After our great experience with translocation cars in NewZealand and because Tom couldn’t stop thinking about how great it would be to drive over the bad, unbelievable straight and never ending roads of the US (You see, I was bored and couldn’t read, because Tom needed entertainment, because he was bored too.), we rented a small translocation trailer for five days to go from Las Vegas to San Francisco.

Our tiny ‚recreation vehicle‘ measured only 25 feet (around 8 m).

When we arrived at the rental we realized McDonalds meals are not the only supersized items in the US. Our trailer was a little house on wheels, with a bed room, bathroom, shower, kitchen, fridge and even a sofa :). on our first day we didn’t came very far and therefore decided to stay in a little town very typical on a Walmart parking ground. Walmart allows campers to stay overnight on their parking ground. Its a quite noisy and not very privat place to spend the night but a good spot to buy dinner and breakfast supplies.

May I show you our living room. The dinning area is to the left and our recreation area to the right.

Tom taking a picture of the bath room, while standing in the shower (The water was hot!).

Because it was more or less on the way, we went through the lowest and hottest place in the US: Death Valley. Actually Death Valley is not just a very hot valley (and it is hot even in April). It is a valley located in the biggest national park of the US, where you can visit canyons, colored mountains and sand dunes. You can spent days in the park exploring all the hidden natural wonders, but because we only had a few hours and a vehicle unsuitable for the rough gravel roads we just visited the most popular ones: bad water, artist drive and the golden canyon.

The hottest point of the US is covered in salt and cryptobiotic soil (ancient slow growing black bacteria).

The golden sand dunes go on for miles before turning into massive red sandstone walls.

And then because we still had a far way to go we drove until bed time, found a hidden spot with other trailers (driving trailers seems to be a popular sport in the US), took a shower ;), and fell into bed.
The next day led us through the beautiful mountains of the sequoia national forest dotted with trees and wind power wheels, criss crossed with ATV tracks and the Pacific Crest trail. We rolled through more hills covered in wine and signs offering wine tastings to every side that leveled off to a coastline covered in lion seals and before we could turn around we found ourselves on the scenic part of highway no. 1 with mountains to one side and cliffs to the other. The overnight parking was prohibited over the next 72 miles and we had a time and mood that did not allow for driving into the night again. After half the way we found a tiny gas station and shop very the nice lady behind the counter told us that we will find a road 7 miles from here where we can stop overnight in one of the many shoulders. So we did not got only a parking spot for free but even one with view over the ocean.

There were a few elephant seals on this beach. Humans were not allowed there.

Our last day in the RV (recreation vehicle) we spent mostly out of the RV hiking the beautiful hills along Highway number one, before we had to go on the hunt for a parking lot for the night again. We found it down a road to a beach but sadly it was not only already getting dark but also cloudy.

It’s a really really beautiful highway. Just the cliffs are a tiny bit scary.

Our last day ended in a little rush. We needed some breakfast, a dumping station for the waste water (ALWAYS the black water first) and to fill up the petrol (can get a bit more time intensive to find a cheap station but it’s worth since the RV was very very thirsty and prices varied by 50ct per gallon (roughly 3.8l)). Against all odds we managed to hand our little car back by 10:55 before heading of to beautiful San Francisco.