Trip Update - Vegas/Comments Please!

We now head off to Las Vegas for the next few days and we are sorry to say we have no free wi-fi access in the casino hotel.

With this in mind there will be no updates to the blog until we arrive in Los Angeles on the Weds 5th August.

In the meantime, if your reading this please leave us a comment on if you like the blog so far! It would also be nice just to know who and how many people are actually reading it and that there is at least 1 person!

Catch you later!

Jim & Marc
(Shortly to be Vegas Millionaires....not!)

Death Valley Part 4 - Saturday

Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh here we go again...

After having an eventful past few days we, wrongly, though that nothing else could possibly go wrong.... well... it did!!

After having breakfast we returned to our car to then stand in shock to find we had a FLAT! Noooooooo!

After a full check of the car we could see no nails etc and no obvious sign of any damage so being the ever optimistic people we are, we popped down the local gas station and pumped it up! So... off to Death Valley in the knowledge that the problem had been solved! or had it.....

Today saw us visiting the Ubehebe crator and Scotty's Castle:

So yes, I know what your asking... did we actually fix the Tyre.... well the short answer is no!

We came out of Scotty's Castle started our drive off to discover, yes its flat again, only this time, we are in the middle of Death Valley with no phones, temps at 110F and a flat tyre!

So, with no other choice, we set about changing it, once we finally sorted that out, we set off back to the hotel, drove past the last gas station for the next 60 miles with our nice on board computer readout saying 80 miles to empty...... and yes you guessed it.... we ran out! Not really! we did however get to the point where it went from 80 to 20 very quickly and with still another 40 miles to go and no matter how you look at it thats not enough!

However with a bit of very slow driving, coasting we nursed it back to a gas station, rang the breakdown about the tyre and we were told we could visit the local garage who would change it and charge it to their credit card. All we had to do was ring them.

So all well that ends well..... nooooooooooooooooo!

Once the tyre was fitted, we rang the breakdown and no one answered! And here us sat with a $390 bill and no idea what to do! In the end we had to pay it and after an angry call to Dollar we should get a refund tomorrow!

Hopfully, our trip in Vegas, should be less eventful!

See you soon!

Death Valley Part 3 - Friday

Well after the entertainment of Yesterday we were hoping for an easier, less eventful journey!

We headed out at 05:30 and arrived at the Mosaic Canyon on time! (Yes, TomTom got it right!)

Taking advantage of the early morning cool we walked up the canyon to some fairly stunning views:

After this we headed up to Aguereberry Point to look out across the valley with some more spectacular views:

We then headed to some Gold Mines and came across 2 in total, along with an old deserted camp! Unfortunatly, someone had blocked off the mines so we were not able to go mining today, shame!

We then headed to the old Kilns situated further south and stayed a few mins!

And finally we decided to pop down to a ghost town, however when arriving we discovered it wasn't such a ghost town, there was an open store!!! and those buildings which were "meant" to be ghost buildings only have the foundations remaining, hence, no photos from here!

More soon!

Death Valley Part 2 - Thursday

TomTom v Humans - Episode 2: We won! (Just!)

Things started out well with Sat Nav telling us we would be at the Racetrack in within 3 1/2 hours. It lied! We were expecting an unpaved route (which is fine owing to our 4x4) and we certainley got one! :) After 1 3/4 hours along a painful, land rover style, off road track we came to a stunning cliff edge view, which would be fine, however, TomTom told us to keep driving off it, which in a Jeep, is highly not recommended. So we turned around and headed back, which was fine right up until the point, the hill we came down in the Jeep, the car would not get us back up again! Thus, we were stuck. After some enthusiastic use of the throttle, a lot of will power and shouting "COME ON!!!" we somehow made it up with the car still in one piece. (Which was handy as we were in the middle of nowhere, no mobile signal and no human life for at least 20-30 miles in temps of around 105F (40C). Should we have broken it, we did find a handy replacment car:
After informing TomTom of the slight roadblock we encountered and after recalculating the route 3-4 times, it eventually gave us the right one. Thus, 5 hours and 30mins later we arrived at the race track (our shortcut wasn't so short!)

Owing to the amound of time it took to get to the race track, we only managed to visit this and some photos are below:

More to follow soon.....

Death Valley Part 1 - Wednesday

Wow - This place is HOT! Highest Temp today was 118F (48C)!! Luckly, because we left so early, we managed to get a lot done before the heat really hit.

Today we visited:

Dantes View Point

20 Mule Canyon

Hole In The Wall

Badwater, Lowest point in the US (282 Feet BELOW Sea Level)

We also visited Zabriski Point, Natural Bridge, Artists Drive and Devils Golf Course.
We had planned to visit Golden Canyon but this was a 1-2 Mile Trek and the heat was just too much for us to do.

However, as we were leaving, we were amazed that it started to RAIN! In such high temps rain can still fall, just to be sure we stopped and stood out for a refreshing shower!

To add to everything, today our hire car has broke! We are now awaiting a replacement car to arrive from Los Angeles, over 200 miles away!

More to follow tomorrow!

Tuesday 28th July

Nothing much to report today!

Day was spend travelling to Lone Pine, CA (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Lone+Pine,+CA,+USA&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=13.157147,39.331055&ie=UTF8&ll=36.584658,-118.086891&spn=0.139494,0.307274&z=12&iwloc=A).

We have checked into the hotel which is very nice, large enough room including a fridge, 32" tv and oversized room.

We had a quick look around town and sorted out our trip tomorrow.

We will be setting off at 5.30am as we have our furthest trip.

Yosemite Part 3 - Monday

Our final day here at Yosemite and with much already visited we were left with a trip to Yosemite Valley.

Most of our time was spent at the water fall and to get some of the photos we started our own rock climb!:

Once up mind you we got some great pictures.... as well as getting wet!

En Route, we found another river:

Hottest Temperture today was: 106F (41C)

Tomorrow we head off to Death Valley!

Yosemite Part 2 - Sunday

TomTom v Humans: Episode 1 - The initial push!

On day 2 we travelled up into the highest points of Yosemite and came out with some spectacular pictures, however we relied on Sat Nav to get us there and this is the road it gave us!

Dirt Track through Yosemite Forest

Once arriving however we stopped off at this river:

We then set off towards Glacier Point and were stunned by the views we were presented with:

Hottest Temperature today was 108F (42C)

Part three coming soon!

Yosemite Part 1

After leaving San Francisco in glorious sunshine we began the journey to Yosemite, after getting out of town we found ourselves on glorious country roads as can be seen in the pictures.

Day 1 in Yosemite gave us a great drive to lake mono taking in some beautiful views and the glorious Tenaya Lake, some pictures below. This drive took us most of the day due to the distance we had to cover.

More to follow

Friday 24th July

Well today saw a visit to Alcatraz! A VERY early morning start saw us arriving at Pier 33 for our 10 min boat trip over to the island. Here are a few pics:

In the afternoon we went to Pier 39 (Fishermans Whalf), not many pictures taken here as it was basically lots of shops! However we did see some animals!

We are now off to Yosemite Nation Park.....

Thursday July 24

Today we went to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Unfortunatly the weather was against us and we have a lot of mist, however we managed to get some photos, a preview is below:





In the afternoon we went to the Apple Company Store which is the only place in the world to sell clothing.

After this, we went back into Downtown San Fransico where we drove down Lombard Street!

Wednesday, July 22

Today we set off for the 17 Mile Drive and we were amazed by the views and wildlife that were here.. Take a look at some of the photos!

Tonight we ate Italian style... very tasty! See you tomorrow!

Night Before

Well its the night before and we are off to LHR at 6am! Yeeeehaaaaa!

Less than 2 months to go!

July 21st is getting ever close, and already I'm moving to USA speak!
Only 8 weeks remain and we fly for the U S of A!