Stayed at Sam’s Town RV Park and Casino today. Did some shopping, and laundry. Life goes on even on the road. Also, visited Mom’s friend from Lost Mtn. Linda Cooper for a couple of hours.

Drove down the Las Vegas Strip this evening. Amazing is a good word. Believe it or not, we haven’t spent a dime on gambling. Really doesn’t interest us. People sitting at those machines putting in money and pushing buttons just don’t look like they’re having much fun.

Will head over to California tomorrow. Want to try and stay somewhere around Fresno. We’ll try and see Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks on Tuesday before heading into Yosemite on Wednesday.

Tried to get reservations for the Grand Canyon at a couple of places, with no luck. Decided with the holiday weekend, that we’d pass and head on over to Las Vegas.

This was a really interesting day. Started out in Holbrook, AZ around 10:00 AM Temp was in the low 90’s drove over to Flagstaff, AZ, and hit thunder storms temps got down in the low 50’s. By the time we got over to Kingman, the temp was back in the 90’s and crossed 100 before we crossed Hover Dam.

Hover Dam is really impressive. Also, there’s a major road construction project going on on US 93 around the Dam. No Commercial traffic across the dam. There are security check points on the Arizona and Nevada sides of the dam. We had to stop about 5 miles from the Dam, and let the AZ state police inspect the coach inside and out. Opened and inspeceted all the bays.

The construction project isn’t due to be completed until 2008.

Got to Las Vegas around 7:00 PM PDT. Got a site at Sam’s Town Casino and RV Park. We’ll be here atleast till Monday.

We just can’t seem to sleep in . We were up by 7:00 AM. Hit the road after breakfast and headed for Arizona.

Visited the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest National Park. Click Here to see our album of photos.

It’s really worth seeing. Hard to believe that these trees existed on the planet before man walked here. Got some good shots of pictographs that were carved by people that were farming here before the time of Christ.

Spent the night at a campground in Holbrook, AZ. Best thing to say about it is it had hookups.

Got a lot of rain last night. Slept late for us. Didn’t get up till 8:00 AM. Spent today cleaning the RV, and doing laundry.

This afternoon we visited the Kwahadi Kiva Indian Museum and Performance Center. The Kwahadi’s are a a BSA Venture Crew, that studies, practices, and performs Native American Dances. We saw them on tour in Georgia several years ago.

Click to see the Museum Photo’s

Left Amarillo around 5:00 PM CDT, and headed over to Albuquerque. Long drive with not much interesting scenery along the way. Had Diner at a TA truck stop then kept driving to Albuquerque arriving around 10:00 PM Mountain Daylight time.

After the tire incident in Oklahoma, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. The scenery gets flatter and flatter the further west you go. So it’s pretty dull driving. Arrived in Amarillo about 6:30 PM CDT. Found a really nice campground. Remember this is Texas, but this place actually has grass and trees. Also has pull through sites, with dog pens, and shaded picnic tables. Along with free WiFi, we really like this place.

Those of you who know Richard very well, and have been blessed with hearing all his stories, will remember him talking about a trip he took in 1970 where he drove through Amarillo Texas, and found a really run down looking restaurant with a lot of local Texas cars parked around it where he had one of the best steak diners he had ever eaten.

Now for the rest of the story. Today 35 years later we had a great steak diner the Big Texan Steak Ranch. Turns out the place was started in another part of town in 1960. Moved to the present site by the Interstate in the mid 1970’s. Still serves a great steak diner. So Sometimes you can go back again.

Tomorrow we head on to Albaquerque New Mexico. The current plan is to spend the day here in Amarillo, and leave around 5:00 PM to do the drive during the cool of the evening. We need time to do some house keeping, etc. and rest a bit. The trip from here to Albaquerque isn’t all that scenic, so we won’t miss much driving at night, and the coach runs better with the cool moist air.

Got an early start this moning. We were on the road headed for Amarillo by 9:00 AM CDT. Made a mistake setting up the Jeep this morning. Figured it out by the time we got to Oklahoma City. The coach was steering funny, and a passing motorist was signaling that we had a problem with the wheels. We finally pulled off I40 and into a Wal*Mart Parking lot on the west side of the city.

Turns out. I hadn’t put the ignition key in the Jeep, and left it in the “OFF” setting instead of the “LOCK” setting. Somewhere outside of Oklahoma City, we hit a bump, and the steering wheel locked. Which caused the steering problem I was feeling with the coach, and ruined a brand new right front tire.

Fortunately Wal*Mart had a comparable tire for a replacement so after having lunch, doing some shopping, and waiting almost 3 hours to get the tire fixed and mounted we were on our way again. (To Be Continued)

After breakfast at Waffle House we visited Graceland this morning. we spent almost 3 hours there. Took lots of pictures. Elvis and his parents are buried on the Grounds.
Click Here to See the Entire Graceland Gallery.

Elvis Presley was an important figure in popular music in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s up until his death at age 42. He bought Graceland when he was 22 years old, and it was always his favorite. place. .

Hit the road after the Graceland tour. Drove through Arkansas, and stopped for diner at a rest stop just across the border in Oklahoma. After diner, we were caught in severe Thunder Storms and Flash Floods. So we pulled into a KOA campground in Sallisaw for the night.

Left Lebanon TN about 10:00 AM this morning. Interstate driving is a bore. Only did about 250 miles today all interstate. Karen wants to See Graceland so we stopped here.

Southhaven is just across the border in MS from Memphis. We’re camped in a Woodalls 5 W campground. I need to learn more about these rating systems. I’ll post a photo tomorrow. We’re only about 5 miles from Graceland.

We got here too late today to go in so we’ll go there in the morning before we head west.

Amarillo Texas is 727 miles and 11 hours from here. So We’re guessing we’ll make a stop somewhere along the way.

We had a liesurely breakfast this morning. Then took Lucky, and went exploring. Right away we found our favorite store, SUPER WAL*MART. So we did some shopping.

After that we spent the day exploring Nashville. Drove downtown and went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Didn’t stay though. It was hot. We worried about leaving Lucky in the car. Also, we didn’t think it was worth $30 for 2 people to go see the exhibits.

Tried to find the Grand Old Opry. Didn’t find the original building. Drove around the New one, and the Monster Mall that’s along side it. Decided we didn’t need to visit the mall.

After a stop for lunch, we discovered the Belle Meade Plantation. Very interesting. You can see the photos in the Gallery. Famous as the breeding stock for the finest thoroughbred race horses in the world. The two horses Enquirer, and Iriquois, provided the blood lines for most of the famous derby winners up to the current day.

Later in the afternoon, we returned to the camp, and spent the time kicking back till we headed out for an Awsome Blossom at Chili’s.

Tomorrow is a travel day. Heading for Memphis want to visit Graceland, and head west toward Little Rock.

After a busy week, and not getting anything ready for our trip we spent most of the day today cleaning, shopping, repairing, Loading, and getting ready to go. We finally pulled out of Kennesaw, GA about 5:45 PM EDT.

Lucky is traveling with us. At first she didn’t want to get in the Motor Home. She’s having to get used to this traveling thing.

We traveled for a couple of hours, then stopped for diner at a rest area on I24 near Jasper TN, North West of Chattanooga

We arrived at Country Side Resort in Lebanon TN, about 9:30 PM CDT. We’ll spend Sunday visiting the area around Nashville.

Photos, and more Logs to follow.