Yosemite

After Zion we were faced with a couple hundred miles of the Nevada desert before reaching Yosemite, there is nothing that will make you question the mechanical dependability of the vehicle your driving than facing a sign in Nevada that says “Next Services 150 Miles”. We decided to take the “Extraterrestrial Highway” across the desert (being that it not only sounded cool but also made the most logistical sense), I recommended that we stop and make some aluminum foil hats to protect us from the aliens but Tina deemed foil hats both unnecessary and unfashionable, luckily we had no “encounters”. The E.T. Highway is just miles and miles of nothing but cows, sand, and a closed hotel called the Alie-INN, that’s pretty much it.

The "E.T. Highway"...

Tina trying to catch a ride...

150 miles of nothing... probably the longest stretch yet.

Yosemite was pretty exciting and brought on a new high and a new slow for the trip, we hit just under 10,000 feet elevation crossing Tioga Pass, and getting there took several miles driving in second gear. I was complaining about having to downshift to third going up hills in the past, well that was before Tioga Pass, second gear and contemplating first on several occasions. I’m not sure what the incline percentage of Tioga is but coupled with 10,000 feet elevations it gave Charlie all he could handle, I got tired of pulling into turn outs every ¼ of a mile because they made us lose our momentum (which is crucial in a Bus), so by the time we reached the top Charlie was looking like the pace car at the Daytona 500, but we did make it! Eventually…
Yosemite was amazing, Tina thinks it’s the most beautiful place so far, so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Entering Yosemite from the East Entrance

Freezing at almost 10,000 feet elevation

Almost to the top...

What a view

More Yosemite beauty

A waterfall in Yosemite Valley

Tina and Yosemite Valley

A bear that Tina was so happy to get a picture of...

We didn’t get to stay the night in Yosemite because they had over half the campgrounds closed due to a late snow, but on the way out we stopped and saw some of the Giant Sequoias. And theses are some amazing trees, they are immune to fire, bugs and disease, grow 30 feet in diameter and have been known to live over 3000 years. The only reason a sequoia dies is because the mountain wears out around its roots and the tree falls over, otherwise they would pretty much live forever. Here is a couple of our Favorites…

They get up to 30 feet in diameter

These things are huge

This is called the "Grizzly Giant"

In the fifties you could drive through this one

We had changed our plan of driving through Las Vegas in order to see Zion National Park on recommendation of some bikers we had meet at a McDonalds in New Mexico. Neither one of us really cared to see Vegas but I wouldn’t have minded trying my luck at the roulette table for a spell and I wanted to valet park Charlie at the MGM, but other than that Las Vegas has a time and place and this trip really wasn’t it. And we couldn’t be happier with our choice.

Zion Canyon

Zion is a canyon that is cut into the limestone mountains of southern Utah, it was first settled by the Mormons, it’s a beautiful place and all the mountains and peaks have Biblical names still to this day. Its hard to compare the Grand Canyon to Zion because its two totally different experiences. The Grand Canon is just awe inspiring and mind boggling, but you just kind of stand on the rim and look down, but in Zion they have one of the most amazing roads that I have ever driven on in my life, and that’s saying a lot. Its cut right through the bottom of the canyon, well in most places, but it does zig zag, have a two mile long tunnel and some of the most amazing cliffs I’ve seen. Tina and I both agree we like Zion more than the Grand Canyon based solely on the fact that you are in the Canyon looking up, which is a whole different feeling. Zion to me was like going back in time, well some places in Texas was like going back in time also but Zion was like going way back in time, like prehistoric times. Standing there looking down the valley with 3000 foot sheer cliffs on either side, a crystal clear river flowing nearby and lush green almost tropical type plants growing everywhere I couldn’t help but imagine a T-Rex or some other prehistoric creature roaming in Zion. Its really a very “Jurassic Park” looking type of place. At least that’s what I thought, but you decide for yourself.

Traveling cross country is kind of tough due to the fact that you never know where you will be staying the next night, well at least we can’t really make any set plans driving around in a 32 year old VW. I pretty much just drive until I get worn out, which could be 475 miles or as low as 200 dependly on the terrain, and then there is the “we could break down at any moment and be making a campsite on side of the road” thought that is always with me. So not being able to plan ahead causes us to just kind of wonder into campgrounds about 4 or 5 hoping they have a spot for us, which thus far we have been lucky. But in Zion the only spot available for us was in the group section, and in the group section you never know who or what you will be stuck spending the night next too. Well fortunately we got lucky this time and ended up parked next to a young couple from Switzerland that turned out to be quite enjoyable. They had been living in a tiny apartment in Manhatten for two years and for their last 4 months in North America they decided to buy an old car off of craigslist and drive it around the U.S. and Mexico, which they have been doing since March. And not just any car, they picked an ’88 plum colored Chevrolet Station Wagon that had a huge dent down the drivers side. Turns out they had been in two wrecks since leaving New York, the first one in Memphis which caused one of the doors to stop working, then another in Mexico that somehow fixed the broken door and now it works just fine. They had two weeks left in the states and were heading to Vegas, said they hadn’t been there since getting married at a drive-thru wedding chapel two years ago, so they were pretty excited. Heres a pic of that ’88 plum colored beauty, and this wasn’t the first one they had bought, a few years back they toured Australia in one that was older and in worst shape than this one! I think I’ll stick to my VW’s…

Here is a pic of that plum colored beauty

The Grand Canyon

After leaving Flagstaff it's about an 80 mile drive up to the Grand Canyon, and let me tell you the anticipation was building the whole ride up. Everyone has seen countless photos and documentaries showing how big and wonderful the Grand Canyon is, and we heard from everyone we talked to that you can't understand how big this thing is until you've seen it. Well let me tell that they are right, photos, videos, I-max, none of these do this great canyon justice, and Tina doesn't think the Grand Canyon is even a good enough name for it, of course she couldn't come up with anything better even though she tried for two days. It actually makes you dizzy trying to take it all in, just standing there looking at something a mile deep and 3 miles wide is hard to grasp, and in most places you can't even see the river at the bottom. I'm not going to try and explain it anymore because its just a waste of time, I'll just post a few pictures and tell you that you need to go see it, its worth it.

Our first peek at the canyon

Proof that we made it

A really good picture that Tina took

We did manage to find a campsite in the park without a reservation, which is a miracle in itself, we just decided to ride through a campground that had "Full" signs posted everywhere and sure enough there was still a vacant site. Even though the sites in the park have no electricity or water hookups I convinced Tina that waking up 100 yards from the south rim of the Grand Canyon would be well worth the trade, so that's where we stayed for the next two nights. The way Grand Canyon National Park is set up it doesn't really take more than a day or so to see the whole park, unless you want to hike down into the canyon, but we weren't really set up for that so we opted not to hike it this trip. So we just toured pretty much every view point that is available on the south rim, well Tina toured the south rim from about twenty feet from the edge being she has a problem with heights.

an honorable mention

If you look close you can see two rafts

Another thing we noticed at the Grand Canyon were all the foreign tourists, they are everywhere! Not sure if this is normal or just maybe they are taking advantage of the low value of the dollar at this time, but either way I would estimate 70% or so were speaking some other language. And it seemed to lean heavy towards the Asians for some reason, so much so that I coined a new word, "Vacasians", you heard it first here!

The Colorado River just up from the Grand Canyon

A cool picture of Charlie

We have decided to pass up Las Vegas so that we can go visit Zion National Park instead, its a few hours north of the Grand Canyon and just inside of Utah, we heard its absolutely beautiful and can't be missed.

Arizona... part one

Reaching Arizona immediately put us in tourist mode, we were not 30 miles in before we made our first stop at the Petrified Forest National Park, turned out we were more into the "painted desert" part of the park than the whole petrified forest section. The petrified forest was pretty amazing but the painted desert and blue mesas were beautiful! Enjoy these pics...

The Painted Desert

Tina at the Painted Desert

The Blue Mesas

The Tepees

After leaving the forest our next stop was Winslow, Arizona so I could get my picture taken "Standing on the corner". Just in case someone still lives in a cave that is a line in the song "take it easy" by the Eagles, actually it was their first hit in 1970, and it has been Winslows claim to fame ever since. They have dedicated a corner to the Eagles and they call "Standing on a Corner Park", imagine that. Its consist of a statue of a "70's guy", two gift shops and outdoor speaker that perpetually play songs by the Eagles, sounds cheesy but we couldn't pass it up. Even Tina who made fun of me about the idea at first ended up wanting her picture taken on the "corner" after she saw how cool I looked.

"Standing on a Corner"

Tina "Standing on a Corner"

We made a little stop in Flagstaff to stock up on some food before heading up to the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff and northern Arizona wasn't what either of us were expecting, for some reason I always pictured Arizona as a desert, but thats not the case for the northern part of the state. Flagstaff was an awesome town engulfed by a forest of ponderosa pines, very mountainous and plenty of trees always makes for a beautiful place. Flagstaff was the 2100 mile mark of the trip and left us about 70 miles from the Grand Canyon. Its a beautiful drive up to the Canyon and it consist of some really high summits, the highest we have seen so far is 8046 feet, but we hit a 8000 footer and a lot of summits in the 7000s, old Charlie just poked along up every single one of them. Good for us some states out here took the notion to put a sign at the summit of most of the highest points letting you know the elevation and that you have reached the summit, its actually become a very pleasant sight to round the corner on some steep climb and see that beautiful green sign sitting there letting you know that its going to be downhill for awhile. I'm sure Charlie and the traffic behind us are just as glad that we've finally reached the top. I've decided to make two post out of Arizona, so that way the Grand Canyon will have its own post, because its going to take a whole post, Tina went a little crazy with the camera.

Just north of Flagstaff

Tina

Charlie

Albuquerque or Albu-quirky?

Well I will be the first to say neither one of us minded leaving Texas behind, endless farm land, cows, skunks and dry counties is not what this road trip is about. But finally we made it to New Mexico, spent our first night at Lake Sumner State Park, we decided to go to Fort Sumner to visit the grave of none other than the infamous "Billy the Kid". Come to find out Fort Sumner and some place in Texas called Hico are in a dispute of who really holds the bones of "Billy the Kid", it seems if you believe the story where Pat Garrett let Billy escape and that he died peaceful as an old man, then you need to visit Hico to see the grave, but us being believers that Garrett killed Billy that dreadful night felt satisfied that we had saw the "real" grave. Here's a couple pics...

Billies tombstone has been stolen several times, but they finally locked it up

A river in New Mexico

Tinas view of New Mexico

Made a stop in Albuquerque on the way through, actually did a little detour down Central Avenue, which is the heart of Historic Route 66, and even had lunch at the "Route 66" diner. Maybe its just the people that hang out on Central Avenue but didn't take us long to realize we didn't fit in real well in Albuquerque, not enough piercings in our face and we don't even have a single tattoo between the two of us(which would have been easily solved on Central Avenue), but we are driving a VW Bus so maybe they thought we're the strange ones.

Route 66

New Mexico had some very beautiful places, and some very high elevations that we had to cross, its the first real test that "Charlie" has had to face, being from Florida (aka "Flatistan", as its known in the motorcycle world), I was wondering how he would do on the mountains that we would be facing being I had no way of testing him on hills. As everyone who drives a VW Bus knows they are no speed machine and are notorious for going especially slow up hills, well no difference for Charlie, if you want to find us just look in the slow lane going about 40 mph in 3rd gear, cause thats where we seem to spend most of our time on inclines, and as the elevation goes up, our speed goes down even more. But a little help from some octane booster ( 91 octane is the highest they have out here) Charlie pushed along just fine, hes like the little Westi that could, slow but steady.

Tina and Charlie after climbing a huge hill

Spent our second and last night in Gallup, N.M., which is on the border of Arizona. Its a very "Native American" city, everything is aimed towards visitors spending their money on Native American "goods". You even get bombarded by solicitors trying to sell you junk why your sitting in a restuarant eating your dinner. After over 1800 miles and 5 days we are excited to get to Arizona, mainly because we can slow down and take it easy, there is not alot that we want to see before we get to the Grand Canyon so we have just been driving like mad to get there as quickly as possible, and we are both ready for a day off. Driving a bus in the kind of wind that kicks up out west is pretty exhausting in itself, I got as much play out of the steering as I could before we left but in a 32 year old vehicle its nearly impossible to make the steering tight, there is only about two inches of play in the wheel but when your constantly turning from the left to the right with every wind gust that two inches adds up fast. Next up... Arizona.

A beautiful picture of N.M.

Happiness is Lubbock Texas in the review mirror...

*Sputter Update*

So after reaching out to the volkswagen community (which means spending four hours reading through forums trying to find someone having the same "sputtering" problem that I had been dealing with), and swapping out pretty much every spare part that I had brought along, and thats alot being I pretty much put together three different motors to get the one I got, I finally solved the sputter problem! A 50 cent hose clamp and two minutes of work fixed a vacuum leak and Charlie has been running like a champ ever since! Thanks to everyone who offered help.


After fixing the infamous "sputter" we found ourselves just inside the Texas line, as anyone who has ever driven across Texas knows this state can be quite a task. But we got off to a really good start in Texas, not 25 miles in we pulled off I-20 onto some small backroad so I could fiddle with the engine a bit, wasn't there maybe 5 minutes before some lady stopped and offered a ride. Then this fellow came riding up on his four-wheeler, he was a retired Marine from Seattle who makes his living these days planting and running a Maize Maze, no joke. He even had a shirt on that said "CORN COP" on the back, which got a good laugh from Tina and myself, I guess hes also head of security at this corn maze. Moral of the story is we weren't parked on the side of the road for 15 minutes and had three people stop to offer help (this includes "toothless Jackie", whose plan B in life is to "catch me a trucker"on I-20), not a bad way to start off in Texas.

a pic from somewhere along the way across Texas

Being we were coming in on I-20, there really wasn't any other way to go then right through the middle of Dallas. Which we did pretty much uneventful if you ask me, ofcourse Tina on the other hand might have a different opinion on the matter as she seemed to be on the edge of her seat the whole time while I was swerving through traffic. But it was a relief to finally be through the DFW area because it just seemed like it would never end. Heading west out of Fort Worth on highway 114 I couldn't believe how much it reminded me of Mexico, everything from the buildings to the cars, the only thing missing was the smell of sewage flowing freely along the side of the road. And we also passed our 1000 mile mark while in Dallas.

Dallas

This is what my arm looked like after two days of hanging it out the window

Stayed our only night in Texas at a State Park in this little town called Jacksboro. Its about halfway between Dallas and Lubbock, and it is home to the largest Elvis Presley collectibles shop in Texas, so ofcourse I had to check that out! All the way across Texas we had been taking about wanting to try some Bar-B-Q, and we where hoping Jacksboro would be our chance, turns out both the restaurants in the town are closed on Tuesday, go figure. But we did get to see a dog riding a motorcycle down mainstreet, some guy had his blue heeler riding on his bike with him, and I'm talking a full grown dog. Other than wide open plains, horses and cows the only excitement that Texas had to offer were all the skunks! Dead skunks that is, they were everywhere, must have smelled at least twenty of the nasty little critters. On to New Mexico!

Pic of our campsite in Jacksboro

On the way...

Well as most of you already know we left Florida early Sunday morning, had a pretty uneventful first day, which is a god thing when your driving a vehicle that was made in 1976. We had talked about how long it would be before we saw another Westi on the road, I was betting it wouldn't be until we got to the Grand Canyon, well little do you know we pulled over to chill out for a bit just east of Pensacola and up pulls a '70 VW Westy! I have to say I was pretty impressed with Tina, she knew it was a VW Bus just by the sound it made when it pulled in, she didnt even have to look! Turned out to be this cool couple who where heading back from camping in Alabama and live in Pensacola. Check out this Bus! So on we went, I was hoping to make it 300 or so miles the first day, but turns out we did 475! Which is huge in a westy, at least I think it is, and if you were driving this beast you would think so to. We ended up camping just south of Hattiesburg, Ms. at some campground we stumbled upon while looking for a completely different campground, it was nice and only had two other campers staying! Heres a few pics of our first night...



This is my "Into The Wild" pic.

On Monday as driving across this nothing that is known as northern Louisiana "Charlie" developed a slight sputter, so our day has went pretty much like this, Charlie sputters, we pull over and I work on it, we take off again and go just far enough as to think it must be fixed(maybe 10 or 15 miles) then it starts sputtering again, so we repeat the whole process. But I've reached out to the VW community for help so I think we should be getting this fixed shortly, but even with the sputter we managed to make it to within 10 miles of Texas, which was our goal for the day! And we crossed the Mississippi river today! Which is one of the landmarks that divide this trip in my mind, its goes like this, Ms. River, Dallas, Grand Canyon then Pacific Ocean, thats the four landmark goals that i have set in my mind. Well anyway heres a few pics of the day...

The Mississippi River, or at least a bridge over the Mississippi River
This is the view driving across Louisiana...
So as of now we are in a hotel in Shreveport, but hope to get the westy fixed today, I've got some parts from the local parts store and I'm loaded with knowledge from spending three hours last night reading VW forums, so I feel pretty confident.