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DEO · 04-16-2005, 05:47 AM

Just got back from our trip from Boston to Tucson and back. Had a great time in Tucson. Drove a total of 6000 miles. I will post details of the trip and the routing later this week. I was very pleased with the route we took even though the weather didn't cooperate with us for the first two days of travel. I some notes about roads and road conditions which will hopefully help others. I did learn a few things on the trip....

1.) I need more vacation time.

2.) I need a bigger truck (going shopping this weekend)

3.) I would do it again...

DEO · 04-23-2005, 03:12 PM

Someone expressed interest in the final route we chose so I took some notes during our trip and will post our route taken and some comments which I hope are helpful to others who may be planning a trip on a similar route. When I asked the initial question I was most concerned about quality of roads and how many big hills we would have to climb. We left on Saturday April 2 at about 5:00 am we decided to take the Mass Pike (Route 90) West to 84 South and finally to route 81 South. We chose that route to avoid traffic and anything close to NYC. We found some hills were pretty testy in Penn and ended up in the climbing lane with the trucks (I need a bigger pickup as I learned on this trip). It rained hard that day and we averaged about 50 MPH pretty much the whole day. We arrived in New Market VA at about 5:30 PM. Stayed at the KOA there (It had some of the cleanest rest rooms I have ever seen at a campground) I think the road to the campground was one of the most difficult parts of the trip. Once off the highway it is about 4 miles of twisty narrow road but it is quite doable.

DEO · 04-23-2005, 03:26 PM

Sunday April 3rd. We left New Market Va at about 6:00 am and drove route 81 South to 40 West. About 550 miles.

We thought we were out of the woods in that we got past the rain yesterday but conditions got worse... Wind gusts driving today were 40 plus miles per hour... That was lots of fun... We ended up driving about 45 - 50 miles per hour to avoid getting blown off the road. So far we had driven 1100 miles. My wife was getting grumpy and the guinea pigs which we travel with were beginning to get a bit tired too. My hands were getting tired from the death grip on the steering wheel.

Se stayed at Two Rivers Campground near Opryland. It would have been fun to spend some time there but time was short and the goal was to get to Tucson. The roads in Tennessee were pretty good even though the wind slowed us down.. One other note once again one of the most difficult parts of the day was the drive from the interstate to the campground. They are doing a lot of construction in that area and you have to drive in one lane with concrete barriers verrrrry close to you for about 5 miles before getting to the campground.

DEO · 04-23-2005, 03:38 PM

Monday, April 4

Once again a very windy day so we had to keep things slooow. We left at appx. 7:00 am and arrived in Sallisaw KOA at about 5 pm. Mileage so far appx 1600 miles.

We continued on Route 40 through Arkansas once again a very windy ride. All in all the route was pretty good so far. The truck was getting about 11 miles per gallon and with the price of gas where it is now this was not a cheap trip. My wife (who was getting grumpier) made the point that it would have been faster and less expensive to fly to Tucson... But where is the fun in that ? Good thing we have a good marriage we were starting to test it...

The KOA in Sallisaw was very nice we had a chance to take out the basket ball and shoot some hoops and play horseshoes. We also joined the KOA value kard club to get the discount. At this point it would pay for itself and ultimately it did.

DEO · 04-23-2005, 04:02 PM

Tuesday April 5

When we woke up on Tuesday we looked at the local weather and they were predicting Golf Ball sized hail !! We were going to continue on route 40 through New Mexico and stay in Albuquerque but as we looked at the forecasts the weather was coming from west to east and we felt we could beat the storm if we took a southern route.

Ultimately we took route 35 South to 280 West to 20 West. The total drive lasted about 14 hours and we covered about 700 miles ... I think if I have been adding correctly we had covered about 2300 miles so far.

I have to say the roads in Texas seemed the best in about any state we traveled in. It's nice and flat there too.

We stayed at Midessa Oil Patch RV park. We liked the park and it was nice for the overnite stay.

DEO · 04-23-2005, 04:44 PM

Wednesday April 6

Who knew that El Passo was so big and had so much traffic ?

I guess the one thing I have learned in life is how little you really know. We tried to time our departure times so that we would not reach busy traffic areas during rush hour but we managed to reach El Passo at a busy time. Once again the Texas roads were really good so it was not so bad.
The remaining directions were quite simple Route 20 W to Route 10 W Total mileage was 2900 miles.

In this thread (or maybe another) I asked about RV parks in Tucson. We decided to stay at Voyager RV park I am under 55 and my wife is considerably under 55 but after April 1 it seems that the parks there clear out. The great thing was this park had excellent facilities (2 outdoor and 1 indoor pool) 2 large spas / basket ball / a nice little par 3 golf course of which we played / mini golf / and more and more. The park was in south Tucson so we had to drive a bit to get anywhere but all in all we really enjoyed the city and plan to come back (via airplane) soon.

We particularly enjoyed Saguaro National park my wife bicycled from the campground to the park the roads were very bumpy but she liked the scenery. We also went to the biosphere 2 (interesting) and the Arizona Desert museum
(verrry nice ).... I guess that's enough for today. I am in Shanghai China on business this week so I finally have sometime to put all this in... I will post some notes on the return trip from Tucson to Boston later this week.

DEO · 04-23-2005, 07:43 PM

Here are some pictures from the trip. I guess I can only attach a few at a time so I will add two replies

DEO · 04-23-2005, 07:46 PM

The last picture is of our traveling guinea pigs. They have now traveled through 20 states. Thanks for the help on the posting tips !!

SilverTurtle · 04-24-2005, 03:38 AM

DEO,
I've found this to be very interesting reading and, quite awesome pictures.
Having made this trip myself to El Paso, TX, (before the digital camera was purchase) I can sympathize with you about the "rush hour".
The last time I was in El Paso, prior to the last trip, was in the early 40's and,
It sure has changed. (Wished my Granddad had bought some land back then...lol)
Looking forward to hearing more about your travel..
ciao
SilverTurtle