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 torrential 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 miles)
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 wasn't 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
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Day 9, July 13, 2012
Riverside, CA.
Another beautiful day of our adventure ends. Today we started it on while relaxing. We left the hotel around 9:45am to go to Walmart (for the oil and pan), at Laundromat (to wash our clothes), after that to Auto Zone (for the High Temp RTV Silicone) and finally to Car Craft (for the gaskets)… relaxing yes??
We had lunch at the Mission Inn Restaurant, very good pasta with broccoli, asparagus, tomato and olive miam miam. After that destination Big Bear to the Tanda Camp for the registry but more to see back our friends and meet new ones. Of course we met with great pleasure our friend Bob Hunter…always friendly. We also met Larry. He didn’t remember us but we remembered him. In 2009 he gave us a oil cap. On site we saw beautiful buggies but I need to admit that I prefer the gun metalflake grey dual sport, okay maybe because of the color which is the same as my dune buggy that I am building presently so what….it is a really nice dune buggy. It is always funny to see people calling us by our first name like we know them, but in reality it is them who know us via our recap on the buggy’s forum. Another funny thing, all our American friends asked us the same question: “What are you doing to be able to get so many vacation days?” “Us if we take more than two weeks in a row, so bye bye job at our return”…
After couple of hours, we went back to our hotel. The descent from the mountains with view on the valley is simply breathtaking…it is so nice with the sun, the mountains, the city, brief impossible to do not love it. Oh yes at Tanda Camp the temperature was at 68F (20 C) but down it was 93F (34C)…small difference no?
We had dinner at the Mexican restaurant of the hotel. Very good food.
Good night dear friends and talk to you tomorrow.
Vincent et/and France
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Day 10, July 14, 2012
Big Bear Lake, CA.
Wow, incredible, magnificent, memorable, unforgettable. This is how we could resume our day. First, the weather was gorgeous…beautiful sun weather more than comfortable, not too hot, not too cold, and just perfect. We left the hotel around 5:45am for Big Bear Lake.
The day started with a show & shine. We were all parked by category. There were all kinds and all colors. People are really sympatric, we feel really welcomed and we appreciate it. We had to vote for the dune buggy that we preferred by category and the results will be revealed tomorrow morning.
Today people learned that Winnie and Bruce would not be with us. Bruce is recovering from a surgery. He is now in its third week of convalescence. We had the chance to see Winnie and Bruce on Thursday. It was the goal of our visit near San Diego. We talked with them for about one hour and got the privilege to visit their house and where the dune buggies are assembled. Really too bad that you were not with us today, but Bruce you need to listen what Winnie is saying to be in a good shape soon. Do not forget that I should be back to California but this time with the “real” dune buggy i.e. my Kick-Out SS.
We reunited with our french friend Ray who lives in New York. He was there with is yellow Kick-Out (serial #2). We met him in 2009 and at that time he was picking up his Kick-Out. He is really nice and it is always a pleasure to talk with him.
Today we beat the previous record of the number of dune buggies. We were 138 buggy. WOW. We got to choose which ride we wanted to do, they had 7 different ones. We choose the orange one i.e. medium. We followed our leader Scott. In that ride, we were 33 buggies. I can tell you that it is really cool to see so many buggies at the same time. It is incredible the number of people who followed us on different forums…few of them told us: “we were talking of you yesterday, we are proud to meet you”.
Mrs appreciated the ride even if she talked to herself often. We were climbing the hill, we were on the edge of a cliff and when the edge was on my right, I felt small in my panties.
It was hard to choose from the 600 pictures that we took today but we hope you will enjoy them. We want to thank life to be able to enjoy all those nice things and meet people that are so nice….THANK YOU.
Tomorrow we are leaving Mission Inn (snif snif) direction Big Bear Lake for the last goodbye to our friends and for the reward ceremons, after that, destination Las Vegas.
Have a nice evening and talk to you soon.
Vincent et/and France
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Day 11, July 15, 2012
Big Bear Lake, CA to Las-Vegas, NV.
We left this morning the hotel (very sadly) around 7:45am. The sky was rather cloudy but there was no appearance of rain. We drove towards Big Bear and after 10 miles (16 km), the sky became so blue and the sun shone. We arrived and Camp Tanda around 9:20am to say goodbye to our friends for one last time before two years.
The award ceremony and the drawing of gifts started around 10:00am. We can assure you that there were great prizes. We won the award, the one called “Came the farthest to get here”. To get to Big Bear Lake (on Friday), we drove 4,200 miles (6,760 km). At the risk of repeating ourselves, people are so friendly, we feel as if we knew them forever. There’s even a group of friends, the night before, who took a picture of themselves drinking a beer (or a drink) with their thumbs up. They showed us the picture this morning and told us they had taken it in our honor….we were really touched.
We left Big Bear Lake around 1:00pm to go to Las Vegas. It was the first time that we drove from the opposite side of the mountain and we can tell you that the road is really nice. We stopped around 2:40pm to put the top because the radar indicated “red”. Actually something funny arrived. At the stop, while Vincent was putting the top, a car stopped about 650 feet (200 meters) in front of us, a guy came out from his car really quickly, he seemed to have a need to pee (really quickly). He saw that we were there so he went behind is car. There was car coming from that side so he went to the driver side and again a few cars were there. He decided to go back in the car, passage rear side. Moments later he emptied a bottle…I laughed so hard but I found it really disgusting.
Subsequently we had to find something to do to kill the time in the desert (we had to cross Death Valley). We tried to remember the name of the exits, or at last to be able to pronounce their name…really hard to do but really rewarding at Scrabble (please refer to picture #7822). After that, the other attraction was to watch the thermometer and it kept rising. You will be able to see on picture #7845 (remember this is Montreal time so in reality it was 4:05pm) that we were in solidarity (and even more) with our friends in Quebec who are experiencing heat wave. To represent you how hot it was, take a hair dryer, put it in the warmest and stronger setting and aim the air in the face for about an hour.
Once we crossed California and as we entered Nevada, the south side of the highway 15 (we were heading north), there was a traffic jam of 17 miles (27 km), I can tell you that this is really long.
For our entry in Las Vegas, we removed the top. The weather was sublime. We arrived at our hotel around 5:45pm. I must still take some time to get used to noise and the special atmosphere in Vegas…really all kinds of people here.
The got the odometer back. So the total distance for today was 273 miles (440 km). Since last Thursday, we drove 976 miles (1,570 km)
Tomorrow, nothing special scheduled for the moment, we will decide when we will get up. At 7:00pm we will see the show Love from the Cirque du Soleil. Do not forget, Tuesday morning Vincent will finally be able to enjoy the gift that he received for his 40th anniversary (5 laps of Ferrari, 5 laps of Porsche and 5 laps of Lamborghini) on the Vegas race track.
Have a nice evening and talk to you soon.
Vincent et/and France
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Day 12, July 16, 2012
Las-Vegas, NV.
Today was a different day. First, we woke up later (7:30am). After, we relaxed and enjoyed. We wanted to see Hoover Dam so we decided to go later for breakfast because we didn’t want to have to take a lunch.
The Hoover Dam’s visit was great. We were not able to take a tour (not available today) but no matter what, it is really impressive. We are really in two states (Arizona and Nevada). I can tell you that going through Hoover Dam with the Dune is an attraction by itself…people were taking pictures of us, it was really funny. If we talk weather, we could say that the visit was done under a wonderful sun and 106 F (41 C). It was not so bad because on the Strip in Vegas it was 114 F (46 C). It is really impressive the size of the construction and when you realize that it was done in 4 to 5 years….we should engage the workers to come in Montreal to build the new Champlain Bridge…it will be faster.
After the visit, we went to the Outlets (more specify to Izod). Not that Mrs needed anything but she could not miss it. During the time that I was inside, Vincent was waiting for me outside. When he was cleaning the dune, few Asian people (all women) stopped and took picture in front, beside and even in the dune. The funniest part was that everything was filmed on the Go Pro. You can see the video of 2 minutes…really funny.
After shopping, we went back to the hotel because the show Love was at 7:00pm (19:00). We were able to talk (via Facetime) and see my brother Guy, his spouse Nathalie and my two nieces Cassandrine and Augustine (who is now one year older today). She got the honor of a song from Vincent and I….poor Augustine. We hope that you had a wonderful day. After, it was Vincent’s parents who called us via Skype. During dinner, we called my sister Louise and my brother-in-law Alain.
What can we say about the show…W O W!!! For those who like the Beatles, it is really a show that needs to be seen. We didn’t have enough eyes to see everything.
Tomorrow we will go to the race track where my man will be able to enjoy his birthday present. He can’t wait…me neither.
Have a nice evening and talk to you soon.
Vincent et/and France
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