07/09/2010, Monday, Day 5

Baton Rouge, LA to Fredricksburg, TX  (574 miles)

Oh boy, oh boy oh boy….

Pretty stressful day today. We left Bâton Rouge at 6:15 this morning without the top but we knew that it would be required at Lafayette. When our radar imagery on the GPS shows red, it means: “Hold on, it’s going to be rough”. Well for 30 minutes we had torentual rain, thunder, lightning and water in huge quantities… Thank god, the Dune Buggy never let up. Had this amount of rain fell in Montreal, many roads would have been closed due to flooding for sure. We will remember our passage at Lake Charles in Louisiana.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy…

We then headed for Houston to meet Brian and Bryan, Vincent was able to trick the weather and navigate through the menacing clouds on either sides and we managed to drive without the top …good thing since the heat was pretty high when the sun came out.

We met up with B&B but had to wait for the rain to pass (which had just started) since Brian only had a Bikini top and no windshield wipers and Bryan did not have a top. We took the opportunity to chat even if it meant to fraternize with the enemy (Brian is a Toronto Maple Leafs fan and he was proud to have his jersey with him).

Once the rain stopped, we headed out to lunch in a really nice Mexican restaurant. The waiter even spoke to us in French… I took the opportunity to try my Spanish a little… We all laughed. The meal was great but my god, it’s true what they say that everything is bigger in Texas… My appetizer (that I chose because I was not very hungry) could have served 3 people!

After 2 hours of great company, we departed since we still had 355KM (220 miles) to do to get to Fredericksburg. For the rest of the drive, we spent more time taking on and off the top than driving (or almost). We were a little too audacious when we tried to avoid a big cloud but failed… We had to stop on the side of the road to put up the top and the inside got pretty wet (so did we). About 80KM (50 miles) from our hotel, we had to put up the top, the radar was indicating red again, we remembered what that meant from the morning. Oh my god, the wind was crazy and the rain was coming down hard… If there was still sand/salt left from our visit to the Outer Banks from last October, I can guarantee that it’s all gone! At one time, we did not notice the water accumulation… The “pitoune” at la ronde or Splash Mountain at WDW were small compared to the amount of water we threw up!

Finally we arrived at the hotel safe and sound around 6:40pm and Vincent earned 2 beers today! BTW dinner at Navajo Grill in Fredericksburg was great… Good food and the vegetables were fresh.

States visited today : Louisiana et Texas
Distance covered : 858KM (533 milles)
Destination tomorrow : Santa Rosa NM




 

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Day 6 - July 10, 2012
Fredricksburg, TX to Santa Rosa, NM

Another wonderful day just ended up. We left this morning Fredericksburg at around 6:45am. We removed lot of water on the dune. Thank god we left without having to put the roof. We passed through a field of wind mills….there were thousands. We even followed the propeller wind turbine, it is really big. When we drove, Vincent told me: “I don’t know on what I am driving but it crack”. Few moments after, we stopped to take a picture of the dune in front of a house/jail abandoned. At that time Vincent told me: “Oh boy, these are big grasshoppers, this is on what I rolled and it is not cracking but crunching. Once again, it is true that everything is bigger in Texas…even the grasshoppers.

When we stopped to change the GoPro’s card, I told Vincent: « I will drive for a while and you will sit on the passenger seat and take pictures.” It was really cool…but at the end of the ride, at 0.6 mile (1KM), guess what? We ran out of gas, oh yes out of fuel. Thank god we had our reserve. It is the second time that we run out of gas and both times it was during our California trips.

When Mrs went back on the passenger seat, it was too windy for her, it was incredible. The wind was really hard and of course it was from my side. Vincent proposed to but the top and this for three reasons: stop the wind, dry out the top and because rain was coming. The top finally dried because it didn’t rain a lot.

When we passed through Sumner, we were looking for Billy the Kid…but it was for nothing because he is indeed dead…is tomb is at that place.

We enjoyed the day today because it was not on a highway and really little traffic.

First oil change completed by my man tonight…the dune is feeling better.

States visited today: Texas and New Mexico

Total distance for today: 601 miles (964 km)

Tomorrow’s destination: Kingman, AZ (Warning from National Weather Service : Excessive Heat where we are going…it should be 108F)

Talk to you soon.


































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Day 7, July 11, 2012

Santa Rosa, NM to Kingman, AZ.

Today we could say that we saw different landscapes. We left Santa Rosa around 6:15am under a sun shyly hidden by fog. It was a little bit chilly this morning, only 68 F (20 C). We must say we were pretty high (we were over 7,000 feet or 650 meters). We regularly passed from 5000 feet (465 meters) to 7000 feet (650 meters) it mean a lot of coastline.

We drove more often without the top. We put it on when there was 120 miles (200KM) to go to our hotel because the radar indicated “red” where we were going. Finally, it didn’t rain that much, but the top was required. We could say that we were hit by the rain for about 30 minutes. The remaining of the time, the sun was gorgeous (like you could see on the pictures). We were surprised to see “green” landscape in Arizona. We pass through the Kaibab National Forest, hence the fact that we saw green.

We arrived at Kingman around 4:45pm. Rare thing, Vincent has agreed to walk to go to the restaurant…4 blocks from the hotel…Congratulations honey.

Oh yes, today I didn’t drive…I offered to Vincent to take his place so he could relax but he didn’t accept…may be he was still afraid of yesterday??? The trick with the three numbers of your postal code with the 00 in front well it didn’t work often…too bad.

Hope mom you had consistency at bowling today...

States visited: New Mexico and Arizona.

Total distance: 613 miles (987 KM)

Tomorrow destination: Riverside CA where we will spend 3 nights.

À bientôt / Talk to you soon.

Vincent et/and France












































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Day 8, July 12, 2012

Kingman, AZ to Riverside, CA.


What can we say for today….first it was the birthday of our niece Cassandrine who is now an adult. Yes, 18 years old today for Cassie. Vincent and I hope that you spent a wonderful day and above, that you ate cake ha ha ha.

Because we only had a day of less than 300 miles (500 KM), we decided to take it easy and left Kingman AZ around 8:00am (after all we are on vacation no?). The weather was unsure…Vincent didn’t know if we should keep the top or not. Because it was really hot and humid, I took the decision to not put the top.

The morning was still crowned with hills and wind, but this time the wind was from Vincent’s side. I can tell you that he worked hard my honey in the hills, wind and the engine that was'nt cooling too quickly. But we accomplished our mission to go to California and we are really proud of ourselves. Remains now to return safely but we still have 13 days so we will enjoy them.

We were able to drive until 12:20pm before putting the top and thank god because the mercury indicated 104F (39.9 C). Also luckily that it was cloudy because we didn’t want to imagine what it would have been if it were sunny. You will be able to see in one picture (attention, this is Montreal time, you need to remove 3 hours) that the mercury already indicated 102.3 F (39.1 C). We drove a while but it was really too hot and it was only cloudy, no rain, so we removed the top (ouf…fresh air was more than welcomed).

We arrived at our hotel (magnify place that we will show you tomorrow) around 2:00pm. We dropped our stuff to our room and went back on the road (we didn’t get a full day on the road) and we went to San Diego. More beautiful coastline and breathtaking scenery. Driving through orange’s field it’s simply magnify and pleasant to smell.

We got back at our hotel around 7:30pm to have dinner at the Trattoria Restaurant (that we knew from our last trip in 2009). The atmosphere and the food are still good.

Visited States: Arizona and California

Total distance: Unknown (the LCD of the speedometer is shying (too humid)

Tomorrow: Another oil change because the oil that Vincent put last time was the 30 because didn’t have 40. After we will go to Big Bear Lake to registry for the week-end.

Bonne soirée / Good evening.

Vincent et/and France


Imagine being in Texas and running out of fuel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQc9bopNxRk&feature=player_embedded





 



















             

Joe  

Edited 14 times by DIESELDOOG Jul 13 12 7:30 AM.