Taylor and Salli’s journal recollections day-by-day-ish of our camping trip travelling from Georgia to Colorado.

September 11th – September 14th, 2025

We left home (Carrollton, Georgia)  around 8:30 am with a pretty good start on the day. Our route consisted of I-20 through Birmingham, Alabama, and continued through Memphis, Tennessee via I-22. The first test for our new engine and transmission was around the Chula Vista, AL. area, and they performed surprisingly well. From Memphis, we took I-40 all the way through Arkansas and stopped at an Army COE site along the Arkansas River for one night. The site was clean, but the temperature was a little hotter than we would have liked. Overall the first day of travel was successful, and we were making excellent time.

We started out great, and were making such good time on driving (65 mph – with our shiny new engine & transmission – as opposed to 45-50mph on our last trip west with the choo-choo train, blue exhaust smoke of engine death – another storytime there..) that we decided to continue a little further than originally planned. We stayed one night in “Aux Arc Campground” in Ozark, Arkansas on a COE reservoir. It was a pretty nice site with power & water hookups for about $25 a night.

The next morning we got a pretty late start, still tired from our first day of driving. We ended up going out I-40 over to Oklahoma, then up to the Tulsa area. The roads were pretty rough and bumpy, but we did get to see an open air Route 66 museum. From there, we were not really sure where to go next, but soon our decision was made for us. During the Route 66 stop, lunch happened. Up the road several miles, we realized the fridge was left unlatched and a whole bottle of creamer hit the floor and busted. To minimize damage and maintain our sanity, we stopped at an Army COE site in northern Oklahoma. The site was pretty unlevel and to make matters worse, ants were everywhere. All in all, the crisis was quickly taken care of, and we were just ready to be somewhere else.

This morning we weren’t sure if we wanted to go north into the Ozarks, or west through Oklahoma. We selected the latter, and almost immediately regretted that decision – remembering that the roads in OK.. are in fact, NOT okay. However, onward we went.. Galloping our rig towards Tulsa in true cowboy fashion.. I guess? In Tulsa we stopped at a cute little roadside attraction called “Route 66 Historical Village” which is an open air museum/photo op. We got in the camper and made a sandwich and went on our way. Right outside of the city we stopped for fuel. Usually every fuel stop we like to peek inside to make sure everything is riding securely, like it should. Taylor discovered catastrophe at this stop, in what I’m now calling “The Great French Vanilla Incident.” One of us (ahem, Tay) forgot to latch the fridge, thus causing an entire bottle of coffee creamer to yeet itself onto the floor and explode all over everything. The flooring, the drawer fronts, under the flooring.. It was a whole thing.

Overwhelming as it was, we decided to stay at a COE that was close by so that we could deal with the whole situation. Washington Irving South in Cleveland, Ok. had one night available, so we took it at $26. The site was quite unlevel and fortunately for us, had loads of ants everywhere. When we decided to just rip out our flooring to throw away (pieces broke as we pulled them up to clean creamer out from underneath) the ants did what ants do – they covered the sticky sweet vinyl planks we’d hastily thrown out the door. Look, it really was a battle for sanity there for a minute. But we survived and learned lessons, hopefully.

Somewhere in Kansas was our next stop. We took several backroads rather than the interstate up to Wichita. After approaching the “dry line” things started to look drastically different. Once onto I-70 at Selina, the wind picked up and the humidity seemed to decrease. In the past, we haven’t really enjoyed Kansas, but on this trip, we finally found a reason to like the area. The cool wind was a relief, and it felt like the trip was truly getting started. Lucas Lake was a great stop, and for the first time we were able to see the Milky Way late that night. The picnic table was concrete, but we made the most of it and used a hammock blanket to lay and look at the stars. There were a lot of locusts with continual chirping. It was the most relaxing night since our travels began.

Ready to move on, we woke up and decided to push on into Kansas. The camp we stayed at only had one night available, so we had to move on anyway. Somehow, Kansas proved to be way nicer to us than our last drive through. (early spring of 2024 – tornadoes, brown grass and such..) The roads are very well maintained, and late summer crops and green prairie grass were at least something to see passing through. We stayed at Lucas Park Campground in Lucas, Kansas for two nights at $26 per night with water and electric included. Honestly, we were surprised at how lovely this campground was. Featuring pretty rolling grass hills and wild sunflowers, we definitely got Hobbit / Teletubby vibes. There was a nice breeze and we discovered that the park is under a pretty dark sky, so we laid a blanket over the concrete picnic table to stargaze. For the first time in our lives, we got to see a glimpse of the Milky Way with our naked eyes. We both were in awe while we listened to the bugs chirping in the hills around us.