Entertainment For Lively Minds
Give me weed, whites and wine...
Posted by stimpy on 17 June 2011 - 4:39pm.
In fact, these days I'd prefer a pack of Opal Fruits, an apple and a can of Red Bull.
No matter, I'm pondering a possible late summer break to the South West of that US of A and rather than just idly meander around, I was thinking of doing the following journey:
Tuscon to Tucumcari (610 miles)
Tucumcari to Tehachapi (936 miles)
Tehachapi to Tonopah (393 miles)
Sadly I won't be driving any kind of rig ("that's ever been made") but will be in Messrs Hertz finest.
My experience of the South West is limited to visits to Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Does anyone know if the above journey will just be days of desert and scrub or is there anything to see?
Just an idle thought...
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Lovely idea
Google Streetview would seem to help - you can set up the route in google maps then look at the view by dropping the figure in to the map. (Apologies if you already know how to do that)
I had a quick look, the leg from Tuscon to Tucumcari seems pretty scrubby but it may be fun nonetheless.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Tucumcari,+NM,+United...
Don't forget to
load up on smokes and folks from Mexico.
but try not to get
baked by the sun.
Good advice... I shall also try my best to avoid
getting kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet, or having my head stoved in.
He's not going to Mexico
Possibly because every time he does he gets baked by the sun.
I have always fancied doing this trip so do take photos etc and tell us how you get on!
norwegian blue
Shouldn't he be doing a live broadcast of the view from the front seat? All 6 days of it? Like on the Norwegian cruise (see other post).
Heh... A web cam on the dashboard?
Heh... A web cam on the dashboard?
stay
on your feet
send my regards
to Alice
Presume
You mean Dallas Alice - Hope she is lasting well.
Alice?
Who the fuck is Alice?
It's all pretty scrubby
but there are jewels in the scrub. When the, erm, "band" used to play the Houston/Austin/Dallas circuit we'd leave Santa Monica at dusk and hit Bowie AZ for breakfast at dawn. With real ranchers and cowboys. 'Course round them parts you're near enough to Mexico and that's when the party starts. New Mexico (imo) has far more to offer than Arizona. It's not all just millionaire hippie artists. Have fun. We'll be around there in a couple of months.
There's a new Mexico?
Seems so
they just lopped a chunk off Olde Mexico. Now, back to those Google alerts...
Tehachapi
pity you weren't there on July 2nd 1953.
In a Hertz car
you don't have to drive the backroads to avoid getting weighed.
"Willin'" to show my ignorance here*
But I'm amongst friends.
Weed and wine I recognise...but 'whites'?
Anyone care to enlighten me?
I would guess some sort of pill but can't be sure.
Feel free to mock gently.
(And Stimpy - sounds like a great trip.)
*see what I did there?
I presumed..
.. it was a referral to Jazz Talc
Whites?
I thought it was a reference to uppers/speed pills.
correctamundo
Clive is correct. Truckers took them to stay awake on the long hauls such as Stimpy is going to pursue.
"We Know a Song About That!"
From the great Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, in the song "Semi-truck" from the album "Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Trucker's Favourites"
"Well here I sit, all alone with a broken heart
I took three Bennies, and my semi-truck won't start"
Cross tops
Trucker's aspirins
Goofballs (as in "hopped up on...")
Dexies
Whites
As evidenced by Dave Dudley at 0.36
Taj Mahal nails this really well...
Or as Tom Robinson said
3-5-7-9 little white lines
OK so that one's open to interpretation....maybe.
BTW 6DOTR - Taj or Allmans? Aah!!! I clearly mean Statesboro Blues. Blame it on the burgundy.
isn't it
"double white lines"? You know, the ones you're not supposed to cross when overtaking.
On a motorway?
I've always heard it as 'little'
Artistic licence.
Here's the lyric, complete with double white lines, on Tom's website:
http://www.tomrobinson.com/records/albums/rf.htm#2468m
Not forgetting..
this little item. Authentically sad, or heavily ironic, you decide. Oh, and good luck Stimpy.
http://youtu.be/0BoyEHeID8U
A Bit of scenery
It's going to be some very wide open spaces and a lot of very straight roads (usually a good indicator in the States that there it's flat with no features to go round). However, if you're willing to go a bit off the track, (relative to the rest of your roadtrip) you're not that far from the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo and if you're driving across Arizona it would be a bit remiss to miss out the Grand Canyon. The sequoia trees in California at the end of your journey are well worth seeing as well.
Ooo good call!
I've never seen Cadillac Ranch.
"James Dean in that Mercury '49,
Junior Johnson driving through the woods of Caroline.
Even Stimpy in his Hertz Challenger, not a van,
Call on me down at the Cadillac Ranch" :-)
Do your research
Make sure you know exactly where it is before you set out because it's in a field quite a way from the main highway and you won't necessarily spot it and remember that it's in the States so there are no signs to it! We wen't in early October and the field was a bit muddy so be prepared to get your feet dirty... and don't forget your can of spray paint to leave your mark.
Cadillac Ranch from a few feet away from the service road (not the main highway!)
It's worth the effort when you get there!
Play the Sat Nav game
Driving from Memphis TN to Austin TX last month the Sat Nav (or GPS) told us to 'continue for 263 miles' and then nipped out for some shut-eye for hours on end, as evidenced at 0.45 in the clip below. That's Manchester to Brighton without a single turn or junction. I imagine you'll go well above that on your trip. I love those long drives, and it's never dull when it's America going past your windows.
White line fever
This thread has seriously got me in the mood for a US road trip. We've toured New England in the fall, Cape Cod and down to NYC, I did Memphis and Nashville as a stag holiday before getting married, and had a great West Coast trip from San Francisco to LA via Yosemite (with quick hop to Phoenix and the Grand Canyon) but Stimpy's trip has me a twichin'. I'm hatching a plot in my mind for a Texas based trip ending up in Austin for South by Southwest next Feb/March. Anyone done this?
Another temptation is this.....Route 66 end to end by Harley.....
http://www.eaglerider.com/motorcycle-tours/guided-motorcycle-tour/route-...
Texas
Never done SBSW but I've done a couple of road trips round Texas and it's my favourite part of the USA. It's certainly the most friendly. The main drawback is that it's bloomin' huge! There are lots of long drives to get anywhere but there are lots of iconic sights along the way (Dealey Plaza in Dallas, The Alamo in San Antonio, Mission Control in Houston, Buddy Holly's glasses in Lubbock). Austin always has a lot of gigs through the year and it's pretty laid back for a state capital. I'm not sure that I'd plump for the hassle involved in SBSW (but if anyone wants to give me passes and some plane tickets then I'll force myself!). You can even "nip" down to the coast for a break at some stage. When I first went around May, the highways were seemlingly littered with dead armadillos, in October we hardly saw any, presumably it's a seasonal thing but I certainly wouldn't want to be riding a motorbike when when they're around.
"is this the way to Armadillo?"
National Parks
A joy throughout the US but the Big Bend National Park is excellent. Try and go rafting if you can spare a day out of the car.
Area 51 oddness?
If you do get up as far as Tonopah (and bearing in mind this is Nevada, *everywhere* is scrubby), I'd recommend the 100-mile wander west (via Warm Springs - very bloody warm, but no springs) to for a once-in-a-lifetime dose of American oddness. There you will find the Little A'le'Inn, a bar/shack in the middle of a scattered community of trailers known as Rachel, famous for being the neighbour of Area 51 and home to some seriously strange coves. You can hire a trailer for the night from the folks at the bar and "commune" with the crazies.