USA Road Trip » australia

Day 28 Salt Lake City Utah to Las Vegas Nevada

admin — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:25:41 +0000

Salt Lake city is a nice looking city. There are mountains (currently covered in snow) both West and East of the city. Even in the centre of capitalism there are no houses built on the mountains, so its a great view.

We went into the city centre to view the Morman temples in Temple Square.

Morman temple Salt Lake City

We headed South on the I-15 towards Arizona and Nevada. It was cold in Salt lake City, but gradually got warmer as we got further south. By the time we reached Arizona, it was warm, and we had left the snow on the mountains. We had a great drive on the I-15 through Virgin River canyon.

Virgin River Canyon Arizona

The it was into Nevada, and we got our first views of Las Vegas covered in haze. The it was time to hit the peak hour traffice (5pm) driving into Las Vegas. 6 lanes all crawling along.

Day 25 Hardin Montana to Gardiner Montana

greg — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 03:44:10 +0000

We arrived too late at the Little Big Horn National Battlefield monument to see it, so we drove 20km further onto Hardin, intending to return the next day.

The reason I was so interested in visiting Little Big Horn, the site of Custers last stand, was this game I played as a kid in the 1960s/1970s:

Battle of the Little Big Horn game

We drove the 20km back to the Little Big Horn Battlefield memorial. There is a visitors centre with a history of the battle. The most impressive thing is the headstones of Custers soldiers (and indian warriors) scattered around the battlefield marking the place they fell.

Custers last stand. The hill, and the memorial at the top of the hill.

We then headed west on the I-90 towards Billings Montana. The weather has been cold, and windy, but not much rain (and no snow!). We left the I-90 at Livingston to head south towards Gardiner the entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Along the way we found some Bison wandering over the road:

Bison wandering next to the road (and on the road) on the way to Gardiner Montana

Mountains north of Yellowstone

Day 24 Denver Colorado to Hardin Montana

admin — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 14:54:25 +0000

After deciding that since Yellowstone National park opened for spring on Friday morning, we would detour (2,000km) to Yellowstone National park.

After our snow problems getting into Colorado, we were wary of getting caught by snow along the route. The shortest route according to google maps took us through Teton Pass, which according to the webcam was covered in snow. So we decided to go via I-25 north into Wyoming, and then across the I-90 to Gardiner.

Wyoming is even more rural than Kansas.

Big Horn mountains in Wyoming

Day 22 Colby Kansas to Denver Colorado

admin — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 03:02:42 +0000

It was a cold morning in Colby Kansas, about 1 C.

And it only got colder.

We left Colby in rain, that gradually changed to sleet, and then when we crossed the Colorado border, snow. It was difficult driving along the interstate through snow and slush, having semi-trailers pass throwing up loads of water and slush over the windscreen, making it almost impossible to see. An SUV following us slid off the road onto the median strip.

Evenutally we drove through the snow areas to get to completely snow-free areas. We are staying a great hotel we got cheap on hotel.com, in the southern part of Denver.

parked having a break from driving in the snow, colorado

Day 21 Blue Springs Missouri to Colby Kansas

admin — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 02:33:38 +0000

The long journey over the midwestern prairie. We drove through Kansas City, which is in Missouri not Kansas.

We avoided the toll road to Topeka, travelling on a state road. Once we left Topeka it got very rural with not much around. Onece we past Salina it got very flat. Our choices of places to stay were getting more limited as we got into western kansas, as the towns are much further apart.

Eventually arrived at Colby in the evening. Colby has a population 5000 people and is nearly 1000 metres above sea level.

Windgenerator in Kansas

Day 19 Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Paducah Kentucky

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:58:29 +0000

We left camp in the Smokies, driving through the are north, which was very green and beautiful. Along the sides of the highway, there were fields of wild daffodils, and many blossom trees – spring has only just started in this part of the US.

It was then back on the I-40, which we last left in the Texas Panhandle (north texas). All was good, we drove through Nashville Tennesse without dropping below 50 mph (80 kph), which tells you two things.

1. That the USA Interstates are very good at getting you through large cities with no congestion.

2. We are not country music fans.

Then it started to rain. In the 19 days we have been in the USA, we have seen two cold fronts sweep across the country. Both times there have been severe thunderstorms and tornados. Yesterday a tornado almost completely wiped out a town in Wisconsin. However this is just normal life in the US. They get severe storms and tornados often.

So we were on the I-24 heading north, and it rained more and more and more. The traffic slowed and slowed. It was hard to see the tail lights of the semi-trailer only 100 metres in front. It was very, very heavy rain. We heard on the radio, some areas received 3 inches of rain (75mm) in only an hour or two. There were tornado watch warnings for Tennesse and Kentucky, areas that we were driving through.

The rain continued on and off (although not so heavy) until we got to Paducah Kentucky.

Day 18 Atlanta Georgia to Great Smoky Mountains National Park

admin — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 23:20:50 +0000

We left after a warm Atlanta Night. We drove to the nearest Publix Supermarket (they have nice food) to get supplies for lunch and dinner, and then headed to the REI for another sleeping bag. Our sleeping Bags have not been quite warm enough, and we need another good bushwalking grade warm sleeping bag, so we got one on special at REI.

We headed out the I-85 north towards North Carolina. The roads were excellent, with even what we thought would be rural areas having dual carriageways. It was another warm day 85F. We crossed from Georgia into North Carolina following the US-23. we joined the US 441 and reached Cherokee, on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, the most visited park in the whole of the USA. This is alson the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We visted the Oconaluftee Visitor Centre and got some history of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The park are some of the highest peaks in the Appalachian Mountain Range. The Smoky Mountains park was creted in 1934 by buying land from existing farmers and loggers. Some of the money to buy the land came from a donation by John D Rockerfeller. We drove up the Newfound Gap road, and then west to Clingmans Dome, at 2024 metres. From the carpark you still had a steep climb of another 100 metres and 800 metres walk to the summit, which in the somewhat thinner air at that altitude, a little taxing.

The views from the lookout over the Smokies, was good, being pretty clear. We descended continuing along the Newfound gap road, and made our way to Elkmont campground. The campground (which has 260 campsites), was mostly empty, and we camped in a nice spot next to a stream. We had to pack the food into the boot of the car, as this is black bear country, and we have to be careful.

Judy at the Lookout on the Clingman dome

Smoky Mountains

Camped at Elkmont campground, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Day 15 Orlando Florida

admin — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:17:03 +0000

Harry Potter at Universal Studios

Hogwarts Castle

Drinking Butter Beer at the 3 Broomsticks

The ride that Judy did

Day 13 New Orleans Louisiana to Grayton Beach State Park Florida

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:41:38 +0000

Unlucky day 13. We left New Orleans at a good time, to make Grayton Beach early in the afternoon. However at Mobile Alabama, we holed a tyre (or tire in the USA), fortunately right outside a tire shop. However they did not have a replacement, although they tried to fix the old one, but could not. They spent some time helping us, and charged us nothing. We then went to another one, but also no luck. However they sent us to a third, which did have a replacement.

The whole episode took about 3 hours, and we didn’t arrive at Grayton Beach until 7pm at night (losing another hour crossing into the eastern time zone in Florida. We then found someone had already taken our booked campsite, but they moved on. We think they were just hoping no one would turn up.

Its a nice State Park. The americans do know how to setup camping areas. Its not exactly wilderness camping (Water, 50 amp power point for powering your 10 metre long RV), but it is nice.

campsite Grayton Beach on the Gulf of Mexico

Grayton Beach on the Gulf of Mexico Florida. Calm and the water was warm.

Day 12 New Orleans Louisiana

admin — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:56:17 +0000

We drove down to Venice, which is near the mouth of the mississippi, at the southern end of a long peninsula. As we got further south the land got lower and lower, and the sea closer and closer. At Venice the port is only half a metre above sea level. We kept thinking that when Hurricane Katrina hit, it had a 6 metre storm surge in front of it, which would have put this whole area under water. Many buildings are elevated on stilts, and we went past the new High School, which is being built all elevated.

When we returned to New Orleans we visited the Lower Ninth Ward, which was the area most affected by flooding from the failure of the levees. The Lower Ninth Ward is mostly abandoned. There are boarded up shops, and at least half the houses are boarded up and abandoned.

One of the many,many abandoned buildings in the Lower 9th ward of New Orleans, still with FEMA rescue marks

There is a good explanation of what the various numbers and letters mean here

parked on the levee on mississippi watching ships sail upriver

Greg getting money from the Drive-Thru ATM

Thunderstorm and Tornado warnings while we are staying in New Orleans