The route east out of Texas leads us through a whole load of states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and finally to the North Carolina coast. On the way we investigate Bonnie and Clyde, we test some great American Parkways, we see a Titanic attraction, and we have a tech snag with Cuthbert…
It’s always good to return to Texas. After a 3,000km dash from central Guatemala, through the whole length of Mexico in just four days, we’re chuffed to be welcomed by friendly US border guys into Texas. Not in our 9+ years of overlanding have we ever travelled so fast!! The real reason we dashed here at warp-factor-sneeze was for a bit of Texas Rocket Time… the imminent launch of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship rocket. Exciting, eh? Then we enjoyed catching up with some lovely friends here, and we took a trip to Paris!
Wait… 2022… over already? Where does the time go? Another overlanding year behind us. After six years driving up the Americas from Argentina, our mission of 2022 was to complete the Pan-American Highway by reaching Alaska and the Arctic Ocean. With that mission accomplished and our US visas expiring, we came to Mexico for some winter sun. What started as a round-the-world trip nine years ago has stalled a bit in North America since Covid. It’s about time we bucked ourselves up and got on with the business of circumnavigation! So now, from a series of lovely beaches in Mexico with overlanding friends, we ponder overlanding 2023 and the big question of our time: ‘Where next?’
It’s been a while since the last blog. What can we say… overlanding life just gets in the way! We’ve been spending the last few weeks back overlanding western USA, hanging around the Reno/Tahoe area. We saw more California coast, had a palaver with a crankshaft seal, visited M*A*S*H*, and waited for a windscreen (yes, another!!!). Oh… and we had a look around Air Force One!
The curious thing about overlanding the USA is that it’s full of curiosities. For some, the USA is all about the iconic Statue of Liberty, Golden Gate Bridge, Grand Canyon or Yosemite. And they’re great. But if you’re lucky enough to have the time to snoop around, you’ll find countless curiosity spots. History, culture, science and general ‘well I didn’t know that’ stuff in some of the most unlikely spots. Across south-east Idaho, north-west Utah and central Nevada we’ve found some overlanding curiosities – potatoes, a ‘world’s only’, a steam train, a crime scene, a stony spiral, some rockets, a clean museum, an awful lot of salt, a lonely road and an ostrich race. Folks… you couldn’t make this stuff up!
It would be bonkers to visit USA’s most popular national parks in peak summer season, wouldn’t it? Well, yes it would. But it’s a matter of timing, you see. We have to be somewhere for the summer. In 2022 that somewhere turns out to be the epic Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Sure, there will be crowds. But, as the saying goes, we’ll just have to ‘suck it up, princess!’ 😉 We learned that even in peak season, overlanding national parks is still a good idea, and we learned some tips on bagging a camp-spot at the parks. But in-between the parks we visited a State Fair, saw a big-time rodeo and a real-life mermaid!
Overlanding Alaska is an epic route. Far more than the sum of its places, it’s a whole experience, and it’s unique. Yes, it bears some similarity to Patagonia, but the culture and history here set it apart. It’s a very long way from anywhere, so is it worth the schlepp? Here we do a bit of general pondering our lessons learned about Alaska, and our dash through Canada en-route.
Alaska does glaciers and stunning scenery rather well. We saw this on our tour around the south of the State. Now we’re overlanding central Alaska – the middle bit – seeing more of the same old scenic stuff and hiking to a glacier… again (yawn 😉). But wait, there’s more! In central Alaska we do some cultural stuff too: we experience our first 4th July, watch our first Eskimo Olympics, and enjoy not a chicken pie, but a pie in Chicken….
The Dalton Highway is one of those iconic routes that many world overlanders have on their wish-list. It runs through northern Alaska, up to the Arctic Circle, over the remote Brooks Mountains, across vast tundra, ending at the industrial oil-fields on the Arctic Ocean. So why do it? And what do you do when you get there?
Alaska is on the way to nowhere. It’s not the kind of place you drop into accidentally. And the drive to get here from anywhere is nothing short of a schlepp. But for us, overlanding Alaska has been well worth making the considerable (second) attempt to get here. The wildlife, the scenery, the nature and the wilderness are stunning. The adventure activities and opportunities are endless. And we’re having a blast meeting up with other overlanders. Here’s our tale of a scoot around the much-driven southern half of Alaska, stopping to do a bit of fishing, to see the wildlife, and to ogle at the odd glacier or two…
The decision’s made. We’re going to Alaska. Well… we’re going to try again at getting to Alaska. We’re in Yuma on the US/Mexican border and our GPS tells us it’s exactly 6,640 km to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. By anyone’s measure, that’s a loong way. Here’s our Operation Reach Alaska, a gentle trot through California, Oregon and Washington, then a frantic gallop through BC and the Yukon…
The Wild West is a legendary piece of US history and worth a bit of attention by the traveller. As we drive across southern Arizona, overlanding the wild west, we see a cheesy show, ponder the age-old air-con dilemma, and looking ahead we contemplate another stab at Alaska…
We like deserts. Which is fortunate really, because there are lot of them to explore in south west USA. Mojave, Joshua Tree, Anza Borrego, Death Valley etc… etc… etc. Here are our tales of overlanding deserts, featuring dune-climbing, a balloon festival, dinosaurs, aliens, an international forest of cars, movie sets, struggling through snow (yes, in the desert!) and catching up with lovely friends.
We end 2021 with Operation Seeking Sunshine from Wyoming to Arizona. Over the last two years we’ve done more than a bit of Canadian-style wintering. This year, we’re looking for a bit of winter sunshine. In our final blog of the year, we skip Yellowstone Park, cruise down from Wyoming through Colorado to sunny Arizona. On the way we do a few tourist hot-spots and catch up with some great travel friends.
There are some monumental things to see in USA. Some of them are truly on the way to nowhere… just so damn far out of the way, they’re a real schlep to reach. Incorporating Mount Rushmore, Badlands National Park or the Devil’s Tower into your average holiday trip to the USA is a stretch. After a slow start to our time in USA, we’re making the effort to see as many USA monuments as we can, but winter’s coming and some places will soon become inaccessible. So the race is on…
Well, Howdy Uncle Sam! It’s been a while. After our twenty corona virus months in Canada, the USA has finally opened the border and we’re back overlanding USA. It’s early November, winter’s a-coming, and winters are pretty harsh in these parts. So once we’re in, we’re heading westwards pronto to see a few Bucket List places before the cold pushes us south to the sunshine.
‘Two cultures divided by a common language’ is often used to describe the UK/US relationship. So far we’ve spent most of our six years overlanding in countries with cultures and languages obviously very different to our own. But Americans speak our language, so overlanding USA would be familiar, right? Well, yes… and no. During our ‘rona virus stay-cation in the Yukon, Canada, we’ve been taking a look back over our time in the good ol’ US of A.
The Pacific North West USA is a ‘great if you get the season right’ kind of place. Somewhere behind all the murk that we saw, is a stunning countryside just bursting to get out and show us its stuff. But are we moaning? Noooo. Despite the murky weather we found whilst overlanding the Pacific North West, we had a great time. We had glimpses of scenic fabulousness, alpacas, huskies, snow, cool cities and… errrrm… a bit of mechanical work required on Cuthbert.
Everyone knows California, don’t they? It’s pretty good at self-promotion and has a familiarity acquired from decades of movies and TV. There’s the odd ‘nugget of wonder’ to be found, but overlanding California isn’t really a surprise. If we have one Top Tip for California it’s ‘winter’. In winter we find crowd-free parks and coasts. We also find hippy-nirvana in the desert, TV sets, elephant seals, a super-cool city, very big trees and a winning streak at the casino!
It’s 2020. Blimey. How did that happen? We end 2019 and kick-off 2020 in the south US desert with some expensive food, a piece of England, a biosphere, a nuclear missile, a war hero, many overlanding snowbirds and two new Mexican crowns. Howsaboutthat for variety?
