Bassybeats Travel Blog

Another early start and we had a big drive ahead of us. We had planned to get into Texas today but that just didn’t happen. With bad weather and some random Google Maps directions we had eaten up too much time.

Breakfast was another healthly serving of waffles and eggs at PJ’s, the motels complimentary breakfast. Everything in Flagstaff seems to be Route 66 themed which is cool.

Then it was East bound and down ( an Archer and Smokey and the Bandit reference ). The car was looking more suited for this drive than ever. read more

Its the day to leave Vegas to head south towards Flagstaff, Arizona. The Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon are the only things on the list today other than driving a lot of miles.

First stop was the Hoover Dam, where it was hot as hell but pretty damn awesome. Parking was as usual expensive but the views did not disappoint. You actually cross the border halfway across the bridge which is cool.

The new highway that is used instead of the dam itself is impressive in it’s own right. Just as much a engineering marvel as the dam. read more

After being suffiently over the Vegas Casino thing we headed out into the desert again. One of Pauls bucket list items was to drive the Extraterrestrial highway and get to edge of Area 51. But before we did, we went poolside at the Hard Rock Hotel for an hour or so before heading off. The best pool ever. 37 ºC, fake sand and Rock and Roll over the speakers.

Heading of of Las Vegas we pulled over to wash the windscreen and ended up pulling over right next to Ellis Airforce Base. We pulled over on the side of the road and watched supersonic jets fly right overhead doing training exercises, was an incredibly lucky find and shit were they loud. read more

After that long day through Death Valley we crashed at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, a pretty awesome venue. Paul and I quickly discovered that Casino’s are not really our thing.

But first on the agenda for the day was driving Trophy Trucks around the Vore Short Course ( Vegas Off Road Experience ). These trucks we’re amazing. 40inch tyres, 20inches of travel and every ounch of fun we were hoping for.

Paul nominated me to go first which was fine ( it was awesome! ). Run through the safety briefing, jump in the trucks and out we went. We think we ended up getting a lot more laps than we should have which was awesome. The trucks are very hard to get used to, very wollowy, and you need to use the brakes to get them to kick round the corners not the gas. Left foot braking was encouraged  and was really needed with these things. read more

Day 3 started off a bit slow with both of our alarms not going off, not something we can let happen again, but luckily not an issue this time. We had one more morning left to look around LA before heading to Las Vegas.

First stop was the Los Angeles River, the iconic concrete river running through downtown LA that you see in all the movies. One of the rougher parts of town I had seen so far in the area, but we found the perfect spot to pull over and get a great look.

We also found the place where ice cream trucks go to die. read more

After a well needed sleep we were up and off on our first full day of LA. This was the first day of driving a left hand drive car and what better way to start than 6 lane freeways!

We weren’t far from Norms Rare Guitars, a guitar shop made famous by youtube but a staple purchasing shop for a lot of greats ( Joe Bonamassa is a frequent visitor ). The shop was loaded with a lot of guitars, and we were told heaps weren’t on display due to repairs to the shop but it was still ALOT. read more

A 12 hour flight usually isn’t too bad, except when you get no sleep because its bumpy the whole way. Can’t say i’m a fan of the 777-300’s but we arrivaled safe and sound and coming into LA was pretty damn cool.

On arrival it was a bitof a mad dash through customs,  where we randomly got husstled into a different line and skipped about 45mins of lines. Out of the airport we grabbed the Thrifty rental car bus to go pick out our stallion.

The Beast

After dealing with the worlds most cruisy guy at Thrifty we end up with our mobile home for the next 3 weeks, the Chrysler 200. 2.4L of. Black, wrong side of the road, Amercian car. read more

Well the time has finally come around for Paul and I too head off on our epic road trip across the USA. This trip has been in the planning since we were in  high school.

It started with some tape on a map on a wall and ended up a reality. We are going west to east, south to north, across 3 timezones, visiting 17 states and clocking up nearly 7000km, its going to be amazing.

Planning a trip this tight and this big in 3 weeks is not an easy task. As soon as we booked those tickets it was a mad rush of hotel bookings, infuriating car rental companies and google map calculations to get our route planned. Keeping at least half the trip unbooked was a key decision that we made early on so we had some wiggle room if we got tired, or wanted a bit more time in a particular place. read more