San Bernardino to Death Valley

This morning, we actually made an early start for a change, hitting the road around 8am. However we didn't take long to get sidetracked, stopping at a local MacDonalds for breakfast. San Bernardino is the city in which Richard and Maurice MacDonald opened their first restaurant, however, this was not that particular MacDonalds. That said, this particular restaurant was certainly a throwback in decor to something I've not seen since the mid 1980's.



After breakfast, we hit the highway, planning to stop just up the road at Victorville to fill the Cadillac at the local Costco and grab some more water before getting into the journey proper. I also was keen to visit that little town on the edge of the desert where 'the drugs began to take hold', Barstow. Barstow is definitely what you would call an 'interesting' town, it's certainly got the appearance of a town that has suffered since the demise of Route 66, however there are also signs that not all the money is gone and some companies are still investing in the town and it's people. This is about where we departed from the former Route 66, as the 'Mother Road' heads south east to Nevada, while we would initially head back to the west before taking a north eastern route into the Silver State, passing through towns such as Boron and Pearsonville (home to the legendary Pearsonville Junkyard, which would be instantly recognisable to those familiar with the work of night photographer Troy Paiva).



On the trip through Death Valley, we would climb to over 5000 feet before descending to approximately 1200 feet, then climbing to around 4500 feet and dropping to 100 feet below sea level, around the Stovepipe Wells area. Stovepipe Wells is reportedly the hottest part of Death Valley, peaking at 106 degrees Fahrenheit today (Around 41 Celsius degrees for those playing along at home in Australia). Heading out of Stovepipe Wells we had a few more climbs and descents before we were finally out of the danger zone for the Cadillacs cooling system, which had been put under a little stress thanks to some slower drivers refusing to get out of the way on the long climbs.



Once out of the Death Valley National Park, we had only a short drive to the Motel 6 in Beatty, Nevada, just past the Rhyolite ghost town, which we detoured back to after checking in to our Motel rooms. We stopped in at Rhyolite just after dark and managed to get a few long exposure shots in and marvelled at just how many planes cross over that area at night, whether commercial, military or 'other'. We're now back at the Motel 6 and headed for bed, with another long day tomorrow, hoping to get an early start to check out Scotty's Castle in Death Valley, before pushing on to Las Vegas, where our rooms at the Bellagio await.

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.

5 Weeks To Go, Then 5 Weeks In The USA

We've just slipped inside the 5 week mark for The Bonneville Run. With the exception of 2 nights while we're on the road, the rooms are booked. The Cadillac has been dropped off at a San Jose workshop where it will be serviced to make sure it will survive the trip and we've been buying up as much American currency as we can get our hands on.



We've been researching fairly heavily and are adding new places to our lists of things to do and places to visit every day. We've probably got enough stuff on there now to fill our schedule quite easily, however we're still looking for more suggestions.

Tickets Are Booked!

Just a quick update, as k8 and I have now booked our flights to California. We have not yet booked any accommodation, but the major part of the trip is now confirmed. If anyone is planning on joining us, or doing their own thing around the same time, you could do a lot worse than the specials Air New Zealand have on at the moment. We paid au$1519 each, including all taxes and charges, even the credit card surcharge. For reference, the price before taxes and charges, as thats what everyone quotes, was au$1378. The best price available on qantas.com.au for the same trip, same days, is currently au$2400 return.



We are leaving Perth (Australia) in the evening of the 31st of July, we spend 12 hours in Auckland the next day, and after crossing the international date line, we land in San Francisco around 1pm on the 1st of August. We fly out of SF about 9pm on the 4th of September, and spend about 9 hours in Auckland this time, before landing at home in the evening of the 6th of September (which also happens to be my birthday)