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WE are coming to the USA

Re: We are coming to the USA

Vin, put a mailing address in your profile and we'll start sending you tourist brochures.

For a start, I have extra copies of the brochure describing all CA State Parks (maybe 50?? of them) and also the handouts they give you when you enter Yosemite National Park. These are more focused than the info/advertising stuff you find online.
 
As you can see, I have now put my postal address in my profile. I would certainly appreciate any information anyone wants to send me.

We have found that we can't make camping reservations until about April (6 months before), so have plenty of time to study up on parks.

Just out of curiosity, LPG (Propane) 9 kg (20lb) BBQ gas bottles. How does it work in the US, do you have an exchange system or do you have to get them refilled somewhere?
 
You can exchange or refill them. Depends on the vendor. Many gas stations will run a little bottle filling operation 'on the side' (literally). Stores, like Walmart I think, will do exchanges.

Here is a link to a company that provides exchange services outside of many stores and gas stations...
http://ww2.bluerhino.com/
 
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daedong said:
Just out of curiosity, LPG (Propane) 9 kg (20lb) BBQ gas bottles. How does it work in the US, do you have an exchange system or do you have to get them refilled somewhere?
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Both sources are available. U-Haul is the world's largest chain of small truck rental yards and every one I've seen will fill them. Expect some delays, they are often staffed by uncaring idiots.

The big builder-supply 'box stores' often have tank exchange stations. Expect a frustrating delay there, too. Those stores are generally self service and it's hard to find a kid to take out and open the tank cage. Overall U-haul is slightly less frustrating, faster, and a lot cheaper.

RV rental places are probably a good source but I don't know if they are fair on price.

Freeway exits are often marked with an 'lpg motor fuel' sign, so I assume that is also a convenient source when traveling.

Overall, you will always find a source easily.

The 20 lb tanks etc are universally called 'propane tanks'.

Would you like me to give you a smaller tank? I have a 7 lb (?) low, wide tank I bought for for camping but don't need. I think it's nearing its re-certification date so sending it one way to the east coast is fine with me. There are 'new' and 'old' connectors here. This 'old' tank can be filled anywhere but it can't be easily connected to a BBQ made since about y2k.

I can also give you a stove and small lantern. Together with that tank you have a complete kit. I seem to have five of everything, every time I find a camp stove at a yard sale for $2 I buy it. :D

Photo - My small lantern. Shown on the standard 16 oz camp-fuel cylinder. (The slender 14 oz cylinders for brazing torches are interchangeable). Do you use the same thing there? I've learned that for campgrounds I don't want more light than this, it just irritates neighbors. It is similar to a bare 100 watt bulb.
 
We are gradually getting more organised. We have changed car hire company already. Hertz are bloody useless!! They have given us the runaround. Eventually when Hertz sent us an invoice the amount was different again. So I decided to give them a miss. I went hunting on the net for the best possible deal I could find and you know the saying "It's got to be Irish", well I have done the most Irish thing possible. I have booked a hire car through an Irish car hire broker based in Ireland, http://www.novacarhire.com/, the car will be hired through Alamo. Nova was cheaper by about $800 than going direct through Alamo for the same car. (I hope they are not a scam). We have now booked a Chevrolet Equinox.

Here are some dates that we will commit ourselves to, so if anyone wants to catch up with us when we're in those areas it can be planned.

We will be in the Sacramento area Sept 6 & 7. San Francisco Sept 8 & 9. Las Vegas 14. We will leave the Grand Canyon on the 17th and should be in Texas on about 20th and 21st. We aim to be up around Illinois on the 28th and 29th Sept, then around Ohio from about the 3rd to the 7th Oct. Then through New York, Washington DC etc. Leave Philadelphia on Oct 19th, back to San Diego. Fly home on 24th from LA.
 
Wow. What a trip this should be. Memory cards are rather cheap at least so you should stock up on them. I hope you can share pics while you are on the road. We'll work out an Ohio gathering for sure. :thumb:
 
Wait I want to make sure this NOVA company is on the up and UP!
Please supply me with their info on the States.
 
Cowboyjg said:
Vin,

NE Tennesee Here......Should be able to put you up @ the farm.

You can hike the Applachian Trail, Bike, Horse ride, see Historic Battle Fields, Drink Moonshine...:drink: , Go to the Biltmore Estate, Fish, Hunt and so on and so on.

Talk to the Rental car companies. Bet you can haggle a good deal.... and don't listen to thier crap about a charge for dropping the car off in DC. Tell them to give you a car that is about to be removed from thier fleet. When you're done they are gonna sell the thing anyway!!! They won't be so stupid as to turn you down.

We are about 5-6 hrs frm DC.

Nearby Thoroughfares are I-40, I-81, I-75

Major cities include Knoxville, Tn...Asheville, NC, Bristol, Tn (The Real Home of Country Music!!!)

Most of the Mid-Atlantic spots are no more than a days' drive (8 hrs) from here.

Anyway....let me know if I can help.
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Thank you for the offer to put us up. And the same to everyone else who has offered. But we are declining all offers, that was not the intention of our trip. We certainly do want to catch up with people though.

To be a bit more specific, from Texas we intend to go through Arkansas , Missouri to Illinois. From Ohio we are going to go to Niagara Falls. We haven't got a set itinerary from there except that we will be flying out of Philadelphia on the 19th Oct. We are working on a rough plan for that part of the trip at present. As you would understand we need to draw some lines in the sand on how far we travel. One thought at this point is to leave Niagara and head across Pennsylvania into Virginia or West Virginia, but that will be as far as we go. So maybe those close to Virginia would be interested in a get together. The same applies in Pennsylvania.
 
Vin,
According to your post on the 22nd you'll be in Ohio sometime around the 3rd through the 7th Oct. There's not too many places in Ohio that are more than a 2-3 hour drive for me, so maybe we can meet up.
 
Vin, today I posted a package of maps and magazine articles to you. These will help you identify can't-miss significant points in California, and some in Arizona.

Perhaps others with local knowledge can send similar stuff from their regions.

Just from memory:

AAA (auto association) Tour Guide for Southern California (including Yosemite and Monterey) hundreds of pages of lodging rated by quality, maps and distance charts, descriptions of stuff to see in each city plus state parks etc. I used the AAA guide extensively when I used to travel all over that region on business. You would still need something like a Lonely Planet Guide describing the region from a tourist's perspective, to supplement this.

AAA roadmaps (about 1m x 1m ) for California and the Southwest states plus some regional maps.

State parks guide.

National parks guide

Death Valley: Articles cut out of National Geographic (highbrow, real science) and Sunset Magazine (upper income California living).

California Desert - similar. Mojave Desert, etc. in Southern California.

Dining your way up the California coast, with map - Sunset article.

Muir Woods: A grove of original Giant Redwood trees just north of San Francisco - newspaper travel-section article.

Arizona Highways. Two copies of this excellent monthly magazine, one recent and one older. Shows points of interest. Published by Arizona tourism bureau.

Lots more similar. I stuffed a 4 lb flat-rate envelope!

I also have a bunch of interesting travel books but there's no way to ship that weight overseas, cheap. Maybe later you can PM a San Diego address. I could send the ones you need before Northern California for you to pick up down there, using slow cheap Book Rate. (3 weeks to get down there?). Of course I can hand you the ones for later parts of your trip after you get up here. All this stuff can be handed off to someone else (or tossed!), I don't want any back.

I will be interested to hear how long it takes for the package to arrive there.

Enjoy!
 
Chris, thanks for that.

I sent emails off to several state tourist bureaus last weekend. New Mexico's vacation guide arrived today - amazing service. A lot of states won't send information out of the US though. I couldn't get one from Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, New York or Kentucky.
I have also just received a Rand McNally 2008 Road Atlas and Travel Guide and a California Benchmark atlas this week. I have decided not to purchase any more maps until I get to the US. I'm still waiting for a camping guide I ordered a few weeks ago to come. Our daughter bought us the USA Lonely Planet guide only a couple of weeks ago. I haven't read it at this point, but Mary hasn't had her head out of it.

Please don't go to too much trouble for us, because we won't be spending too long in any one state. Eight weeks will fly by very quickly. There will be very many interesting places and sights we won't get to see, our trip will be a general overview of the USA. What you have listed though sounds great, because we are still undecided which way we are heading up from LA to Sacramento. We're leaning towards following the coast at this stage. We will definitely be visiting Yosemite and Death Valley after San Francisco, then we'll head through Las Vegas, see the Hoover Dam and then the Grand Canyon.
 
daedong said:
we are still undecided which way we are heading up from LA to Sacramento. We're leaning towards following the coast at this stage. We will definitely be visiting Yosemite and Death Valley after San Francisco, then we'll head through Las Vegas, see the Hoover Dam and then the Grand Canyon.
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WOW, that sounds like a heck of a start to your tour of the US. :thumb: You are on the right track for sure. :D
 
Vin, it's late summer there now, no?

I think whatever weather you see now, is about the same as what you will find when you arrive here in September.

In California we go all summer without rain, then can have alternately dry heat and a few rain showers (more in the mountains), about that time of year.

We're all looking forward to this!
 
Ah, nope. But maybe the Schwans man.
 

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You won't find anyone in Death Valley in September, except foreign tourists who didn't realize how unpleasant the place is at that time of year.

I was in there in June way back when I was poor and had a really old Volvo, the egg-shaped style, about 1960 model. It didn't have air conditioning.

We couldn't get up the long grade to get out of the valley without overheating. In fact the only way to cool it enough to avoid boilover was to coast back down the grade gently to get some air through the radiator. We were trapped. Finally after sunset we made it back up to the cooler elevation, and out.

I've been there a couple of times since, at Easter week. Even that is unpleasant. My Trooper pulled the tent trailer up that grade ok. More recently we took the Subaru in from the unpaved north entrance. Not recommended. It's 60 miles of ruts and sudden washouts that pound a car to pieces. No damage, but I saw others apparently not so lucky.

Here's my grandfather, a mining engineer, when he worked in Death Valley at Keene Wonder Mine. Photo date 1909.
 

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Our first trip was in early June 9 years ago. It was cold and drizzly around Tahoe, and down around Bridgeport and Twin Lakes. So, we headed south to warmth. Wound up in Death Valley. Had a great time! It was in the mid to high 90's then. And only one sprinkle, while the rest of Ca was cool and still drizzly.

Our sons birthday was during our little jaunt. We stayed the night at the hotel in Panimint Springs. Real cool little resteraunt with a veranda. He had bday dinner on the veranda, the food was great, and he watched F18 Super-Hornets flying around Panimint Valley. Some came right towards the resteraunt before breaking away.

We had a great time!

Then we went back two years later at Easter/spring break. It blew like the dickens! Came home with a 4' tear in the tent. Took three cameras; never even got them out. Didn't want them full of windblown sand. Wife almost got mushed; the wind slammed the truck door closed on her as she was getting out...

We did get out to Scotty's Castle that time around.

You know, for SoCal camping, we sure enjoyed a trip a couple years back to Catalina. We camped on the back side. Close to a beach, nice area, had buffalo/bison come through; really cool!

California said:
You won't find anyone in Death Valley in September, except foreign tourists who didn't realize how unpleasant the place is at that time of year.
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Vin,
Let me know what you need in the way of information about Houston and Texas in general and I'll see what I can dig up and send on.

By the way, for as much driving as your going to be doing, I'd get a GPS. It'll be useful, not only for the routes but points of interest, filling stations, hotels/motels, restuarants, etc. It'll be a lifesaver going through and around the large cities.
 
Chris,
your package arrived yesterday (Thursday), I have had a quick look through and it looks like it will be quite valuable. Thanks very much, appreciated.

Frank,
I am considering purchasing a GPS when I get there as it works out quite expensive to rent with the car for the period I will need it.
 
:thumb: I'm just seeing this! Y'all could've flew into Orlando Florida to visit the Mouse and Redneck and I. We are about an hour from it! then you could travle straight up northeast to the falls. We did that one year on the motorcycle.....man that was fun
 
Vin, glad you like it. That's not bad delivery time. I mailed it last Thursday, and now it's the following Thursday evening here as I read this. Enjoy!
 
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