It's time for my first coast to coast drive - in my new Tacoma

So me and old blue will be crossing America starting on Friday - for a variety of reason, to spend Halloween in LA, to see the country, to ride my freshly built Haro Master in Huntington Beach, visit the Redwoods possibly and just spend 2 weeks on the road blowing off steam.

I've done many long distance drives just not a coast to coast yet. So I'm nervous, anxious, excited. And I love this truck so much. I love the perspective you get out of the windshield.

Should be a blast. I've got 33 states under my belt hoping to add 6 or 7 more - OK, NM, possibly: UT, WY, CO, KS or NEB.

Since I'm a bit of road warrior - one thing I learned early on, the small off the beat and path towns are where the interesting shit is. I don't know why, it's just been my experience.

The one downside, I'm not looking forward to CA gas prices hahaha. But I've budgeted plenty for this trip. Plus I'm pretty good at finding areas to save on expenses.

She's got a fresh coat of DoDo Juice Supernatural and Griots Garage glass sealant, and the tonneau goes on tomorrow.

Will post photos from the journey.

 

Hard to beat a long trip for resetting the mind. Whats your route looking like?

 

Sounds fun! Are you staying in hotels or sleeping in your truck?

 

the way out: the way back will be much more weird. if i go up to the redwoods, it'll be a southeasterly run through the west. if i don't, i might hit vegas for a Tiesto show on NOV 2, and then go explore and head back to NC around the 7th.

 

for the 3 days out to LA, probaby a mix of cheap hotels and truck stops. when I get to LA i'll get something nice for the 4 or 5 days, then maybe some camping when i head north.

 

I'm glad you've got more fun on the route back, I-40, at least through oklahoma, texas and new mexico is not exciting in any way.

 

Change the oil before the journey

 

oh exactly. i know what i'm in for going out there. it's more or less for speed. the excitement waits in LA. i can't wait to return to the Venice Beach skate park, Malibu for sunsets, Huntington Beach BMX rides, etc.

 

i just did her first oil change at 5k. she's at 6800 now. i'll get a change when i get to LA.

the more nerve racking part is getting the Gator EFX on tomorrow night without issues or RAIN. It was supposed to happen tonight but it rained outside (no garage)

 

That shouldn’t be too bad to get on. If it was the Toyota free 5k maintenance, they just rotated the tires and didn’t change the oil

 

it was the complimentary service but I supplied oil, they did an alignment, checked out the bluetooth skipping issue, rotation. i'll be doing 5k changes of Mobil 1 Advanced Fuel Economy.

next up is TRD grill, fifteen52 wheels, k02s.

 

My other wheels for the trip

 

I probably should do some updating on how this all went.

I left Durham at 4pm after work. My first layover was just past Nashville at a rest stop, woke up the following morning and headed toward Dallas via Little Rock. Spent a night in Dallas. I have been to Austin and San Antonio before many times. Dallas was a first - what an odd place! I went to their bar district and it felt like a Mad Max movie - the most diverse weird grouping of people hanging out I ever saw. It had a very dirty feel to it. Gritty. Maybe I was just in the wrong area.

Then I headed across west Texas and laid over in Midland TX. Waking up to the smell of that black gold. I never had smelt a smell like that. It didn't smell like oil to me. The odd thing was a mile from the refineries the gas prices were the highest I had seen in Texas - around $2.50.

After leaving Midland, TX it was off on an epic leg to Palm Springs. Leaving Midland around 5am, I pulled over for the sunrise and drank a Smores beer off an exit, sitting near the freeway ramp I watched traffic zoom underneath and shot some long exposures. (the sunrise photo of my truck)

I arrived in Palm Springs about 8 or 9pm. Weaving through El Paso, and Tucson and stopping somewhere in New Mexico to shower at a truck stop.

The night before I had ate at a BW3 in Midland. The entire parking lot was refinery worker pick up trucks. Everyone you see at gas stations is covered in soot and oil and wearing coveralls.

You literally see how these small towns thrive off the oil industry.

Palm Springs was a place I always wondered about - you peruse Instagram and you see all these bikini clad babes talking about Palm Springs - I didn't get it. Now I do. It's that resort-ish town with hipster food and drink, and boutique hotels. I liked it a lot.

I laid over in Palm Springs so I could visit Joshua Tree the next day. Ducking back out to Joshua Tree from LA was going to be an ask so I visited. Not gonna lie after about 30 minutes there, I was bored. It would be fun to camp there. But I wasn't prepared for that.

Excitement built as I got into LA the next day. I love and hate LA. I love LA for the weather, the fact that you can find anything you want there. If you want a couch with Jesus on it, you can find it in LA. Santa Monica is my favorite spot but of course California is going through a homeless crisis as many know. It was everywhere.

Pulling into LA the truck needed a wash like nobody's business. Pulling into a wash bay just west of Beverly Hills I went at the bugs from Texas with the wand.

To be continued in the next post.................

 

One Night In Dallas.

Like Billie Dee Williams says: You could have a good time without it but why take chances.

The headache from this Colt 45 was insane. I didn't take my normal Goodys and water before bed. But I finished it. Hahahahaha.

 

Glad you had a good trip. I've covered most of that route at various times over the years on road trips from NW GA. I've been to Raleigh and far west as Flagstaff AZ along the route in you map above. I have family in the NE corner of TN and we've made several road trips west. We headed north from Flagstaff to see the Grand Canyon and SW Utah on one trip. That is as far west as I've made it. We've driven to Yellowstone twice and I've done the "Tour De Colorado" several times. Summer camping/hiking trips several times and a couple of hunting trips. I took the Midland TX route once on my way to a hunt in the SE corner of NM.

You are right, there are a lot of cool things to see off the main roads and we do as much of that as possible. But if you stop and see everything you'll never get where you're going. My wife and I took our oldest grandchild on a road trip this summer to see Colorado. We did a lot of those out of the way places on the way west and in Colorado. We camped the last night on the Colorado/Wyoming border and took her into Laramie and Cheyenne just so she could say she had been to Wyoming. Spent the next night in Grand Island Nebraska. Got up the next morning and made a sprint for home. I drive 1053 miles in 19 hours just stopping for gas and food to get home.

 

Hey Marshall -

Yeah there were many eye opening things for me going to and from -
1. Be sure of where you want to spend the majority of your time!
In hindsight I probably would have liked one more day in Northern California.
2. Coast to Coast trips require a lot of time off. I think I had the bare minimum I needed - 17 days total, with 2 weeks off of work.
3. I covered a lot of land given the time I had - I visited 7 new states - New Mexico, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, Utah.
4. Next time I want to go in the spring or summer when the days are longer. I was constantly chasing sunset during the day - I'd wake up and have to rush around to get my photo opps out of the way because sunset was 5pm - I knew this going in, but next time I'll have more daylight.

I considered dipping north to hit the grand canyon but that was a lot of time and energy to get up there and back down to hit L.A and Joshua Tree.

I would have liked to spend more time along the California coast between LA and NorCal.

I spent one night in the truck on the PCH at a pulloff and listening to the ocean all night under some trees and the moon was amazing.

I dicked around too much in Dallas too. That was a waste - I should have pulled out of town at sunrise.

I had a tight fit for gear too - my bike took up a lot of space in the bed but it was a big part of why I was going on the trip - to ride it in Huntington Beach.