Xoutpost.com - 13,000 Mile Two Month RoadTrip Report...

Long Read, and several posts of pics... :D

Recently completed a two month Road Trip of the US and parts of Canada, in our 2002 Vette Vert.
In 2 words: freakin fabulous!

The Stats:
-Gone 2 days short of 2 months
-Covered 12,700+ miles in the Vette
-Also did a 7 day cruise of the Alaska coast, from Vancouver, BC to Whitter, AK
-Drove another 200 miles in a rental car from Skagway, Alaska up into the Yukon Territory, CDA
-Drove through 31 states and 4 Canadian Provinces
-Hit 13 National Parks, and nearly a dozen state parks, etc.
-Took 20+ Gigs of photos, (many were 'windshield/car shots'), but decent stuff...pasted in this thread.
-The 9 /12 yr old Vette ran like top, used only a couple drops of oil, not a drop of coolant, gave us 27.9 mpg cumulatively
over the trip, by arithmetic. Saw a cumulative high of 31+ on the car computer, deep into the trip, but it was optimistic like most cars are...
-Other than the auditory wearisome Borla exhaust drone, the car was comfortable, and very fun to drive on the
ubiquitous 2 lane blacktop roads of the western, mountainous US and CD.
-The only mechanical glitch was the HVAC fan blower motor going out near Vancouver, which we got repaired for less than
a $100 at Fitchner Chevy near Billings, Montana. Got a Mobil1 oil & filter change, new air filter, new blower motor, and out the
the door in less than 2 hours and $2 Bens total...gotta love getting the Vette fixed at any Chevy dlr!

Some RoadRants & Kudos/Observations:
-Motels ranged from dreadful to damn nice, with little connection to price, or 'area'.
-But, any motel around the entrance(s) to National Parks tend to be pricey and booked
-Cell phone use and texting, by drivers, is an insidious and very common, bad & dangerous practice.
-Slow moving/badly driven/overloaded Campers and RVs are the bane of the mountain roads, and almost any road, everywhere, imo.
-The pay-by-the-load log truckers, in the western states, are high speed, rolling bombs and, accidents waiting to happen, imo
-Recession? What Recession?! The roads and parks and 'sights' are packed with a world wide mob of people, some of whom appear
to be traveling on food stamps.
-Most 'locals', regardless of 'area', are very helpful, curious about us travelers, and gave me renewed faith in my fellow citizenry.
-Orange construction barrels, often put out for miles along a highway, with zero work or workers, are simply cop revenue stretches.
-The speed limits in most of the 'wide open' states are fair and high, and simply a suggestion for real world speed, in the daytime, in good weather.
-Saw few police, other than town speed traps, and waved at all we saw; they almost always waved back, and could not have cared
less about our general high rate of speed, out on the 2 lanes or occasional interstate highways.
-'Everyone' owns a motorcycle; I am down to 3 scoots currently, so I often looked and bs'd with riders at stops. They eyed the 4 wheeled
Vette, I eyed their rides, having done 5 cross country trips on a motorcycle when I was younger.
-The Smart phone, with GOOG Maps, weather radar, etc., was very helpful, though the phone ads would make one think the entire country's
population is walking around watching movies, net surfing and talking on their phones, all at the same time. '3G' is not real common in many
non-metro areas of the US, and '3G' doesn't mean full bars/reception. 'One X' or, no X es were more the norm.
--America is way overweight, regardless of age, race, etc.
-It is a Very Big Fookin Country, and a fabulous one at that!

For the few older readers here: the US National Park system has a Senior Pass to all Nat Parks, with reciprocity to most state parks, and even most
Canada parks, (allowing a reduced rate in CDA). It cost $10 at any Nat Park, for anyone over 62, and expires when I do! It may be the best bargain I have ever purchased,
as most Nat Parks charge $20-$25 a car for each entry. We would roll up to the Nat Park entrance, flash my Senior Pass and driver license and roll in...
The gov't should have made the Pass a $100; it would still be a bargain.

Veronica drove more than 50% of the time, and while she is adroit with any car, she really got into hauling azz, grabbing gears, and hammering the narrow mountain road
curves. Some days I could barely get her out of the driver's seat. We had a great time, didn't drive each other too crazy, even though we were literally elbow to elbow for
much of those 2 months. She still loves me & we are still married...

2 -3 meals a day in restaurants, for 60 days, is boring, repetitive and expensive; we did do some in-car 'lunches', with deli meat/cheese in wraps, that V made for us in
the morning. We also hit a dozen+ outfookinstanding restaurants, for a treat, that we found via Trip Advisor, a very good traveler review info site.

Still a little buzzed and coming down from the trip and the adventure, and much to do around the Mtn House, which we had only spent 3 weeks at this season, before our trip.
The 3 acre woodsy 'yard' looks like overgrown Tobacco Road. It is good to be home though, but 'different' and a little weird, we both admit, after our 2 month adventure.

Fabulous Road Trip: the USA and Canada are full of thrilling roads, remarkable sights and vistas, and good people. I highly rec'd doing a long road trip, before you dear readers all
get too 'old' or, all the cars look like Smart Cars. I've been many places on our planet, but there are extraordinary things to see, right here in our 'backyard', of the US & Canada, imo.

Lots of pics attached, in several posts worth, below this post. Most were 'Car shots', as in literally taken from the Vette at speed, or pulled over...I've included some decent still shots too, though it will be awhile before I can 'process' the knockouts in Lightroom, and do some links of categorized scenes via Flickr or Photobucket, for anyone interested.

I also took some notes on many of the freakin fabulous 2 lane blacktops, both revisited and discovered on this trip; PM me for some in 'your area', or if you are traveling 'The West'.

Most of my good friends here on TheBoard have been bored to tears with a running recap of mine, and have seen many of these pics, via PMs already, but I wanted to show the general gang here what a
real road trip can offer; thus, most shots are literally shots from the car, road shots, etc.

Get off the couch, send the kidz to grandma, get in your fave car, and go take a loooonnng drive!

Special thanks to JCL for his Vancouver Local Knowledge, Rayxi for same in Alberta, and meeting his wonderful fam at lunchola, and to my fave friends here, for their support and props! :thumbup:

Thanks for reading, and looking.
Best Regards,
mD & V
The RoadGeezers