By the way, if you do happen to swing by Death Valley on your trip, you may see one or more test mules from other car manufacturers. I ran into one in Death Valley and another two at Mount Evans (Colorado). All 3 were perfectly willing to walk over and chat about the Atom. One of them thought I was running some sort of experimental engine and had just put a tube frame around it to get it on the road. He was quite amazed when I told him that they were being built in the US and in England. I was perfectly willing and able to go over all the "speeds and feeds" data that they like to hear about.
The secret is to not ask what they have under their camoflauge. Most of us geeks could guess it with high reliability - for example, BMW uses a stick-on film with nausea-inducing whorls.
If you travel up the east / inland end of the state, you have a string of parks and wilderness areas: Joshua Tree / Kings Canyon - Sequoia / Yosemite / Eldorado National Forest / Lassen National Forest. Then go over at the top of the state and pick up at Crescent City and the two redwood state parks.
I recommend the Beach House at Half Moon Bay. Pricey, but well worth it. It is within staggering distance of the
Half Moon Bay Brewing Company and seafood restaurant. Excellent fire pits to sit around outside (I find the inside to be too crowded).
For Death Valley, you can chose from a number of places to stay - Stovepipe Wells is trying hard to be a 4-star restaurant / motel, but being so far away from everything, doesn't always manage to pull it off. Last time, I used Panamint Springs, which is privately owned (not National Park Service). Panamint Springs also has camping sites for just about anything - from full power / water / sanitary hookups to a pretty basic cleared spot on the ground. The restaurant and motel were taken over by new people sometime before the summer of 2006, and the new people are
much nicer and have
much more reasonable pricing. Think of it as an upscale roadhouse. One useful side benefit - the girls that work there just
love to be driven up and down the Valley in a fast Atom.
If you're going to be going through any of the national parks, you'll probably want to pick up an annual pass at your first stop. it is $80 and is good for 1 year from the purchase date (So you can use it in parks going to / coming from AtomFest II). For Senior Citizens, there's a $10 pass, and for the disabled, free. More info on all of this
here. Note that the new annual pass starts ticking the day they issue it and mail it to you, unlike the old one which needed a validating stamp at the first park you entered to start it ticking.
By the way, if you do happen to swing by Death Valley on your trip, you may see one or more test mules from other car manufacturers. I ran into one in Death Valley and another two at Mount Evans (Colorado). All 3 were perfectly willing to walk over and chat about the Atom. One of them thought I was running some sort of experimental engine and had just put a tube frame around it to get it on the road. He was quite amazed when I told him that they were being built in the US and in England. I was perfectly willing and able to go over all the "speeds and feeds" data that they like to hear about.
The secret is to not ask what they have under their camoflauge. Most of us geeks could guess it with high reliability - for example, BMW uses a stick-on film with nausea-inducing whorls.
If you travel up the east / inland end of the state, you have a string of parks and wilderness areas: Joshua Tree / Kings Canyon - Sequoia / Yosemite / Eldorado National Forest / Lassen National Forest. Then go over at the top of the state and pick up at Crescent City and the two redwood state parks.
I recommend the Beach House at Half Moon Bay. Pricey, but well worth it. It is within staggering distance of the [url=http://www.hmbbrewingco.com/]Half Moon Bay Brewing Company[/url] and seafood restaurant. Excellent fire pits to sit around outside (I find the inside to be too crowded).
For Death Valley, you can chose from a number of places to stay - Stovepipe Wells is trying hard to be a 4-star restaurant / motel, but being so far away from everything, doesn't always manage to pull it off. Last time, I used Panamint Springs, which is privately owned (not National Park Service). Panamint Springs also has camping sites for just about anything - from full power / water / sanitary hookups to a pretty basic cleared spot on the ground. The restaurant and motel were taken over by new people sometime before the summer of 2006, and the new people are [i]much[/i] nicer and have [i]much[/i] more reasonable pricing. Think of it as an upscale roadhouse. One useful side benefit - the girls that work there just [i]love[/i] to be driven up and down the Valley in a fast Atom.
If you're going to be going through any of the national parks, you'll probably want to pick up an annual pass at your first stop. it is $80 and is good for 1 year from the purchase date (So you can use it in parks going to / coming from AtomFest II). For Senior Citizens, there's a $10 pass, and for the disabled, free. More info on all of this [url=http://www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm]here[/url]. Note that the new annual pass starts ticking the day they issue it and mail it to you, unlike the old one which needed a validating stamp at the first park you entered to start it ticking.