Three Months and Counting

With three months to go until we fly out on The Bonneville Run, now is the time when we wanted to be making sure most of our bigger accomodation expenses were booked. With that in mind, last night we booked a room at the Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas for 2 nights of the trip. The Lakeview Deluxe room we booked would normally have cost us US$200 a night plus taxes and resort fees, but we managed to find a promotional code with a tiered discount on offer depending on how far in advance you were booking, which in our case gave us 25% off the room rate, saving us US$50 per night.

Our remaining multi-night bookings are now Los Angeles at the start of the trip and Bakersfield the weekend after we leave West Wendover. I would also like to book our room at the Grand Canyon sooner, rather than later, as there are a limited number of rooms there, in fact, it looks like we missed out on my preferred room before we'd even decided we wanted to stay there.

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.

Yet Another Update

Well, it's been almost two weeks since the last post, and we haven't too many more plans for "The Bonneville Run" yet, but we're also almost at the point where we could sort the rest out once we land. At the moment, there are three of us going on "The Bonneville Run", and at least 8 other West Australian's that are heading to the United States at the same time. We'll be catching up with some of these guys and girls in Los Angeles, and all of them at Bonneville.



Kate and I have decided that we would like to spend at least one night in a "Wigwam Motel", and the one major thing we've done since the last update on "The Bonneville Run" is to book a room at one of these historic motels. The Wigwam Motels are part of a chain of motels that used to be spread out along the length of the historic Route 66. These days, only 3 Wigwam Motels remain, and only one of these is anywhere near where we'll be on this trip. Wigwam Motel number 7 is located in San Bernardino, on the eastern outskirts of Los Angeles, and it will be our accommodation on our last night in LA, as it will also allow us to travel outside of peak traffic times. If you're interested in staying a night at Wigwam Motel number 7, in San Bernardino, then check out their website and don't forget the discount code on their rates and reservations page.

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.

Where We're Going and How We're Getting There.

It's looking a lot like we're flying out of Perth on the 31st of July, spending approximately 13 hours in Auckland before flying out again and landing in San Francisco on the 1st of August, spending a couple of days in and around San Jose recovering, then heading out on the road trip...



First stop is Yosemite, where we'll be spending a night, then heading down to Bakersfield, probably spending the night there.

After Bakersfield it's a relatively short drive to LA for a few nights, then off to try to follow some of the old Route 66 out to Barstow 'on the edge of the desert' and up to Death Valley, where we plan to stay for the night before heading for Vegas for a few days, including a day trip out to Hoover Dam.



After Vegas, it's up to Wendover, on the Nevada-Utah border, for SpeedWeek at Bonneville. We'll probably be at Bonneville for about 4 or 4 days before heading west, heading through Sacramento and back to San Francisco and San Jose.

We're planning on getting to Bonneville on either the 13th or the 14th of August (the 14th is the first day of racing on the salt). We're also planning on getting to the GoodGuys show at Pleastanton on the 27th to 29th of August.

Aside from that, we intend to fit in a couple of day trips up to San Francisco and down to places like Monterey and Santa Cruz.



We should be flying back into Perth on the 6th of September (my birthday - at least this one will be longer than 4 hours, last time we crossed the international date line on my birthday and skipped forwards a day at about 4am)