***Jade Diaries*** | **First road trip on the renovated skoo..

***Jade Diaries*** | **First road trip on the renovated skoolie bus to Tallulah Falls, GA!** 🚌 I'd say our first trip was a success :) We did experience a few minor bumps during the trip, but that's what makes it memorable, right? 😆 We left bright and early at 5am, while losing an extra hour of sleep due to the time change (whoo! 😴) We also had a pretty bad storm the day before leaving, which brought in a cold front (it was in the 30s F). An hour into the road trip, we realized the heater on the bus wasn't working. We thought it would take some time, but it wasn't warming up at all and us Floridians were freezing lol. We ended up stopping at a rest area to try to kick on the generator to at least get our mini space heaters running...except our generator was having issues getting started up haha. Fast forward to a half hour later, they found a valve under the hood that ended up fixing the heater - yay! 😃 Some initial thoughts on the ride....the bus is incredibly bumpy, especially when riding in the very back of the bus. The roads in GA weren't the smoothest, either lol. Either way, we made it there safely - no breakdowns or other issues, which is what matters in the end :) The campsite was nice 😎 Wasn't as secluded as I was expecting. The other camping lots were pretty close to each other, which ended up being fine because we had a really friendly neighbor that offered us some free wine and honey sticks 😋. She was super sweet. There were a lot of RVs, pitched up tents, and a travel van - but we were the only school bus. We definitely got a lot of stares while pulling into the park haha. The trails were beautiful and the weather was perfect for hiking! To get to the gorge, we had to climb down soooo many stairs. Going down was a breeze, but going back up....ooof! Lol my calves were dying the next day 🥴. Unfortunately they had the gorge closed while we were there due to the cold weather. It would have been cool to hike through the water and around the rocks, but the views were pretty regardless. After our hike, we walked to the local general store. It was a cute, shabby antique looking place with lots of local homemade gifts inside. You can't see it from the photo, but there was an extended front porch where they had rocking chairs for guests. We ended up sitting in the chairs in the sun, admiring the natural sounds of nature while eating an ice cream cone. Yes, of course I bought an ice cream lol. Oh, I should mention another bump we experienced during our trip. So we brought a portable induction cooktop where we planned to do most of our cooking. Turns out the pot and pan we brought weren’t compatible with it - they wouldn't heat up at all. So we had to do all of our cooking over the fire and the little grill they had at the campsite - which wouldn't have been that big of a deal if they sold firewood that ACTUALLY burned! 🙃 lol. We thought we had a bad batch of wood, but our neighbors were having trouble keeping their fires going too. The wood probably wasn't dried out enough. So we ended up gathering sticks from the ground around the campsite, and would bring some back from our hikes to burn and guess what - it made a better fire than the actual firewood haha. It was challenging to keep the fire going because we had to constantly keep adding more sticks and blow on it. Even though it was annoying at times, I can honestly say it made eating our food way more rewarding 😊. By the way, we nicknamed the firewood "roach wood" - the wood that never burns/dies 😂 The last few photos are of the local tea/coffee house that we stopped by before heading back on the road. If you know me well, you know that I have a soft spot for cafés, and omg...this had to be the cutest little café I had ever been to! It was so warm, cozy and inviting ☕️. They had jazz music playing. The whole place was decorated with antiques and unique little decorations. I wish I had taken more photos, but it was difficult not to get other people in the shot. You can probably just google 'Tallulah 1882' and find more photos. I ended up ordering a tea called Mountain Mist - earl grey with vanilla and peppermint and steamed milk. It was so delicious and perfect for the cold, rainy weather that we had on the way home. If you're still reading this, I hope you enjoyed my "little" summary and photos from the trip 🥰 I can't wait to share more of my adventures with you in the future. I'll be sharing a vlog soon with short clips from the trip, so stay tuned!