The Wiggen's Travels
Our travels around the world.

Today we stayed with the Samuel’s and had a great day of hanging out.  We went to see areas of Duke campus (which is quite beautiful) and ate downtown Durham (where you can see that American Tobacco still is OK).  After a dip in the pool we went to a nice dinner followed by sitting on their front porch enjoying the evening.

Today we spent hanging with the Samuel clan.  After a BBQ lunch we all headed to the pool for some relaxing (well as relaxing as playing with 4 kids and 3 dogs is).  Tyson also had a surprise 17th b-day party in the early evening.  A great day for all to enjoy the sun and the pool.

Today we took our last drive East.  We woke up having listened to the rain on the roof all nice (which was relaxing) to a wet morning.  We took our time and headed to see Dave and Jeanine in Durham NC.  Instead of blindly following I-40 the whole way there, we took our trip through the Smokey Mountain National Park.

The Smokies is the most visited national park in the country by two times the number of visitors.  The way into the Park from the Tennessee side was one of the most disgusting displays of America we have ever seen.  Name a bad food chain and there where probably 3 of them.  There were 4 go-cart places, Ripley’s believe it or not, and enough neon signs to compete with Vegas (ok that is not true, but what is cool in Vegas stinks in the rest of the country).

Luckily you arrive at the National Park and the Americana stops, leaving you in a beautiful forest.  We

drove through and went to the highest point look out (it was fogged in so we saw NOTHING) and now understand why they are called the Smokies, imagine a layer of fog across the entire park.

After our drive through the park we met the Samuel’s in Asheville, NC for a little food and then caravaned back to their estate in NC.  It was fun to see Oliver and Eden climb all over the RV while we drove back to their house.  We drove by Coach K’s house on the way in (good thing Jim isn’t here, I don’t know what he might do).

Tomorrow my plan is to not drive the RV anywhere…..

Today was a long day of driving, but we saw lots of fun stuff.  We awoke early (as we knew of our long drive) and quickly hit the road.  The two hour drive to Memphis left us on the steps of Graceland.  For 2+ hours we roamed the exhibits there.  Saw the planes, the cars, the movie posters, and of course the house.  Its really not as large as you might think it would be.  Definitely worth a stop.  Crazy busy on the fourth of July.

We then started on Susan’s part of the trip.  I know I am in Tennessee and I realize Susan likes country, but we started to listen to music I have never heard.  In fact I found myself at Loretta Lynn’s house and amazing property.  There was something for both Susan (Coal Miner’s Daughter, Tour Bus, History, etc) and Stu (I threw him in the river a whole bunch.  For me?  Well I am glad everyone else on this trip is happy.  🙂

We then headed out to Nashville where we stopped at the Grand Old Opry (another Susan request).  Note to other visitors, THEY MOVED IT!  If you follow instructions to the new opry, you end up out of town in a strip mall.  What you really want to see is downtown and no longer called the opry.  (Stu and I both wish Susan read wikipedia BEFORE we drove through the mall.  I guess it was good to have more practice driving through Americana).  We then settled in Crossville, TN for the 4th.  Off to our farthest East location tomorrow….

We woke this morning with the unfortunate realization that it was July 3rd and some of the museams we wanted to go to were closed 😦  However we made our way into Oklahoma City and went to the Oklahoma City Memorial.  Tears were cried and we hugged each other afterward.  It’s a very touching place and I would suggest going if you are close.  Its now a beautiful memorial with a chair and flag (see picture) for each person killed.  Inside there is a museum.  Its quite large and you can spend a lot of time in their.  In fact we missed a part of it because we were feeling guilty about Stu in the car with the generator/air conditioning on (actually I was just worried about what would happen in 100 degree heat if the generator failed).

Feeling somewhat down we continued on the road but then the I40 gave us something to lighten our mood.  The Grape Ranch Winery (advertising works on me, I simply pulled over when I read the signs).  They import the grapes from California but make the wine themselves in OK.  They also have a vineyard planted as well.  We sipped our tastings out of paper cups that you remember from the dentist and of course bought a lot (how many times can you buy wine from OK?)  It was a great little spot of America that we found.

After that we continued on to Little Rock.  Not sure what the evening has in store, but its hot so probably not too much food.

Today we awoke at Andrea and Jeremy’s awesome ranch (or something, it has a TON of rooms and cool space) in Albuquerque.  Free wireless from a neighbor, a real shower, free laundry, a large field for Stu, and a new friend for Stu (see their dog pictured below), we simply relaxed for the morning.  This lazy morning was full of not doing much but small things like laundry and playing with the dogs.  At lunch Clare took us out to a real good restaurant and we got to hang out more with her.

We then made our many hour drive to Oklahoma.  We actually got to drive through Texas to get there, so this was our biggest state count in one day so far, 3.   Yes that is the largest cross in the Western hemisphere (thank you Texas).  Today we crossed over the half way mark of our farthest point East (camp Samuel in North Carolina).

Arriving at 9PM in Oklahoma we simply went to bed.

Susan Stuart and I had a great evening out in Sedona.  We think we will return to Sedona some day, its beautiful.  We also really want to go to Slide Rock State Park which looks like a lot of fun on the river there.

After a fun night in Sedona we returned to I-40 and drove to Petrified Forest National Park.  Lots of petrified logs sitting in the desert.  A fun place to spend a few hours.

After that we headed to Albuquerque to have dinner with my cousins Clare and Andrea.  They fed us a great dinner and we sat outside and enjoyed their backyard (especially Stuart).  Rabbits, earth worms, and a big field.  Its really nice here in New Mexico.  Andrea also let us sleep inside so we had a real bed, which was a welcome change after 5 nights in the RV (as was the large shower).

Check out the photos of the sedona night out, earth worms, and bodhi driving the RV around the backyard.

We woke up this morning and spent an hour or so back in the waters of Lake Havasu.  Our RV spot was pretty crummy and HOT however it was walking distance to the state park beach so it worked out well.  After playing in the water we headed over to London Bridge (yes its in Lake Havasu City) .  It was REALLY hot so we loaded up and headed to Sedona.

A few hours later we turned off our new home of Interstate 40 and followed 89a south from Flagstaff.  A BEAUTIFUL drive down to the Sedona Valley had us saying how happy we are we are taking this trip.  We stopped off and swam in the water and looked at this huge gorge.

We are actually going to eat out tonight. Susan found a restaurant that we can take Stu with us.  It will be our first dinner out (we already cheated at lunch by going to In-and-Out — Lake Havasu don’t tempt us!!!)

Today we actually left California, although we are in Lake Havasu so we are just over the border in Arizona.

Most of today was a drive, however we stopped off in Mojave National Preserve for some rock formations and history.  Note the town of Kelso in the pictures.  A WWII town that helped ship things to the coast.

We ended our day with a great swim in Lake Havasu.  Its 110 degrees at 6 PM here.  I guess we didn’t think through the heat in the south correctly.  O well.  All three of us got in the water for a swim…

The dog is finally eating and relaxing a little.  It seems it takes a few days for our Nervous Nelley to feel comfortable.  In fact he actually ate dinner tonight.  All is well in AZ.