A new chapter begins, for the road loving, book toting, chaos embracing kind of crew.
If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you already know books are my first love. But travel? She’s that wild best friend who shows up with a packed bag, a playlist full of 90’s road trip bangers, and a terrible plan you can’t say no to.
So welcome to Booked & Boarding, the part of Once Upon a Midlife Crisis where our love for stories meets our deep-rooted obsession with getting out of the house (preferably with snacks, good music, and a loosely mapped escape route).
We’re not luxury jetsetters or Instagram perfect nomads. We’re midlife wanderers.
We travel by car, mostly, hauling anywhere from 2 to 8 kids (yes, you read that right), plus my husband Stephen (Hoss) and whatever essentials I can cram between the bags of Takis and my emergency paperback stash.
We’ve road tripped all over Louisiana, and the USA, camped in state parks, cliff dived into hidden waterfalls, and stumbled across magic in places the internet barely mentions. And while Louisiana isn’t technically my home state, it’s where I’ve spent most of my life, and trust me, it’s full of surprises.
Stephen and I have been together for 7 years now, building a beautifully chaotic blended family. Between the two of us, we’ve got six kids ranging from 15 to 25. So yeah, when we travel, it’s part adventure, part logistics operation, part “how did we end up at a Buc-ee’s again?”
Sometimes we fly, like we will next week when we take our first ever trip to New York.
This one’s personal. A lifelong dream of mine, coming true. Broadway. The theater. The lights. I’ve dreamed about singing/performing on a major stage on Broadway since I was a little girl, and while I won’t be performing this time around, I’ll be soaking it all in like the stage struck theater kid I still am deep down.
But here’s the thing: not every trip is bookish.
Not every destination is tied to a story I’ve read or a world I’ve loved. Some are just beautiful. Some are wild. Some are chaotic, meaningful, healing, or hilarious. That’s what this space is for. Booked & Boarding isn’t about curating perfection… it’s about living the story, even if it doesn’t come with a neat epilogue.
So what can you expect here?
- Family friendly travel guides (with honest talk about what works and what absolutely doesn’t)
- Louisiana getaways and under the radar gems
- Romantic escapes (because yes, we still like each other after all these years and blended family adventures)
- Hiking, camping, cliff diving and the occasional “did we just almost die?” travel story
- Hotel & Airbnb recs that won’t insult your wallet or your standards
- Bookish inspired journeys, where fiction meets the road
- Whether it’s a bookstore crawl in the Quarter, a forest trail with a hidden waterfall, or a Broadway fueled dream coming to life, I want this space to be for readers who roam, travelers who get lost on purpose, and families who believe the journey is the destination.
So buckle up, baby. We’re getting Booked & Boarding.
🫶🏼 – Ali
