Retirement Road Trips

[Tony Crocker]

The one day I skied at Thredbo in 1997 I got a ticket driving up there from Jindabyne.

You Americans are speed freaks.

Yes, especially skiers! We have a lot of long distance driving in sparsely populated areas, but Australia has perhaps even more. We did not get any tickets in 2019 in the Red Centre or Top End driving though. Perhaps the cameras are not used so much out there. It's hard to imagine that we weren't driving very fast between Uluru and King's Canyon. We probably weren't driving all that fast in Kakadu as there was a lot of interesting scenery and occasional wildlife.

Americans are quite resistant to camera traffic enforcement. We had red light cameras for a few years in L.A. County, and there was so much ignoring and resistance. Eventually some court ruled they were not enforceable because of identifying the license plate as opposed to the driver.

Aussies are considerably more likely to give the government the benefit of the doubt on regulations, as evidenced by the pandemic lockdowns. You can argue that some of the American distrust comes from stupidity of some of the regulations. A national 55mph speed limit was imposed (via threat of cutting off federal highway funds to the states) during the 1973 energy crisis and it was not removed until after the Republicans won Congress in 1994.

I think the following expresses the sentiment of many if not most American skiers.

 

[Sbooker]

Aussies are considerably more likely to give the government the benefit of the doubt on regulations, as evidenced by the pandemic lockdowns.

It's strange how two cultures that should be fairly similar are in fact very different in a lot of ways. Australians gave up their guns with hardly a whimper back in 1996. But I think there would be a nationwide revolt if the government(s) tried to take away a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy.

Back on topic. We have a vast land to explore and the best time to do that is when one can take long blocks of time to tour. The distances are just too great to try to see the country in two week holidays. For that reason I'll concentrate on overseas holidays while I am working and can easily get travel insurance. In the main I plan to see Australia when I am retired.

Johnny Cash did a version of this but it was originally written by an Aussie.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I had no idea that was not a Johnny Cash original. This version is more on topic for this forum:

I have skied 58 of the 82 areas in that song.

 

[Tony Crocker]

The distances are just too great to try to see the country in two week holidays.

We have greatly enjoyed the slices of Australia we have seen in ~two week holidays. We have another one of those coming next April.

 

[Sbooker]

We have greatly enjoyed the slices of Australia we have seen in ~two week holidays. We have another one of those coming next April.

My point is it is much easier to see Australia in more detail if you can head off with the caravan hooked up for 3 months.

 

[Sbooker]

I had no idea that was not a Johnny Cash original. This version is more on topic for this forum:

I have skied 58 of the 82 areas in that song.

Ha. I didn’t know of that one.
I might have about 15 of those I reckon.

 

[ChrisC]

I might have about 15 of those I reckon.

I could not even count the places mentioned. A healthy Midwest representation.

 

[EMSC]

I could not even count the places mentioned.

You'd have to slow or stop the song constantly to get a count for sure. based on general name recognition I would estimate I'm at about half of whatever the number is.

I do like that it has a great mix of big names and small name ski areas though.

 

[Tony Crocker]

A healthy Midwest representation.

That's why my proportion isn't that high.

 

[tseeb]

Not sure I can spend the time to draw Google maps of my five consecutive years of road trips from San Jose, CA to Canada. Three of my road-trips included snowcat skiing at Mustang; two did not as they were only to Whistler. I've flown to Calgary to ski Mustang twice. In 2018, I made it to Canada to ski twice, flying to Calgary in Feb for Mustang, then driving to Whistler in April.

Feb/Mar 2015 - 22 days, 19 ski days and 3,675 miles. To Mustang via Bachelor (where I skied) and Kelowna (where I didn't ski). Return via AB, MT, WY, UT and Kirkwood.
Highlights: Over 45K day at Bachelor, 1st time skiing Canada, 7 new areas: Kicking Horse, Lake Louise, Sunshine (w Delirium Dive), Panorama, Lost Trail, Discovery and Big Sky, joined EpicSki Gathering for 32K powder day at Targhee
Lowlights: Had shigella at start, speeding ticket near Bridgeport, WA that I paid same day and never saw on insurance

Feb 2016 - 15 days, 13 ski days and 3,290 miles. To Whistler via Revy, Mustang, Kelowna and Sun Peaks. Crystal and Ashland on return
Highlights: All 3 major Okanagan areas with new snow, 1st time skiing Whistler and in WA
Lowlights: Extremely Canadian issues, hurt back buckling boots on last day at Whistler, iPhone barely survived Hostel hot tub dunking, bruised rib at Ashland during 1/2 day ski break in middle of 700 mile drive on last day of trip.

Feb/Mar 2017 - 16 days, 10 ski days, 2,595 miles. To Whistler via Bend, Mt Hood Meadows, White and Stevens Pass and Mt. Baker and Bellingham
Highlights: 2 Summit-less Bachelor pow days and MH Meadows, White Pass and Stevens pass in pow. Wife flew into Vancouver where we spent afternoon/night then had snow on beach the next morning.
Lowlights: 20" new but too wet at Baker. Snow every day at Whistler (stayed in Village), but got warmer every day.

April 2018 - 11 days, 7 ski days, 2,470 miles. To Whistler via Bend and Stevens Pass with an extra trip by my wife from Whistler to YVR to get our son who joined us for a few days, but had to complete an online class and his taxes and left early for Coachella.
Highlights: New snow most days plus festival with nightly music and big airs at Whistler, got son into Sapphire and Ruby Bowls and Colouir X from top and wife into Blackcomb Glacier. Night in Seattle on way South.
Lowlights: Summit at Bachelor down - on way N due to wind - skipped, then on way S due to lift electrical problem

Feb/Mar 2019 28 days, 26 ski days, 3,925 miles. To Mustang and Calgary via Ashland, Crystal, Stevens, Apex and Revy. Return via Calgary, Big Sky (3 ski days), Jackson (3), UT (9) and Heavenly (2). Only days off skiing were driving Calgary-Bozeman and snowmobiling into Yellowstone.
Highlights: Great guiding and stayed at Crystal. New snow at Ashland, Stevens, Big Sky (stayed on hill 2 nights at Gathering), Brighton (with great guiding), Altabird.
Lowlights: Needed a jump after two zero-degree nights in Jackson, long drives Mustang-Calgary-Bozeman and wet snow at Deer Valley.

All trips in 2003 Honda Pilot bought new and I will have owned 20 years this New Years Eve. Not sure that at 20 mpg with current gas prices and over 286K miles if it has another Canadian trip in it, but motor runs great and most of it still works.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Here's Scandinavia, Aug. 5 - Sep. 3, 2022, a bit over 4,000km in a rented Volvo XC40 SUV.

 

[jimk]

Each May since 2019 my wife and I have made some interesting cross country drives after ski season from the west back to our home in the Wash DC area. We usually take a week or more and try to visit a few points of interest along the way.
In May 2019 we drove from UT to the graduation of one of our daughters from UCLA law school and then drove from LA to DC across the southern part of the US. This is our vehicle in Sedona, AZ.

The highlight of that trip for me was when we scored a last minute cabin reservation over Memorial Day Weekend at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Some of the most famous US National Parks have highly sought accommodations inside the park, but surprisingly most don't charge a penalty if you cancel 48 hours or more before your visit. Hence, there is a great deal of last minute churn and availability if you have the flexibility to do that. We reserved this cabin the day before we arrived. This cabin was nicely appointed inside and about 50' from the rim of the canyon. Whoever cancelled must have made their reservation a year in advance. It didn't come cheap, something like $250 for just one night, but boy was it a primo spot! This is the view from our breakfast table. We had no clue how good the location of this cabin was going to be or we would have gladly stay for another night or two.

One fun thing about road trips is discovering good places to eat along the journey. This is The Cattle Baron Steakhouse in Las Cruces, NM. We ate here on the drive to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM. They had a great buffet bar. I wonder if the pandemic nixed that?? My wife has filet mignon. I have chicken-fried steak and stuffed potato. Made sure not to forget to take my cholesterol medicine that night.

My favorite part of Carlsbad Caverns was making the descent on foot through a big hole in the ground. It really gives you a sense of the enormity of the cavern. You descend 750 vertical feet on a 1.25 mile trail, but it's an easy constant descent and I rode an elevator back up.

Further east, we discovered a nice bakery/cafe (Bakery Lorraine) in downtown San Antonio, TX near the Pearl Beer Brewery. My wife is an expert at using websites like yelp and trip advisor to find good restaurants and motels while I drive the car.

I'll post photos from 2020, 21, and 22 later. 2020 was the year of a memorable cross country drive we took using a two person tent all the way to avoid motels during the height of the pandemic.

 

[Tony Crocker]

2020 was the year of a memorable cross country drive we took using a two person tent all the way to avoid motels during the height of the pandemic.

I presume you were in Utah when the mid-March shutdown happened. How long did you stay there before returning to Maryland?

There was lots of uncertainty during the initial March/April shutdown. But by the time I left SoCal to drive to Florida on May 29, I was quite confident about the indoors vs. outdoors and that worrying about infections from surfaces was bogus. Accordingly I was not concerned about hotels, though I only stayed one night in a hotel on that drive due to visiting friends in Vegas, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri. The big impression of the drive was that in Kansas and Missouri it was totally business as usual since most of the rural flyover states didn't get a big COVID spike until the fall. Did you notice that too?

Liz and I were in hotels a lot during the return drive home in August/September though also 9 nights with friends.

I tracked my indoor dining before vaccination:
1 after skiing China Peak powder 3/19/20
7 on May/June cross country drive
12 on trips within Florida Jun-Aug
11 on Aug/Sept cross country drive
On those drives we usually ate before or after peak hours when restaurants were not that busy.

From Sep-Nov in SoCal most restaurants had set up outdoor dining.
7 on Dec. trip to Argentina
1 in SoCal on the down low 1/5/21
10 on Jan/early Feb 2021 ski road trip after first vaccination
I had my second shot before the longer ski trip Feb. 19 - Mar. 14.

The 48 hour cancellation policy in National Parks is how we got our nights in Yellowstone in 2013. That's a useful tip to remember. Hopefully you got to hike a bit in the Grand Canyon. It's so huge you can only get the full scale view halfway down.

 

[jimk]

In 2020 we didn't leave Utah until late July, we'd been there over five months. Yes, the height of infections in Utah lagged several months behind Wash DC and other major Eastern cities and so we decided it was safer to extend our stay there. I almost feel guilty saying it, but we had a fine time after the ski areas shut down. I did a lot of bike riding and hiking, also snowshoeing and skinning to ski at Alta three times. My wife cooked up a storm as we did the curbside grocery pick-up at stores. We did some fun and productive things together that we don't always have time for when I'm skiing frequently. Most importantly, my wife took on the job of general contractor including researching, interviewing, and hiring a bunch of subs (plumber, framer, electrician, hvac, etc.) for a big home improvement project. I helped It was good timing as many contractors had a slight lull in demand due to many homeowners wanting to isolate at the beginning of the pandemic. We were able to schedule them fairly quickly to began working later in 2020 on our son's house to finish off a partially finished basement by adding an in-law suite including a new bathroom, kitchenette, and second laundry.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Serious question. What would be wrong with paying the fines?

Given how many visits you've made to the US, I'm surprised that you don't know more about the American character! It's one of the few things that the entire country -- north, south, east, west -- agrees on. We only pay speeding tickets a) after exhausting all other avenues, or b) if the recipient is wealthy enough that it's not a financial concern.

You Americans are speed freaks.

Not even close compared to Western Europe.

 

[Tony Crocker]

We only pay speeding tickets a) after exhausting all other avenues, or b) if the recipient is wealthy enough that it's not a financial concern.

It's not the cost of the tickets; it's the cost of increased insurance rates for the next three years.

Not even close compared to Western Europe.

That's where my attitude is more

What would be wrong with paying the fines?

The fines are less expensive than in the US and more importantly aren't reported to insurance at home. Nonetheless some rural small towns are infested with speed cameras (4 tickets on February trip through rural southern France) so it pays to watch out for those. Sweden has them on rural secondary roads but has warning signs in advance of them.

 

[Sbooker]

It's not the cost of the tickets; it's the cost of increased insurance rates for the next three years.

I get it now.
It’s only loss of license that affects insurance premiums here in Australia.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

some rural small towns are infested with speed cameras

I mentioned above getting one in western Austria a year ago for doing 58km/h in a 50 zone. Last week, I received a third reminder for the fine, this time sent via certified mail (they paid extra!). Similar to before, both the envelope and the letter were 100% in legalese German with no translation. While I understand it, 99.9% of people don't so you have to wonder what the authorities are thinking if they're serious about collecting.

We can’t speed here in Oz anymore. The fines are crazy expensive. $300 for being 1km/h over (and they issue fines for being only 1 km over

In the States, police generally don't issue speeding tickets unless you're at least 10 mph over the speed limit. Assuming it's like that everywhere can be costly, as you note.

 

[jasoncapecod]

In the States, police generally don't issue speeding tickets unless you're at least 10 mph over the speed limit. Assuming it's like that everywhere can be costly, as you note.

This is very true, only exceptions maybe schools zones and urban areas..
I was pulled over doing 90 in the rain in Upstate NY..I apologized and got a ticket for a broken tail light..
In South Africa they have dedicated speed enforcing police.. Hence i was very cognizant of my speed..

 

[Tony Crocker]

I mentioned above getting one in western Austria a year ago for doing 58km/h in a 50 zone. Last week, I received a third reminder for the fine, this time sent via certified mail (they paid extra!). Similar to before, both the envelope and the letter were 100% in legalese German with no translation. While I understand it, 99.9% of people don't so you have to wonder what the authorities are thinking if they're serious about collecting.

But you were in a rental car! Doesn't the car rental company hit your credit card on file if you don't pay? I recall at least one case of that where the rental car company also tacked on a $48 administrative fee for doing that.