Smashed Mirror and our Macgyver Move..

It's been a few days since I've updated. It seems I have more to do at home than I do sitting in a RV. :)

After our relaxing trip to Hot Springs, and man was it reeeelaxing, we traveled back to our home on wheels ready to hit the road. We were clean and raring to go. Lisa settled into the driver's seat and next thing I know she was cussing. Apparently, someone decided to clip our mirror driving by and smash it to little bits. What the $%@*?

Lisa being her resourceful self walked up and down the street entering each store to see if there was someone who could help us find a replacement for our mirror. After a few tries, she finally talked to a nice man who notified us that there was an AutoZone just a minute or two away. Gotta love helpful strangers! He even came out to check out the damage. I was too flustered to remember to take a picture.

With my help (laying on the back bed and telling her when it was safe to merge), Lisa navigated us to the AutoZone. A few minutes later, we had a brand new jerry-rigged mirror.

Here's the before:



Macgyver (aka Lisa):



The remains:



Macgyver putting on the final touch. A fancy blind spot mirror:



Aren't we (and by we I mean Lisa - I was just sitting in the passenger seat saying "What the HELL are we suppposed to do now?") resourceful!

Hot Springs the Pictures

Time warping time..back to the evening of Day 3 & Day 4.

Day 3 we had driven through the last half of of Tennessee and Arkansas. We had seen Nashville, Memphis, the Loretta Lynn Dude Ranch, Patsy Cline rest stop, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park, and lots of McDonalds. At the end of a long day pulled into Hot Springs, Arkansas which also happened to be the boyhood home of William J. Clinton himself. Imagine that. Apparently Day 3 was dedicated to Bill.



This was the first night we actually camped in a Park in a real RV spot rather than a parking lot. We had to register first..



We were completely exhausted. It had been a very long day, we'd done a lot of driving and had spent a lot of time being windshield tourists. This is when the PSSSSSST incident occurred.

I wanted to get some pictures. I'm sure it's was a beautiful place. When we were outside walking the doggies and feeling like the world was swaying, I could hear the running of a creak. I imagine it was gorgeous. Unfortunately, it was dark.

The plan was to wake up the next morning and head to Bathhouse Row for a nice hot bath (the first in 4 days) and a massage. We deserved it! Lisa was so excited that she left the park without waking me up (or letting me take a picture). The first speed bump we hit though, I was up. Believe me, it is not easy to sleep in a bed that feels like a roller coaster.

Here's a shot of us leaving the park. Isn't is pretty?



The town of Hot Springs itself was very cute. It sort of reminded me of downtown Ellicott City, except nicer and with less narrow streets.



Statue..




We passed the Ozark Bathhouse. The bath house was built in 1922 and ceased operation in 1977.



We were headed to The Buckstaff though, which is the only continuously operational bathhouse on the Row and has been in service since 1912. Lisa was excited! So was I.



We signed up for the Premium package which includes a Bath, Sitz Bath, Steam, Hot Shower, Massage and Parrifin Wax treatment. Ahhhhhhh!

What a long, strange trip it's been!

We just walked through Lisa's doorstep. WOOFREAKINHOO! There were moments I thought we would never make it.

Although our live trip is over, our virtual trip is not. In fact, I've only gotten us halfway through the trip in pictures. The best are yet to come. So stay tuned for more.

We are bringing the animals in and then on to the hot tub!

The last 100 miles

And I am finally letting Jen drive again. Soooo ow its time to reflct and contemplate the many lessons learned on this trip. Here are just a few.

Driving an RV uphill into the wind pretty much SUCKS ASS!

You can in fact go to the used home lot and pick one out for yourself.

Between NoVa (Northern Virgina for those of you that don't know) and Barstow, Ca there are only 3 kinds of music. Country, Jesus crap, and Classic Rock (time stopped with 80's metal hair bands)

Why anyone with a clue has chosen to live on the left or right coast and not in the middle.

People in Little Rock are way too hung up on Bill

Even though we intended to get a pic of every state sign as we passed through, our sub-conscious got the better of both of us and we missed Texas. Hmmmmmm wonder why. Could it be that we blame Texas

Verizon wireless kicks AT&Ts butt when it comes to connection speed.

Despite the fact that Mazdas are invisible you can still smash them.

I can grow a NERD, but not so sure I can make him metro.



As long as she has an Internet connection my sister can entertain herself for hours and hours and hours on end.

There is a good reason I fly everywhere.

I am not sure that those of you I now that made this drive in 3 days were not wrong???

Its the side trips that really make the trip

There are places in this country that you have to drive hundreds of miles to get to Best Buy (OMG, I know)

How grateful I am for my Blackberry

Why Satellite radio exists

You can Skype while driving 70 mph

The best laid plans and blah blah blah

The hot tub awaits.......... but for now its time to log off and navigate the way home.

California!

We just passed over the California line and through the inspection station. We passed with flying colors.

William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park

Passing through Little Rock, we noticed a sign for the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park. Of course we had to drive by. Wouldn't you?

To get there, we had to drive down Clinton Ave.



We passed President Clinton Ave.



Saw the Presidential library.. I hopped out of the RV to snag some pictures in my socks. It was a long way from the road too! Unfortunately most of them came out badly because of the dark. I didn't realize there was a night snapshot on the camera until today :( Oh well. You can google it if you want to see what it looks like. LOL.



The Arkansas and US flags. I guess there wasn't a lot of wind.




Who knows what was inside. All I could see was a motorcycle. Cigar, maybe?



As with everything else, it was closed.



On to Hot Springs!

Hoover Dam?

We think we just passed the Hoover Dam but it's hard to tell in the dark. About 10 miles from Yucca, 333 from Los Angeles.

The sunrises this trip have been absolutely gorgeous. Driving west with the sun setting behind the mountains is a sight to see!

Odometer reads: 2159