Heading for my next USA Road Trip!!!

Yeah!!!!! Wow Weeee!!! Heading for my next USA road trip starting from tomorrow. Had just finish packing my baggage for the trip consisting of clothings, toiletries, water, field chair, sleeping bag, cold weather clothings...etc etc. Last week I have made an online reservation for a rental car through Budget Car Rental which will be the primary mode of transport during this tour. Driving my own car for the tour was an option but the pain and agony and time wasted in the event my old car break down which will seriously spoil the tour makes me think otherwise. Mind you, my car have clocked 125000 miles and have minor problem here and there. Will be collecting the rental car early tomorrow morning with the help of my good colleague, LC Goh.

What road trip should be committed without a map? With country so big chances are that I gonna lost my way sometime. Gone are the days of compass reading and map glancing while having a hand on the steering wheel and feet on the pedals. Nowadays there is such thing call a GPS Navigation system which I experienced using first hand during my Las Vegas/Grand Canyon tour earlier this year. Sure the highway might be an easy road to navigate as long as you know the exits to take but the minor roads is a mumbo jumbo of headache and time wasting when you miss the turn. Just key in your destination and drive, that simple. With the digital map displayed and turn cues right in front of the driver plus a voice prompt to keep your eyes on the road, it sure is hard to miss any turn. Furthermore if you miss a turn, the GPS Naviagtion system reroute. I picked up a Garmin Street Pilot C330 from Walmart at US$288 to assist me during this road trip. Now here is a catch against Walmart; Walmart offer a 15 days return and refund policy for GPS Navigation system (most other stuff is 90 days), my tour only last 10 days so isn't it great that I can buy it now and return it before 15 days and get all my money back??? Ha ha... its like borrowing from the store with a deposit.

I got the car and navigation aids. Now how about what to do during those long long drive when there is nothing to stop by a see at all? Mun Kit lend me a car dc to ac adapter and a FM Audio transmitter. Garfield is gonna bring along his laptop. Now for some in car entertainment, the improvised style. We gonna plug the laptop to tap power from the car cigarette socket using the DC to AC Adapter and we gonna transmit the laptop sound output right to the car stereo system using the FM Audio Transmitter. Yup, time to watch dozens episode of Anime and Movie while driving, keep the boredom and sleepiness out of the driver. Some may argue this is dangerous and distracting. Whats more dangerous that falling asleep on the wheels?

Hmm...Food. Gonna fill those stomach along the trip. Well, got tons of left over MREs from the last Exercise. Kapo a box of it to solve the hunger problem during the road trip. And as for water, I have at less 4 gallons of it in the car....home made filtered water in used containers.

Finally where shall we go? Here is the list of places we wanna covered. Look short and simple but places are many miles apart. I hope I have the time to cover everything in the list otherwise Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone National Park is a definite must go.

YellowStone Road Trip Itinerary

ON THE WAY TO YELLOW STONE NATIONAL PARK

1. Visit Cadillac Ranch at Amarillo
1. Bring along spray paints!!! Use expired POLs.

2. Head to Francis E. Warren Air Force Inn for a day rest
1. Crow Creek Inn
2. Call 1800-AFLODGE

3. Rocky Mountain National Park at Denver, Colorado
1. Entrance fee US$20 per vehicle
2. Head to the peak in our car. To Alpine Visitor Center

4. Yellowstone National Park at Wyoming
1. Visit Old Faithful Geysers
2. Visit Mammoth Hot Spring

c. Tower Falls to see the Waterfall

d. Petrified Trees at Specimen Ridge, Along NE Entrance

e. Explore the Canyon area South of Tower Falls

f. Row a boat at Yellowstone Lake and fishing in the middle of the lake

5. Visit Car Hedge at Nebraska
6. Visit Precious Moment Chapel, Carthage Missouri
7. Head to Arkansas, Little Rock Air Force Base and meet up with Ah Lim
1. Stay in Little Rock AFB Inn.

8. Head back to Dallas

Ok, this probably gonna be the last blog entry before I head for my trip. Will be back 1 week and a few days later. Stay tuned for my post road trip travel blog!!! See ya!