Monday... 28th? Turn left, turn right, turn left, turn right...

So we were almost in Redding for no real reason, so we decided to go all the way west, for no real reason. Undecided on whether we were shooting for Sacremento or San Franciso next, we did the only logical thing and headed for neither. From Redding we took the 299 to the 3 and down to the 36... What that means in reality is we headed out again on the north California forest and rural roads and headed for the ocean. It was, undeniably, nice and green after the other states... But, as I did point out to my driving partner, it was mostly through parks, which are, as we discovered yesterday, scenic but slow... And indeed, as soon as we started climbing into the trees, progress slowed to half speed, or even one third speed, as we curved back and forth and climbed up and down, up and down... Sounds like fun, and indeed it was, but with 450 miles or so to cover, suddenly time went very slow... And then we hit roadworks with the roads closed for ten or twenty minutes... Not once, not twice, three times... So we looked at this quite a lot...

That's Lake Shasta by the way. Scenic. 

And then there were farms 

And then there were hills. And corners. 

  

Finally we made it to Fortuna, and had a tasty turkey and ham sandwich at the local Cafe... Fortuna like most of the little towns up that was pretty cute, obviously catering to city visitors but with not much else going on. All through the endless forest roads out there we were constantly perplexed by how many Americans somehow live in these remote areas in houses in the trees, and in remote valleys, and in farms with apparently no animals... Whole villages in the forest, with no visible means of support. Goodness knows how they make a living, but apparently they do. 

The 101 south from Fortuna was blessedly wide and straight... Briefly. Before long, it was windier than the roads from the morning. I was just hauling the Challenger left to right to left to right, my copilot remarkably tolerant of my driving which kept me entertained but was too fast to be comfortable on such endlessly steep windy roads. Eventually we found ourselves in Redwood country, and even found the famous drive-through tree, which was cool... No idea how they got old American cars through though...

                  

                                         

Fort Bragg was pretty, and it was in fact nice to be at sea level and see the ocean after being so high up and so far inland for so long... Pointing the car for Sacramento we fought our way through more windy stuff around the side of Clear Lake, another playground, then down into the lush valley of vines and orchards (and enormous golfing resort/casinos) that led to Woodland... Which was yet another nice and seemingly pretty well-off little Cali town, where a motel was easy enough to find and we were finally out of the saddle again.

Another 450 miles covered and a dash of Carls Jr for tea... Philly cheesesteak burger - if you fancy suicide by burger, it is pretty darn good. And the caramel and sea salt shake... Awesome!!! They are officially approved, unlike a bunch of other stuff so far consumed and regretted...

Reno westward... a couple more days to catch up on...

In fairness to Reno I guess I have to say it was slightly better in the morning light after putting the action packed previous day behind us... But in reality, it wasn't that much better, and still generally came across as all the rejects from Vegas in one spot... In fact Nevada as a whole really just seems to be a big empty space that happens to have Vegas in it... Sorry Nevada... I am sure the snow is good.

On the bright side though, we did decide to swing by the National Auto Museum before we left Reno, and while we didn't really expect that much, we were pretty darn pleasantly surprised. The cars are mostly from the once-ridiculous private collection of Bill Harrah, of Harrah's casinos... I believe he had something like 1400 cars at once stage including some of the rarest and most valuable in the world... When he died Harrah's started to sell them off but after a major outcry by collectors and the public a couple of hundred were donated for a museum, and they are pretty cool. Ok some are downright incredible. I went camera-nuts again...

       

                                 

        

Plus about 400 others... I have to say on this trip I have gotten to take photos of some of the most awesome cars on the planet, it has been pretty amazing... Cords, Dusenbergs, Auburns, Cobras, GT40s, one-off Rolls's, Delahayes, a Tucker, awesome rods, vintage Euros and Americana...

The quick trip the museum ended up taking nearly four hours, cutting into our driving day somewhat... Then on the way out of town I decided we also needed to stop at Cabelas before we left Nevada... Cabelas being a huge outdoors, hunting and fishing and camping and... Well, everything outdoors ever... Store... Where we were once again captured for quite some time marvelling at how cheap everything was and how much we got ripped off at home. I struggled to resist just buying a huge bag full of stuff just cause... as it was, what I did buy was about as third of the price of at home. Oh so many hundreds and hundreds of nice guns... And everything to do with guns.... And much other cool stuff. All I can say is - 30 round M4 magazines - $14.... They had literally a pallet of them... 250 shotgun rounds $60... Etc. I will discuss how much we get ripped off for everything later... Or now... yeah, a tank of gas costs $60 here... A pack of smokes costs $6... A six pack of beer costs $6... Two gallons of milk is $8... A pair of good jeans is $30... Fruit is measured in cents per kilo not dollars... And explain this to me... A Powerade, which is MADE at home, not imported, is like $4... I saw a special here at the supermarket... Powerade... $8... For TWO PACKS OF EIGHT BOTTLES. 

Anyway, rant aside, Cabelas was good... We ate in their cafe, I had a smoked bison sandwich, it was damn good. On leaving there we bailed to the border and into California, and turned north again from Truckee, taking a majorly scenic back road to Redding, which was nice, through much forest and what is a major winter playground when the snow is down... Lots of scenic valleys, farms, cute towns, creeks and trees, etc etc... So pretty much the opposite of Nevada. On the downside the road was often steep and windy, and getting anywhere took some time... 

At one point we were up in the snow a bit and had the choice to take the more scenic route over the very top of the volcano or turn and head around the side and down. Gas was going to be tight, it was getting a bit late, and the weather was not looking flash... Uncharacteristically (after the disasters of the day before) I decided to be sensible and turned back and took the shorter easier route down. Within ten minutes we were getting hammered by hail and freezing rain, meaning that if we had continued up  the other route we would most likely have been caught in a massive dumping of snow at the peak of the mountain, on an empty road, at dusk... So I do make the occasional good call. The road was also something like 250 miles long as it was... So we arrived tired and pretty late. Happily we found a motel with no drama this time, and then swung by Taco Bell for a feed... Which I approved of. Taco Bell can actually be good, if the staff actually give a crap... 

So that was Sunday (I think? Was it Sunday?), well that's all that comes to mind right now anyway... and now I will have to leave today for tomorrow. If that makes sense... 

Farewell Utah... I will have words for you later...

We rose this morning and packed with a vague plan to head from Kanab via Cedar City into Nevada and head generally for Reno, seeing what we could see on the way. On opening the door of our well heated motel room, I noted it was indeed raining, and cold... Hmm... Ok... The lady in the office said there would be rain all day, maybe even a touch of snow in places... Lucky we are getting out of here, we thought... 

Hitting the road, within about 15 minutes we started getting a bit of a dusting of light snow flakes... How nice, we thought, a little snow... 

On we travelled... Not wanting to get stuck in Kanab for days if the snow set in... We can get through a little snow we thought... Then a little more snow... Then a little more snow... Then...

And than we quickly got to the point that there was too much snow to turn back, or in fact go anywhere but in the wheel tracks ahead of us... And things got very slow... 

And trucks were stopped on hills because they could not make it to the top... And traffic got thinner and thinner... And there were cars in ditches... Fortunately when we finally got to the top of the range we had to go over, when we were pondering if in fact attempting to go down was a good idea, we came upon a snow plough coming the other way who turned around and helped clear the path... And yes, below is a cop checking on a car covered in snow that must have got stuck trying to get up the other side... Some time ago...

Eventually we were out and underway proper... Once in Nevada I for some reason elected to make our day even more interesting... On discovering the town of Ely was over 100 miles away and our gas was getting down, rather than turning back to the last gas station we passed, I summarily decided we had enough to get there... And spent the next hour and a half blasting along endless straight bits of road, slowly getting increasingly nervous as the needle dropped and dropped... And with literally no cars passing the other way. Or going in our direction. And passing about one farm house every 15 miles... The fuel light came on as we passed a sign saying the next junction (not town, just junction) was 23 miles away... So I decided there must be a gas station at the junction, because they always have warnings if it is THAT far between gas stations... We got there with the needle square on 'E'... No gas station. And over 20 miles to town... Hmm... At that point I had to bite the bullet... I pulled in to the only building for miles, a run down little roadhouse bar, and went and asked for gas... Sure enough they had some... But the guy said his boss only let him sell gas in 5 gallon amounts... And only for more than twice as much as the gas stations... With other choice, I bought 5 gals of gas for forty bucks... Which did seem a lot, til we realised that is probably still cheaper than at home from a legitimate thieving gas station. I asked if they had many people stopping asking for gas... "Oh yeah, probably a couple of hundred a year... Most days..."   Nice little racket being a black market gas station.

And what we then discovered, once fuelled and cracking along again, was that in Nevada there is a lot of really not very much... A couple of semi ok and mildly interesting little towns... But mostly, just a whole heap of prairies, plains, and then mountains, and then plains, and then mountains... Seriously... All day... 

Long, long straights... Ten, fifteen, twenty mile long straights... Then up into mountains, then down, to another straight... Over... And over... With nothing but the occsional cow. While in Utah we had taken to measuring how long the straights were to see who could drive the longest one (when we remembered to note mileage at the start)... The previous record was 12 miles... 9 and 10 were common... In Nevada my co driver first got a new record at 21 miles... Hard to beat... Until later in the day when  I came across one I am pretty sure was in excess of 30 miles... I am not entirely sure because it was probably 5 miles before I realised how long it was going to be and actually noted the mileage... And then I was so busy doing sums I failed to notice something else, and then I got distracted...

Note to self, when looking out for cops, do not look for white Utah Highway Patrol cars after you have crossed into Nevada... Their cars are black... Ok, so I can't really feel too bad for getting a speeding ticket while driving a white Challenger down the longest straight piece of road I have ever driven on in my life. I had, not long before, been thinking about how I could and should really be doing at least 100mph to do the car and the road any justice, because the speed limits are just stupidly low for huge, empty roads. Fortunately I was not doing 100mph... Annoyingly though, while I was slowing down a bit for most oncoming cars, which we could see from miles away on the flats, the Highway Patrol got me as I came over a rise, and I was so busy thinking about something else I didn't slow down like I usually would have, or even register him until his lights came on... He was nice enough though... He reduced the mph on the ticket, and after issuing it gave some handy advice about acceptable levels of speeding in Nevada. I am sure he has no shortage of customers as most Americans seem to regard the limits as optional

After that, endless more ten and fifteen mile straights linked by minor bends, on and on, and over more mountains... With little to see or do we forged ahead, not really intending to reach Reno, but with no reason to stop, until sure enough there we were, six hundred miles later, and still in daylight thanks to my heavy foot. Finding a motel or hotel proved nigh on impossible though, with a huge volleyball tournament and various other things taking up most of the hotels, and some of the places we did check out proving to be entirely too scummy even for us. Eventually after some frustration, we found a spot with one room left due to a cancellation... Not flash... Not at all... Smelling of smoke, next to the freeway.. But not quite so full of drug dealers and such, which is nice. Reno, great first impression. 

Anyways, too lazy to write much more and too tired to write it even vaguely well, so will stop being boring and end your suffering... Hi to all, and thanks for all the emails and such to says you are reading, hard to believe so many people keep coming back for some reason! Til next time...

It's hard remembering yesterday...

...after today... But yesterday was Friday and must cover that first... We rose early to enjoy the delights of Blanding... Laundromat... Which took much longer than we would have preferred, but now we have clothes again, so that is good. 

Then it was doubling back a bit to the scenic route to Monument Valley we planned to take earlier... Which didn't seem that scenic until we came around a corner on a shrubby plain and there was warning about unsealed road and slopes and corners... And then we found ourselves on the edge of this...

                                            

Note that is taken from passenger window, and that is the edge of the road, and no there is no barrier... We stopped the viewing point for a better look, at this -

                                        

Note the road curving back on itself going down the cliff... Once at the bottom we turned off on the dirt track you can see heading off to the left off the main road, into the Valley of the Gods... The Challenger did a bit of off-roading to get to these... 

After that little diversion it was back on the main road, looking at Navajo jewellery stalls along the way, then some more of these... 

                                 

Then we started making best speed for Arizona and the north lip of the Grand Canyon... We knew we would be pushing it to have enough daylight, so lunch was NOS energy drink and jerky (serious... I never drink energy drinks but since it is impossible to find decent coffee in America and even more so to find ice coffee or milk coffee, I have found myself drinking mostly Monster Energy canned energy coffee rubbish in big cans, which only vaguely tastes like coffee...) from there we didn't stop for much... Apart from a cool bridge... Actually two... 

                    

Until finally we made it to the turnoff to the north rim with just enough time to spare... and discovered that Grand Canyon National Park north is closed until May 15. Dicks. 

At this point we got stuck behind a bunch if geriatric accountants and dentists on a flipping Harley bike riding tour (reference South Park episode on Harley riders), along with their support van (how badass is that, being followed by a van with your luggage and a warning sign on the back) who held us up all the way down the mountain, riding like they were on mobility scooters, and too bunched up to pass safely one at a time but too spread out to be able to pass as a group... I would have merrily sent them flying one by one off the edge of the hill if I could have...

With dark catching up and no place to stay sorted we bypassed a couple of decidedly average places nearby and tried for the next town, called Kanab... Which blessedly turned out to be a quite charming if slightly artificial little touristy town sent up to serve all the outdoorsy types who flock to the region... We found a nice little retro motel, ate some fairly awful Pizza Hut (stuffed crust... Just say no... I ate like a pound of pseudo-cheese), and then retired from the rather chilly evening... TV news told of a storm coming, and major heavy rain warnings not far away, plus high risk of tornados in neighbouring states... Then we watched a doco on huge flooding a year or two ago just up the road (you may remember all the oft-repeated TV shots of new houses falling into the river, which ate massive amounts of the banks away and swallowed whole neighbourhoods).. 'Lucky we are heading west' we thought.... And then...

Ok, less on cars now... Thursday...

Thursday was packup and back in car (ok that didn't last long) and into Salt Lake where we saw that yes, indeed, there are a lot of Mormons, and yes, they do take up quite a bit of city real estate... I was not captured and converted though, and we managed to make it out via a Sears where my copilot had to swap a 7-pack of singlets purchased during the Vegas shopping freny incident. The nice girl at the counter asked lots of questions and didn't understand how you could have Christms in the summer and told us about how she went overseas once to Spain and her aunt had her purse stolen. 

Trucking south we stopped in at American Fork (a place not a restaurant) and I had another mini-pilgrimage of sorts as we called in at Blade HQ... So many tempting goodies... From there it was down to Spanish Fork (like American Fork but with more tomatoes) (not really) and then off the main interstate, I-15, swinging east on 6 towards some backwoods scenic routes, marked as 96 then 264 to 31... These were entirely unknown to us and picked from a map as they traced through forest and possibly interesting countryside, apart from that we knew nothing. As opposed to the huge wide interstates, they all proved to be two-way two lane roads much like those at home, but blessedly with next to no traffic. We found forests and farms and valleys and then we found hills... And a bunch of other stuff... Like a coal mine (there are lots around here)

                                

And then some white stuff that wasn't coal... And then a sign that said "Do not enter without chains before May" and we were like 'huh?'... And then after burning in Vegas and getting sandblasted in Salt Lake, we were somewhat surprised to find ourselves here 

                                

At 10,000ft on a mountain... Which was interesting... So we got out tromped around in snow and got cold... Then back down to farmland, and lunch...

                                           

No I'm not kidding... It was that or prehistoric mac and cheese from a warmer in the little local supermarket... And then on into red rock country.. Big red rock country... So many photos of big red rocks...

                                  

We ended up having to overshoot the turnoff to Monument Valley in order to find a bed, and after about a 500 mile drive we pulled in fairly late, about 1930, to a little spot called Blanding... Not much there but we got a room and went to the local steakhouse, pretty much the only food in town apart from a Subway... Where oddly the fish caught our eye... I had catfish, so now I can say I have, and it was real good... With veges and mashed potato and gravy (which seems to be a big thing around there...). After that it was time for several hours of car shows on TV and then a well earned sleep...

So where was I... Oh yes... In racecars

So yesterday was pretty great I have to say... The weather cleared up brilliantly and welcome to a crisp clear morning with fresh snow in the hills down nearly to where we were. The track was only wet in a couple of patches when we arrived at 0730... Moving on from the intro to high performance driving the day before we went into the FR500 race cars on a new track with more flow and higher speeds. 

After some classroom work the six on the course went out first to be thrown around the track in a huge V8 van by one of the instructors, then out in the cars in two groups for a lead-and-follow with an instructor leading... For most people it was the first time in a stripped car with a race seat, five point harness and full cage etc, so even getting in and out was a learning process... 

After the lead and follow, another talk, then out for first session. This was a mixed bag, afterwards the instructors were a little unhappy (or more than a little) with the amount of 'over-enthusiasm' being shown by the group (a couple of spins and putting wheels off track etc) in what was supposed to be a slow warm-up... A combination of things including some guys with some experience being too aggressive and some guys without experience driving beyond their ability. So they kind of let everyone know about it. I knew I was going fairly fast but I was happy I was within my abilities and not pushing the car and they didn't say anything to me, so I decided to carry on as I was.  

After lunch another talking to, then back out for another session... This one went much better, everyone calmed down, the instructors were out in cars following people to assess their driving then leading them for laps demonstrating as required, etc.  Unlike the others I didn't back off, I continued to drive pretty hard, getting up to where I felt I was nearing my limits and starting to push them, feeling what the car could do more and more... I went out first in the pack with some seperation between cars and half way through the session had caught four of the five cars that started after me... With too many cars bunched up I pulled into the pits twice to get some space as we were still only allowed to pass on the front straight and only if the other driver signalled they saw us... 

The class session after was much happier. They gave everyone final pointers and asked what we wanted to achieve for our last session, everyone else was kind of cautious and said they wanted to improve braking or cornering or something... As they had not said anything about my driving all day apart from my line in one corner, and I was the only person the instructor cars had not done further tuition with, i decided to chance it, and said I wanted to be smoother and faster. They didn't bat an eyelid, so after class I went back out for final session and decided to go to work again.

They opened up passing on the back straight as well as the front (a bit more tricky and at higher speeds), and within a short space of time I had gone out first and passed four of the five cars behind me... I kept going, and I went quick, doing everything I had been doing all day, but better... I stood it on its nose into corners, I heel and toed and bounced off the limiter, I threw it off curbs on apexes and carved the ripples on exits... I had got the back end squirrelly coming down from max speed into the hairpin earlier in the day and scared myself some, this time I did it every time and loved it. They said we wouldn't find the limits of the slicks and be able to hold onto the car, but I got to power sliding and four tyres singing on the long corners... By the end I was stringing together whole laps without mistakes bad enough to bother me, and still getting better every corner, and it felt real good. Don't get me wrong I am not saying I am amazing, but I will say even I was surprised how quickly I came to grips with driving a car of that level that fast and feeling comfortable and confident pushing it as hard as I could. So that was a good result...

End of the course was good and the instructors said that they thought at the start of the day they were going to have wrecked cars, but overall the course had turned out to be one of the best quality they had ever had. 

After that is was on to dinner at McDs in the city, which, unlike the fancy BK down the road, was kind of average and also the local congregation point for mental methheads, which was nice.

Today (Thursday) we rose and had a bit of a look around Salt Lake City, which seems scenic but largely boring, then headed south by various scenic routes... But I think I will go into that tomorrow... We ended up well off the main track, but it was good... Now I am in a motel near three other states! 

Hope everyone enjoyed ANZAC Day and got along to a ceremony for us... I think it is probably the first one I have missed in living memory which sucks a bit. Will make up for it next time.

Not much by way of update...

...just now, planning tomorrow... We survived... It was pretty cool... Went fast... Much fun... Think I did pretty good... 

This was my toy... 91... She go good for me... Well, faster than anyone else on the track anyway!! Full race spec, stripped, lightened, full cage, full internal extinguisher system, slicks, suspension, Brembo brakes, Tremec six speed, race computer and dash, nets... Sorry for bad photos, was very rushed on way out, hoped for time to take decent shots but didn't get to in the end. More later.

 

                                                         

 

                                                            

Salt Lake City - salty...

So today was business time (I wore business socks with my fireproof suit... it was interesting business)... But today was also the day Salt Lake and most of Utah got hammered by a huge low which came in bringing a significant temperature drop and 80mph winds... Hence the reason I found myself thrashing around one of North Americas top motor sports facilities behind the wheel of a track-prepped V8 Mustang while getting my eyeballs sandblasted by gritty Utah salt sand (What grade? I'm going to say... Coarse...) that was coming in horizontally through the open passenger side window. 

The day started well enough, our group of nine all arrived first thing and we got stuck into various classroom briefings and exercises with various professional instructors at the one and only (in the world) official Ford Racing School. Most of the guys taking the course are also pro racing drivers, our primary classroom instructor being a young guy called Michael Self (www.michaelselfracing.com) who seemed to know his stuff. From there we moved into the cars, my companion and most of the others in Boss 302 Mustangs and myself and one other as invited guests in the slightly less powerful Mustang GT cars the Ford Racing School runs normally, all the cars track prepped with roll cages, brake packages, sticky tyres, etc.

We started off going out in pairs doing the usual following the instructor around the track to observe technique etc and quickly moved into solo runs in the cars, doing about twenty minutes on track and then about the same in classroom to talk about the track, cars, skills etc. We also did a skid pad session in a skid car, a short track course practising heel-and-toe, and a bunch of laps with an instructor in the car looking at our driving.... Meanwhile the sky turned a dirty brown grey, the wind got worse and worse, and times you couldn't even see from one side of the track to the other... One of the pro drivers compared it to racing in Bahrain... Cones flew away, oil barrel rubbish bins bounced through the pits, and sitting still in the car before going out on track you could feel it rocking back and forth in the wind. But we soldiered on and had a great time. And I think I did ok... If I may quote some of the instructors... *ahem* - 

"That's textbook heel and toeing... You may as well just go play around the rest of this session huh?"

"Basically, you are a really good driver"

"Ok, you really dont want to be trying to brake any later than that at the end of the main straight... NOBODY wants to try braking any later than that at the end of the main straight..."

"You are the only person today to put a car that far in the gravel and keep your boot in it... That just shows you are using all of the track!"

"Sir, you are a driving god, can you teach us your ways?"

Ok I may have paraphrased a couple of those. Slightly. Basically I think I did ok because I was pulling 160kph on the home straight which was matching the more powerful cars... Plus in the last 20 minute free-for-all we got sent out one by one with plenty of space on the 2.2 mile track to do our own thing (the idea of the course being to hone driving skill not race each other) but we were allowed to pass if required... I got sent out behind an older guy who had been talking about his years of racing all kinds of cars and had complained earlier that everything was much too slow in the follow-the-leader and other exercises... So I saw him well up ahead and decided to try to gain some ground on him, and all the training and practise for the day seemed to come together and I started gaining, and after a few laps hunted him down and sat on his tail for a couple more before he had to let me through... And this despite me being in a lesser car with over 25% less power, smaller brakes etc... And then I left him behind and went out and hunted down the guy in front of him also.

 

We finished the day pretty happy, I would have preferred to spend the day in a Boss as my GT was a little down on grunt by comparison, but that's all good because tomorrow we move on to the actual full-spec Ford FR500 racecars, and stuff should get even more interesting. Meantime Salt Lake has continued to get savaged by winds (our hotel is a brand new five story building and you could feel it moving in the wind) and salt/sandstorms, to the point that when we drove further into the city to find BK for dinner tonight, we couldn't even see the city. Everything is just shrouded in what looks like a dirty brown haze... Trees are going down, trucks are getting blown off the interstates... I was going to take a cool photo of all the black cars in the parking lot literally coasted in this brown salt sludge, but before we got back it then dumped down with rain... And the forecast says possible snow... Should make the track fun tomorrow.... Wish me luck.

One final note which I know will excite some people no end... BK over here has these new Coke machines with a touch-screen front panel (calm down that's not the exciting bit) and they dispense about 20 different kinds of beverage (the entire Coke range including Powerade, root beer, Minute Maid juice, ginger beer, etc etc) BUT whenever you select a type of beverage it then comes up with about half a dozen options for what flavours to ADD... So to your normal Coke for instance you can then add raspberry, blueberry, cherry, etc etc... Apparently there are over 100 possible combinations the machine can do BEFORE you start self-mixing... I know right?? Almost as good as racecars. 

Climate change...

Is when you drive six hours from Vegas to Salt Lake... It was actually chilly out tonight, which was nice. The city is surrounded by mountains still capped in snow, although it's rapidly thinning I think. It's quite a pretty place...

First thing is first though... Last night, the Bellagio lobby.. Cool

                                              

 

We rose early, possibly as some kind of punishment for my lateish night last night... After checking out of the hotel we first set out to swap a bulk pack of singlets bought by my travel companion, having found they did not fit... And then discovered Sears doesn't open until 10am... What kind of store is that???

Giving that up we hit the freeway and pushed north on the I-15 which cuts a clear track all the way from Vegas to Salt Lake City (SLC)... It's a nice drive though more wilderness and desert and rock, then skipping across a corner of Arizona through an awesome canyon road, and then on into the wide plains and increasingly green expanses of Utah. 

        

The fun part was that much of the freeway up there has an 80mph speed limit, meaning a comfortable cruise at about 140kph.. We stopped for lunch and gas on the outskirts of Cedar City, where we tried Arby's for the first time, which was interesting... I had a Reuben which is a weird sandwich made with swirled brown and white bread and I think was beef with horseradish and cheese... Arby's point of difference is they do burgers and sandwiches with various sliced meats instead of burger paddies. We also learned some people up this way struggle with a NZ accent. Others on the other hand love it... The two girls at the gas station were immediately fascinated, to the point one was leaning right out across the counter so far she was actually lying on it, up on her elbows, staring at us intently while we talked, and they kept asking me questions to keep me speaking.

From there I took over the drive for the second half, we were both a little dozy which was not ideal... We got to Salt Lake and then I had another fundamental navigation failure which seems to be happening with uncharacteristic regularity in the last few days. We got to the hotel near the airport in the end, a nice new place, and then just as we started to relax for a minute we realised three Hardin fact crossed into a new time zone, and it was actually 1700 not 1600, so we got changed quick smart and headed the half hour out to the incredible Miller Motorsport Park. 

The Miller facility is the dream if the late Larry Miler, a self made millionaire entrepreneur and car no Motorsport lover who decided to build a US$140m world class Motorsport facility in a completely impractical place, because he could... He also, as we figured out, has quite some car collection... We 

Got there and went into the museum where the people for the track course had a welcome reception and dinner... I walked in not expecting. Great deal, then I saw a car.. Then I saw another car... Then I saw more.... Then I kind of no longer heard anything anyone else said after that... Then I decided this guy must just be a collecter of interesting replicas, so I started reading the descriptions of the cars... Replicas they were not... I am not really sure how to put it all into words, but the car people reading will understand when they see the photos below.... Let's just say it was one step short of a religious experience... allow me to show you why (some of you are going to cease being my friend in 5... 4... 3... 2... 

              

                                          

I could keep going... I kept the staff waiting round after dinner while I took photos... I had the entire place to myself in the end, just going round and round and round taking photo after photo... For the uninitiated, what you see above is a sample of an incredible collection of near-priceless Ford road and race cars... They are not painted in the livery of famous race cars you may have seen on TV and in photos, they ARE the actual race cars you saw... Including the actual Le Mans winning Cobra Daytona... The actual first production Cobra... One of two actual factory Cobra Dragon Snakes... Not to mention, the only complete set of GT40's in the world... All seven... Every model and type... Including prototypes and the actual racers... To put this further into perspective, one of the CHEAPER cars pictured above it worth around a million dollars... some of the dearer ones?? Ten million... Twenty million... I can't even begin to tell you how amazing it was. And then there we're shelves and shelves of genuine parts... Spare factory engines on stands... Stacks of wheels... Unbelievable. I am still spinning about it. And tomorrow we drive race cars!! So I better get going, although sleep seems unlikely. 

   

Kiwis trying to order food from Mexicans...

... Mutually hilarious... Ok perhaps not mutually... But I was confused as hell why my McDonalds bag was so full until I realised that during the last part of our mangled exchange, she didn't say "do you want to upsize for a dollar?"... She said "Do you want two apple pies for a dollar?"... So now I have two apple pies, and I hate McDonalds apple pies. Well good.... 

So if you had asked me to predict how today was going to go I would have most likely been significantly off in my guess... We got up with a few ideas about what to do... My companion granted me a blessed extra hour of sleep today as we had nowhere to be, which was nice as my body seems to be going through chronic air conditioning rejection currently and I am sleeping badly... Then we set out with plans to hit a department store of some sort as both of us are travelling light with plans to stock up on the essentials while they are cheap... Of course then we discovered Vegas actually DOES do Easter Sunday and nothing was open... Like NOTHING... Well, except all the casinos and bars, naturally...

With nothing to do til the afternoon when the Atomic Testing Museum opened, we branched out and went for a general drive around the other bits of Vegas... Some of them pretty seedy run down bits.. But I always think it's important to try and see as many bits of a town as you can find, not just the parts you are supposed to see... And then I semi-navigated our way to the northern outlet mall to look around for some stuff I might need. My companion not being a big shopper ( not that I am, clearly ) probably didn't enjoy this a great deal, which I was quite concious of, so I cut it quite short and just bought some new running shoes... After three weeks in the States I see some running in my future. I also should have bought a pair of Merrells from another shop as they were well cheap, but maybe next time. 

From there we decided to find some lunch and mosie (how do you spell mosie? Mosey? Mowsie? I think mosey) on over to the museum, but on the way through noticed one of the department stores had opened, and pulled in as my co-driver wanted to buy a pair of dress shorts. And then we found out there was an Easter sale on... And if you have never shopped in a US mall with a sale on... Well let's just say I bought two pairs of jeans, one pair of work pants, three t shirts, one polo shirt, six pairs of boxers, and thirteen pairs of socks for about what the two pairs of jeans would have cost me at home. Seriously, three dozen Asics running socks for $24. 

Wow, a normal person sized dwarf just walked past... I didn't know that happened... Like she was the same size as her friends, but clearly had the whole dwarfism thing happening... Fair enough. My ignorance is once again exhibited. 

So anyway before we knew it, it was nearly 1500 and my companion had a wedding to go to at 1600 (one of the Kiwi couples over for the Mustang show decided to wed, bless them) so we had to forgo the museum and get back. Bit gutted about missing the Atomic Testing Museum apparently it's cool, in a weird way.. Oh well, next time. 

With some time on my hands I decided to venture out and try to cover off a few spots we had not yet had time for, and probably only I was interested in... With a plan in mind I set off around 1600 and eventually found my way to the monorail (Monorail!!!) out the back of the MGM Grand (it took some finding, casinos are specifically designed to make it hard to find the exits... I kid you not... If you think I am joking, trust me... Every time you go into a casino, you will find it hard to get out)... I would thoroughly recommend monorail as a way to get around the Strip, a day pass is $12 and it gets you from spot to spot well... Except, I must say, at the end, because I caught it solely to get as far up the Strip as possible, and it doesn't actually stop on the Strip at the end... And so then the walk started. 

My goal was another pilgrimage of sorts, to get to Circus Circus, one of the oldest and most iconic of Vegas hotels and casinos, and a place I absolutely wanted to see on the way through, for all it's various pop culture references... Needless to say I was not disappointed... Or actually the opposite of that... Needful to say I was disappointed(??)... Yeah, it wasn't great. In fact it was pretty awful. Ok the whole circus theme was played up kind of well and the various mezzanine floors in the middle were full of carnival games and amusements, and a grandstand of morbidly obese people taking the opportunity to get an early seat for the circus show in the Midway area... Even though it didn't start for an hour... But overall it was just bad cheap and tacky... As opposed to the charming and weird cheap and tacky I hoped for. 

From there I set out to walk back down the Strip, which is not that short a distance, but walking is what seems to happen when I holiday. As someone wise once said, no matter how weary you are, if you just keep on lifting one foot and putting it just in front of the other, slowly the world will turn under you... So I did the strip, which takes a bit longer than you think with various forced diversions when the footpath disappears inside various hotels... I went back to Bellagio to photograph the beautiful glass flowered lobby ceiling, took in a few swank bars just to get a feel for the place, then ended up in the Planet Hollywood Miracle Mile mall, where there are heaps of shops and bars and food places in one indoor area. There I stumbled upon a little place called Lobster ME, where they do Maine lobster various interesting ways, like with mac and cheese, or on a stick deep fried. I had a lobster BLT and a giant Budweiser... The former way one of the tastiet things I have ever eaten in my life.... The later was... A large American beer. 

Wow, I just lost a huge amount of stuff not once but twice, awesome. That's what I get for switching between apps. Screw you Jobs. Awesome. Ok let's do this a third time but faster -

Blah blah walked around mall blah blah Sin City Beer, seen advertised, wanted to try local brew blah blah yes you can buy a beer in a mall like you could buy a juice at home blah blah got an amber red beer, chick serving said it was her favourite, blah blah it was terrible but got talking to her and she had grown up in Vegas so was very interesting to hear about what it was like for someone who has lived here as opposed to the millions who visit, apparently it's still pretty cool, but she has spend half her life snowboarding seven days a week after work and on weekends, blah blah, found Michael Godard gallery ('Oh My Godard'), while I like some of his work he just seems like way too much of a douche (could be wrong haven't met him personally) blah blah... BUT for my Waiheke friends and others who like vino, one of the artists also with stuff on display was a guy called Eric Chirstensen, check his stuff out!! A couple of others also there were Bone Daddy and Scotty who are also not bad, and some pretty cool painted bronzes and steampunk stuff by people I can't remember. Go to the Oh My Godard gallery page and follow the links to the group behind it. And.. Blah blah blah that's about it! McDonald's, unwanted apple pie, can't buy Coca Cola on the Strip, Pepsi stupid, etc, Lobby Bar, the end. Utah tomorrow. 

So then I was hanging out with Vaughn Gitten Jr...

...and that means nothing to most of you. But I did, a little, he came out of his trailer and talked to a few people walking past early Friday before the crowds arrived. He seemed cool, in that kind of wacked out extreme sports stoner kind of way.

So it's been a crazy couple of days of cars, the heat has been intense, with little shade, there has been all the usual car show stuff of walking around endlessly til legs and back ache and there is nowhere to sit and food and drink are overpriced and yadda yadda. But conversely it has also been pretty awesome. Two car shows which could not really be too much different, one we planned to see and one just kind of happened... 

So first off yesterday and today, one of the prime objectives of the trip was to see some of the Ford Mustang 50th Anniversary commemorations which are being held this weekend in Vegas and also at Charlotte across the country. The Vegas event was at the huge Speedway complex north east of town so we headed out and had a good old time looking at cars old and new, shopping for parts, watching Vaughn Gitten and co drift (with varying degrees of success) and generally absorbing ourselves in Mustangy goodness. 

Then on the way back we had time to call in to SoCal so I could stock up on tshirts and look at lots if other stuff I couldn't carry back with me, and while talking to the guy at the counter he asked if I was going to the hotrod show tomorrow... And I said well no, what show is this...??? And he said well, Viva Las Vegas, the huge rockabilly and hotrod and ratrod convention... And I said "reeeeeally???"

www.vivalasvegas.net

It always pays to talk to locals... I looked all over for stuff to do and to find out what was on in Vegas and I knew nothing of this awesomeness just down the street that I would have missed entirely... Always find likeminded locals and ask them what's going on...

So today (Saturday) we decided in the end to head out to the Mustang show again although we feared there was not much more to see, but we thought more cars might turn up today and also there was supposed to be drag racing on... Due to various dramas I won't go into the organisers ended up having a bit of a nightmare with the whole convention (which we weren't part of, we just turned up for a look) and various things just went wrong... Like planning a charity half marathon around the stadium this morning without realising the course blocked car entrances and therefore they couldn't get the Mustangs in to the show or park the public anywhere cause they had closed the surrounding streets... Yeah, stuff like that. So anyway the drags didn't happen either, so we browsed the cars again for anything new and then bailed.

By the time we left the show we were already feeling well cooked in the Nevada sun and could easily have gone to find a pool or some aircon to sleep in, but we soldiered on. After driving for some time to find a tree to picnic under we had lunch then went to Best Buy so I could look at toys but they had lousy stock. Then we cut across to the gaudy, nasty, but kind of cool off-Strip Orleans hotel, which I had noted for all it's weirdness in driving past previously. The roar of the band as we drove up literally guided us in to the side car park where we drove around endlessly trying to find a car park, as did several hundred other people... Finally we parked, wandered in and were greeted by the amazing sight of a massive queue of what can only be described as the most colourful and eclectic people you could possibly imagine... If you are not familiar with rockabilly music and fashion, pinups, retro lifestyles and period-correct vintage hotrods, ratrods and other such things, I suggest you look into some of that also! For those who don't know, that stuff has been a long term passion of mine for many years, and I have a lot of admiration for the dedication some people put into adopting this particular kind of lifestyle, many full time... (although I am not sure a lot of it was particularly appreciated by my companion, who really REALLY didn't know what he was walking himself into...)... Rather than try to explain at length, only images can really do it justice... And can I just point out this event was HUGE... Like crazy huge... Thousands upon thousands of people... So here we go... A small sample... 

     

                                 

         

                                         

                     

                             

Needless to say I went pretty camera crazy and could have literally stayed for days. I took some great car shots I think. Also met some cool people. Regardless of whether you appreciate the styles of vehicle or   in fact people, you have to admit the sheer art of what they do. I have to say I enjoyed every minute.