Gilroy and Morgan Hill

Today we had a pretty late start, heading out for lunch a little after midday and then heading down to the outlet stores in Gilroy for a little shopping.



After we finished up at Gilroy, we headed to Morgan Hill where we met up with David and Nicole to check out their property in the hills overlooking the town. This is a pretty steep property on the side of a large hill, and this in turn means that it has some awesome views of the valley, lake and town laid out in front of it, which only get better the higher up you go.



About half way down the property, is a Divco van that David has been trying to identify, mostly because he'd like to get it off the property and into someone else's hands, but in order to do that he needs to properly identify it, including locating some sort of identification, such as a VIN or chassis number. These vans were also built in a very similar body style for well over 20 years, making picking the actual year of production quite a challenge. This particular van was fitted with some sort of flathead 6 cylinder motor, fitted with an updraught carburettor and appears to have most recently been used as a dry cleaning van. However, we've been unable to find any information on the company "New Process Laundry and Dry Cleaners" who's name appears on the side of the van, although a new clue did turn up tonight, with a much smaller logo for "Gallager co" and the text SF 510. 510 being an area code for part of the Bay Area, this could indicate that the company that painted the vehicle was from the Bay Area.



After heading back to the top of the property, we drove down to Morgan Hill, picked up the Cadillac, which we'd left back in civilisation in case there wasn't enough room to turn the big old girl around at the top, and grabbed some gelato before heading back to David and Nicole's for the night.



Tomorrow we're off to the GoodGuys West Coast Nationals in Pleasanton and will drop in to John's 1/4lb Char Burger in Livermore to catch the weekly cruise in there.

Saying Goodbye to the Salt

Of course, all good things must come to an end, and eventually we had to leave Wendover and the Bonneville Salt Flats. Before we did however, we paid a visit to the Wendover Airport and their small museum devoted to the World War II history of the town, including the training of the B29 crews involved in delivering the first nuclear weapons used over the towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.



When we left Wendover, we headed west towards our next overnight stop in Winnemucca, Nevada, but along the way we had to stop off in the town of Elko, where one of our friends has been living for several years. Lee and Sherry are now back home in Perth, but it was good to see the town they've called home for the last five or so years.



Our overnight stop was a small motel in Winnemucca called the Town House Motel, and it was a very refreshing surprise after the accommodation in Wendover. Of all the things Wendover has to offer, it appears great accommodation deals during SpeedWeek aren't one of them, so clean, fresh smelling rooms with wifi provided were a great surprise in Winnemucca.

Time To Head For The Salt

After our overnight stop in Beaver, Utah, we headed on north towards the cities of Wendover (Utah) and West Wendover (Nevada) and the Bonneville salt flats. The state border is in the middle of the town, resulting in a very small town with 2 post offices, a handful of casino's on the Nevada side, and not much more to offer to the casual tourist. There are actually more things to do in Wendover than just gamble and race on the salt, but I suspect 99% of visitors to the town would never discover that.



The flight crews that flew the Enola Gay and Bockscar B29 Bombers to Hiroshima and Nagasaki trained at Wendover, and there's a small museum at the former air force base explaining some of the history of the area. There's also a local drag strip, but neither of these were the primary reason for our visit to the Wendover area.



Racers have been chasing land speed records at Bonneville since 1914, and the Southern California Timing Association have been running 2 events a year for many years now, one of those being August's SpeedWeek event. This year, over 500 teams entered for SpeedWeek, including 200 rookie teams. This was also the first time for me at SpeedWeek, and I had been looking forward to it since making the decision to come here almost a year ago.

Nine Sleeps To Go

We're now into the single digits of the countdown to The Bonneville Run, with only 9 more sleeps to go. We have booked all the accommodation from when we leave San Jose on the 3rd of August until we depart Bakersfield after the Famoso Raceway Summer Nationals.

Along the way we'll be spending a few days in Los Angeles, checking out the Petersen Automotive Museum, the Wally Parks NHRA Museum, visiting the Moon Eyes shop and the Bobs Big Boy in Downey. We're also planning on getting to a Dodgers game while we're in town and have a few other things on the list as well.

After we leave Los Angeles, we're off towards Las Vegas, taking time out to stop in at Bakersfield and Death Valley along the way. We have hotel rooms booked in Beatty, Nevada, just a little way outside Death Valley and only a couple of miles from the Rhyolite Ghost Town, which I intend to visit around sunset and hang around to take a few night photos.

In Las Vegas, we've booked a couple of nights at the Bellagio hotel and casino, home to the famous dancing fountains. We haven't made many plans for our time in Las Vegas yet, but will sort that out a little more while we're on the road. Once we leave Las Vegas, we are spending a night in a cabin on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and then heading north to Bonneville.

The Bonneville Salt Flats are located just outside the town of West Wendover, on the border of Utah and Nevada. They are home to the fastest land based motorsport on the planet, with many world land speed records being set here. We arrive in town on the Friday of the Southern California Timing Associations SpeedWeek event.

We have hotel rooms booked in West Wendover though till Tuesday morning, which is when we say goodbye to the salt and head onwards with the road trip. We have rooms booked on the southern shores of Lake Tahoe and at historic Wawowa hotel in California's Yosemite National Park. After we leave Yosemite, we're headed onwards to Bakersfield and the Famoso Auto Club's Famoso Raceway, home to the ANRA's Summer Nationals, a huge 2 day Nostalgia drag race meeting.

After we leave Bakersfield, we're probably going to make a few things up as we go along, thats where the booked accommodation runs out for now, unless we decide to add a few nights somewhere else as well. We are planning on getting to John's Charburger in Livermore for a Friday night cruise in the weekend after Bakersfield, and there's also a GoodGuys show in Pleasanton that weekend, so we might hit that up as well. I'd also like to head back down to Santa Cruz and Monterey, and perhaps spend some more time around that area, maybe as an overnight trip during the week, instead of going back and forth each day.

While we're back in North California's Bay Area, I'd love to get to the San Francisco 49ers' preseason game against the San Diego Chargers on the 2nd of September, and there are a number of things around the San Francisco area that I'd like to see, both things we didn't know about last time and things that we went and saw last time, but I'd like to see again. We'll nut out some of those ideas over a few drinks while we're on the road and come up with some sort of game plan at a later date.

At either end of the trip, we also have a lengthy stop over in Auckland, New Zealand, between flights, and on the way across, we've booked a hire car for the day and will spend some time exploring Auckland before returning to the airport to wait for our flights to San Francisco.

100 Days

Today marks 100 days until we fly out from Perth International Airport, to begin 'The Bonneville Run', including our trip to the Southern California Timing Association's Bonneville Speed Week 2010.



We still have to book our accommodation in Las Vegas and for a fair bit of the rest of the trip, but we're getting more and more things planned out every day. We now have a fairly good idea of the places we want to visit in Los Angeles and are working out the best way to make that happen without going crazy in traffic. We have chosen, but not yet booked, our accommodation in Las Vegas, and that will be coming soon.



Our current plan is to spend 2 nights in Las Vegas checking out the night life and the lights of the Strip. When we leave Las Vegas, we're heading to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which is a slightly less popular spot with the tourists than the South Rim and consequently has less options for accommodation, so we're going to have to book that pretty soon also. I'll post up more information about where we're staying in Las Vegas and elsewhere on the trip as we book it.

We Know Where We Are Staying

OK, so the title is a little extreme, we know where we're staying in Bonneville, we're still working out the rest of the trip. Yesterday morning I got a tip from a mate that The Red Garter hotel and casino in West Wendover had a very limited number of rooms remaining for SpeedWeek 2010. They're also the casino in West Wendover that does not have an online booking system, perhaps the two are related, perhaps not.



After a short phone call this morning, complete with the standard accent issues that come up whenever I'm on the phone to the US, I managed to secure a single queen bed room for the nights we're in town, and immediately tipped off Darrell, who is travelling with us, and within about five minutes, he'd also booked a room at The Red Garter.

Less Than 5 Months To Go..

The days are starting to go by rather quickly, with under 5 months to go now until we fly out, we've still only actually booked the airfares, but we're close to booking a few more things, and we've got some more dates confirmed for some other events we're planning on attending.



The first event we're adding to the list is in Los Angeles on Wednesday the 4th of August. It's a cruise in at the Wally Parks NHRA museum at Pomona, and attracts hot rods, muscle cars, kustoms and street machines from all over the Los Angeles area.



In order to make it to Los Angeles in time for the Wally Parks Museum Cruise In, we've had to change our plans for the trip south from San Jose. Instead of spending a night in Bakersfield on the way to LA, we'll instead be going almost directly from San Jose to LA and visiting Bakersfield after we've left Bonneville. This actually works out quite well, as another event that we're very keen on attending is the ANRA's Summer Nationals at the Famoso Auto Club Raceway in Bakersfield, on August 21st and 22nd. This is a dedicated Nostalgia race meeting, and reports from those who have attended in the past suggest that it is an event not to be missed.



After Bakersfield we'll be heading back up to San Jose to relax and check out some of the sights of the San Francisco Bay area, including a planned trip to Sacramento Vintage Ford, a visit to the San Jose Flea Markets, one of, if not the, biggest flea markets in the world. Also on the short list for things to do around the Bay, is another visit to Alcatraz, as I believe that a single visit is not enough time to really come to terms with the history of The Rock.



Between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, we plan to visit Death Valley, Las Vegas, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the Bonneville Salt Flats, Lake Tahoe and Yosemite National Park. We're also very keen to get to the GoodGuys Hot Rod show in Pleasanton the weekend after the ANRA round in Bakersfield, and Kate would like to see a Dodgers game in LA. I'd also like to catch a 49er's game in San Francisco, or at least take a stadium tour, if such a thing exists, but the schedule for the 2010/11 NFL season isn't available yet, so we'll see what ends up happening there.

Welcome to "The Bonneville Run"

The Bonneville Run is a trip being planned for August 2010. The basic aim of this trip is to fly in to San Jose and embark upon a road trip that travels a number of US states and places us at the Bonneville Salt Flats for SpeedWeek 2010.



Along the way, we intend visiting San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Death Valley and the Hoover Dam, as well as stopping in to a number of speed shops along the way.

Also, we had a good time at John's Char Burger in Livermore last year, so will head out there again on a Friday night, probably coinciding with the GoodGuys Pleasanton show.



Further details will be added shortly, so please keep checking back for more info, and if you want to be involved, more information on that will be coming soon too...