Interstate 40

We spent four days slogging across the country from Carlsbad, New Mexico to Great Smokey Mountains, Tennessee. We had planned six days for this leg of the trip, but we lost two days repairing the water pump. Due to the short schedule, we scaled back our intentions of exploring the middle of the country and taking back roads; instead we drove north to Interstate 40, took a right, and drove east for 1500 miles.

Rolling out of Carlsbad, I was still worried about the engine: I watched the dashboard gauges like a mother bear; I checked the oil and the transmission fluid; I washed the engine parts with a wet cloth in order to check for leaks. As it turned out, the engine was fine, but the windows were the next problem. As we drove along, I was rolling up the windows, when the rear driver-side window suddenly and without warning made a mild grinding noise and stopped going up. I tried to roll it down but had the same effect. At the same time, a six-inch crack appeared in the lower driver-side corner of the windsheild, the result of an errant pebble which hit us the previous day. Curses! I have insurance, of course, so the cracked windshield should be covered. The rear window probably isn't covered, but it easily slides up and down if you just push the glass, so I pushed it to the top and taped it from the inside.

Although not as big as Alaska, the states out west are big. We had plenty of driving time on that first day, and we thought we would make it to the first major place, which was Oklahoma City, a mere six map-inches down the road . We did not make it to Oklahoma City that night, though, we only made it to the first minor place, which was Amarillo. We stayed in a Wal Mart again, which we have found even nicer and more convenient than we expected. We like to park on the outskirts of the parking lot where Wal Mart maintains nice lawns. We like to set up our camp chairs and folding table on the grass to eat dinner. That day we had surpassed 3000 miles since our previous oil change, and that particular Wal Mart conveniently had an oil change shop, so in the morning I was in line when they opened at 7:00 AM.

We also thought maybe we would go to the zoo in Oklahoma City, based on a tip from a friend. By the time we arrived at the city, however, it was already the afternoon of the second day and we didn't have the time to stop. We also didn't see any signs for the zoo, and didn't feel like wandering around without proper directions. We continued on until dark, stopping at a Wal Mart in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. We have shopped at every single Wal Mart we've stayed at, not because we feel obligated, just because it is convenient and inexpensive -- mostly convenient. The only one we did not shop at was in Las Vegas, where we left the trailer but did not sleep.

Sometime during the second day we realized that we had a whole extra day before our reservations in Great Smoky Mountains, which was quite a surprise. So we looked at the map and decided on a side trip to Hot Springs National Park! We didn't consider the fact that the weather was prohibitively hot for a dip in hot springs, we just chose a route. The last thing we tried to do was to go to The Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson. Unfortunately we arrived exactly 200 seconds after they closed for the day, at five. We took a photograph of the house as shown on a picture in the gift shop, then headed down the road farther. We went to sleep dreaming of a relaxing next day.