Heading West from SC

[charming]

I think we are close to being ready. We have an ambitious two month road trip planned, already one hitch in the works, beginning in September.

Plan was to leave 9/1 and be back home close to 10/31. We're spending two nights on the road and camping for two nights to rest and regroup at John W. Kyle SP in MS. I made an error when looking at the calendar. I had us arriving a day later than we had considered, we decided to keep the dates because of the Labor Day requirement for three nights if we arrive a day early. We visited Oxford last fall, we're going to spend the free day in Tupelo, to complete our Elvis pilgrimage we began a couple of years ago.

Then we are onward to our first real stop, Little Rock. No reservation yet, discussion on how long to spend. I'm thinking four nights is plenty. We will be back to the area when we go all the way to CA in the spring.

The rest of the stops:

• Oklahoma City
• Amarillo, TX, use that as a place holder on the calendar but we're really going to be taking side trips to Route 66 on our way to
• Albuquerque, not sure if we're going to detour up to Santa Fe. Once again we might wait until spring
• El Paso
• Pecos, another place holder for our trip from NM to
• Dallas - Tickets to the State Fair so we have a window of 28 days to make our way to the big D
• Austin, we plan to be back in the spring for the Hill Country wild flowers and Blue Bonnets
• San Antonio
• Houson
• Lafayette
• Homeward with perhaps a few days in Atlanta

This is our first road trip with nothing more than a list of things to see and do in various cities and regions and NO RESERVATIONS!

I'm excited and nervous.

[charming]

ken56 wrote:
Good to hear of your travels and some of the fun you've had. We were just in Galveston 3 weeks ago and it rained on us for 3 days. Then we went up to Stephenville for a visit with friends who live there. Have you come across and stopped into Buc-ee's travel plaza yet? They are awesome. If you haven't yet and see one stop in.


Where are you planning on staying in the Houston area? I have no suggestion as we have not been through Houston, only Galveston.

Not heard of Buc-ee's, will be on the lookout for them.

I think we're getting a little burned out. I was wandering around the Alamo yesterday trying to figure out how quickly I could get DH out of there.

We're going to go straight through, sleep at a FlyingJ and then head over to Lafayette. If we were going to stay we were considering Galveston SP, it is not a bad drive up to the Johnson Space Center.

[ken56]

Good to hear of your travels and some of the fun you've had. We were just in Galveston 3 weeks ago and it rained on us for 3 days. Then we went up to Stephenville for a visit with friends who live there. Have you come across and stopped into Buc-ee's travel plaza yet? They are awesome. If you haven't yet and see one stop in.


Where are you planning on staying in the Houston area? I have no suggestion as we have not been through Houston, only Galveston.

[charming]

We are on the return side of our trip. Due to an unexpected health problem and hurricane we did not hit the road until 9/ 12. We were thinking about going from Little Rock up to Tulsa before going on to OK City. With the delay we had to cut that out and go from Little Rock to Dallas. We stopped and spent several days in Murfreesboro, AR. We stayed at Crater of Diamonds SP and mined for diamonds and went over to Hot Springs along with making new friends who live in OK.

From Dallas (State Fair is a must see and do for anyone who like fairs) we went up to OK city and stayed at Lake Thunderbird SP. Lovely park about 30 miles south of OK City. From there we spent several nights at Foss SP. When we were in AR we started having weather issues, Dallas weather was perfect and OK City was good. When we started heading west on I-40 the weather went south. It was cold wet and miserable with flash flood warnings. Foss SP is on a reservoir, on our last morning I looked and the ditch that was empty the day before was about to run over its banks, time to go!

In Amarillo we stayed at Amarillo RV Ranch. Nice enough, the cable is a farce but nice fenced dog parks and fairly easy access to all parts of town. We did the whole tourist thing and took the limo to Amarillo Steak Ranch for dinner one night. Palo Duro is an excellent SP to visit when you're in the area.

In Amarillo we looked at the calendar and the map and realized we were not going to be able to go all the way west to Albuquerque. We went south to Lubbock, some wonderful museums and we were really taken with the Ranching Heritage center. South to San Angelo. The Fort is a good morning and the river walk is a good strol. We stayed at San Angelo SP and really enjoyed the open area.

From San Angelo we began our eastern trek heading to Fredericksburg. What a great little town. We really liked the WWII Museum and the Texas Rangers Heritage Center. We will be watching for the future expansion. On to San Antonio. We had a horrible drive here, the rain and traffic. At last on our first full day in San Antonio we saw the sun for the first time in about a month! The weather here has been perfect, we actually were able to take our bikes out on the river walk and ride to the missions. We will wrap up here tomorrow and head towards Houston. We might change our plans again and do a drive through of Houston and visit the Space Center on another trip.

I have been pleasantly surprised by Texas. I think the park ranger who did the guided tour at Mission San Jose explained why many of us have a negative view of the state. He said it is basically four main regions and what many of us are exposed to are the folks from an unnamed part of the state (I don't want to make enemies here) will get on television and go: YEE HAW!!! I'M FROM TEXAS!!! He assured us that is not true of the whole state.

Tomorrow we head to Houston. We're skipping the space center and will just try to get through unscathed.

[trailertraveler]

charming wrote:

Veebyes wrote:
Schools are in so generally no problem with CGs unless there is an event on.

See that Albuquerque is on the list. Hot air Balloon Fiesta?

We wanted to but decided to postpone to a later trip. From what I read on that it seems to be best if you are on the site.

The balloon fiesta is Oct. 6-14. Even if you do not plan on attending, recognize that RV Parks and campgrounds from Santa Fe to Truth or Consequences may be very busy for the 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after the event. Some also raise their rates considerably during this period.

[charming]

Veebyes wrote:
Schools are in so generally no problem with CGs unless there is an event on.

See that Albuquerque is on the list. Hot air Balloon Fiesta?

We wanted to but decided to postpone to a later trip. From what I read on that it seems to be best if you are on the site.

[RGar974417]

Here are a few suggestions. In Oklahoma City, we stayed at Mustang Run RV Park. One of the nicest private parks we stayed at. $45 for FHU plus cable. Dog run, pool,all sites and roads paved. Also Hickory Creek Campground. It's an COE campground on Lewisville Lake north of Ft Worth. If you have the senior pass,it's half price. I think we paid $17.50 for water and electric and our site was right on the lake.

[Veebyes]

Schools are in so generally no problem with CGs unless there is an event on.

See that Albuquerque is on the list. Hot air Balloon Fiesta?

[bucky]

ken56 wrote:



Have you thought about how to handle your mail for that 2 month timeframe? Post office will only hold it for 30 days. On our 10 week trip I got a jury summons the very week we left and didn't know it until we met up with our neighbors who brought it with them down to Alabama 9 weeks in. I could have had a warrant out on me for not showing up but I was lucky and no jusry had to be empanneled to that time. Court clerk just said check in when I got home.

The USPS offers an email notification service that advises you of incoming first class mail daily that would have alerted you to your jury summons. They also offer temporary forwarding to a nearby friend or family member that exceeds the 30 day hold limit.

[charming]

ken56 wrote:
Go on line and order all the travel guides for the states you will be traveling through. Most have great regional maps for the specific areas of the state and also list campgrounds and RV parks along with all the attractions in that region.

No reservations should be no problem so don't worry, just be flexible. We use the RVPARKY app while on the road to find parks along our route. We start looking about 2-3pm and call the park we pick to check availability. We have never been shut out.


Have you thought about how to handle your mail for that 2 month timeframe? Post office will only hold it for 30 days. On our 10 week trip I got a jury summons the very week we left and didn't know it until we met up with our neighbors who brought it with them down to Alabama 9 weeks in. I could have had a warrant out on me for not showing up but I was lucky and no jusry had to be empanneled to that time. Court clerk just said check in when I got home.

I ordered the info from the states, I think Bill ordered info from just about every city we're driving through.

Thanks for the Ap suggestion.

Our neighbor picks up our mail and they will notify us if it is anything super serious. We've spent the last month switching everything to paperless and we are suspending our magazines. So I hope there will not be that much mail.

Our biggest concern is if we are delayed about being able to absentee vote.

[ken56]

Go on line and order all the travel guides for the states you will be traveling through. Most have great regional maps for the specific areas of the state and also list campgrounds and RV parks along with all the attractions in that region.

No reservations should be no problem so don't worry, just be flexible. We use the RVPARKY app while on the road to find parks along our route. We start looking about 2-3pm and call the park we pick to check availability. We have never been shut out.


Have you thought about how to handle your mail for that 2 month timeframe? Post office will only hold it for 30 days. On our 10 week trip I got a jury summons the very week we left and didn't know it until we met up with our neighbors who brought it with them down to Alabama 9 weeks in. I could have had a warrant out on me for not showing up but I was lucky and no jusry had to be empanneled to that time. Court clerk just said check in when I got home.

[charming]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. The method we use when we travel is the Hub and Spoke method. We choose an area for base camp and then explore out from there each day rather than moving every couple of days.

On our trip last December we spent a week in Pine Mountain Ga. From there we had day trips to Plains, Columbus, Hot Springs, etc.

[4runnerguy]

Nice you can take some time on this trip. Seems like your stops are mainly cities. Might you be interested in some recommendations for scenic stops along the way?:

Of course west of Little Rock you have Hot Springs and Lake Ouachita (great COE and SP CG's around this lake). Or go further north up to Eureka for a nice romantic little town. Pea Ridge NMP is also in that area, along with the FREE Crystal Bridges Museum.

Not far west of Oklahoma City is Red Rock Canyon SP., maybe 5 miles south of I-40. Nice little CG in a canyon as the name suggests. Even for someone who's been to the red rock country of the southwest, I would return there again.

I would choose Santa Fe over Albuquerque. Lots to see and do in and around there.

One spot that trailertraveler mentioned that I have to give another strong recommendation for is El Moro NM. Went there for the first time a few years ago and was amazed. Well worth taking a day trip west from Albuquerque.

I assume your Pecos placeholder is so you can visit Carlsbad Caverns, NM and/or Big Bend NP. Both are worth the time. Big Bend is big enough to warrant several days.

For Houston, I'd stick to the southern part. Johnson Space Center. San Jacinto Monument. Galveston. Otherwise Houston is just a big huge city with lots and lots of traffic.

Safe travels. Lots of traffic in many of the places you've listed.

[Dance_Chick]

I'll 2nd staying at Maumelle COE at Little Rock. Hopefully you can snag a river front site. Very nice park.

[trailertraveler]

charming wrote:
...The rest of the stops:
Amarillo, TX, use that as a place holder on the calendar but we're really going to be taking side trips to Route 66 on our way to

Albuquerque, not sure if we're going to detour up to Santa Fe...

There is a lot to see along I-40. In Amarillo, there is Palo Duro Canyon State Park and the Big Texan on Old Route 66. In New Mexico, Tucumcari still has dinners along Historic Route 66 and numerous murals painted on buildings plus other attractions. Santa Rosa is another Route 66 town and has the The Blue Hole and Santa Rosa Lake State Park which has a nice campground. In Albuquerque there is Petroglyph National Monument, the Pueblo Cultural Center, the Turquoise Trail and the Sandia Crest Highway that are worth visiting in my opinion. In Grants, there is the Mining Museum. Just South of I-40 going West from Grants are El Malpais National Monument, El Malpais National Conservation Area, El Moro National Monument and the Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano. Acoma Sky City is said to be the longest occuppied location in the U.S. They give tours of the pueblo and there is an RV park next to the casino.