The Dream Team was in Florida for three weeks this spring tour!  We loved Florida, and we learned many things about the Sunshine State while we drove up and down the entire FL region.  Please read on for the eye-opening and informative lessons we learned in Florida.

Lesson # 1 : Florida is a wild, wild state.   Want proof?

Our notable encounters with critters in Florida included:

Reptiles, of the large and in charge variety.  Thankfully, we only saw a gator in a park, not inside our tent!  (I am praying I will NEVER see a snake on one of our camping excursions.)

Pelicans! (In the Florida Keys, where we had a five-day break from shows 😉 )

And this beast.  I think it was a spider/beetle hybrid.  Regardless of what it was, Chip found it on our tent one morning, and attempting to be a good conservationist and GET IT OFF OUR TENT he got the bug on a stick and moved the bug to a tree.  Two seconds later a very crafty bird swooped over, scooped the bug up in it’s beak and crunch! that buggy was gone.  Chip was obviously distraught.

We didn’t just battle wildlife in Florida though…

Lesson # 2: Florida citrus is the best in the U.S.

We made sure to eat lots of oranges and grapefruits in FL.  Our favorite types of citrus were the free samples we found alongside every gas station on the highway.

Lesson # 3: Florida was once the home of Ernest Hemingway!

We checked out his estate and Chip wrote the next great American novel on his hand:

Lesson # 4: Florida beaches are glorrriousss!!!  Seriously, wish we were there right now.

Lesson # 5: Put sunscreen on your feet.  Don’t forget that.  You’ll pay for it later.

Lesson # 6: Florida students are awesome.

We did some seriously fantastic screenings and workshops in the Sunshine State!

We had a great time in Florida and learned a lot.  See you next time Sunshine State!  (And seriously, remember the sunscreen on your feet.)

The last couple weeks have been great!

Special thanks go to Monica Escobar for letting us stay at her apartment in Atlanta!

We got to see the MLK Historic site.

We also got to spend St Patty’s Day in Charleston, SC

Lets talk about some crazy things that happened at the St Patty’s Day Parade…

First, the hat ladies…

Next, someone spiked the town fountain…

Followed by southern belles, and of course… their dogs.

Check out the dude in yellow… he can’t believe his eyes.

No parade would be complete without its fair share of kilts.

Then there was this little kid dressed up as an orange-bearded leprechaun.

“i may be but a wee lad, not yet old. my parents put me up to this in return for a pot o’ gold”

After the parade, we headed out to the country. 

Check back soon for pics from our tour of Irvin-House Vineyards and Firefly Distillery 🙂

Life on the road has been pretty good. We were very happy when our friends Jared and Jamie said we could stay at their house near Clemson on our way to Charleston, SC.

Adorable hosts by day…

Expert dancers by night…

They took us to an amazing BBQ restaurant called The Smoking Pig. Look at dat pig butt!

yiyiyiyi! We got pulled pork, sweet potato crunch, banana pudding, grandma’s loaded potato slaw, and sweet potato FRWIES with powdered sugar and maple syrup!

Treat yo’ self! Lord have mercy it was good eatin’!

After Smoking Pig, we hung out with Jared and Jamie’s dogs, both of which are rescues 🙂

We went for a walk in the Botanical Garden near Clemson.

Jared tried to climb a tree but he had so much smoking pig in his gut that it broke under the strain.

And we finally discovered who built Stonehenge…

By royal decree of the king, wolly hats and sweatpants shall be called fashionable. Thee shall not make fun of the appearance of the king!

This week started pretty normal…

We started out this week by finding an amazing lodging deal at Edward Evins State Park in Tennessee. We basically got a 2 floor suite with bathroom, bedroom, full kitchen, flat screen tv and balcony for…. $34 a night!!!! We usually pay that much to camp in a tent so we were living in luxury.

We were so excited about the deal that we decided to treat ourselves to a redbox movie. We got this indie-ish film we’ve been hearing about called “Take Shelter” starring Michael Shannon (boardwalk empire).

Its all about this man who keeps having nightmares (possibly prophetic visions) of these huge apocalyptic storms that rain this yellow-black oil that drives people crazy, causing them to attack him and his daughter. The man believes he has been given a warning about this storm but of course, no one believes him.

Pretty freaky. You know what’s even more freaky?

We woke up the next morning to this:

Were we given a warning too!? A huge storm was brewing in central Tennessee. Also, it was our last night at the luxury suite in the state park. The rate was going to triple and we had to leave to find somewhere to camp (we don’t really have a budget for hotels). As we checked out, we got a glimpse of a weather report on a TV behind the reception desk. The storm was going to big. And they were calling for tornadoes.

Yikes! Despite the report, the weather seemed to clear for a while. It got up to 70 degrees and sunny. We went to a Panera Bread near Nashville to get some internet access so we could figure out if was still possible to find a campsite that night.

All of the sudden, it started raining incredibly hard and lightening flashed all over the sky. We started hearing these loud thuds and we realized that it was hailing. Huge golf-ball sized chunks of ice started falling everywhere!

The Panera employees rushed all of the customers into the back. They put us in the walk-in freezer, which is apparently the safest place. (don’t worry they passed out jackets).

We were all pretty shocked.After the worst had passed, they let us out. It seemed to have rained/iced almost 6 inches in no more than 10 minutes. Check out how deep this beemer was…Seriously, 45 minutes before we took this photo it was sunny and border-line hot. So weird!

The weather report was still calling for tornadoes to touch down in the area. After about 5 second of thought, we decided that our budget could fit a hotel for the night so we went online and booked one.

We’re safe but it was a pretty freaky day. Our hearts go out to the families of the people in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky who were killed by this storm.

We spent the last couple weeks traveling back and forth between Tennessee and the Carolinas. We had some great turnouts at our film screenings and workshops.

Bethel University had over 125 in attendance 🙂

Queens University of Charlotte got really creative with advertising

We absolutely love sharing our film and workshop with students. We’ve had a lot of long drives and we’ve had to get creative with how to entertain ourselves. We downloaded the game Doodle Jump and are obsessed!

Toatts unlocked the the under water level, the space level, and the super secret easter bonus level 😉

Pretty cute. Just look at his floppy bunny ears. We also had some fun stopping at a fireworks store!

Chip’s favorite was the “color me America” brand firework. So patriotic.

Alexis got overwhelmed with the sheer awesomeness + americanness.

We finally settled on these bombers. They shoot up forty feet then drop parachutes. Sweet!