The previous two posts were an introduction to the holiday and the first part, being in San Francisco. Now we come to the main part of the adventure, the motorhome journey across the US from West to East coast and covers days 4 to 7.
Indie Chaos Campers
Day 4 began when we awoke in the hotel and prepared for the checkout from there, then we had to be over at the pick up location near Fremont for 13:30hrs. With the room double checked for any belongings I asked Jo to go and check the safe, as I’d pulled out the passports and my macbook etc. She found the two sets of keys for our house and car still in the safe. It’s a good job she found them or we would have truly been shafted upon getting back home. We got out of the hotel, dropping our key cards in first and then headed out towards Powell Street station for the BART that would take us onwards to Union City station and from there we would get a short Uber ride that would get us to the motorhome rental point a bit early but we might be able to get away early for the first leg of the journey.
The BART took us straight there and less than an hour later we arrived at Union City station and got on with the Uber app. We had a large case each and two other bags so we didn’t fancy wheeling them from the station to the camper place, Uber was the best idea. The Uber cost from the hotel to the camper place was extortionate so we chose to catch the BART and Uber the last bit, it was a short drive and the uber driver thought we might have been a bit mental but it was better than carrying the cases across the pavements to get there. It was just 2 miles and a six minute drive and we got there with three hours to spare. Let’s hope that they are super organised and can get us on the road before the agreed time.
Oops, Indie Campers are not that organised at this Lewis Avenue location. Whilst we had got here super early we were advised that they would be with us soon and that we could take a seat in the waiting room. There was another family just returning their van and they came in and gave me a bag full of goodies, including knives that they said might come in handy on the road and that they weren’t included in the van.
Then there was another couple of families and a group of young lads whose times to pick up were all before ours so we jsut had to sit and wait. Dino was “organising” everything and running around trying to do almost everything, so it seemed. The two familes got their vans and were unhappy that the window was taped shut, like it was broken and insecure so someone had used duct tape to secure it. This wasn’t looking good. The group of four young lads who were Jewish and wearing garments that had tassles hanging down led to me learning about tzitzits and how they were worn and their meanings. They had left all of their gear, cases, hats and musical instruments on the kerbside outside which felt a bit like tempting fate but nothing happened to it. They were given their van, and disappeared, other people came and went and every now and again, DIno would ask us what time our pick up was.
It got to about 14:30 before they started us off with the paperwork and then went out to examine the van for blemishes as you do with a hire vehicle. There were more parts of this van that had been damaged than parts that hadn’t. When we thought we’d done everything and got sorted ready for the off I turned the key and the Check Engine Light illuminated so we went back to Dino and he got it to stay off by turning the key on and off a couple of times. Then he said that it was a good job we hadn’t left as we still had more paperwork to complete. Before I went in to do that though I went around the damage and took photographs and a short video showing the worst of it. No way did I want to take the blame for any of this when we dropped it back in New Jersey in fifteen days time.
The rest of the paperwork completed and Dino’s apprentice helped us to the van and tried opening the side door which didn’t want to open. We got it open somehow but there wasn’t much in the way of a talk about the different things we might need to do with the van whilst we were on the road. We had looked at the video a few times to prepare for this but it was still going to prove to be a learning experience.
With everything signed off and some patronising comments from Dino about Jo doing some of the driving we were now complete. We walked out of the office at 15:30hrs and Dino asked us to scan a QR code and then fill in the survey that would review his performance, he stood right over our shoulders as we were doing it so I didn’t type the words chaotic, disorganised and unprofessional until later.
Underway on the Highway
With the keys and van now joined together we programmed the google maps on the phone to take us to Sam’s Town KOA (Kampground Of America) in Las Vegas. There was nowhere to hold the phone on the dashboard, no in-built sat nav and not even a bluetooth radio that we could connect to for some good music but these were all little niggles. The mileometer / odometer illuminated a 30021 miles so this was the baseline for the journey. I drove it away from Indie Campers, remembering to drive on the right hand side of the road, because in the UK we normally drive on the left hand side. The google map directions said that it was around 556 miles and it would take us around 9.5 hours. This 15:30 start meant we’d be traveling well into the night and it was already going to be late neough if we’d started at 13:30. Oops.
We stopped at a gas station on the way out of Fremont and picked up some bottled water and stepped into the McDonalds there for something to eat as we’d had nothing all day, yet. The big crate of bottled water was a lifesaver and this went straight in the cupboard with a couple of them going in the fridge for later. I also picked up some Vanilla Coke and some crisps (or chips) to munch on as we progressed across eastwards.
We followed the I5 Interstate before jumping on the CA58 until we found the I15 North and drove onwards. We saw some amazing scenery with open flat lands covered in sand and barely any features, the roads were mega straight and wide but both Jo and I found ourselves straying to far to the right in the lane, and we each had to remind the other that “you need to move left a bit”. It was a bit annoying for both of us, but it meant less chance of any accidents. There was also the issue about Jo directing me from google maps and junctions when she has trouble with her left and right. We ended up with a physical movement to show whether we meant left or right but sometimes it wasn’t enough and there ere a few tense moments.
Driving along into the night we drove down through California, avoiding Los Angeles by going past Bakersfield (home of the Butcher Of Bakersfield in The Running Man) and then headed up into the Mojave National Preserve. At around 23:00 to midnight there were fires out of the drivers side window up into the hills that spread for a good distance, we could see helicopters and planes attackign the fire and we were glad to be moving away from it, but still nervous in case there was more of the same in front of us. There were few photographs on this leg of the journey as we were both getting used to the vehicle, the roads, the navigation and the gas stations. We had to stop twice on the way to fill up with gas and it cost $110 and $100 for those at around $6.10 and $6.50 Per gallon respectively. I decided that we should keep the fuel receipts so we set up a small stash of them that would help us track the distance and fuel economy after the completion of the journey. Weirdly Unleaded Fuel which is what the van used was in the pumps with the Black Handles and diesel was in the pumps with the green handles. Again, opposite to the UK but we never managed to get this one confused as we double and triple checked every time we had to fill up. There was also an issue at one of the gas stations in that it asked for a Zip Code for the payment card, and we hadn’t one, so we had to go in and pre-pay then use as much as possible and the remaining balance would be refunded if not used. These were the first two of 21 fuel stops that we would need.
The van was a Chevrolet Gulfstream Conquest Class C A3500 with a Chevy V8 6.0 litre engine with an automatic gearbox and it did pull well but we stayed at around 60-65 mph even on the roads that were max 75mph. One thing I noticed as soon as we were away from the rental place was that when the brakes were applied, the whole vehicle shook and rattled as though the brake discs (or rotors) were buckled and warped. So to reduce this we used cruise control to engine brake and then only used the brake pedal when necessary. It was a 2006 model registered in Montana and I think the 30k miles was not necessarily accurate, maybe it had been around the clock once or twice in the previous 20 years.
We pulled into the RV Park at 02:30 hrs am on the Tuesday morning, met Craig who showed us to our pitch and then we connected the electric to the hook up so that we could drive the Air Con during the night. It was well over 30 degrees celsius here so the A/C was essential. As we prepared for bed we noticed what appeared to be an infestation of ants, small little grey coloured ants that were in the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom areas. Being absolutely knackered I thought we’d figure that out in the morning so I tried to get some sleep. Throughout the night I was constantly feeling an ant on my face or neck and having to brush it off so I didn’t sleep brilliantly. The air con was also a constant noise throughout the night and a bit cold. When prepping to sleep we also noticed that there was no curtain to block off the cab so the curtain around the bed was enough to keep the other people from being faced with my big butt!
Viva Las Vegas
Day 5, Tuesday 28th July 2026 and the plan for the day was to visit Caesars Palace, Bellagio Fountain, Fremont Street and the Strip. First up though was a trip into the KOA Office and a chat with the helpful staff. These ladies said that they had no ant bait or ant traps but that they could use some diatomaceous earth and spread it around the cables and the tyres to prevent further ants getting in. We went for a walk across into Sam’s Town casino. In there was a Dunkin’ Donuts so I had to avail myself of two donuts to prepare myself for the days activities, a vanilla frosted and raspberry frosted were the choices I made. Jo had a coffee and a coffee roll. There were some machines in here for the gamblers to feed their money into and to me it felt like a grubby place. Not grubby as in dirty but grubby as in sneakily stealing people’s hard earned money.
The KOA is located East of the city about 7 miles from where we wanted to go first so we organised yet another Uber to take us from the Sam’s Town over to Caesar’s Palace. We got out and had a walk into the main lobby as seen in the movie Hangover by Todd Phillips where the Wolf Pack check into the hotel. We walked around the casino for a short while too, the card tables were there but there was a larger room full of that same sort of machines that we saw in Sam’s Town. The hotel looked massive and there were some huge buildings towering over the strip but it all felt super fake. I know it is fake, as it’s not really part of ancient Rome but it all felt a bit too fake, plastic and insincere. 98
Walking around we found Hell’s Kitchen restaurant and Jo had a photo outside the front of it. Then we found the Paris hotel and casino and had a walk through there too. The gaming floor was very similar to the other casino floors we’d seen apart from there being legs of an Eiffel Tower seemingly poking through the ceiling. It was kept dark with no natural light and false lighting on the roof space, and once we stepped outside to see the scale model of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. It was so bloody hot out here though so we were trying to find places to hide out of the sun and the 40+ degree celsius. As we walked up the strip there were a large number of people with troubles about. People talking and shouting out in public, muttering to themselves, fishing in the bins, picking up cigarette butts and sleeping standing up. It was very sad to see this as it was in San Francisco especially with all of the money that seems to be being sucked out of people’s bank accounts straight to the casino owners.
A brief walk away was the Bellagio so Jo and I stopped outside trying to seek some shade from a small tree. At the 30 minutes after hour the fountains fire up and do a show, a four minute show of fountains going up and down to the sound of the song Beautiful Day by U2. It was so hot it was unbelievable and we needed to head indoors again. We found Gordon Ramsay’s Burger restaurant so Jo had a photo outisde there too. We headed to the MGM Grand and had a look around there, but there was not much difference again between the gaming floor and the previous ones we’d seen. Down the strip a bit further into the New York New York casino and hotel and we sat in a slushy bar where I had a bottle of beer and Jo had a daiquiri. The game machines in here were exactly the same once again, and there were people who looked like they had been there for a long time. It was 42 degrees celsius outside so we decided against walking to the next destination.
The next Uber car was a cooler place to sit for a few minutes until we got to Fremont Street for a walk in Downtown Vegas. There were some old casinos and Binion’s was there with a million dollars in there to have a picture with. There was a roof over the street that contained a screen to display patterns adverts and all sorts of other stuff. There was a zipline also that flew down the length of the covered area. We had a meal in the Whiskey Licker Up bar that was massive and we had to leave a little bit of the food so we didn’t explode. We saw Vegas Vic, the famous neon lit Cowboy who waves his arm too as well as a few more of the famous neon signs. The cowboy was placed directly above a shop selling Cannabis which seems weird to me. I know cannabis is legal in many states today and the number of signs there are on the side of the main highways is incredible. I do wonder about the long term effects of this ability to get hold of the drug so easily. It was evident around the US that people are smoking cannabis at all times, but that is similar to London or Birmingham in the UK where it is still illegal.
With a full belly and an overheating body it was time to head back to the van so we summoned up another Uber.Seems like we are using too many Ubers so I’ll keep an eye on this and track them like I’m tracking the petrol receipts. A fair time after the driver picked us up we were back at the Sam’s Town casino for the two minute walk to the van. We were both knackered and were asleep before too long. We had had a huge drive the night before and we had another long drive to attend to the next day.
Las Vegas is not a nice place, in my opinion. It’s designed for one thing only, to strip money from peoples’ bank accounts. The food and drink places we saw were pretty hollow affairs too. Almost set up for an instagram influencer to visit and move on to the next place. The levels of homelessness seem to be greater than I was expecting but what do people do if they’re surrounded by casinos promising to make you richer but greedy for profits. We’ll come across this topic later in the journey too.
Dam, It’s Day 6
No ants seen this morning in our preparations for moving out from Sam’s Town KOA so we headed out with the van to begin our route for the day. First on the list was Hoover Dam, this was a mere forty minutes away from where we’d camped the night before and we topped up with petrol/gas on the way. The gas here was $4.70 per gallon compared to the $6+ we’d seen already, it turned out that this number was one that we’d keep an eye on for the next two weeks.
On the way we stopped by an overlook of Lake Mead, a huge body of water that spans Nevada and Arizona states, It was surrounded by large hills that would turn into the same parts of the landscape that the dam was filled by and the Colorado River fed it, which as we know is what flows through the Grand Canyon. Near here was also a long straight road called Pierce Ferry Road that went through Dolan Springs and had a great number of mailboxes along the side of the road for all of the houses that lived further away from the main road. I stopped here to capture a few images on digital and 35mm film of the different post boxes and the background of the desert behind them.
Arriving at the Hoover Dam we came across a large sign that said the dam was closed, but I read it as it was closed until 10am so we parked up nearby and when it didn’t change to Open at 10am we drove in anyway and were told that the dam was closed for emergency maintenance, whatever that consists of. Damn, dam. This was a bit disappointing but it meant that we would have more time at the next attraction on the plan. I had been looking forward to a two hour tour of the dam and seeing how this engineering masterpiece was created and how it works.
A Big Hole
As is the tradition when in the area of Vegas a trip to the Grand Canyon was in order. We went to Grand Canyon West, as I had booked it whilst back at home and it included a walk on the Skywalk along with some other parts of the site. The whole area is a Hualapai reservation so their tribe is the one making any money from the tourist attraction we were now at. There was a couple of places launching helicopters and after the visitor centre we were ferried by bus to the Eagle Point viewpoint, where a rock formation appears to be an Eagle with it’s wings spread apart. It looked like it may have originally had a head too but this was missing. Here we had a look at some of the history of the Hualapai tribe and saw their artefacts from the history before donning a pair of overshoes so that we did as little damage to the glass skywalk as possible. As per usual for a tourist attraction there was also a couple of green screen photo opportunities before stepping out onto the 1km high walkway. This was fun as we didn’t yet cotton on to the fact that Jo was wearing a green top at the time so the photos would show the picture behind her as part of her body, much the same way as a weather presenter disappears if they wear a blue or green top. The photos can be seen below..
The glass skywalk was a loop that came out of the rock and ended up back on the canyon wall again, but not before you’d been stood on a piece of glass over a 1000 metre drop to the base of the canyon. There were some huge birds around here too, but they were flying in the canyon below and appeared to be tiny as they were such a distance away. Through the gift shop and into the bus queue (line) again for a trip to Guano Point where many years ago an enterprising group of people mined the guano (poop) of the Bats in a cave and had sold it on to be used in make up and even explosives. The view of the canyon was better here and the guides had said that if you climbed to the top of a small hill you could get a great 360 degree view, but when we neared the top of this climb it was covered in huge flying ants. There were thousands of them here so we chose to not hang about here for too long. We had a nice cold drink and ice lolly from the shop at this point before heading back to the main visitor centre. There was another attraction, the Hualapai town where there was an arcade, a restaurant and the place to sign up to the zipline, but there wasn’t a whole heap more to see there. Back to the van then and a short 40 minute drive to the campground for the night.
What View?
We had booked a pitch on the Meadview RV Park but I didn’t see any way of catching a glimpse of the lake from here. Even with my DJI Mini 4 Pro up at 120 metres altitude there was no sign of a large body of water. To fly the drone in the US you need to have passed a TRUST Course and have the certification with you in case of being stopped by law enforcement. I also had an app that allowed me to see where there were no fly zones etc but after a quick chat with Mike, the manager/owner of the RV Park it was all good. I sent it up as he had said that given a good sunset the rocks on the large rock wall further away would light up red. It was not as spectacular as he had said but it was still impressive.
It was here on this camp site that I used the shower and the room it was in was a bit weird, there was an old dressing table and chair that seemed out of place but the shower ran ok once I put enough quarters into the coin box.
Later that night we went outside to see what the view was like of the stars at night but it was a little bit too cloudy so we decided to hit the hay and prep for the next day.
Monumental
Day 7 would see us face a 374 mile drive to get to Gouldings RV Park in Monument Valley. The scenery was superb and got better and better as the day progressed. At one point we decided we needed a short break and pulled off the I40 at Seligman, Arizona which is also part of the Route 66 that we chose not to follow for the adventure. There was a guy walking his cat in the car park of the realtor’s land that we had come to a stop in. The offices of this estate agent were in a converted gas station and under the canopy sat an old gold Buick car that had been there for a while. I jumped out and made a couple of photos on the film and digital cameras , also a train went by on the nearby railroad that made for an interesting photo, or so I thought.
We drove via Kingman and Flagstaff in the state of Arizona, with the latter reminding me of a game called Trans Am on the old ZX Spectrum in which you had to drive around the desert of a post apocalyptic USA picking up trophies. There had been signposts for different locations in the game and Flagstaff was one that took me straight back to the 1980’s.
In Flagstaff we also experienced our first bit of rain. The temperature was still crazy but the rain seemed to hang around briefly before all burning off again and disappearing. There were a great many straight roads around here and I enjoyed stopping the van, jumping out and catching a few photos of the scene.
Stupid is as stupid does.
A bit further up the road and after driving past the turn off for our stop for the night we landed at a lay-by, pull off, overlook for the Forest Gump Point. In the movie Forest Gump, the main character is running across the US from coast to coast when he decides that he wants to stop running, and this scene was filmed exactly here with the amazing view of Monument Valley behind him. There were a few cars stopped up here and one family of three nearly had their little girl driven over, as it is still a main road and they were not paying enough attention. The mum of the family lay in the road and this caused an issue for the traffic who were beeping at her, she seemed to not care too much about this and hung around getting in front of everyone else’s photos.
When it was our turn to take a phot of the famous scene we did so quickly and with care and respect for other visitors and drivers. Jo did a shot video of her running down the road too but it’s less Forest Gump and more like an old 1980’s Daley Thompsons Decathlon Speccy game.
By the time we pulled into the Gouldings RV park the mileage on the odometer was reading 31145 miles so we’d done 1124 miles since picking up the van.
We found out where the laundry was and did a load of washing and drying as my supply of underwear was running out rapidly. Whilst it was in the old washers we had a bit of a walk around the site and after picking up the dried washing we sat outside the van at a table and chairs to write our nightly journals which I then followed up with a short drone flight. I even flew the drone out of the camp site and towards the Monument Valley proper but it was going dark by now. The campsite was surrounded by the red sandstone like we were in a small basin kept safe by the environment. It almost felt similar to the place in the top of the Devil’s Tower, Wyoming in Close Encounters and I could have imagined a UFO coming to land in the middle of the campground.
Overview
This section saw us travel from San Francisco over to Monument Valley, we’ve travelled through California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. With the odometer showing 31145 miles we’ve covered 1124 miles with five stops at gas stations costing $480 in total and stayed at three different campgrounds. The landscape has been barren most of the time covered in red sand. There have been some majestic views too of the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead, Monument Valley and the super straight roads. We haven’t had any mishaps with the van apart from finding out that the door into the living compartment has a very special method to open it. I explained it to Jo by saying put your fingers behind the handle and then snatch it in a super fast jerk movement. It was a troublesome handle all the way through the journey and only towards the end did she get the hang of it after a good couple of thrashings.
I’m also through 2.5 rolls of Kodak Portra in my Leica M6 and put 2626 digital photos on my Leica Q3, iPhone 16 Pro and DJI Mini 4 Pro. Just be thankful that not all of these photographs make it into these blog posts!!
Next Up
That is day 7 over and. done with, next we’ll move out of the dusty deserts of Arizona and Utah and head to the more forested areas of the middle of America. We’ll cover a few more states in our drive up North and witness some more spectacular views, maybe even with some vehicle issues thrown in too.
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