Wednesday, 1st July 2009 – Sprinfield, MO, to Lake of the Ozarks, MO. About 120 miles.

Our first mission for the day was to drive to Bass Pro – the biggest outdoors hobby shop I’ve ever ever seen – to try and get a reel for Dad for his fly fishing. They are a lot cheaper to buy direct from the US as there’s less tax, so in we went. It was like Bunnings for the outdoor adventurers. Dad would have spent all day (and maybe all night) there if he could! They didn’t have what we wanted on-site but there was one at the warehouse so after picking that up, we set off for The Lake of the Ozarks.

After another beautiful, scenic drive, and getting just a little bit lost, we arrived at Kimberley and BJ’s Bar, Big Dick’s;

Yes, that’s the name of the Bar. It’s at the half-way point of the Lake of the Ozarks and it was established by a truck driver named Dick who was, well, BIG! BJ’s family have been running the bar for about 10 years. There are no words to express the feelings we had when we turned that little corner on that secluded road to find Kimberley and BJ running a VERY cool bar, right on the lake, and living 2 doors down. We were to spend 6 amazing, fun-filled, relaxing, fabulous, 6-of-the-best-days-of-our-lives here, and we couldn’t wait to get the relaxing started. We pulled up some chairs at the outside bar, ordered a pain in the ass and a couple of burgers, and so began our week on “the lake”.

The water was within stone’s throw. Literally. There are so many more photos to come – we didn’t get too many the first day as we knew we’d be there a while. But here’s an idea of what we were looking at, just across the road:

And a view of the bar from the lake!

We didn’t do a whole lot that day – just lots of catching up and drinking and eating and more catching up. We went out for dinner around 9pm to Paradise Bar and Restaurant – another lakeside bar. Everyone knows everyone on the lake, especially if you run a bar, so we were treated to a great feast of crab cakes, fried clams and salmon. Oh, and cocktails. Lots of cocktails! Luckily for us, BJ was driving so we could just chill-out and relax. It was an awesome start to our week on the lake.

Tuesday, 30 June 2009 – Amarillo, TX, to Springfield, MO. 540 miles.

We left our hotel around 8:30am, after a bagel for me and a Texas-shaped-waffle for Hubs! 🙂 We decided to take Route 66 as much as we could for the next leg of our journey. It was a very hot, very sunny day – just over 40 degrees – so having the top down and only going about 50mph was pretty exhausting. But we HAD to do it, cos, you know, WE WERE ON ROUTE 66!!

It’s days like these that’ll make us happy…

Being just before the 4th of July, we saw a lot of these:

i.e. temporarily places where you could buy FIREWORKS!! LEGALLY!! But the 4th of July story is yet to come. Back onto Route 66.

It was another lovely day to be on the road and we just really enjoyed the scenic route we took. Here’s one of those casinos in the middle of nowhere I mentioned earlier:

We really took our time driving, and we didn’t arrive at Springfield until 8:30pm, but it was still light!! Before we left, I decided that we HAD to visit at least 1 Springfield in the States, and I had emailed my gal-pal Colleen, who’s originally from Kentuky, to see if she had any rellies who would LOVE to have a couple of young, hip Aussies stay with them. (Did I actually just use the word “hip”??) And she told us that her brother and his family live in Springfield Missouri! And of COURSE they were happy to have us stay! We had a great time chatting with them into the night and we really appreciate them having us stay!

We couldn’t stay up too late though, as we had an early morning coming up. (Okay, 7:15am is early for us!!) but not a big driving day, so we were excited. We were almost at our first long-stay destination! Hooray!

Monday, 29 June 2009 – Williams, AZ, to Amarillo, TX. 666 miles.

This was our first really big driving day and we were well prepared after a good night sleep (mostly – it was pretty cold!), some great sunshine, pumping tunes and snacks; you know, like Beef Jerky!

It took me a few pieces to really get into it, but after that I was hooked! We even bought some at Woollies the other day!

We left around 8am and the weather started out lovely, but when we were stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch, it absolutely poured with rain. Lucky we didn’t get caught on the road with our top down! (That happened later!) I decided to broaden my horizons and try gritz. I had it with some eggs and it was okay. At least I could tick jerky and gritz of the list! We also popped in to WALMART (we love Walmart) for some better road maps and another cool t-shirt (Hubs bought 5 in total – $7.50 each… BARGAIN!) and then we were back on the road.

The lanscapes were just gorgeous!

But the weather was a bit temperamental so we didn’t have the top down much that day. We decided it was our duty to introduce the USA to some good Aussie music so we had a bit of Hilltop Hoods, The Cat Empire and Missy Higgins pumping through the speakers. I also found that I don’t get car sick when riding in a convertible with the top down (except on long, winding roads – more stories later) so I’ve determined that from now on, it has to be a convertible all the way. The kombi needs some work 🙂

It was a pretty long day of driving, just over 1000km, and it was made even longer by the fact that we had to cross 2 time zones, losing an hour each time. However, the speed limits were up to 75mph (120km/h – weeeeeeeeeeeee!) so we did it quite comfortably. Driving around sunset was particularly beautiful.

And everything is BIG in the US of A!

We arrived in Amarillo, Texas, around 9:30pm which meant it was still twilight, and decided just to order in pizza and chill out, as we had another substantial driving day ahead of us!

Sunday 28 June 2009 – Grand Canyon. 0 Miles in the Mustang.

In my research for accommodation in Williams, AZ, I came across Marvellous Marv’s Grand Canyon Tour and I got very excited! It sounded right up our alley – a small, relaxed tour, mainly avoiding all the touristy areas, a personal tour guide, and a good price. He picked us up in his van at 9am on a gorgeous sunny Arizona day, and away we went.

Marv is a real salt of the earth kind of guy. He’s been running these tours for over 30 years (if memory serves) and he is very passionate about the Grand Canyon National Park and finds it appalling what they are doing to his “own back yard”. (e.g. there’s now a McDonalds there!!) There was only 1 other couple on the tour, Peggy and Jerry (we neglected to get a photo of them which is a shame) who were a retired couple travelling across the country in their RV. The RVs were EVERYWHERE! But that’s a story for another day.

Marv showed us some great sights and at times, we were the only people in that particular spot. The Grand Canyon is breathtaking. My mind just couldn’t comprehend the size and the magnificence of what I was looking at. Photos never do it justice, but Hubs took some beauties. I’ll let them tell the story…

We walked down the first part of the Bright Angel Trail and passed some Mules carrying people back up from Phantom Ranch. I thought Marv was pulling my leg when he said there was a resort down the bottom of the canyon! But sure enough, it’s there, all the way down the bottom. Our timeframe (oh, and budget and lack of planning) didn’t allow for such luxuries this time around. Maybe next time Hubs!!

We had such a relaxing day and I would highly recommend this tour to anyone. We went out to dinner with Peggy and Jerry that night and had Mexican (I had a Chimichanga – SO GOOD) and 2 buckets of Coronas (5 beers to a bucket) between us, and Jerry was telling us that the blood alcohol limit was .08 in Arizona, so there was no need to worry! He also told us that police in th US can’t just randomly pull people over, so as long as we drove in a straight line, we’d be fine! Luckily, we were only a mile down the road and Hubs took it easy on the beers. We finished the night back in their RV sharing our Bundy Rum and drinking their Coconut Rum (which I LOVED!) A great end to a great day.

And a couple of videos, for your viewing pleasure!

Saturday 27 June 2009 – Palm Springs, CA, to Williams, AZ. 375 miles.

After a complimentary brekky at the Travelodge we jumped on the I-40 and we were off! The first part of our journey was quite interesting, seeing the desert landscape, and then coming across a Casino and resort, seemingly in the middle of nowhere! And there were many more to come after this as well. The California Desert really is beautiful. The long stretches of roads, the hills and the valleys…

After driving for a while, we realise we should stop for petrol. But we haven’t really seen anywhere to stop for a while. On my google maps that I’d printed out (which were totally rubbish BTW) it showed that “Rice” was coming up, which I presumed was a town. It turns out “Rice” was just the area which was the middle of the desert. I was getting a little anxious, but we finally pulled up at a truck stop that was selling fuel for $3.89USD/gallon. I didn’t care. We put in about $40 worth and that was the most expensive fuel we paid for. (On average we paid between $2.25-$2.50 per gallon!!)

We stopped in at Kingman for lunch at a Diner on Route 66. We had our first sweet potato fries (Mum used to make them for us when we were kids) and we were hooked! We shared a burger, fries and a yummy chocolate shake….

….and we were on the road again.

We were in Arizona by this stage and not long after, we arrived at Williams – the gateway to the Grand Canyon – and set up our tent. It took us a little while, but we figured it out and enjoyed a Bundy Rum and Coke as the sun was setting.


We headed into town for a beer and some ribs that we shared (delish) and enjoyed the twilight which lasted until about 10:30pm. Hubs kept teasing me but I was really scared of bears, even though the locals assured me there was nothing to fear. Of course, there was no incident and we had a good, albeit cold, night’s sleep, with our alarm set for 8:00am the next morning!

NaBloPoMoHo (Holiday) beginnnnnnnnsss….. NOW! (Click on the photos for larger image.)

Friday 26 June 2009 – Los Angeles, CA, to Palm Springs, CA. 162 miles.

We left Brisbane on Friday 26th June at 11am without incident. It was also the start of a very long Pigtail Friday! We flew V Australia and I would not hesitate in flying with them again. They had all the trimmings and the 12 hour flight really wasn’t so bad. We arrived at LAX at 11pm “home time” which was 7am LA time. So we had to start our day all over again. We felt a bit zonked but very excited! (I tried the “red-eye removal” on the photo editor, but it didn’t work! Tee hee!)

We took the shuttle to the car hire place and they said we had a choice of a Chrysler Sebring (which is what I booked) or, and this was said very nonchalantly, “I think there’s a Mustang out there too.”

Say what?… Oh yes pleeeeeeeeese!

So we jump into the very new, very red Mustang and take note of the odometer reading – a mere 316 miles a-thank-ya-very-much! And we’re on our way! Now bear in mind that it’s technically 1am for us at 9am in LA so we’re a little tired but in good spirits. Hubs is in the driver’s seat and I’m navigating. We start cruising around and our first impression is that LA is very dirty and a little scary (my impression). After getting slightly lost, we find ourselves again and decide that we should head out to the water, just to say we’ve been there. On the map it really didn’t look very far, but I didn’t quite get the hang of the scale and it was actually about 25 miles away. Oopsies!

We stopped off at a El Pollo Loco (I think) and had our first greasy meal. It was okay, but I found it amusing that Hubs was most excited about the mac-cheese that came with it!!

Then, from a distance, we spotted the HOLLYWOOD sign,

(gosh can you even see it?? It was SO smoggy) then we got a small glimpse of the beach and the Santa Monica Pier and turned around to head to Palm Springs on the I-10.

I’m not exactly sure what time it is at this stage – maybe 1:30pm or so? As we are heading out of LA, we come across a heck of a lot of traffic coming in. I’m so glad we were going in the opposite direction, but apparently if we’d left after 3pm it would have taken us 2 hours to get out of LA alone.

And now for our first experience at WALMART!! We love Walmart. We think it totally rocks. We managed to pick up camping gear (everything but a tent) for a total of $30USD (2 camp mats, sheets, pillows, a sleeping bag and a tent peg hammer) and a few other bits and pieces for the trip. And we’re on our way again! We put the top down (now that we’re out of scary LA) and turn the music up and start singing – mainly to keep us awake!

Hubs is still driving at this stage and is getting pretty sleepy so we pull over and I take over the driving. We don’t have much further to go, so I’m not too scared. Yet. Once in the driver’s seat however, I’m not so comfortable. I keep telling myself “keep right keep right keep right” and even though we’re on the freeway, everything about this feels so wrong. I can honestly say that I experienced the scariest 5 minutes of my life. I had the biggest cars I’ve EVER seen zooming past me, I’m struggling to keep in my lane (Hubs is very politely and helpfully gesturing for me to move to the left) and don’t even get me STARTED on the condition of the road. Hubs very kindly puts on Cindy Lauper for me to calm my nerves and keep me focused and I do believe that helped! Thanks Cindy!

After a little while we take a smaller highway towards Palm Springs and I’m much more comfortable now. The scenery around us is breathtaking and it starts sinking how much of an adventure this is going to be and how much fun and good times lay before us.


We arrive at Palm Springs at about 5pm and our hotel (Travelodge) is lovely. There was a pool and since it was over 30 degrees we thought we’d have a swim. This was a perfect start to our holiday. The hotel really was the best we stayed in for the whole trip which was a nice way to start.

After our swim we “had a little nap. Not entirely unexpectedly, this “nap” lasted 14 hours. We woke up at 8am the next morning and felt completely refreshed and ready to go. It was amazing!

It was the LONGEST Pigtail Friday on record, and a great start to our holiday.