Sorry, Miley worked her way onto my playlist; much to Dan's disdain, but as a millennial, in Cali, in charge of the music, it kinda just felt right.
Here's how it went:
Day one - Arriving in America
We arrived at LAX at about 6 pm and after a gruelling customs queue, we were quickly in our Turo and on the way to Barstow.
Our Turo, by the way, was a shiny blue convertible Corvette. Super cool - and very affordable. The app made it so much easier than traditional car rentals. I’ll definitely write a post about our experience with it.
Barstow had no relevance to our trip but it was about as far out of LA in the right direction as we could get after a ten hour flight; although we might have pushed it too far. Arriving just before midnight, and greeted by a cockroach in the bathtub, we were both past caring by that point and just happy to see a bed.
Day Two - Vegas
Things started to get fun the next morning as we started our journey towards Route 66. We packed up and headed to our first American diner, as always, keeping a lookout for checked floors and sticky stools. We found Penny's along the way and I was ecstatic to rediscover an old favourite from the last trip - the sausage patty. It just gets me every time, it’s so American.
After that we were on our way to Vegas, via the Mojave desert.
The only place on Earth where Joshua Trees grow natively, this road was expansive, sandy and barren - and took us for miles without seeing another car. ChatGPT said it’s that classic “middle of nowhere” look and I cant agree more; and it was hot, the kind of heat that makes the road shimmer.
I wanted to go to Vegas, but was already pretty sure that I wasn’t going to be a huge fan, so in an effort to see it, but not spend a whole day, we booked a late afternoon show (The blue man group – great by the way and something Dan had been talking about for ages) which gave us a great excuse to have a drive along the strip, stop for a cocktail and leave after the performance.
Vegas reminded me of Magaluf for grown ups. As suspected, I was overwhelmed by the big streets and the excess of it all. That being said, I’m very pleased to have been able to see it for myself.
Day Three - Route 66
Today was a big day. There was no civilisation for hours as we left the camper on our way to the Grand Canyon, only one lonely, dessert Starbucks, which we were very pleased to see. We finally arrived in Kingman, at a colourful but sticky diner for our scheduled sausage patty and scrapbooking session before driving on to the Grand Canyon. There were some much more experienced hiking routes but we walked around the top of the south rim which was super easy and an amazing view.
Leaving the canyon, I’d just found a new American road trip playlist and listening to that whilst the sun set behind the mountains on the way out was quite special.
Route 66 is a bit confusing, because it technically doesn't exist anymore. There were signs everywhere saying we were on Route 66, but Google said we were driving along Interstate 40. It turns out that in 1985, much of it was replaced by Interstate 40, which follows a similar path and was built over sections of the original road.
Day Four - Death Valley
We had a particularly nice start to the morning, opening the motel door to 37 degrees and amazing views off the bat. I was also feeling deep about Seligman and Cars, the whole thing made me really happy.
We were backtracking a little bit today. So, on our way back towards Vegas, our first stop was Kingman for another breakfast spot. Sweet tea finally secured; we were then on the way to the hottest recorded place on earth - Death Valley - once hitting 56.7°C (134°F) at Furnace Creek. Toasty.
I was feeling very grateful for my boyfriend today. I think, sat in the car with the roof down and the sun shining, I realised how much I now love a road trip and it dawned on me, I wouldn’t have had this experience without him. I also realised I really like America. I had misconceptions because you see so much of the US from the news, but what I love is not the parts you see on the TV; or the big cities but real, country, natural America.
Anyway, first stop of today's checklist was Red Rock Canyon. A scenic drive around a natural conservation area just outside Vegas.
Then, with the roof down and the big open road ahead of us, on to Death Valley - which true to reputation, hit 105 degree whilst we were there. I was very glad to have stopped off for snacks and water beforehand.
There were lots of points of interest to see in the dessert but with our drive already quite long, we just stopped off on the ones that were on our way - Zebraski point, a surreal viewpoint of unique rock formation, and then Rhyolite, a haunting, little ghost town.
Leaving the dessert a few hours later, we joined an amazing twisty, whimsy road that lead us through a lush mountain valley. We stopped off at a Texas BBQ restaurant and caught up on our scrapbooking before heading to a Motel 6 for a well earned sleep. It was a long, but very fulfilling day.
Day Five – Lake Tahoe
Day five started slowly. Dan had a work call and we spent the morning running around Mammoth looking for somewhere to refill the tyre air.
The views had gone from dusty dessert roads to green, mountain resorts overnight. All of a sudden we were driving through forests of lush evergreen trees with beaufitul lake views up into the mountains.
Admittedly, I was the one who wanted to go to Lake Tahoe and I hadn’t done much research but our day turned out to be everything I wanted. Lake Tahoe is an awesome place. It reminded me all the American films set at lake side summer camps! A real parent trap vibe.
We drove to a Google maps recommended viewpoint (Emerald Bay) which was lovely but from there, we could hear water. Hidden off to the side, we spotted a small waterfall that we’d driven over to get to the viewpoint in the first place.
Flowing water is my favourite part of nature, I find it so peaceful and mesmerising, finding this was a very happy accident. It was less waterfall, and more a flowing creek, with big stones, crystal clear water and sunlight flickering through the leaves. Babbling, like a storybook. Funnily enough, our day by the creek last time was one of my favourite and it was the same for this trip.
I accidentally fell in which I was very pleased about, it was a non traumatic fall and meant I got to get in the water guilt free since there was absolutely no good reason for my to soak my one pair of trainers.
After frolicking in the creek, we had another couple of hours to drive before arriving in San Francisco. Not only had we booked a real hotel for the first time but it also happened to have ocean front views. We dropped our stuff off and quickly got changed before strolling down to the pier for a seafood feast at Scomas.
Day Six - San Francisco
Waking up in San Francisco felt like anything was possible, it was the first big city of our trip so we took advantage and ordered uber eats acai bowls to eat on the balcony to start a very busy day.
Our first stop was Alcatraz, this was super interesting and a very easy experience. It’s an all in one ticket and we timed it perfectly so no faffing around, We walked to the pier, bought tickets and hopped on the ferry. Everyone warned me about the weather before we arrive in San Fran but it turned out to be a lovely, sunny day.
The audio tour was really interesting, I found it and the personal stories from inmates fascinating & really could have done another couple hours. Alas, we finished up 40 minutes later, in the gift shop, making sure to pick up a sticker for the scrapbook.
The ferry back, of course was included in the ticket and from there, we walked along the seafront to pick up a couple of e-bikes - refuelling with a street hot dog along the way.
The e-bikes were amazing. They were pretty much skinny motor bikes so I didn’t actually do any cycling but I enjoyed it all the same. Our route took us from the seafront along to Fisherman’s Wharf, across the Golden Gate Bridge and down to the Sausalito on the other side.
It's not the easiest cycle - the bridge particularly is high above the water, and it’s windy but I’d still recommend doing it. It was quite an experience and the views were incredible.
On the other side (Sausalito) we rewarded ourselves with a cocktail and a chower bread bowl at Scoma’s other branch, set on stilts in the water.
The most popular option is to bike into Sausalito, then take the ferry home so that’s exactly what we did afterwards.
Back on the mainland we had to try the cable car - a SF icon. After riding the Powell-Hyde Line end to end, we had time for one last adventure; a Waymo - in simple terms, a self driving car. We’d seen them driving all over the city and were intrigued. The whole process is like grabbing and uber, except the drivers seat is empty. What a cool experience, and yes, I felt safe throughout.
We checked out, hopped back in the car and headed to Half Moon Bay for the night.
Day Seven - Coastal Drive
This was a much slower day. We had a nice slow breakfast, did some scrapbooking and hopped in the car and drove to Cambria. Along the way we stopped at a lighthouse, (and saw a seal!) Carmel beach and Davenport strawberry farm.
Day Eight - Malibu
Day Eight was exciting because we were now on our way to Los Angeles. The route took us along the coast and the ocean views were very special. By lunchtime, we were in Malibu so pulled over for lunch on the pier at Malibu farm. What a dreamy menu, we were finally getting to health conscious America and ordered fresh fish tacos, with avocado, citrus spiked red cabbage and a homemade slaw.
We had booked our next three nights at Soho warehouse in LA, but we arrived to be told that they vacate the pool area every three hours which was a bit of an issue. We had planned to spend the whole of the next day by the pool so ended up booking a new hotel on a whim ad then rushing back to the car to make our way to Paramount Theatre; a drive in movie spot!
Day Nine - Lazy Day
We had finally made it to our lazy day. We woke up at our new hotel, laid in late, had breakfast by the pool and stayed there all day. Keen to explore that evening, I’d booked an early dinner on Venice beach, I knew we were going the next afternoon but I wanted to see the night time vibes. We ate Polynesian food with pina coladas at Belles Beach House before wandering around the souvenir shops and watching the skateboarders on the famous bowl as the late evening sun went down. Since it wasn’t too late, we took a detour through sunset Boulevard to have a little look on the way back.
Day Ten - Los Angeles Beaches
Considering it was our last full day; we had a busy one! We woke up early and headed into residential LA to meet up with Luke, a friend I met at a hostel in Bangkok years ago (who’s probably featured on the blog a few times since!) He was saying ricotta toast is all the rage in L.A so we went for breakfast and caught up for an hour or so.
We then picked up more e-bikes at Hermosa beach and cycled along the coast from there, to Santa Monica and back. It was a long cycle, way too long for me and I could barely string a sentence together by the end of it. We stopped off for a matcha afterwards which helped but proper calibration came from getting back to the hotel and catching up on our favourite TV show in the bath. A couple of highlights however, were seeing the amazing beach houses and also stopping for a lobster roll at one of the beachfront hotels. The bikes themselves were also great; $70 for five hours and I didn’t actually do much cycling because you can just push the throttle and go if you want.
Dinner that evening was exactly how I’d have liked to the end the trip. We found ourselves a big, anonymous seafood restaurant, snuggled up in a dark booth and ordered a couple of strawberry mojitos before recounting our favourite memories from the trip. The waiter recommended halibut, which we ordered with a whole load of sides and it was a lovely meal, followed by a cocktail and dessert on the rooftop of our hotel and an early night.
Day Eleven - Home
With a midday flight, we were able to have a slow breakfast at the hotel, using up the last of our free credit, before heading to the airport. The car drop off was super easy, we just parked it in the TURO specified bay at the short stay car park and hopped on the bus as we would’ve done with our own car, and soon enough, we were back in London.
All round, a big adventure. Another American road trip in the bag
