Moving to Eugene Oregon from Atlanta, Georgia// Austin, TX Record Stores

[CaliforniaDreaming]

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

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums, glad you are enjoying them !

You are right when you say that 9-10 hours in a car is a lot for anyone, however it is manageable with Lot's of regular breaks. The problem I see is that are a lot of your days in the 'real world' and away from mapping programs generated by computers that need no time for rest, food or bathroom breaks to fill with gas or other human factors like traffic and construction delays are nearer to 11 or 12 hour days. All the day's are doable but on a multi day trip, day after day it is pushing the limits.

For example, from El Paso to Grand canyon and then to Sequoia NP are 2 extreme days on the road and you will arrive late and have to leave early while setting up and breaking down camp without the time or energy to appreciate the Canyon.

If you could add a couple of days you could make it a great experience but as it is it will be very 'work like' without time to enjoy the wonderful places you are stopping the night.

[CaliforniaDreaming]

Thanks Southwest Dave. Great advice. We have decided to take a few days in Austin and probably the Grand Canyon and Sequoia. I think you're right, it's just not realistic to think we could arrive in time to set up camp and leave the next morning--we would have no time to site-see. And we certainly want to be able to do that, especially in those two places.

Any ideas on good, light-weight burners for cooking? I don't want to spend more than $100, and I want it to be something I can use for back-pack camping later on.

Thanks for all your advice!

[Southwest Dave]

I can't recommend a particular model/make of cooker but if a single burner suitable for back packing is what you want then the Cannister type stove shown here would be ideal.

[glc]

Please note that you will not be able to carry gas canisters onto airplanes. This is something that you may want to purchase once you arrive here.

[Midwest Michael]

Considering they are moving from Atlanta, I don't think airplanes will be an issue.

I think Dave's suggestion is probably the best type of option, I've even thought about getting one like that for just around the house use.

There are also small single burner stoves that screw right onto the top of a propane tank, however, I think the Butane models are much more stable and a lot easy to use for anything other than the lightest of cooking tasks.

A 2 burner propane stove or a tabletop propane grill are other good options for car camping and what I use (when I'm not cooking over charcoal or a wood fire), but they'd be a bit bulky for backpacking.

[glc]

My bad - I saw the link was to a UK site!

Take a look through the sporting goods department at Walmart. If you don't find something suitable there, try Bass Pro Shops. If you need high quality camping gear, Bass Pro is as good as any. Walmart has their own Ozark Trail brand, but they also carry Coleman.

[CaliforniaDreaming]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Anyone have any experience traveling across country with a large dog?