Got back a week ago from a 5 week road trip of the western side of the U.S.
We hired a small (Ford F150 V8) camper from a rental company.
It was a blast!
Went to 11 states, plus a brief visit into Canada. A bit over 8000 miles in the 5 weeks.
Wished we had stayed longer.
A few pics...
Attachment 420201This is the smallest camper that was available and we are glad we chose it as it could go on roads that the bigger ones could not go on, steep mountain passes etc. It had a double bed over the extra cab. A fridge, a gas stove, a microwave oven,air conditioner, table and seats and even a dunny and shower. The motor had plenty of grunt and it would have done 100mph easily though 90mph was about the fastest we went. It got on average 15 miles per gallon. It did not miss a beat the whole trip and we wanted to bring it home with us.
We were interested in seeing the natural features over there as we were not particularly interested in big cities and have to say the U.S has natural features in spades.
I took my 10 year old digital camera which was ok for some things but wifey took a tiny new digital camera that had an added bonus of a landscape panorama setting.
A few panoramic shots she took....
Attachment 420203 Dead horse point, Utah.
Attachment 420204Arches National Park, just down the road (not a panoramic pic, but a spectacular place).
Attachment 420205As above.
Attachment 420206Bryce canyon, also Utah. Stunning place.
Attachment 420207 Was quite happy to forget all about woodwork while away. Always thought that Huon pines were the oldest trees you could get but no!. This is a Bristlecone pine tree. They can live to be 5000 years old. Not generally sideways though.
Attachment 420208Ancient Anasazi indian cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National park in SW Colorado, fascinating.
Attachment 420209No trip to this area would be complete without a visit to the Grand Canyon. 10 miles wide, a mile deep and a few hundred miles long it is impossible to appreciate it in any photo.
Geez, could go on and on. Took over a thousand photos. We found the American people to be unbelievably friendly. So many of them said they would love to visit Australia and I quietly despaired that Aussies would not be so friendly towards them.
We particularly liked Texas, not so much for the natural features but for the people. They seemed mesmerised by the way we spoke as we were by their accents.
Carved a Texas star into a bench at a place in the desert where there is an acre sized pool fed by a spring that was really deep and had turtles and fish in it.
Attachment 420211Attachment 420212Just loved those Texans.
Also got the swiss army knife out on the California coast after too many beers one arvo.
Attachment 420213 I guess the woodworking bug is hard to shake.
Also visited the big Sequoias in California. Nice big trees however they did not seem any more impressive than the forest giants you can find in our neck of the woods.
Attachment 420214Arg, they don't really grow sideways. The ones in sequoia national park are the biggest ones volume wise however the coastal ones are taller and more majestic....well they were to us.
Anyway, best shut up now as I could go on and on.
We had a ball. The only scary moments in the U.S were coming face to face with a bear in Glacier National park in Montana and our encounter with a knife wielding bandana salesman in El Centro, California.
