Day 6

8:00am
I’m still on east coast time. Even with a cozy bed I woke up at 7:30am, wired. Jerry was fast asleep (on Nyquil) so I spent the morning updating the blog and catching up on emails. Our trip is almost over. We head up to LA tonight for New Year’s Eve then to SF tomorrow. I don’t think it’s hit me that this is me moving. It all feels like a vacation and I’ll be returning to NY at the end.

12:05pm
We had breakfast downstairs. It was a $50+ breakfast for eggs and corn beef hash. I sure miss the $15 meals we had in the last few days. Time to hit the road again.

Nevada Pics
Mojave Desert


Sun visors in cars are not made for short people. The visor blocked nothing. Here's me driving with the sun in my face.


Sunset in the Mojave


"Try One Now!" Billboard

Kat blogging in the early AM

While trying to 'borrow' wifi from random stops along the way...

Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Mariott Courtyard, Microtel, Motel 6, Radisson, Budget Inn, Days Inn, Nights Inn, McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Mirage, various state runned rest stops along the way...

Yoshi's bored

Ever wonder how trucks are transported from place to place?

Well we did and here's our answer!

We met Jerry’s brother and sister for dinner at Lawry’s at 8:30. (thanks for dinner Jamie!) We’re now at the Mirage and staying for the night (thanks for the room joe!). Feels amazing to be in a cozy room with a full size comfy bed, not having to worry how much water I have left to use for a shower and most importantly INTERNET!!!

Hotel Room

Hoover Dam

We just got through the checkpoint for the Hoover’s Dam. There was an hours wait to get to the checkpoint. The officer opened up a few of my boxes to check if I’m carrying explosives. After he let us through, we sat in traffic waiting to get over the dam. Along the way we saw lots of people get out of their cars to use the bushes. Overall, we waited 2 and half hours to get through the 10 miles of road...argh

In the middle of dam traffic, Jerry was coughing so hard that we switched so i could drive the rest of the way. I didn’t think it would be a big deal so I hopped into the driver’s seat. Right after I got in traffic started to move. I continued driving the 30-foot RV through the narrow passage of the dam and the roads after. I was terrified. Narrow roads, high cliffs with twists and turns, and on coming traffic speeding past me just inches away.

Hoover Dam Traffic


Hoover Dam

Louie says "hi"

Arizona sites

Global warming at work in Texas - Proud home of George W. Bush.


From deserts in Texas and New Mexico


to full green in Arizona...and
to snow in a few miles. Crazy!


Back to the desert sun.

Sunset

New Mexico sites

Meandering through the barren land that is New Mexico on our way to Arizona.

Yoshi chill’n with Jerry while he drives

Day 5

Woke up at 7:30 am to prep the RV to leave. We left the power, water and sewage attached through the night and when we got outside to load up our freshwater tank, we found that the hose was frozen. Should have realized that the water would freeze over night.

RV Park

We headed back onto the I-40 a stopped off at a Flying J’s diner/buffet/truck stop/gas station/convenience store. We drove through New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Nevada.

Pics of Oklahoma and New Mexico

Open roads


Random Billboard



Jerry’s Restaurant – there were several of these along the I-40



Wind Power Generators – there were tons of these along the way. Kat told an interesting story about the power companies paying land owners $6K a month to lease their land only to find out that the machines makes a huge noise and land owners now being locked into these contracts.



There ARE Chinese people here!


Cherokee Nation


Self proclaimed largest cross in America.

Oklahoma

On our drive through Oklahoma, we noticed that the roads were getting absolutely terrible! Looked as though funding for the roads only occur on Interstate highways, but for portions governed by Native Americans IE Cherokee, Pawtomi, whose income does not consist of vast riches from Indian casinos like Mohegan or Pechanga...the roads were a complete disaster. Driving on them even caused our RV alignment to bust and begin veering to the right. Very annoying especially since we’re only halfway through the drive.

We made a pitstop at the Cherokee Trading Post whose billboard said “Come see our bison”. Here’s the two bison they had.


As we drove, every mile had another Cherokee Trading Post whose billboard also said “Come see our bison”.

Some Native American murals. Notice General Custard seated on his horse to the left.

Day 4

We never made it to Oklahoma City last night. After a nice dinner at everyone's favorite Italian eatery...Olive Garden!...We pulled into a rest stop and called it a night. We drove the whole day today from 8am to 9pm. Jerry’s still coughing out a lung, so we picked up some more meds at the local Walgreen’s. We’re now at some trailer park in Albuqurque, New Mexico off the I-40. For a while, we entertained the idea of going to Roswell, New Mexico and visit the friendly neighborhood ET’s, but since we’re short on time we nixed the idea and continued on.

The Shady Handoff

7:18pm
At the McDonalds off the I-40 exit 216, Brinkly, AR. Our original plan was to pick up the Maltese at the breeder’s house but supposedly, a tree fell on her house and she is living somewhere else for the time being and asked us to meet her here at this McD’s. Hmm…fishy?



7:55pm
The doggie breeder has arrived and we’re in the midst of conducting the shady handoff - ca$h for pups in the parking lot of a McDonalds. Strangeeeee.

For those that don’t know, we picked up the Maltese as a law school/birthday/Christmas gift for Jerry’s sister. The new doggie is named ‘Louie’ got carsick and threw up in the breeder’s car. We’re going to head across the street to a Wal-Mart and pick up another crate. Its gonna be a long night. Next stop, Oklahoma City…home of the NEW Sonics!

The Exchange


Louie enjoys his new home...a box...in an RV. Wal-Mart disappointed, no crates to be found!

Central BBQ

Our first BBQ stop was at Interstate BBQ off the Route 61 in Memphis but by the time we got there it was closed (early on a Sunday). So we Yelp’d the next best BBQ in town and found Central BBQ off 240W just outside of Memphis. Food was great. Really recommend it if you happen to be in Memphis and are looking for a BBQ joint. Decently priced too. We had a full slab of ribs both dry rub and wet…we think Daisy Mae’s in NY is still the best dry rub we’ve had. We also had the pulled pork which was really good…nice and tender. Memphis BBQ…niceeee andddd slooowwww.

Cheapest gas price found so far was in Memphis, TN


For the most part, gas prices ranged from $1.47 full service in NJ (you must utilize full service there, its the law. waiting time at the pump is significant) to $2.09 at some random Shell station near Flagstaff, AZ.

Here’s me driving the RV. I can barely see over the wheel!!

Day 3

Woke up at 6am to the pounding of heavy rain against the roof of the RV. The strong wind was rocking the RV. I thought the wind was going to pick up the RV and take us off to Oz (No, we’re not stopping through Kansas). Jerry was knocked out. He was coughing so badly last night, he took a dose of Nyquil in order to sleep.

We left the Cracker Barrel parking log (where we parked for the night) at 10am and headed on our way. We drove through the Appalachians mountains last night and the Smokey mountains today. At around 1pm we stopped for lunch at another Cracker Barrel along I-40. (there’s a cracker barrel about every 5 miles along the highways). As we walked in we got A LOT of stares from the folks waiting to be seated. We were obviously not from around here. Jerry and I played a few rounds checkers (where he kicked my butt each time) while we waited to be seated. After lunch we continued on our way. We’re about a day behind schedule and need to make up for loss time. We drove through Nashville and continued to Memphis.


The Cracker Barrel we had lunch at. For those that don’t know…Cracker Barrel has replaced Denny’s as America’s rest stop comfort food restaurant. With a connected old fashioned ‘General Store’ you can find everything from rocking chairs, moon pies, old toys from the 40’s and 50’s, and more. You gotta try the country fried steak.

Endless Caverns

This is entrance to Endless Caverns...aka the BATCAVE!


So looks as though Virginia and Tennessee are known for a few things...Civil War, slavery, college football, and...CAVES! And lots of them! We ended up stopping by Endless Caverns 1) to use the RV facilities and 2) to explore the wonders of geological rock formations.

Me in Jail



The Cavern itself was discovered by the Zelker boys back in the late 1800's where they soon began candlelight tours of the cave they found while hunting for rabbits. The name derives from the 'endless' caverns underneath the mountain ranges which probably connects to all 100 of these cave tourist traps. Definitely a lot of fun...going down 200 ft below ground and turning off all the lights is pretty mind blowing.



I (Jerry) always imagined bats to be...bigger. These little guys were peppered throughout the caverns hibernating for the winter and hanging by their little feet. A few of them flew around the cave and wizzed by our heads.