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USA Road Trip 2013

August 2013
Hi there and we welcome you to follow our RV trip across the USA commencing on the 7th August 2013. The trip has been planned for nearly 9 months now as part of our daughter returning to her US University where she studies on her sporting scholarship Read more
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  • Stafford Family TravelsUSA Road Trip 2013
    Day 26

    Day 21, El Monte RV, LA

    August 27, 2013 in the United States ⋅ 16 °C

    Day 20 saw us making our way back to Los Angeles to drop off the RV back at El Monte RV's. I pointed out to them the problem at the back of the van and explained that it was not there before getting the RV steering done ion Youngstown and I noticed it a day or so later.
    They were extremely understanding and didn't even charge me for the incident even though they had a right to as I could not provide any evidence that it was not me. Because I said that I accepted full responsibility, they accepted my honesty, and charged me nothing.
    Fantastic customer service. WE made our way to the hotel for our last night in LA, and then off to the airport tomorrow for our flights home.    Read more

  • Stafford Family TravelsUSA Road Trip 2013
    Day 24

    Circus Circus, Las Vegas, Nevada

    August 25, 2013 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Day 19 - There was no rush this morning so we took our time and just headed out around 10:00am. Our trip today was going to take us the last 4 hours into Vegas.

    Most of the drive was through the totally barren, but amazingly beautiful Utah. Continuing on from yesterday some of the incredible rock formations and mountain tops were just incredible. To think that people lived in this wilderness for thousands of years before white fellas stepped onto the continent is incredible in itself. The place is so barren, yet apparently has water everywhere if you know where to look, and the landscapes were amazing. I know I seem to be harping a little on the landscapes, but if you ever get a chance to drive through this part of the world it truly is awe inspiring to see. Just when you think you've seen it you turn another corner, go over another rise, and suddenly are just slapped in the face with yet another magnificent view, it changes constantly.

    Talking about change, I have been continuously surprised at how the scenery changes almost instantly when you cross a state border. In many cases you'd think they sat down and drew lines for borders wherever the landscape and flora changed. The geographical differences are so pronounced it is almost like jumping from one planet to another.

    Things started getting a little darker as we got closer to Nevada. The I-15 is the road from Salt Lake City to Las Angeles and passes through Arizona for just a short while before crossing the border again into Nevada.

    The skies were getting darker and the winds were getting stronger. We had to drop speed down a little as some of the cross winds were so severe the vehicle almost changed lanes, so attention and focus here were pretty important. Having experience driving big rigs and B-Doubles meant it wasn't too much of an issue but someone handling one of these large RV's for the first time would have found it pretty scary.

    Soon we saw more and more power lines heading in the same direction and took an educated guess that we were heading in the right direction, to the city of lights.

    We cruised on into Vegas and made our way to the Circus Circus Resort and Casino on the strip which had its own RV park, pretty cool being in the middle of everything.

    Once hooked up we moved on down the strip to check out the sights. As the strip is actually 4.5 miles long we decided to purchase the 24 hour bus pass which you can just hop on and off anywhere for the 24 hours.

    Made our way to the bottom end of the strip to Luxor, the Egyptian themed Pyramid and Sphinx. Inside was of course all in ancient Egyptian décor and made for a very different feel than what we were normally used to.

    We then checked out the Excalibur next door, now when I say next door we must remember that each of these places sits on a land component equal to one or two normal city blocks, so next door was some walk.

    We continued on up the strip checking out casino after casino, along with the required window shopping, you know, that thing the ladies seem to get pleasure out of.

    Dinner time was fast approaching and around 7 we decided we would try out the BBQ style southern hospitality menu at the Harley Davidson Café. Can't say the food impressed me and the serving could have fed four people, not one.

    After dinner we continued our little stroll along the strip until we hit Caesars Palace. This place is incredible, almost replicating an entire ancient roman city, took some shots, check them out. It would probably have to be the largest single complex on the strip, although it has some very close rivals, our Circus Circus was extremely impressive also.

    Now while we were doing all this gazing what we did not realise is that we had almost walked the entire strip back to our RV park, so much for the bus passes, however they were good until 6 tomorrow night and they will be getting used as my feet and ankles are now killing me.

    Finally to the RV after our 15 minute walk through Circus Circus to get out the other side where the RV was parked.

    We were knackered so off to bed at around 11:00, amazing, in Las Vegas and in bed before midnight. Haha.    Read more

  • Stafford Family TravelsUSA Road Trip 2013
    Day 23

    Day 18, Richfield, Utah

    August 24, 2013 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    Day 18 - Once we left the Tiger Run RV park we continued on through the mountains past Vail, the ski resort for the rich and famous, toward Las Vegas.

    It didn't take long past Vail to actually be descending again to around 6,500 feet for a lot more of the Rockies. Much of this new area was less rugged mountains and a bit more sedate, although still very different and beautiful.

    We decided to stop along the way at various rest stops and viewing areas as the Utah countryside was just incredible. I will make short note here that it is useful for just about nothing, and it really is just an incredibly staggering sight to see with all the strange rock formations. This area is like being on the moon, I believe I haven't seen anything even close to it anywhere else in the world to date. When all this was occurring millions of years ago this must have been a very geographically violent place to have the rock formations that have formed.

    We figured we would just drive on and find a destination just a few hours short of Vegas so that the next day we would be into Vegas not long after lunch.

    A place that claims to be the capital for southern Utah was a little city called Richfield, around 5,500 feet above sea level, but now very much desert like landscapes with some general grass growing and maybe a little bit of cattle grazing.

    We checked into our first KOA campground and I must say, these are very well maintained and this was a beautiful tree lined park with beautiful gardens and play areas for kids. Even a pool table in the laundry to get that well needed stick practice whilst waiting for the laundry to dry, something different.

    There was next to no TV reception here so I managed to jimmy up a cable to connect to the site provided cable connection, this gave us some viewing for the night.

    Well tomorrow was our second last leg of our journey towards Vegas. Seeing as we had done some extended drive times since leaving Youngstown, which was a day late, we were now actually a day ahead of schedule meaning we would be able to stop two nights in Las Vegas for a good tourist gander.

    Looking for forward to the main part of the Utah driving tomorrow.    Read more

  • Stafford Family TravelsUSA Road Trip 2013
    Day 23

    A Note from Sue, Richfield, Utah

    August 24, 2013 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    It was hard saying goodbye to our girl as we started the second part of our trip. I'm so glad that we got to spend time with her and to help settle her and Shannon into their new apartment. We got to meet some of her friends and their families, which helps when she is so far away from home.

    St. Louis was our first stop, we stayed at a RV park attached to a Casino and looking straight across the river to the Big Arch. I had a flutter on the pokies, spent a massive $7 and came home with 28 cents.

    Russell, Kansas was our next stop, a lovely little park with Reindeer. We had a great night in the local Pizza and Pub. Kansas is pretty flat and not much of anything.

    Next was a complete change of scenery, The Rocky Mountains. I enjoy the mountains much more, the scenery is always changing. We had a bit of a hold up as there was a big bike race on and the Highway was closed. We turned around and went back to beautiful RV park in Breckenridge, called the Tiger Run Resort. Would love to come back and spend a few nights here. Driving through the snow resorts we decided if we come back in Winter Copper Mountain would be the place to stay. I will have to improve my golf game before they would let me play on any of 16 magnificent golf courses in the area.

    Utah is the most amazing landscape. I have also had a thing about rock formations and this was heaven for me. The formations are just stunning and they can differ from one side of the road to the other. We didn't get to go to Monument Valley, but will one day.

    Today we are off to Las Vegas for a couple of nights, and some retail therapy for me.    Read more

  • Stafford Family TravelsUSA Road Trip 2013
    Day 22

    Day 17, Breckenridge, Colorado

    August 23, 2013 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    Day 17 - We decided to get away to an early start today so that we could get across Kansas to Denver in Colorado and up into the Rockies

    Our plan was to get right through to Grand Junction as a full day driving, about 6 hours, but the plan got changed as we saw what we were driving into.

    Heading off from Russell took us through the high prairies of Kansas. Continuing west the countryside became a mass of green with crops being grown which were obviously the food bowl of the US. One crop we did not recognise that was abundant was Sorghum, which is a grass when ground up has no gluten, but abundant in iron, and glucose, which makes it a great gluten free alternative for wheat based flours.

    Sorghum flour will be something we will look for when we get back home as being gluten free will be a better alternative for breads and baking etc. than normal flour.

    As we continued on toward Denver we appeared to be travelling on flat ground but the drive over about 3 hours took us up about 4,500 feet in elevation. If I ever did this run again I think I'd do it in the other direction for a much better fuel economy. Now don't get me started on fuel economy, when we researched these RV's it was advertised that the 6.8L V10 had between 10-12 mpg depending on how you drive it. Well, that could not be further from the truth as we have been averaging around 6.5mpg, considerably less than anticipated. Now that means in dollar terms that our fuel bill is considerably higher than what we budgeted for. Oh well, we just need to get back to the end of our trip now in LA which is now only about 5 days away.

    Arriving in Denver it took us 2 hours just to get from one side through to the other before our climb up the ranges into the Rockies. And boy was it a climb, 3 lane highway all the way as some of the big rigs were down to walking pace. The climb is long and steep and seems to go forever, we managed to only drop down to about 40mph (75k) as the big V10 had plenty of clout and had no problem dealing with the climb at all.

    The Rockies are absolutely amazing and the feat of building that I-70 highway back in the 50's must have taken some amazing engineering. At one point there is a massive tunnel through the mountain at almost 12,000 feet.

    The I-70 was instigated by Dwight D Eisenhower as a means of connecting the East coast to the West coast in one continuous highway. It starts in Washington DC and terminates in San Francisco after connecting to the I-15 from Salt Lake City through Las Vegas. A pretty good damn highway most of the way.

    As we reached the ski resorts of Breckinridge, Copper Mountain, and Vail, we chose a park at Breckinridge called the Tiger Run RV park, it was just incredible with more massive Motorhome RV's than we had seen the entire trip. These things were huge, up to 50ft bogey drive coaches with trailer hook-ups, vehicle towing hitches, Harley Davidson racks and more, they were just mind blowing. Our little 34 footer looks like a baby against them.

    I think there is a massive amount of retirees in the US that sell up and buy these huge RV's towing Jeeps and Harley Davidson's to spend the rest of their days travelling and experiencing what the US has to offer travellers.

    One word of warning when checking in was to not leave anything outside the RV after dark as the bears are still out and about, and get into anything during the night as they move through the park. Now I figured that was just a sales pitch to create a little drama until I had to take some garbage down to the dumpsters at the back end of the park.

    In the dark and dropping trash into the dumpsters I was suddenly confronted by this cracking noise of something big moving through the trees behind the dumpsters. Needless to say I retreated rather rapidly back to the safety of the RV, interesting.

    Some pretty serious thunderstorms were moving through the mountains now and there was rumour that there may be some snowfalls during the night due to the drop in temperatures.

    We got rugged up for a cool night ahead and our continued trip through Colorado tomorrow    Read more

  • Stafford Family TravelsUSA Road Trip 2013
    Day 21

    Day 16, Russell, Kansas

    August 22, 2013 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    Day 16 - After our lovely evening at the Casino Queen we had a little sleep in and prepared for our next leg towards Denver.

    Once we checked out the maps and possible points of interest it looked like there wasn't really a lot to see once leaving St Louis. We said ok, no plan let's just head west and do what takes our fancy so, off we headed west.

    The next major city was of course Kansas City, and the motorway took us straight through the city centre and the place looked pretty run down and dilapidated so we just kept on moving. What was a big surprise was when we entered Topeka, further west and suddenly see these great big billboards stating welcome to the State Capital, Topeka. Never knew Topeka was actually the state capital of Kansas, always figured Kansas City would have been the capital.

    Our original plan was to stop over at either Topeka or Salina but as we moved west these places didn't quite get us as far west as we wanted and we figured we'd just keep going and set Hays, Kansas as our night destination.

    The city of Topeka though was a stunning city, the gardens and manicured public areas were such a pleasant change from the rundown areas in a lot of the towns and cities we had visited. Topeka is really a lovely city.

    For some reason I decided I had a craving for some McDonalds French fries at a little town called Russell in Kansas. Thank goodness we did because when I then checked on available campsites of RV parks between here and Denver there was very little so just across the road was a tidy little RV park called the Triple J, sounds more like a Kansas cattle ranch but all the same we went and checked in. Fantastic people and guided us to a little site right across from the oil rig museum. Seems there was just as much oil in Kansas as there was in Texas back in the mid 1900's, the history of the place and the murals in the local bar, come pizza bar told an incredible story.

    Well what do we do in a tiny little town called Russell in the middle of whoop whoop, go to the only bar around tacked onto the back of the local gas station. Check out our pictures.

    We only went to have a beer but once we settled in and met the locals it turned out to be a great evening. Our Aussie accents and some strange sayings we had, got some of the locals quite intrigued and we learnt, from one of the locals (Russ from Russell) Google searches, that our Aussie saying of your chances are Buckley's and none comes from a gentleman many years ago called William Buckley who historically had the absolute worst luck, so hence the saying Buckley's and none now made sense. How's that, all the way to Kansas to find the true history of our saying, Buckley's and none.

    I found this amazing beer called Boulevarde made locally in a Kansas City brewery that was astonishing. A beautiful wheat based beer that had the same foggy appearance as the famous Belgian Beer Hoegarden. Needless to say I had one or two or whatever.

    In our pics you will find some snaps of pizza, rather ordinary to post such pics but this had to be the best pizza I have ever had anywhere in the world, and I've had plenty. The lovely Denise, pictured in our snaps, looked after us superbly and we had a fantastic evening in the little Kansa town of Russell.

    Getting late so off to bed, night all.    Read more

  • Stafford Family TravelsUSA Road Trip 2013
    Day 20

    Day 15, St Louis, Missouri

    August 21, 2013 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    Day 15 - Today was a bit of a sad day for Sue and I as we had said goodbye to Bec last night and would not see her for another 9 months. It was lovely though last night to have dinner with the family of one of her best friends.

    Bec seems to have left a lasting memory with everyone in the US, mostly for the good. Those that have chosen to push her over the edge of her patience have learned to not cross the young girl from OZ, she has a long memory and does not take kindly to stupidity.

    Seeing as we were now a day behind schedule we thought we would try to catch up a day over the next couple and do a little more driving. We didn't believe there was much we wanted to see in Columbus or Indianapolis so we drove on through for most of the day.

    In actual fact we drove from Youngstown which is right on the Eastern border of Ohio, right across Ohio through Columbus, through Indiana via Indianapolis, across Illinois to St Louis in Missouri. So driving across 4 US states in a day, some 650 miles (1000k). The great news is that the RV finally drove beautifully with no shaking and even much of the slack free play in the steering was gone. Such a pleasure to drive the vehicle the way it was supposed to feel. Shame it took 2 weeks of driving horror before someone could locate the problem and rectify it. That resolved we had anther issue appear when we were refuelling at Indianapolis.

    The tank filler is at the back of the vehicle and as I was refuelling I notice some minor damage to the back of the vehicle, a bit of a surprise seeing as I hadn't hit anything and the vehicle was fine yesterday when it was dropped off at the workshop. This could be a drama but will fill you in once I know some more.

    We arrived in St Louis just on Sunset and located a magnificent RV park right in the heart of the city, but on the Illinois side of the river, not the Missouri side. Parked up in the shadows of the city and famous arch at an RV park with its own full blown Casino was quite a bonus, so after a quick shower and spruce up we headed over to the casino in the private park shuttle. The place is massive and situated beautifully on the mighty Mississippi river as it runs south from the Great Lakes on the US/Canada border all the way through the country to the Gulf of Mexico.

    We didn't spend too long at the casino but a few bucks in the pokies and watching some blackjack games in process was enough for me. After just a couple of beers we decided it was time to just head back to the RV for a quiet night and try and catch up on the news to see if the rest of the world was still in existence.    Read more

  • Stafford Family TravelsUSA Road Trip 2013
    Day 19

    Day 14, Youngstown, Ohio

    August 20, 2013 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    Day 14 - our last day in Youngstown started out with an early rise and taking the troublesome RV to a truck workshop to see if something could be done about the questionable steering mechanism. At least this time it was going to an actual truck workshop where the problem should be solved.

    Got it there and left it for the day, headed off to catch up with Bec and get some YSU T-shirts, caps etc. you know, the usual parent supporters type stuff. Bec even got a T-shirt for her coach back in OZ and asked us to package it up for him and give it to him when we get back home.

    Most of the day we spent around the campus and helping Bec get her new apartment sorted out and I must say, it really gave us a connection with her life at college, being involved in the setting up of her accommodation and meeting with advisers, coaches etc.

    Spending the day on and around campus was great, we also headed out for a while checking out second hand cars for when the situation arises that we need, and can, get Bec a car for getting around Youngstown and not being completely reliant on someone else. Seems that the best cars for students in the US are the Toyota's and Honda's, and of course their upmarket versions, Lexus and Accura.

    Advice I received from a past YSU student who now runs a car yard was that they are cheap to buy, cheap to run, and get the best resale values in 3 years time when it's time to come home. Great advice I thought.

    Chased up the workshop around 3:30 to see what was going on with the vehicle and turns out they found some issues but the RV company did not want to spend the money required to make the vehicle up to scratch. They did a full re-alignment that was supposedly done by the Dallas tyre place, but by proper truck mechanics. They also discovered that one of the front tyres was actually out of round and this would certainly have created some havoc with vibrations etc.

    Well we collected the RV and decided to just park up at a Walmart for the night as it was closer to the airport where we had to return the rental car to.

    All settled and then went back to collect Bec and go for dinner with one of her best friends and her mum at this Italian restaurant in the heart of Youngstown. Had a lovely meal but the service was atrocious. Got a pretty filthy look from the waiters when I refused to pay any tip on the bill as I strongly believe that a tip is a reward for good service, not just a given that it will be granted.

    Youngstown has a bad reputation for being dead in the old city centre around the University after the decline of the steel industry back in the '80's, but it turns out there are some nice little bars and restaurants trying very hard to get custom from the locals and the food is exceptional. The newly created gas industry will play a very important part in the rebirth of Youngstown and it will return to its time of financial glory but probably not in the time that Bec will be there.

    After dinner back to Bec's apartment to say our final farewells to her and her roommate Shannon. A little sad to have to say goodbye again and leave my little Princess behind.

    All done we headed back to our location at Walmart and off to bed. Interesting to see tomorrow if the steering really had been resolved.    Read more

  • Stafford Family TravelsUSA Road Trip 2013
    Day 18

    Day 13, Youngstown Ohio

    August 19, 2013 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    Day Thirteen - A relaxing morning got us into YSU campus around 11:15am after we did a little shopping for some basic household toolkits the girls could use to do stuff around their apartment, also helped me in finishing off the assembly of some bedroom shelves and things with a real hammer and screwdriver. Putting shelves together with Phillips head star head screws and a flathead screwdriver, not to mention attempting to hammer in little tacks for the backboard with the back end of the same flathead screwdriver was just doing my head in yesterday. Therefore the tools were more for me today, not the girls. Hahaha.

    Oh dear now it seemed there was some more shopping needed to complete the bathroom requirements, mmmmm funny thing that. Ok, this time off to Walmart, man they are damn big shopping centres with nothing unavailable, a sort of combination of a Target, Bunnings, and Masters all in one, not to mention the Woolies supermarket for foodstuffs as well.

    Now back to the apartments to assemble the last few additions to the furniture list. With that our of the way it was time for a relaxing stroll around one of their major shopping malls while the girls had their nails done. OMG, these things are built for women only. Other than a couple of menswear stores there was nothing but clothes, shoes, beauty and hair, and food, not a damn thing that would be of any interest to a bloke, crikey, what's the world coming to?

    All I could do was find a coffee shop, a Gloria Jeans to get a good cup of coffee, the Americans have no idea how to make a good cup of coffee, and blow me down, it was nothing like a GJ's back home. The coffee was atrocious and all I ordered was an ordinary cappuccino.    Read more

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