for a while. its a really cool place to go out. they have some good night life. we went to a bookstore at 11 on a friday night (definitely a first for me) :-p we walked around some more and went to starbucks and had a good time. saturday, we got up, chris, hanlon, and i went back to the bar to watch the next game with the gator club. we won again! julia stayed at the RV and did a lot of her stuff. after the game we went to the coors brewery. it was really cool. they took us through the factory and saw the inner workings, it was pretty cool. then we headed home, because it was late and raining. colorado needs to learn how to put reflectors on roads, because in the dark and rain, i could barely see where to drive. silly CO. so we are in denver now, we are going to watch the game, and then head towards arches national park (they filmed indiana jones there) and then to salt lake city. ]]></content>
		<id>http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070311-092201</id>
		<issued>2007-03-11T16:22:01Z</issued>
		<modified>2007-03-11T16:22:01Z</modified>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>no time to blog...</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070310-102448" />
		<content type="text/html" mode="escaped"><![CDATA[well, needless to say, we have no time to blog lately. we have been sooooo busy. when i last blogged i think we were in New Mexico... Now, we are in Denver! I LOVE Colorado! Ok... before we got into CO, we went to Alb. NM. We had a lot of fun there. I drove the car over 450 miles around Alb. Who would have thunk it. The first day, we went to this amazing ice cave and lava tube place! we walked through a tunnel that was carved out by lava. then we hiked to the top of the bandera volcano, up to the rim and saw were the lava flowed long ago. then we went the opposite way and went hundreds of feet below surface where there was an ice cave. the ice in the cave was over 28 feet deep and has been there for years! Earlier in the century, the site was owned by a family and loggers were very prevalent. There was a saloon were ladies used to come in 40 miles from the city to spend the weekends at the saloon with all the loggers. They used to chip ice from the ice cave to use in the beer and drinks at the tavern. Later that day, we went to the oldest live-in pueblo in the US. These indians still live on top of a plateau in the same type of houses and still live like they used to. pretty crazy. The next day, we went to santa fe. We went to church in santa fe. had a very hard time finding it. then after church to tour santa fe, we drove way around the city just to find out the church was in down town santa fe. we went to old town, where 100 years ago, travelers and townspeople herded cattle down some of the same exact streets. santa fe was midly disappointing. Then we went to jemez springs, a small town in the middle of the jemez mountains. we tried to do a hot spring, but the roads were out. we had some weird green chili. we also, went to this really cool dam called soda damn. it was this giant rock formation in the middle of a river. par tof the river ran through it. there was this weird cave with a water pool in it, in the dam, the water was hot. it was probably 40 degrees that day. it was really cool. The next morning, we hopped in the car at 6am, and headed to the outskirts of alb. we wathced these guys blow up a balloon and we hopped in the basket. we took a hot air balloon ride over alb. We went over the rio grande, saw tons of animals and wildlife, and mountains. it was really cool. Hot air balloon rides are very mild if anyone wants to try it. Even the landing was really easy. Well, we have to go check out some more of denver. i will catch up on CO. later. ]]></content>
		<id>http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070310-102448</id>
		<issued>2007-03-10T18:24:48Z</issued>
		<modified>2007-03-10T18:24:48Z</modified>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>finally, a new blog...</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070302-164728" />
		<content type="text/html" mode="escaped"><![CDATA[Its been a while since we all had any time to blog. Carlsbad Caverns was amazing. It was amazing how big these caves were. Miles and miles of rock formations sat 900 ft below the surface. We had a lot of fun there. :-) We did a self guided tour around the main room the first day. It was like 2 miles of walking I think. It was unbelievable how different everything was down there, and how powerful water is. We opted to not get the audio guide because we didnt think it was worth it. Chris really wanted to get one though. But we have a very tight budget to stick to! So ten minutes into the cave, I was talking to this older couple and the lady was tired of carrying her audio guide, so she asked if I would like to use it. Of course I said yes. Chris and Julia were up about 50 ft or so, all of a sudden, I get trampled and knocked over by them, I have never seen anyone move faster. Ive also never seen anyone so excited about a talking piece of plastic. So without even a question, my audio guide was stolen and I barely saw it again... But its ok, i didnt really want it that much anyway. haha. i just blogged that cause I really want to remember that when i am 50. I am just glad i wasnt standing next to the bottomless pit when it happened because I probably would have been knocked right into it. anyway... if you get the chance to go, definitely do it. I cant even begin to describe the beauty and awesomeness. After the caves, we went home, chris bbq&#039;d some chicken and julia cooked some baked beans and mac&#039;n&#039;cheese. we sat down to eat, after being so excited and everything smelling so good, our chicken was still raw! so we ate some sides and put the chicken back on the grill. it was a good dinner though. then we all cleaned for a very long time! we had to do dishes in a cooler outside in freezing temperatures. burrr... i just got cold thinking about that. my hands were numb... thank you mom G for the handwarmers!!! the next day we wanted to hike the natural entrance of the cave, instead of taking the elevator. that happens at 2pm. so we went to the living desert and zoo!!!! they had some really cool animals. Javelenas (desert pigs), bison, and cats, were just some of the cool animals. They had this one exhibit with 3 different types of rattlesnakes in it. I HATE HATE HATE snakes! We walked to the glass and heard rattling like crazy. but we couldnt see any rattles going. so we thought it was a sound effect. well, we finally saw one of the rattles going under this one that was curled up. everytime we would walk by, it was rattle. it was pretty scary. haha. we left the mountain top where the desert and zoo was, and headed back towards the cavern. we missed the tour by 15 minutes! we were all very upset, but they let us walk to the entrance, just not into the cave. so atleast we got to see the entrance where 100 years ago, some crazy cowboy decided to go splunking in the caves, where the entrance was a good football field rocky climb down, covered in cacti! and the funny thing is, no one believed him about the caves being so large an amazing. so he had that whole natural wonder to himself for years... I would be scared down there with only a lantern though. after that, we decided to take the 10 mile driving tour down a rock and pebble road up into the mountains. I am really glad we did. we found a trail and went into an actual canyon. and then hikes up a mountain. it was really beautiful. we were all really glad we went on the driving tour. my poor car... climbing mountains and shooting rocks up everywhere! thank you pontiac for building a great car! haha. then we headed back to camp. we stopped by albertsons to pick up some milk, because they had gallons of milk for 2 dollars! amazing! so we picked up some milk and garlic bread for dinner. i cooked spaghetti that night. one of those nights ( i think the 2nd night we stayed in carlsbad) the wind gusts were insane. the weatherman said the reached 50 mph. i couldnt sleep for about an hour and a half, because in my cubby, it was shaking really bad, so i went to the back to get chris and we put the slide in to help balance us. we picked hanlon and his bed up and moved him, because apparently he can sleep through anything! it helped alot to put the slide in, but we still did not sleep well at all (except hanlon). oh yeah! on the way into carlsbad, we had to get a new tire... boo. :-| but thank God, we found a great hometown tire place that worked on RVs. They thought it would only take a new valve stem and the tire would be fine, but that was not the case. he inflated the tire again and it was warped. so we went inside to get a price for the new one. after looking in the book that the guy was looking at, i saw the price! 350 dollars. i was preparing myself for that! then the guy typed some stuff into the computer, and gave us a price of 175 including tax and installation!!! we were all very surprised and happy (free would have been better, but hey...) forest tires in carlsbad - awesome place! when we left carlsbad, we went through roswell. we were all so thankful that we decided not to stay in roswell. there was literally one thing cool about roswell. the light poles looked like alien heads... (look at the pics when they come up). but that was it. even the UFO museum was bad. we left shortly after arriving to head through new mexico on our way to white sands national park. we stopped at this really cool town up in a mountain range. we saw billy the kid stuff and the western museum. very cool place. then we arrived at the campground we are currently at. so I guess we are caught up! ... I saved this into a word document before we left, so now i can write about today as well... white sands national monument was AMAZING! first of all, driving there, you drive by a huge air force base. there were f16s  and stealth bombers flying all over us! it looked as if one was going to hit us as we were driving. apparently on certain days, they close the roads there when they do missile and bomb tests. there were signs saying road closed when flashing due to missile range. haha. pretty crazy. :-p the white sands were insane! it was pure white sand. not the messy kind. in the middle of the desert and in between mountains! loco! we took a sled, and went sledding (and rolling) down the dunes. it was really fun. we have some great videos from the park. after an oil change, we are now driving to alb. it should be fun there too.]]></content>
		<id>http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070302-164728</id>
		<issued>2007-03-03T00:47:28Z</issued>
		<modified>2007-03-03T00:47:28Z</modified>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Texas!</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070224-122519" />
		<content type="text/html" mode="escaped"><![CDATA[Evertyhing really is bigger in texas... from the cities to the traffic. it took me over 30 mins to get to a walmart that was 3 miles from here today. not fun. they have this weird road that runs along both sides of the interstate here. you have to exit onto it and you have to be on it to enter the interstate. i dont really like it.  :-p . we are in austin now, staying with sean, lacie, and parker (julia&#039;s fam). Yesterday we met the gill&#039;s at the airport and went to san antonio. it was a really awesome city. they have this river/canal that runs through the entire city. you can walk along it or boat it. its really pretty and touristy. we ate at a restaurant along side of it, and there was a marriachi (sp) band and such. pretty cool. parker was really funny. we would give him chips to through in the river to feed the ducks, he would until he realized that he could eat them just as well... haha.  :-p  we also saw the alamo yesterday. it is way smaller than i expected. i touched the wall... haha. not seeing the sign right infront of me asking me not to and a security guy asked me not to as well. oops. but it was really fun. there was a rifel from davey crockett and such. a lot of history there (obviously). jessica and i took rocks from the alamo!  :-)  we are staying in a house for the next few days, so its really nice to be back in one. today is parkers birthday party so we are gonna have a little celebration and then tour austin i believe.]]></content>
		<id>http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070224-122519</id>
		<issued>2007-02-24T20:25:19Z</issued>
		<modified>2007-02-24T20:25:19Z</modified>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>quickly...</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070223-000657" />
		<content type="text/html" mode="escaped"><![CDATA[hi, i only have time for a short blog today. i am very tired and it is 2.15 am here. that means 3.15 florida time. we have had an amazing day. we spent all day touring dallas/ft worth. dallas was really pretty. we saw it last night and it was beautiful at night as well. we got to see where jfk was assassinated. i actually drove over the exact spot on the exact road where it happened. the window of the building where oswald was, is still open. kind of weird. but it was really neat to see where that piece of history occured. we also got to see the texas rangers stadium... such a beautiful stadium. cowboy field - that was cool too. we went up the reunion tower to get a bird&#039;s eye view of dallas. my favorite place today was ft worth. it had a hometown feel and it was a big enough city as well. it was very nice too. the roads were brick and everything was really clean. they had a really cool strip of clubs and restaurants that looked like a lot of fun as well. the stockyards of ft worth was my favorite thing today. it is just like it was 100 years ago. the old buildings and streets. really an awesome place. horses roam around and huge long-horned bulls are to be seen everywhere. we ate at my favorite restaurant so far - H3 Grill. Everything was old western cowboy themed and the wooden floors squeeked. a huge fire pit was seen behind a counter where they cooked our food. just a really awesome place. and smelt amazing. my food was so good. we had a really great time in the stockyards... look for pics, you will love it. time for bed here, we are meeting the gill&#039;s at the airport in austin at 10am! we are all very excited. goodnight.]]></content>
		<id>http://gatorroadtrip.com/aj/index.php?entry=entry070223-000657</id>
		<issued>2007-02-23T08:06:57Z</issued>
		<modified>2007-02-23T08:06:57Z</modified>
	</entry>
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