Bluegrass Retired Chick

Saturday, March 28, 2026

Five Week Road Trip Trial

After deciding to retire last fall we started to make plans for our first road trip out west with our Casita. It started when I nabbed a spot at Catalina State Park in the Tucson, Arizona area for 6 nights last November. Southern Arizona is like Florida in the winter, the RV spots fill up the moment the reservation window opens up so finding 6 nights was super lucky. Most likely, someone had just cancelled & I was lucky enough to be on the website at the right time. With this site booked, we built a 5 week trip around the stay. The only other campgrounds I booked before leaving home was Gulpha Gorge in Hot Springs, Arkansas and Mather Campground in the Grand Canyon. Everything else was going to be a mix of Harvest Hosts, KOA's, Recreation.gov & other random RV campgrounds booked once we were on the road.

Catalina State Park Sunrise

We knew we would be on the road for about 5 weeks & it would be a good trial to determine if we wanted to do more of this in the future or just stick to shorter trips. We called this a trial as the longest RV trip we have done is our 2 week summer vacations. They always ended wanting more but we didn't know if we would really like being on the road for so long. Spoiler alert, we did! The 5 weeks went so fast & it's hard to believe we are home already.

I will break out the 5 weeks with a few posts, this one starting as a high level of where we stayed over the five weeks. We left Lexington on February 20th and returned home on March 25th. Our goal was to not drive more than 5 to 6 hours everyday to allow for some flexibility.

Day 1: Lexington to Brownsville, TN. West Tennessee Delta Museum Center / Tina Turner Museum Harvest Host - 1 night
Day 2: Brownsville, TN to Hot Springs, Arkansas. Gulpha Gorge Campground - 2 nights
Day 4: Hot Springs, Arkansas to Ennis, TX. High View Campground - 1 night
Day 5: Ennis TX, to Sweetwater, TX. Avenger Field - National WASP WWII Museum - 1 night
Day 6: Sweetwater, TX to Carlsbad, NM. Whites City RV Park - 2 nights
Day 8: Carlsbad, NM to Alamogordo, NM - White Sands KOA - 2 nights
Day 10: Alamogordo, NM to Oro Valley, AZ - Catalina State Park - 6 nights
Day 16: Oro Valley, AZ to Flagstaff, AZ - Flagstaff KOA - 1 night
Day 17: Flagstaff, AZ to Grand Canyon South Rim - Mather Campground - 5 nights
Day 22: Grand Canyon South Rim to Flagstaff, AZ - Flagstaff KOA - 2 nights
Day 24: Flagstaff, AZ to Winslow, AZ - Homolovi State Park Campground - 3 nights
Day 27: Winslow, AZ to Holbrook, AZ - Holbrook KOA - 1 night
Day 28: Holbrook, AZ to Cochiti Lake, NM - Cochiti Lake Campground - 2 nights
Day 30: Cochiti Lake, NM to McLean, TX - Cactus Inn Harvest Host - 1 night
Day 31: McLean, TX to Sallisaw, OK - Sallisaw KOA - 1 night
Day 32: Sallisaw, OK to Scott, AR - Willow Beach Campground - 1night
Day 33: Scott, AR to Hohenwald, TN - Oliver Travel Trailer Campground - 1 night
Day 34: Hohenwald, TN to HOME!

One thing I learned pretty quickly was multiple days in a row on the road is too much. Even though we took 10 days to get to Catalina, it still felt too fast. The days we spent 2 nights in a site, the day off from driving was still so full with seeing the sites that we didn't get to relax much. It was a big relief to stay in one place for almost a week. I have seen folks with a rule of 3/3/3 which essentially means 300 miles, arrive by 3PM & stay 3 nights before hitting the road again. Not having a lot booked on the way out gave us some flexibility as there places that we didn't want to stay an extra night. In retrospect, I would have stayed an extra night in Hot Springs, 2 to 3 extra nights in Carlsbad, NM, maybe even up to a week. The way home was different since once we know we are headed home, we just want to get home so 5 days straight of driving didn't feel as tiring at the ride out.

Overall, the trip was fantastic & we really enjoyed traveling out west. So much so, that we already have 3 weeks booked at Arizona State Parks for next March. In future posts, I'll share the drive out, Arizona & the drive home with more details on where we stayed including lots of photos.

The Grand Canyon

Happy Travels!

Friday, March 27, 2026

Bluegrass Tri Chick is Now Bluegrass Retired Chick!

I had a great career but excited to start my next chapter

It's been a minute since I last posted and let's face it, I haven't posted much about triathlon for several years although I still do all the things except the actual racing.

I officially left from my job of 22.5 years at the end of December 2025 to join my husband in retirement. After years of planning I finally decided to go for it. It was easy once the decision was made but the months leading up to the decision was hard. Three months into retirement I can happily say I have zero regrets!

Going forward, I will use this space to share our retirement adventures. Several posts are in the queue!

A sneak peak of things to come, LOL

Sunday, October 6, 2024

A Love Letter to WNC

Thanksgiving - 2021

Though I’ve never lived in North Carolina, it feels as much like home to me as New York does—where, incidentally, I’ve never lived either. Growing up, I spent many summers with my grandparents in New York that it always felt like home. After more than 20 years in Kentucky, Western North Carolina gives me that same feeling.

The scope of the damage is still barely understood a full week after Hurricane Helene tore through Florida, Georgia, Tennessee & the Carolinas. I continue to be heartbroken by all the stories & images that continue to come out everyday. Although this post focuses on WNC, my heart goes out to everyone that was impacted by this storm. I feel like it's only a matter of time before each of us experience 'the big one' no matter where we live. The recovery will take years. The challenge with these types of catastrophic events is that they are always replaced by the next catastrophic event shortly after (Milton?) in the news cycle. Our collective memories are short.

In case you want to help, there are many good places to donate if you are able. NPR compiled a list of places to donate in the early days after the floods. Here is the link to the North Carolina Red Cross and the North Carolina State donation site which is being managed by United Way.
There are so many local businesses that are posting how to help & many positive stories of people coming from around the country to help. Here are just a few that I have seen.

WNC has been Steve's & my go to place since I moved to Kentucky over 20 years ago. Almost every year we have made the drive to Brevard, Canton, Black Mountain, Bryson City, Fontana Lake, and so many times to Asheville. We have chased your waterfalls, hiked your trails & mountains, ran your turkey trots, cycled your hills, paddled your lakes & even competed in triathlons, including the French Broad Challenge.

We’ve enjoyed countless flights of beer, and Asheville is where I first learned to appreciate and love IPAs. We've stayed in your hotels, cabins, resorts, bed & breakfasts, and Airbnbs. We’ve celebrated our anniversary and Thanksgiving in WNC more times than I can count, shared so many incredible meals, and it’s been the perfect place to gather with family and friends over the years. We have so many happy memories from these trips.

Catawba Brewing

I had on my to-do list to book our 2024 WNC trip just last month but sadly this looks to be the first year in quite some time we won't be able to make the trip. In the meantime, we will take a walk down memory lane while we support your recovery efforts & businesses from afar as best as we can. Stay strong WNC and when you are ready for visitors we will be back.

With much love,

Andrea

Below are some of the highlights from our many trips to WNC with a few from central & eastern NC.