So far, I have only made it to Fallarbor Town, as I decided that the road to Lavaridge was long enough that I decided to bring an update before my next gym badge comes into view, as I need a breather from all the work I did getting here.
As a refresher the road to Lavaridge is probably the longest wait for a gym badge in the entire series. Not only that, but I had to pick up and train two Pokemon to cooperate with the guidelines:
Vesuvius the Numel, who was very easy to find, obviously, and then
Daisy the Grimer, who was much, much more of a chore to catch considering it's one of those "unofficial version-exclusive" Pokemon where in one game it's extremely rare, while in the other one it's very common. Both are at decent levels now, but I felt really worn out afterwards.
...Also, bye-bye, Beautifly...
What's more, in preparation for the capture of my second to last team member, Cacnea (Huntail isn't found until you get to Mossdeep, which unlocks Dive, where you find Clamperl.), I decided to raise a Roselia towards the 5th gym until it learned GrassWhistle, then I'd breed it onto the Cacnea and get a Cacnea with GrassWhistle. Sure, I could just reteach Sing to Periwinkle (my Skitty), but I think GrassWhistle has a catchier tune.
Just go with it. Since Roselia isn't found in Emerald, however, I traded a Roselia from my Ruby save to my Emerald save and went from there. Yes, Roselia
is a temporary Pokemon, but I couldn't help but gift my Roselia with the glorious moniker of...
Monet.