Bookin' West

As we noted in our last blog entry, our departure from Virginia was delayed by some last minute repairs required on the Ciaowagen. We left Wednesday, April 10, and made it to Blacksburg, Virginia that first night. The Ciaowagen worked great! Unfortunately, when we started up the Fittata the next day to hook it up to the Ciaowagen, we heard a scraping sound, although we couldn't see anything dragging under the car.

We called AAA, who said they thought it might be a wheel bearings program, and who towed us to a large truck and car repair shop.

It turned out that the bearings and brakes on both front wheels had to be replaced! Because some of the parts had to be ordered from a dealer, we ended up spending two nights in Blacksburg.

Finally, we were able to get on the road again Friday about noon, and headed to Nashville, TN.

Friday night, we went to a multi-artist performance at the Grand Ole Opry. We are not country music fans, but there was enough variety (country, bluegrass, cowboy, rockabilly) to keep thing interesting.

We camped outside Nashville till Sunday, going into the city to see the sights, including a full-size replica of the Parthenon that was built for the 1912 World's Fair. Inside, there's a 44 foot-high statue of Athena covered in gold leaf.

Then it was time to get on the road and make some real progress west, driving 5-7 hours each day Sunday through Thursday.

There's a practice called "boondocking" in the RV world, where you are not in a regular campground and not hooked up to electricity or fresh water. Walmart is a place where RVers often stay overnight when traveling between spots, but we made use of Cracker Barrels along I-40 in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas (you can see our rig parked in an RV spot behind the restaurant below).

We did take a break for lunch most days, and traded off driving duties throughout the day.

Proof that real women drive RVs!

We also stopped at a couple of state parks recommended by people we met along the road.

Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas

Red Rock Canyon State Park, Oklahoma

Driving through the panhandle of Texas (that little square part up at the top), we saw tons of wind turbines and some pretty wicked thunderstorms.

By Thursday, we had traveled 1,867 miles from home and had reached Sante Fe, New Mexico. We decided we needed a break, and camped in Sante Fe over the Easter weekend.

NOTE: If you want to view our progress on a map, click on the "Travels" tab on the top of our home page.