A brief recap of the trip from Myrtle Beach to Los Alamos.

We spent our first two overnight stops in Wal Mart parking lots, the first night in Augusta Georgia and the second just southeast of Memphis Tennessee. They are very convenient rest stops when traveling; they welcome RV’ers, the lots are as safe as anywhere with video surveillance and usually patrolled, you can buy anything you need right there, easily located everywhere, and free. We left home with full fresh water tanks and empty holding tanks. We have a fine running generator for power. We don’t need to be hooked up to utilities every night.

Our third night we picked a campground with cable TV because we didn’t want to miss a program we have been following. The Overland RV Park in Van Buren Arkansas is right off I-40, convenient but with some highway noise. After we got hooked up in our site I discovered the cable TV was so fuzzy you couldn’t see much of anything. I carry spare cable parts and quickly made repairs to the campground system, we got to see the episode of Under the Dome.

The next day, Tuesday we ran to our planned stop which was in Arkansas at another Wal Mart. We got there at 2pm and didn’t want to stop driving that early in the day. As we drove further west on I-40 Millie started researching stopping spots ahead of us. We reached the next proposed Wal Mart in Oklahoma; again it seemed too early to stop so we crossed the border into Texas. Millie’s internet search found a campground right on I-40 with resort like description, rave reviews and reasonable price. We found the Oasis RV Resort in Amarillo Texas to indeed be far nicer than campgrounds located along highways and catering to overnight travelers. I learned that it was built as a destination Resort because there was going to be a racetrack on the adjoining property. The racetrack never got built and the Oasis now caters mostly to travelers.

Amarillo to Los Alamos is easily drivable in one day and we arrived at our destination early in the afternoon. The only mechanical problem we had the entire trip happened on the last leg, driving down the interstate we got a warning that one of the leveling cylinders was down. It had crept off its retracted position, just enough to set off the alarm.

That’s enough about the express run across the country, we’ll write about New Mexico in future postings, it truly is "Tierra del Encanto". The Land of Enchantment. 

Wow, What a Ride!

What a ride! BTW that’s exactly what I want to say when my time here on earth is over. As I said before, the trip out would be just driving as we where pulling the U-Haul. It wasn’t a hard trip but something came up everyday and I never took the time to post to the blog. It worked out that we drove a long haul of 400+ miles every other day and about 300 on the shorts days.

We arrived yesterday at Dave and Rae Anne’s in Los Alamos, New Mexico and are parked at their beautiful home with a view of the National forest out every window of the bus. It is good to see the family again, the kids have grown and I can understand most of what they say.

Today we will unload the U-Haul, details of the trip to follow.  

On the road again!

Millie and I are back on the road. After a busy week of packing furniture, getting the condo secure and the motorhome ready we departed MB on Saturday at 12:30. Our journey will take us to New Mexico where we will deliver some family heirloom furniture to Millie’s daughter. We will stay and visit with Rae Anne and Dave for several weeks before returning to Myrtle Beach.

We only covered 240 miles today but we weren’t in any hurry. We had planned on leaving on Sunday so we are ½ a day ahead of schedule. We usually like to travel with a very loose schedule so we can wander wherever our interests take us, but this is a different trip. We are towing a U-Haul trailer which limits where we can go. Our itinerary for the westward leg is to stay on the interstates and just drive everyday until we get to Los Alamos, New Mexico.

We are overnighting in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Augusta Georgia. Strange as that sounds, it’s a safe place to stop for the night and RV’ers are welcomed by Wal-Mart to do so. Tomorrow morning we will be able to quickly get back on the interstate and continue our westward journey. We hope to drive about 400 miles tomorrow, which will put us somewhere around Tupelo Mississippi tomorrow afternoon.