Greetings RTA! Love this site, first of all. It has been very helpful in helping me make this a really great road trip.

My partner and I are moving from Atlanta, Georgia to Eugene, Oregon this Summer. We will be taking our 2005 Nissan Sentra and everything we can fit into the car. There will be no trailer. What we can fit into the car is all that's going with us, and that includes our one-year old Labrador Retriever. We are tent camping most of the way--staying in hotels in only 2 cities.

I have no experience heading West by car. I have never traveled past Louisiana and Arkansas by car.I've only been up the East Coast on long road trips. I've only visited the West by plane.

Our first stop is New Orleans, where we plan to stay in a hotel and enjoy a last night in one of our favorite Southern cities, NOLA.

Our second night will be in Austin, Texas. We plan to spend a little time there, maybe 1/2 - 1 day, where we hope to camp. I cannot find a great campsite in the area. If anyone has any pointers on that, it would be helpful.

Our third night will be near El Paso, TX. I am hoping to stay near the Rio Grande. Does anyone know of a campsite in that area where we can get great sites of the River.

Our forth night will be in Grand Canyon National Park.

Our fifth night will be in Sequoia National Park.

The sixth night will be in San Francisco where we will stay in a hotel. And we hope to end up in Eugene, Oregon on the seventh night.

Any tips or ideas for the trip would be appreciated. Specifically, if anyone has experience traveling long distances with dogs, tips would be appreciated. My dog loves to ride, but 8-9 hours in the car is a lot for anyone. She's generally a pretty calm, content dog.

Also, this may be off topic, but we're looking for THE best record store in Austin, TX. If anyone has tips on that it would be super awesome! We're into a place that specializes in used rock/psychedelic rock new and old/jam bands and local artists. We hope to also purchase a record player while in the town of Austin because we're parting with our quite old, large one before leaving Atlanta.

I look forward to hearing from everyone!

Namaste,
CaliforniaDreaming