The Bonneville Run

[FIL]

As many of you already know, in August last year, I visited the US, Northern California in particular. I bought a car before we left Australia, had it shipped to my brothers place in San Jose and spent a month driving it around the Bay Area.

This year, we're planning on heading back to San Jose to pick up the car, and doing a road trip taking in LA, Vegas, Death Valley, Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, Salt Lake City, Bonneville and Sacramento before returning to San Jose.

We're going to be at Bonneville for SpeedWeek, August 14th to 20th, will be passing through Sacramento around when the Indycars are racing at Sonoma, so depending when we actually leave Bonneville, we might get to see some racing at Sonoma too, and we'll be back in San Jose when the GoodGuys are running their Pleasanton show.

While we'll be travelling through much of California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah, we'll be starting and finishing in San Jose, and spending quite a few days there.

I'm also trying to convince a few other Aussies to fly over with us, and we're meeting a few of our mates at Bonneville as well. Of course, if any SM'ers want to tag along for some of the run, they'll be more than welcome

 

[Neodeuccio]

That sounds like a blast, but there's no way I could join. Be sure to take pics for us!

 

[FIL]

one thing is for sure, there will be plenty of pics... i took a sh*tload last time we were in the states, and there are still heaps of things i wish i'd taken photos of...

 

[FIL]

Here's a rough layout of when and where I'd like to be while we're on the road...

August 1st - 4th - San Jose area

August 5th - 6th - Drive to LA via Bakersfield

August 7th - 8th - LA area

August 9th - 10th - Drive to Vegas via Death Valley

August 10th - 12th - Vegas

August 12th - 14th - Drive to West Wendover via Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon and Salt Lake City

August 14th - 20th - SpeedWeek - We intend to be there on the 14th, not sure whether we'll stay to the 20th yet...

August 20th - 22nd - There's an Indycar race at Sonoma, not making plans yet, if we leave Bonneville in time, we may make it to Sonoma (near Sacramento)

August 22nd - 26th - Check out the Bay Area - San Francisco, Sancramento, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Napa Valley etc etc...

August 27th - 29th - GoodGuys Pleasanton - Also, Friday night is cruise in night at Johns Char Burger in Livermore, near Pleasanton

August 30th - September 3rd? - More Bay Area / Silicone Valley / NorCal stuff

 

[FIL]

An update on this... the NHRA's US Nationals are on in Indy from the 1st to 6th of September, and we're considering flying from San Jose to Indy to LAX on our way home... but that would mean taking a fair bit of time away from doing other stuff.. and as much as I'd love to get to a NHRA meet, part of what I liked so much about our holiday last time was that it was just that, a holiday, something very very far removed from what we normally get up to.... and I dunno, but being at a drag strip would probably feel a little like work...

 

[dubsupra209]

sounds good maybe if my build goes right i might be able to tag along....i would like to...

 

[FIL]

sounds good Dub.. the more the merrier...

we're also considering hanging around a few more days and flying to Indy for the US (drag racing) Nationals... in part, it hinges on whether I can score accreditation for the meet, which apparently I may have a shot at if I play my cards right...

 

[FIL]

It's starting to get closer to when I need to get serious about this stuff... Apparently in the next couple of days, some of the casinos in West Wendover will start taking bookings for SpeedWeek... (One has booked out already)

 

[FIL]

And with a bit more news.... Have been searching airfares quite a bit lately, and it's come down to (at the moment)...

1. fly from here to LAX for au$1188 return, flying out on the 4th of August and back around the 10th of September, then a connecting flight to SJC

2. fly from here to SFO for au$1368 return, flying out on the 31st of July and back around the 10th of September, then either a shuttle from SFO to San Jose, or convince my brother to pick me up in the Caddy from SFO...

As for accommodation at Bonneville, a couple of people who've been before have suggested camping at 'the bend in the road', an unofficial camp ground near the 'track' for a night or 2, and then picking up a room at one of the casinos for a couple of nights after that, once the demand (and price) eases...

 

[FIL]

It's looking a lot like we're flying out of Perth on the 31st of July, landing in San Francisco on the 1st of August, spending a couple of days in and around San Jose recovering, then heading out on the road trip...

First stop is Yosemite, where we'll be spending a night, then heading down to Bakersfield, probably spending the night there.

After Bakersfield it's a relatively short drive to LA for a few nights, then off to try to follow some of the old Route 66 out to Barstow 'on the edge of the desert' and up to Death Valley, where we plan to stay for the night before heading for Vegas for a few days, including a day trip out to Hoover Dam.

After Vegas, it's up to Wendover, on the Nevada-Utah border, for SpeedWeek at Bonneville. We'll probably be at Bonneville for about 4 or 4 days before heading west, heading through Sacramento and back to San Francisco and San Jose.

We're planning on getting to Bonneville on either the 13th or the 14th of August (the 14th is the first day of racing on the salt). We're also planning on getting to the GoodGuys show at Pleastanton on the 27th to 29th of August.

Aside from that, we intend to fit in a couple of day trips up to San Francisco and down to places like Monterey and Santa Cruz.

We should be flying back into Perth on the 6th of September (my birthday - at least this one will be longer than 4 hours, last time we crossed the international date line on my birthday and skipped forwards a day at about 4am)

 

[dubsupra209]

is your supra the 1 in your signature..? im talking bout the supra thats in cali...?

 

[FIL]

Thats my supra, but it's here in Australia... the car in California is a 1970 Cadillac... (pre-smog - yay!)

Nice big old girl, and actually rather efficient, considering it's a 472 cube motor...

 

[FIL]

We've now booked our tickets, leaving Perth (Australia) in the evening of the 31st of July, we spend 12 hours in Auckland the next day, and after crossing the international date line, we land in San Francisco on the 1st of August.... We fly out of SF about 9ppm on the 4th of September, and spend about 9 hours in Auckland this time, before landing at home in the evening of the 6th of September (which also happens to be my birthday)

 

[FIL]

OK.... with a few dates coming up for some events around California in August, we've changed things about a little... We're now going straight down the coast to LA, instead of going to Yosemite on the way to LA, so that we can make it to the Wally Parks NHRA Museum for the cruise in there on the 4th of August... This in turn frees up a day or 2 on the way to Bonneville, which we're going to us to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon... And we're leaving Bonneville after 3 full days on the salt, probably spending a night at or near Winnemucca in Nevada, a night at Lake Tahoe and a night at Yosemite National Park on the way to Bakersfield for the ANRA Nostalgia Meet there on the 21st and 22nd of August... After that, it's back to San Jose to kick around the bay area until the 4th of September... We'll be up Pleasanton/Livermore way for the GoodGuys show at Pleasanton the weekend of the 27th to 29th of August...

 

[te72]

Not making any promises, but I'll look into going over that weekend (Speed Week). I'd probably need to take a day off work to do it. Man, you Aussies know how to take a vacation!

 

[FIL]

Last year was the first real holiday I've taken since I was at school... Other than an extra long weekend here and there, we haven't really used much holidays... Unfortunately, being made redundant twice in a couple of years meant I lost any leave I had accumulated anyway, and this trip will use up every day I have at the current job, and then some... Seeing as a many of the guys I'm trying to convince to come along are either drag racers, crew or track workers, none of us have a lot of free time over summer, but during our winter it's a bit easier...

As much as I love my country, I've been lucky enough to see a LOT of it when I was younger, and intend to see more of it in the future, but the US has huge appeal to me and while I have family over there, I intend to make the most of that

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=t-y0l5HWesSDs6hnmG4lZyw&single=true&gid=2&output=html

That link will take you to the current run down of the trip, including dates and towns...

 

[FIL]

OK... time for another update as more things start falling in to place... We've just booked our rooms at The Red Garter in West Wendover, we have 2 rooms and some mates of ours who are leaving Perth within a day or 2 of us (one is looking like he's going to be with us to Auckland, spend the day with us and then fly out to LA when we fly to SF)... We're probably going to catch up with them for a couple of hours in LA and then they're off to the Louisville Street Rod Nationals and a few other places before meeting up with us either in Vegas or at Wendover...

Also have another couple of mates who are looking more and more like they're going to make it with every day... If they go, they'll probably do a different trip to us, and be driving an RV for most/all of it... And another mate who's also booked time in the US in August and when he heard we were going to Bonneville said 'I've been wanting to go there, I'll talk to the missus'...

Many of us are drag racers, and as a result, the couple of months where it's cold and miserable here are the only chance we get to have a break, so thats part of the reason so many of us have been able to make similar plans...

 

[FIL]

Less than 4 months to go now until we're back in California...

 

[FIL]

Time for a bit more news.... I have set up a blog so that people can keep track of our planning and progress... It's located at http://thebonnevillerun.blogspot.com



The 2 places that will get the most updates during the trip are going to be that blog and a photo gallery on LandBarge.com

Planning wise, we're slowing firming up the dates we'll be in certain areas, having already booked accomodation for Bonneville and now we've booked somewhere for our last night in and around LA. We've booked a room at the Wigwam Motel out in San Bernardino, pricing is good at $70 per night for a 'deluxe queen', parking is right at your door and there's free wifi included, plus, it looks like a wigwam, which is cool. It's just a little too far from the center of LA to suit us for the whole stay.

 

[te72]

You know... I gotta say, this is kinda inspiring. You're traveling ~6000+ miles to visit family/friends, and go watch a bunch of crazies see how fast they can go.

If you don't mind my asking though, what sort of budget does this sort of adventure require? Just kinda looking for a ballpark. I've never traveled apart from a couple trips with my family, but it kinda sounds fun to go play tourist for a month.