Southwest 

This blog covers our trip through the southwest during spring 2025. We drove 7,369 miles across 16 states during this six week trip, starting on March 22 and ending on May 3. During the trip, we visited many historical sites and cities, 8 national parks, and several state parks, The blogs are divided into seven parts: 1) Driving to Nashville, 2) The Natchez Trace and Baton Rouge, 3) Texas and Southern New Mexico, 4) Southern Arizona, 5) Las Vegas, Petrified Forest, and Santa Fe, 6) Hot Springs, Little Rock, and Memphis, and 7) Mammoth Cave and New River Gorge National Parks.

A few new experiences we added for this trip were the creation of a more permanent full-size bed, a smaller sitting area with new cushions, a plug-in 12V inverter in the back of the van to have one constant electrical outlet (we don’t have a built-in inverter), and taking e-bikes on this trip. The bed and electrical outlet worked great. The new cushions needed extra padding, and we decided to sell the e-bikes as they were too heavy and bulky for our needs. You can read more about our e-bike experience and thoughts here.