When I was about to cross into Mississippi, my engine started acting awkwardly (for lack of a better term). So I stopped at the 84 Quick Stop in Ferriday, Louisiana. I got out of the cab and lifted the hood, pacing while the engine cooled a little. I checked my oil and looked for more leaks underneath. You never know.. Negative. Nothing was leaking. 

I started banging on the side, just behind the passenger door, muttering “Stupid f***ing motorhome.” There were people around, but I didn’t care. I was pissed. 

Opening the door to the motorhome, I grabbed my phone and thought about the likelihood I would give up within a week. I called Papa. 

“So, please help me. Tell me I can keep driving this stupid thing. My engine feels like it’s surging. My gas mileage sucks. It’s just getting worse and worse.”

“Could be the weather,” He sounded concerned anyway. 

“It was like this in Texas, too… but without the surging. It was just bad on gas. I figured it was the weather then.” There were tornadoes in Texas while I was there. “But it’s not windy enough for it to act like this here.”

A hard breath escaped him. I heard it over the crackle of a poor cell phone connection and wished I’d be swallowed by the ground. His best guess was the ignition timing. Not dangerous, just annoying, expensive and an environment killer. Awesome. 

A guy in a hat and sunglasses walked up and asked if I needed help. He was pretty cute, so I told Papa I’d call him back. He seemed nice enough, so I gave him a chance to take a stab at what could be wrong. As it turned out, he didn’t know anymore than I did, but his parents owned the place. They let me hang out while I let my engine rest for a little while. 

Before sunset, I drove another 50 miles to stop at the nearest campground. Luckily it was my initial destination anyway: Clear Springs Recreation Area in the Homochitto National Forest. 

I tried not to feel like I was driving into the beginning of a horror novel. The road wound around so many trees, old houses and cemeteries. Each cemetary had oddly cheerful flowers at every almost single gravesite. I tried to remember a recent holiday that would invoke such a display. None came to mind, and I was kind of terrified. 

Once I reached the National Forest Signs I felt better, but on my way in I noticed an old oil drill. I figured it was just outside the national forest boundaries and attempted to ignore my hatred and the feeling of hypocrisy. 

At the fee station a man yelled, “Ma’am!” and waved furiously for me to come up to the host campsite to check in instead. Legedu barked as usual. 

I got out and greeted the most cheerful old man I’d ever encountered. He was happy to tell me all about how the Big Foot documentary had been shot there and how I’d hear noises I’d never heard before. 

When he realized h wouldn’t scare me, he showed me where the best camping spot was, gave me the info about a 10 mile hike and sent me on my way to set up. 

The next day I needed to find a place with WiFi so I could sit in class for almost 8 hours. The only interesting parts of the day were really strange. One was when a couple dogs chased me all the way around the entire town until I ran them off with a broom… That got me some weird looks. The other was after the library closed. I was sitting in class outside under the awning where I still had an internet connection, while a thunderstorm approached. Lightening stuck the street 30 feet away from me and my entire class watched me jump 3 feet in the air on a webcam…  

Getting back to camp, I stopped at the host station again to check in. “Hey! I’m back.” 

“Well hello there, miss Taylor Elizabeth Rose.”

“Hi Bryan.”

After my weird day, I wanted nothing more than a fire, but I had no firewood. As it turns out, the closest town you could buy it in was 30 miles away. 

Telling Bryan my frustration, he offered to bring me some after the last thunder shower passed. You could hear it approaching and lightening flashed somewhere in the distance. Happy to have some good fortune I agreed and hurried down to a different campsite, with no people around and a better view. Right as I was finished plugging in the RV to the electricity, it began to pour. I ran back inside the door completely soaked already. So I decided to walk around outside and stand in the rain. It was really awesome to be engulfed by thunder. 

Bryan brought the wood down in a trailer, stacked it up for me and taught me how to build a “girl scout campfire.” While he filled a can with white gas and stuck a paper towel inside it, he told me how he learned this trick. He’d been tricked by a girl into staying in the mountains during a snow storm, and she showed him how. He was filled with strange stories. 

When I asked him about the hike and told him I was planning on going the next day, he insisted on me checking in and out with him because it was extremely dangerous. At first, I thought he was exaggerating a little bit because he had already told me a crazy story about Big Foot in the area. But, the next day I was proven a fool. 

I went for about 4 miles before I stopped to let Legedu have some water. 2 miles later I hit a sign that said the name of the trail and “2 mi.” Impossible. I was starting to feel like I was in Dracula or a Stephen King novel. The hike ended up taking most of the day, and I ran into spiders constantly. They were everywhere. It was literally my nightmare. You want to meet a truly arachnophobic person? That’s me. I hated every minute of this hike. 

After another 2 miles or so, I lost my focus on my spider hunt, expecting my hiking stick to cut down webs in time. I stepped down in front of a log and the ground sprung up. Screaming 3 times, I somehow teleported 20 feet away with Legedu. We were both unscathed and I spotted the rattlesnake coiled up under the log again. Still in the path, sleeping. It must have been as big as my leg. 

There was another path to my right and I decided the possibility of getting lost was better than turning back or trying to go around Big Papa, King of all the Rattlesnakes. 

Close to the end, I heard an awful sound that reminded me of death. It got louder and louder as I kept walking. Eventually I came up on another oil drill. I looked around, afraid I’d taken a wrong turn, but there was a trail map ahead. I was definitely still in the National Forest… I stood there confused for about 5 seconds until the sound of mosquitos and other bugs buzzing by overtook me once again. I found the entrance to Hell. It’s located deep in the south of Mississippi. 

I thanked God for getting me back to the trailhead. I will never again go hiking in the south. As I sat on a bench wondering how close to death I was (I had no cell phone signal in the middle of the forest to call if I’d been bitten by a snake), two guys pulled up and got out of their car. One was wearing jeans and athletic shoes of some kind. The other was wearing shorts and sandals. 

“I don’t think you should go in there without pants and close-toed shoes.”

“Why?”

“Aside from the bug and spider infestation, there’s a snake on the trail and there are bound to be more by now.” 

“What kind of spiders and snakes?”

“I saw mostly garden spiders but I’m pretty sure I saw a few brown recluses sprint by me on the ground. Hard to tell, but I was told they’re here. The snake was a rattlesnake and it was huge.” 

They assured me they’d be fine and I asked them where they were from. Belgium. As it turns out, they were Exxon Mobile engineers. I laughed and let them know that if they went around all 10 miles (which I thought was more like 13), they would find an oil drill too. 

On the way from the Rio Grande area to the Carlsbad Caverns (Yes, I went from the top to the bottom of New Mexico in a day), I discovered a flea market. I really wanted to go to one in New Mexico, because it’s such an awesome and unique place to pick up colorful things. 

I was driving along the highway, and I saw all the bright colors off to the side just as I missed the exit. I debated turning around for the next mile, but decided I needed to. It wasn’t too far back. 

Legedu had a blast, and attracted more attention that I ever could possibly hope to quell. He is seriously the world’s most beautiful German Shepherd or something, because I’ve never been able to go anywhere without drawing the attention of everyone nearby. He made friends with a little mini puppy too. It was smaller than his head. 

My favorite person to talk to was definitely Abdul from The Spice Caravan. He’s a culinary artist (a chef with creative skills) and he really understood why I travel. Abdul is from Egypt. I thought it was funny that he said his daughter had an American mentality… wouldn’t take no for an answer. I thought about it, and realized this really is a major norm in the US and a trait I definitely have as well. 

I got a colorful blanket from a man at the shop below. I liked his set-up so I decided to get one from him rather than someone else. He wanted to charge me over $100 for this blanket…

So I told him, “Sir, I only have $40 with me… and it is my entire budget for the week including food.”

“Okay, I’ll tell you what. $80.”

“I only have $40.″

“Well you’re on vacation so I’ll meet you in the middle. $60.”

“Dude. I live in my motorhome. I’m not on vacation. Don’t mistake me for a rich tourist.”

“You live in your motorhome?! No. I am so surprised. You are so brave”

We then had a long conversation about how I basically do not get paid to travel, write and take pictures.. as he was under the impression that I do. Eventually he let me pay $40 for the blanket, but the conversation was actually hilarious. I guess not many people are used to a female traveling alone with a dog.. or anyone traveling this much at all. 

The flea market took a good hour of my day (and my last $40), but it was worth the stop. I’ll post more photos from the artist displays and some of the more interesting shops in the next day. 

I went to Alabama to see my best friend Catrina. We’ve been friends for about 10 years now. When I first got there, Catrina was still at work, so I walked in to say hi. I must have looked just as bad as I felt after my breakdown fiascos, because on her break she came out to my RV and told me, “I got us a hotel room. Go take a shower.” 

I guess driving for 2 days with the windows down and getting under an RV on and off made me look a little… messy. So she got us a hotel room for the whole weekend and we hung out like old times. 

While I was there, I had to fly back to San Diego to attend my grandfather’s funeral, leaving Legedu with a dog sitter that I found on DogVacay. I was worried at first, but it was the best dog sitting experience I’ve ever had. He loved it there. 

When I got back from San Diego, I was supposed to clean the RV and get ready for my trek to Myrtle Beach in order to make it on time for the kick-off concert at the Carolina Country Music Festival. Well.. I made it, but barely. On the day I had set aside to clean the whole RV, I woke up with the flu. I didn’t get out of bed, and I barely did any work or school work. 

The next day I drove straight through Alabama and Georgia to stop at a Walmart just inside of South Carolina for the night. Of course another thunderstorm was on its way, so I needed to hunker down anyway. Around midnight I realized there was no way I could sleep without cold medication. I was just TOO sick.

It started to pour. The parking lot was covered in at least an inch of water everywhere. I ran for it. Inside, attempting to choose a cold medication was like trying to choose a grain of sand off the beach. I was too sick to even think about it. Eventually I landed on Nyquil severe cold and flu and Theraflu. Back at the RV I took both… forgetting that I had already taken Mucinex DM. 

Suddenly my phone made a sound I’ve never heard it make before. I jumped and then saw what it was. FLASH FLOOD WARNING. I looked around. 2 inches of water in the parking lot, and it was raining even harder. Worried, I stayed awake for another 2 hours before I finally melted into a deep, drug induced sleep. My alarm was set for 4am so I could wake up and check my flood situation. At 4, I felt like I was drowning. My lungs barely functioned and my whole body felt water logged. But the parking lot had less than an inch of water in it by then.

At 7 when I had to get up to get on the road, I still could not function. I moved at a slower pace than a sloth. After my coffee and 2 hours of driving, my medication hangover wore off and I realized my mistake. I definitely nearly overdosed on cold medication. 

I finally arrived at Myrtle Beach with 2 hours until I needed to take a French exam online (in order to graduate), but I was exhausted and mentally inept. There was no way I was going to pass, but it was too late to cancel. I took a nap instead of studying more, and finished the test in 1/3 of the allotted time due to my inability to think straight. Needless to say… I failed. (Not to worry I will take it again mid-July). 

Then Zach and Joel showed up, bumping into the bike rack on the back of my RV, and getting out of the car in full-force laughter. It was a definite indication of how the whole weekend would go, and it was only Thursday night.  

The morning of our birthday, Zach and I picked up Zach’s friend, Khalid (who you’d remember from this video), literally from the middle of the street. I have no idea where he came from, but he hopped right in while we were stopped. 

Then we headed over to The Boathouse where we had the best chicken wonton rolls ever and mimosas for breakfast… and then shots for lunch. There was probably more food thrown in there too somewhere, but people hear birthday at a bar in Myrtle Beach and they say, SHOTS! Food is more of an afterthought. 

All the guys went outside for a while for a smoke break, so I made some new friends at the bar. A couple was sitting there laughing at my inability to take shots of Jagger, so they bought me a Jagger bomb.. I’d never had one before then, sadly. As it turns out, the woman was as old as my mom, but she looked nowhere near it (though neither does my mom), and it was her birthday too. What are the odds? 

By then, Joel and some other people had ridden arrived on jet skis, so we went on an off-road adventure to try finding a place to get them out of the water and get ourselves to the Carolina Country Music Festival. The details.. you may have seen on snapchat. If you didn’t, then you really missed out. For now they’re a secret. 

We failed to find a place to pull the jet skis out so we headed back to the RV to catch an Uber a total of 2 miles down the road to CCMF. I think out of all the groups of people I could have gone with, this was the most fun and the most.. outspoken about how much fun we were all having? 

That day was a roller coaster of events, the lineup was awesome and the night ended with a midnight group swim in the Atlantic Ocean. (Although retrospectively, given the recent shark influx, that was not the wisest decision.) 

I looked up at the moon, a caramelized sugar cookie tauntingly suspended in the sky, I was hungry too. But I realized how happy I was to be standing there in that moment. I made it, coast to coast. From the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic.. I stood listening to the waves crash for a minute more before I heard many more people splashing around behind me. A group of high schoolers decided our midnight swim was a good idea and followed us in. It was time to go.

The Shenandoah National Park was just as I expected: crowded. Needless to say, I did not get any quiet time. Children were running around everywhere, screaming, playing.. which is all fine and dandy, but I wanted to chill. I wasn’t happy. After I got a fire going things quieted down though and I got to enjoy my campfire time for a while. 

At 6am that Saturday morning, I woke up ready to go on a sunrise hike… only to find that the tail end of a thunderstorm was lingering. There was no way I could hike an unknown trail in that or even the muddy aftermath of that. So I slept another hour and woke up to the sun streaming brightly in through the windows. 

I enjoyed walking along the trail for about a half-mile, and then I looked down and saw tons (TONS) of slimy yellowish-brown slug-looking things. I was afraid to look closer, but I did anyway. Leeches. Everywhere. Leeches. I looked behind me - leeches. When did I enter into the leech kingdom? 

I walked faster, but it never seemed to end. Finally I got to a more open area where the trail split and there was a clearing in the leech patch. I only had another mile and a half until I go to the waterfall so I kept going. There were less leeches on my way back, but they were still everywhere.  

I took quite a few awesome photos of this NP, but I haven’t even looked at them yet. I’ll post them next week or so. 

The next day I left from the Shenandoah National Park to go into Washington, DC. DC was more of a work/school trip than anything. I mainly took care of my life while I was there, but I did get to do two days of complete tourism. 

Last year when I was in DC, I took some of the best National Monument shots ever, so I wasn’t exactly in photography mode this time around. Click on any one of these number to see a photoset 1 2 3 4 5 6

I made some new friends while I was there too. On the metro, I found a group staying at the same place as me who was going to the Spy Museum, so I asked to tag along. I wanted to explore, but exploring alone isn’t always appealing. It was great, they were really fun awesome people. You may have seen Maddie’s post to me last week about that day. The Spy Museum itself is a little silly, though still fun to see once. 

Washington, DC is truly a wonderful city. If you haven’t been, go. Watch Congress in action in person, it’s totally worth the long wait and irritating security. Visit the national mall, see all the monuments, go to Bullfeathers and have a burger while trying to spot a member of Congress, visit the Dubliner and meet someone at the bar who works for DoD or Homeland Security! Just go, it’s exciting and you never know who you’ll run into. I love Washington, DC. 

I stayed there for about a week before I headed north. My next destination was Attleboro, MA to visit some friends. I wanted to bypass NYC so that I could make it to New England by the fourth of July, so I bypassed NYC… I was not so lucky as to bypass the tolls. DO NOT EVER drive an RV through the NYC area. You will pay more in tolls than you would have paid in gas to go around. 

I digress. I broke down before I even made it to New York. I was driving along in the middle of New Jersey, when my engine decided to start acting up again. She wouldn’t go above 45 mph, a dangerous speed for the Jersey Turnpike, so I pulled off the road and let the engine sit for an hour. 

This hour would cost me the very small window of opportunity I had to avoid traffic. By the time I got to Connecticut, there was traffic all the way from the Jersey Shore to Boston going north. It was a nightmare. I didn’t make it to Massachusetts until the next afternoon. 

It is here that I have been residing ever since the weekend of the 4th. I took Murphy to AAMCO the morning after and discovered that the weird, sluggish engine trouble I’d been having, the trouble I said I really really hoped wasn’t my transmission, was definitely my transmission. AAMCO wanted $3-$4K to take apart the tranny, diagnose and repair. This was it, this was the end. 

I told the owner of the AAMCO, I just couldn’t afford it and he handed me my keys back. With despair in my voice, I handed him my card and told him he could read about my travels online, but he unfortunately already knew the end to the story. He stared at me for a second. Stared at the card for longer. Then he looked at me again. 

“I’ll fix it for free,” he said. 

Shock enveloped me. “No. Really?” 

“Yeah, let me have your keys.” 

“Really?” I said again. I couldn’t believe it. 

“Yes,” he smiled. 

I ran out of there so fast, afraid he would change his mind. But he didn’t. 

It’s amazing to me how kind people are. On this whole journey, I’ve met more kind-hearted and giving people than I ever did sitting around in California. If I hadn’t run into such luck, I’d have had to stop traveling when I broke down in Mississippi/Memphis. 

Unfortunately, free transmission work will only help me get stable in a stationary capacity for now. Today I become an official Rhode Islander. For the past few months, I’ve been living in (and out of) my RV making myself temporary homes all over the country. I crossed the lines of over 20 states and broke down in at least 5 of them… By no means does this mean I’m giving up. I just decided it was time for a break, a new place, time to write and there’s a lot to do in the north east that I just didn’t want to miss out on… besides, I ran out of money. So this is not the end, but it is to be continued…

Living on the road is really exciting. 
It’s also really painful. 

I spent the past 2 days sitting and driving. With a bad back, that’s just torture. I’m paying for it now. 

I did get to drive through the Petrified Forest though and that was gorgeous. I’ll post photos periodically as usual, but here’s a sneak peak: 

I also found out I was ON Route 66… I think I still am actually. I don’t know. But this car was pretty fun to stumble upon. 

And I FINALLY got to see an Arizona sunset since the skies were clear. 

I was so excited to cross the border of New Mexico, that I just kept driving until I did. I stopped about 10 miles over the border to sleep for the night… only to wake up the next morning to another coolant leak…. 

…Which I found out I could not fix. This time it was the radiator hose AND another one I couldn’t reach. Good Sam sent a mobile mechanic who helped me out. I had to go to the shop eventually because they couldn’t even find the leak without taking off the air filter. 

Thankfully it was only a hose and I made it to the first New Mexico destination on my list. I think I’m going to take an entire day to unwind my back before I attempt any fun activities though. I forget sometimes that I’m disabled. 

The day after my failed attempt at getting Murphy fixed, I got up at 6am and went to MHC Ford in Memphis, TN. Once again, this was an all day service trip, so when I got hungry I figured I could walk to Burger King 2 blocks away. I told the service manager my plans, and he blurted out, “No you’re not.” 

Apparently prostitution is prominent on this particular road in memphis and abductions are a common occurrence. I was definitely not walking to Burger King, but they gave Legedu and me a ride. Since I left California, I think I’ve had the best luck with mechanics anyone could possibly hope for. 

Eventually Murphy was up and running better, so I headed to the Graceland RV park and bought my ticket to see the home of The King the next morning. 

As mesmerized as I was to see this place, it was much too similar to Disneyland. By 11am so many people were in the house that you couldn’t really walk around at all. I was happy I got there when they opened at 9am, but I was so irritated a few hours later that I couldn’t wait to leave. Crowds THAT crowded make me really uncomfortable. 

At his grave site, I teared up a little bit. It’s rough being born too late to witness someone that awesome in person. I’ve loved Elvis ever since Sydney (you remember Sydney) introduced me to his legacy. Elvis was is the sh*t. 

That night I HAD to try Marlowe’s, mostly because they would pick me up in a pink limo… 

But also because Elvis used to eat there. In the pink limo, I met a couple that was picked up from The Hearbreak Hotel. They invited me to eat with them and then to stay on their farm in Virginia sometime. Unfortunately I think I lost their contact info. 

Anyway, the next day I left and headed back into Mississippi to make my way to central Alabama. 30 miles down the highway, I realized I was smelling gas. I hadn’t gotten any on my hands, so I stopped to check for a leak… again. 

Just behind the front tire on the driver’s side gas was nearly pouring from underneath. Awesome. 

I just laughed and took a snapchat of it. Of course this would happen to me. 

I went back inside the RV and called my new good friends at MHC Ford. They did just replace the fuel pump.. maybe something got messed up in the process. They called a tow service and I eventually made it back to their service center at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. 

Apparently someone tried to rig my fuel line after severing the end of it… which I was aware of, but was told was fixed by the jerk mechanics back in California who caused a few other issues too (you’ll remember this one which they refused to help fix).

MHC replaced my fuel like for free and helped me file a claim with Good Sam to get the tow paid for. It was not their fault, but they did their best to help me out. Good people make bad situations so much more tolerable. 

I headed toward Alabama and ended up in Tupelo, Mississippi, the birthplace of Elvis Presley. I was too tired to drive any more so I pulled over under a bright light at Walmart and slept until 7am. The next day I finally made it into Alabama, and I looked and felt like I’d been through hell to get there. I’m telling you, Mississippi is a freaky place… I think the gate to Hell is hidden there. 

There’s something about being in the middle of nowhere that is completely calming. People said the “Taos Hum” came from the mountains to the north, so that’s where I headed. I really wanted to see if I could hear it. I’m still under the impression that I heard it, but it’s really just the wind and water rushing through the mountains.

At the Rio Grande National Monument, BLM Wild Rivers Recreation area, I found the perfect campsite, overlooking the river, with no one around… and then 10 minutes later an old couple decided to camp at the only other campsite nearby. The lady walked by and Legedu tried to attack her, naturally. He’s a guard dog and she decided to camp near us in the middle of nowhere..

Later I saw them hiking and the lady asked, “Does your dog just not like people?” as he licked her hand.

“No, he’s just my guard dog. Come near my RV and he’ll bark at you.”

“He wasn’t just barking he was,” and she bared her own teeth and made a chomping motion with her hand as if it was his jaw.

“Well, yeah. That’s his job.” I was confused about why she was so confused.

She didn’t respond, just looked mad.

“Sorry he scared you, but maybe you shouldn’t have decided to walk so close to my campsite.”

They walked away, and they made a wide circle around me from then on out.

People are dumb. You see a big-ass dog tied up with a chick alone and you better bet it’s there for security. Don’t act offended because you did the idiotic thing and decided to encroach on my alone time when there was plenty of forest to go around.

Anyway, Legedu loved camping at the Rio Grande just as much as I did.

We went on a nice morning hike after I attempted to stay up all night to take pictures of the stars. I took about 400 photos… so some of those will definitely be posted periodically.

I’m really happy I stopped at the Rio Grande. The river seemed to be alive, and I was able to watch a wildfire from afar. Ironically it was in the other end of the forest, where I was also debating camping. Looks like I chose the right spot, but the smell brought back memories of losing my home in the 2007 SoCal Wildfires. I had about an hour of major anxiety for no reason.

Fortunately once I had my campfire going, I forgot all about it. ESPECIALLY once my Chef Boyardee was ready. YUM. I spent the night writing and relaxing… Much needed relaxing…