American Road Trip

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Wed 26 Apr 2006 22:05
American Road Trip - Tim Allcott
869 miles in a week: rental Mustang Convertible.
Arrived after 99 days of rain. Yup, woke on Easter Sunday to the 100th! Stopped at 11:00a.m., tho. Guy at Hertz couldn't see why I wanted a convertible, and pressed me to take a Nissan 350z. If I hadn't read the weather forecast I might have been tempted!
Drove down Route 1 (including 17 mile drive) in bright sunshine. Magic journey; the sign the says "Hill and curves for the next 67 miles" doesn't fib!
Then up through Fresno (past James Dean Memorial junction) and on (through 2feet of snow either side of the road) to Yosemite. Driving through the valley with the top down was a magical experience! We then stayed in Oakland and took the ferry into the city from Larkspur, finishing off by driving over the Oakland Bay bridge in Friday Rush hour.
The car? ideal for the job in hand. Yep, "big brother" with the V8 would have been fun. The electric roof was handy (dropped it whilst waiting to pay to go over the bridge) and the view out with it down was much improved... the 'C' pillars are amazingly thick hood up. Car really screamed on kickdown, 5,500 rpm, but picked up to join the Freeway. Road surfaces produced some amazing potholes which I managed to avoid. SWMBO had a drive too, but wasn't comfy with the auto box.
Any regrets? Yup, that we didn't go for a fortnight. Icing on the cake for the holiday; got upgraded SFO to Toronto on return leg as it was SWMBO's birthday. Thanks to the guy who recommended Frommers. Excellent guide book steered us to perfect well priced hotels and good value restaurants. If anyone's doing the trip later in the year, email me for up to date advice.
Tim{P}
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Wed 26 Apr 2006 22:23
American Road Trip - Stuartli
Sounds like a fantastic trip...:-)

Glad you enjoyed it. I've only driven all round Florida and parts of California but the US is, let's face it, an enormous country containing virtually every type of climate in the world.

No wonder so comparatively few Americans (in relation to its population) have actually ventured abroad.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Wed 26 Apr 2006 23:21
American Road Trip - Kevin
>Thanks to the guy who recommended Frommers.

You're welcome.

>Excellent guide book steered us to perfect well priced hotels
>and good value restaurants.

Best guide to the US that I've found. Worth it's weight in gold if you're doing a "Where shall we go next?" tour.

Kevin...
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Thu 27 Apr 2006 00:01
American Road Trip - Statistical outlier
Sounds great, I had a similar trip in a Mustang thru Yosemite in January a couple of years ago. Was fabulous!
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