US West Road Trip in a 69 from Switzerland
04-02-2016, 03:24 PM
#21
Melting Slicks
I had the pleasure of meeting Martin, Kate and the rest of the crew on their UK road trip when they made it down to Cornwall. Fabulous group of people!
Martin sounds like you have it all in hand,can't wait for the pictures.
Pam and myself will be having a road trip around Arizona and Washington in November but sadly not in the Vette. Would be really interested to know how difficult it was to get the insurance sorted. The last time we were in the US, a friend offered us the use of his Corvette but I was worried about the insurance so didn't take him up on the offer.
Enjoy and say hi to everyone!
Martin sounds like you have it all in hand,can't wait for the pictures.
Pam and myself will be having a road trip around Arizona and Washington in November but sadly not in the Vette. Would be really interested to know how difficult it was to get the insurance sorted. The last time we were in the US, a friend offered us the use of his Corvette but I was worried about the insurance so didn't take him up on the offer.
Enjoy and say hi to everyone!
The following users liked this post:
Yankeededandy (04-03-2016)
The following users liked this post:
Yankeededandy (04-03-2016)
The following users liked this post:
Yankeededandy (04-03-2016)
04-04-2016, 09:56 AM
#24
Dementer sole survivor
Member Since: Oct 2015
Location: YUPPY HELL Westford MASS
Posts: 16,437
Received 6,284 Likes
on
3,917 Posts
2020 C3 of the Year Finalist - Modified
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
Greetings.
I lived in Salt Lake for 20 years. While you're in the city you should drive up the Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. 2 seperate canyons that go up to 8000 ft elevation and would have some spectacular views that time of year. Very early morning is best for wild life and sunset is best for the view as they face west. Snowbird resort will most likely have the tram running to the mountain peak which is over 10,000 feet and you can nearly see Nevada from up there on a clear day. Also carry lots of drinking water with you as the air in the part of the country is very dry and you can get dehydrated very easily without much effort.
Of course in your travels you must have had to stay in cities. If you dont have one, I would invest in a steering wheel to brake pedal lock of some sort. Theres alot of people with nothing better to do than take beautiful cars for joy rides in that city.
Looking forward to your pics
I lived in Salt Lake for 20 years. While you're in the city you should drive up the Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. 2 seperate canyons that go up to 8000 ft elevation and would have some spectacular views that time of year. Very early morning is best for wild life and sunset is best for the view as they face west. Snowbird resort will most likely have the tram running to the mountain peak which is over 10,000 feet and you can nearly see Nevada from up there on a clear day. Also carry lots of drinking water with you as the air in the part of the country is very dry and you can get dehydrated very easily without much effort.
Of course in your travels you must have had to stay in cities. If you dont have one, I would invest in a steering wheel to brake pedal lock of some sort. Theres alot of people with nothing better to do than take beautiful cars for joy rides in that city.
Looking forward to your pics
Last edited by Rescue Rogers; 04-04-2016 at 09:57 AM.
The following users liked this post:
Yankeededandy (04-04-2016)
04-04-2016, 01:25 PM
#25
Pro
Thread Starter
I just found out, I can say "thank you" to all of you by cklicking on this funny little button in the right hand corner 
. I appreciate your comments encouragement. There will be some sporadic updates over the next few weeks and then I plan to post regularely.
Martin
. I appreciate your comments encouragement. There will be some sporadic updates over the next few weeks and then I plan to post regularely.Martin
04-04-2016, 02:28 PM
#26
Team Owner
I just found out, I can say "thank you" to all of you by cklicking on this funny little button in the right hand corner . I appreciate your comments encouragement. There will be some sporadic updates over the next few weeks and then I plan to post regularely.
Martin
. I appreciate your comments encouragement. There will be some sporadic updates over the next few weeks and then I plan to post regularely.Martin
I "think" we corresponded years ago about how a hardtop digs into the paint on the rear deck. But I could be wrong.
Whatever, you have an exciting summer ahead of you!
04-04-2016, 09:54 PM
#28
Melting Slicks
Sounds like a lot of fun. One of the better roads to cruise in Southern Nevada is the Lake Mead national recreation area. If you were to visit the damn dam (aka Hoover) in Boulder City, you Can enter there. Great drive and it will take you up to the valley of fire on a very beautiful cruise. Partially along the lake, the rest through our desert mountains. Buy the national park annual pass. It will get you through all the rest of the parks for free. By the way, Boulder City is a cool little town with one of the best bar burgers in the USA at the Dillengers, a great place to enjoy a cold one.
04-06-2016, 09:00 AM
#29
Safety Car
That is a great trip you and your wife is going for.
And please allow 1 week in USA for Corvette upgrades, new engine, transmission, suspension, ec ec :- )
And please allow 1 week in USA for Corvette upgrades, new engine, transmission, suspension, ec ec :- )
04-06-2016, 10:14 AM
#30
When you make it to Portland make sure you take a 25 minute drive East of I205 to Multnomah Falls. This is one of the most scenic drives in Oregon. You may also want to stop a Crown Point for photos of the Columbia River Gorge.
Last edited by Yellow1980; 05-31-2016 at 07:22 PM.
We will be staying in Mill Valley from June 14 through June 19. That Sunday (June 19) would be perfect if you're up for it.
04-06-2016, 09:48 PM
#34
Drifting
I know I'll get a LOT of flack for this, but you can have a much more satisfying trip in California if you skip most of Cal route 1.
South of Mendicino, you can cut inland on Cal route 128, a beautiful winding road through changing topography. If you continue past US 101, you can drive by Lake Berryessa, to near Davis, CA. THen head east into the Sierra Nevada mountains, via US 50. Around Placerville, turn south on Cal route 49 which traverses the picturesque Gold Country.
At the southern terminus of 49, Oakhurst, head west back toward the coast, via Cal route 41 to either 101 or Cal route 1 as long as it lasts (1 and 101 are superimposed in the south land).
There are so many wonderful roads in California, it's a shame to spend all your time on the highly overrated Cal route 1.
Pete
South of Mendicino, you can cut inland on Cal route 128, a beautiful winding road through changing topography. If you continue past US 101, you can drive by Lake Berryessa, to near Davis, CA. THen head east into the Sierra Nevada mountains, via US 50. Around Placerville, turn south on Cal route 49 which traverses the picturesque Gold Country.
At the southern terminus of 49, Oakhurst, head west back toward the coast, via Cal route 41 to either 101 or Cal route 1 as long as it lasts (1 and 101 are superimposed in the south land).
There are so many wonderful roads in California, it's a shame to spend all your time on the highly overrated Cal route 1.
Pete
04-07-2016, 11:25 AM
#35
Burning Brakes
Martin, I followed your trips in the UK on the CCCUK site. I thought we drove our old '78 a fair bit, but you chaps really do get out and about! It'll be a great US trip and I'm envious of you run down the Oregon coast and the section north of San Fransisco, which we haven't managed to do. I guess you know Cambria and Pismo Beach, the former probably our favorite place and the second having the best clam chowder! If you're in LA by the 23rd June you could call in on our "other" club in Anaheim! They'd love to see you!
Look forward to the story and photos!
Look forward to the story and photos!
04-07-2016, 02:27 PM
#36
Pro
Thread Starter
@PeteZ06, not from us, you won't. Being the good tourists that we are, we've of course done the typical tourist tours in the past and driven Highway 1 several times up and down. There will be a couple of deviations from the coast along the way, but for a large part, we will stick to it. There's just no other road in the US that we know, that just "belongs" to a classic Corvette.
@Stephen Irions: We will be in the L.A. area to drop off the Corvette on June 23. It's a bit hard to say at this point if we will have the time, since we have to organise the return of the car (our plane will leave the following day). But maybe we can work something out, we should have a better idea by the end of this month.
Martin
04-17-2016, 09:47 AM
#37
Pro
Thread Starter
Tools and spare parts for the trip
Hi guys
When I had the car shipped over to the US, I was forced to clean it out completely (shipping company and customs laws). Since I don't want to bring my own tools on our flight (weight and space
), I thought I could pick up the essentials for a trip like that at an autostore. Any suggestions from you about a not too expensive kit I could buy?
I'm also thinking about what spare parts I should bring along. Light bulbs, fuses and stuff like that I'll bring along myself, but what else would make sense to buy locally in L.A.?
It being a rainy Sunday, Kate and I did some more planning and preparing and think we might need a little more gas money...
A great Sunday to all of you Corvettitians out there, greetings from Switzerland,
Martin
When I had the car shipped over to the US, I was forced to clean it out completely (shipping company and customs laws). Since I don't want to bring my own tools on our flight (weight and space
), I thought I could pick up the essentials for a trip like that at an autostore. Any suggestions from you about a not too expensive kit I could buy?I'm also thinking about what spare parts I should bring along. Light bulbs, fuses and stuff like that I'll bring along myself, but what else would make sense to buy locally in L.A.?
It being a rainy Sunday, Kate and I did some more planning and preparing and think we might need a little more gas money...
A great Sunday to all of you Corvettitians out there, greetings from Switzerland,Martin
04-17-2016, 06:24 PM
#38
WOW what a amazing trip to go on. I will have to follow along on your adventure. I recently moved from Utah to Italy and just loved the drives in Utah. As mentioned, while you are in the Salt Lake City area the Big Cottonwood canyon and Little Cottonwood canyon areas are very beautiful. If you don't have a lot of time one of my very favorite drives there is East canyon on Highway 65 from I80 to East canyon state park, its about 22 miles one way from the I80 exit. There are photos of my car there posted in my threads. Also Bonneville is a beautiful place to see and is an amazing photo backdrop. You need to drive into Zion NP for sure.
For the tools question you can stop at any Sears store and get tools there. There tools are decent in quality and in price and they have lots of tool kits to choose from.
My Corvette is unfortunately in long term storage in the USA so I don't get to drive it in the EU. But your trip has me thinking about seeing what it would take to get my car here for a little while to take some road trips. I think the first one would be to Stelvio pass. If I cant get my Vette to Italy I plan to rent a Sports car and drive the Stelvio pass.
Here are links to a few of my Utah drives.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...alt-flats.html
This next on is the East Canyon drive
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ing-drive.html
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...tah-drive.html
For the tools question you can stop at any Sears store and get tools there. There tools are decent in quality and in price and they have lots of tool kits to choose from.
My Corvette is unfortunately in long term storage in the USA so I don't get to drive it in the EU. But your trip has me thinking about seeing what it would take to get my car here for a little while to take some road trips. I think the first one would be to Stelvio pass. If I cant get my Vette to Italy I plan to rent a Sports car and drive the Stelvio pass.
Here are links to a few of my Utah drives.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...alt-flats.html
This next on is the East Canyon drive
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ing-drive.html
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...tah-drive.html
The following users liked this post:
Yankeededandy (12-15-2016)
04-17-2016, 09:31 PM
#39
My wife Kate and I are from Switzerland...
...and we have owned our 69 for a couple of years now. We’ve done our fair share of road trips, among them tours through parts of France, Italy, Germany, England and Scotland, mostly in small groups of good friends, some on our own. Inspired by Jack’s Corvette Vagabond trips through the US and Europe, we started dreaming of taking the red convertible to the US one day… so…
…on a snowy day (of all days we had to choose the only one in weeks where it snowed) in November last year, we drove the Corvette to a harbor in Northern Germany, stuffed it in a ship and had it transported over the Atlantic and Pacific ocean, after which it was dropped off in L.A. A couple of things had to be done to the car to get it in decent shape, a good friend in the area is currently taking care of that.
The actual trip will start and end in the city of angels between May 28 and June 25. After that, the Corvette will return back home to Switzerland. The whole thing is planned as a round trip, taking us from L.A. to Vegas, through the Bryce Canyon area, Salt Lake City, through Yellowstone. From there we will hang a left and cross over to Seattle. After that obviously the ultimate tourist route, Highway 1 all the way back down to L.A., with a break of a whole week north of the Golden Gate to catch our breath in between.
It’s a good thing we didn’t know what we would be up against organizing the whole thing. E.g. trying to get insurance from a US company for a car registered in Switzerland and the driver/owner a non-resident. That was a PITA to arrange. We also had to make sure that we wouldn’t have to pay import taxes in the US because without the proper paperwork we would have had to deposit 50% of the cars estimated value upon entry. And lots of similar fun stuff to keep us busy for the past months. Fortunately, we got everything sorted out and we’ll be able to legally drive the car with Swiss license plates (wonder if those will catch the attention of some highway cops) through the Western States.
If you’re interested I will be posting updates and pictures of our trip as we’re moving along. And if you happen to see a couple in a red 69 convertible, frantically taking pictures all the time, that would be us.
A few impressions from past tours
South of England, June 2014
Scotland, June 2015
South of France, May 2012
Martin
...and we have owned our 69 for a couple of years now. We’ve done our fair share of road trips, among them tours through parts of France, Italy, Germany, England and Scotland, mostly in small groups of good friends, some on our own. Inspired by Jack’s Corvette Vagabond trips through the US and Europe, we started dreaming of taking the red convertible to the US one day… so…
…on a snowy day (of all days we had to choose the only one in weeks where it snowed
) in November last year, we drove the Corvette to a harbor in Northern Germany, stuffed it in a ship and had it transported over the Atlantic and Pacific ocean, after which it was dropped off in L.A. A couple of things had to be done to the car to get it in decent shape, a good friend in the area is currently taking care of that.
The actual trip will start and end in the city of angels between May 28 and June 25. After that, the Corvette will return back home to Switzerland. The whole thing is planned as a round trip, taking us from L.A. to Vegas, through the Bryce Canyon area, Salt Lake City, through Yellowstone. From there we will hang a left and cross over to Seattle. After that obviously the ultimate tourist route, Highway 1 all the way back down to L.A., with a break of a whole week north of the Golden Gate to catch our breath in between.
It’s a good thing we didn’t know what we would be up against organizing the whole thing. E.g. trying to get insurance from a US company for a car registered in Switzerland and the driver/owner a non-resident. That was a PITA to arrange. We also had to make sure that we wouldn’t have to pay import taxes in the US because without the proper paperwork we would have had to deposit 50% of the cars estimated value upon entry. And lots of similar fun stuff to keep us busy for the past months. Fortunately, we got everything sorted out and we’ll be able to legally drive the car with Swiss license plates (wonder if those will catch the attention of some highway cops) through the Western States.
If you’re interested I will be posting updates and pictures of our trip as we’re moving along. And if you happen to see a couple in a red 69 convertible, frantically taking pictures all the time, that would be us.
A few impressions from past tours
South of England, June 2014
Scotland, June 2015
South of France, May 2012
Martin
Jim
04-17-2016, 10:13 PM
#40
Le Mans Master
My wife and I did the Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion Canyon last year. If your in Springdale near Zion, I highly recommend breakfast at "The Spotted Dog" diner, make reservations because it's one of the best eateries in town. There are others around, you should have a smart phone and download the "Yelp" application. Tripadvisor is also a good application to have. If your staying in Vegas and want to pay reasonable rates, they can be found on Tripadvisor too. The Tropicana isn't bad, South Point hotel is where I stay during SEMA show and drive to a downtown casino and park it their garage then walk around or ride the monorail if I want to go downtown.
You should make darn sure the cooling system is in excellent condition on your car before making that trip. I would even advise on complete hose replacement and new Edelbrock water pump installation while the Vette is in the USA if components are not recently rebuilt. If your Vette dosent have air conditioning, that is a pretty long and hot drive your planning, bring plenty of water and buy a little spray bottle to keep yourselves cool on that drive. Have someone competent check all the running gear especially the steering system, differential and rear wheel bearing assemblies before departing on that drive....most of the other components should be easily handled by any competent mechanics if something should crop up along the way.
Take the time to pre-plan most of your overnight stays as that area is a popular tourist area and reservations are pretty much required in Zion/Bryce Canyon areas during the summer holiday season. Bryce Canyon is an awesome place to hike around, the altitude is around 7000FT so you should be in good shape and bring backpacks for water/salted nuts if your doing any of the longer hikes into the canyon.
You can buy a USA mobile phone at Wal Mart with prepaid service on it, try to stay on a Verizon system if you can....maybe the others have better coverage now, Verizon has always had some of the best coverage.
You should make darn sure the cooling system is in excellent condition on your car before making that trip. I would even advise on complete hose replacement and new Edelbrock water pump installation while the Vette is in the USA if components are not recently rebuilt. If your Vette dosent have air conditioning, that is a pretty long and hot drive your planning, bring plenty of water and buy a little spray bottle to keep yourselves cool on that drive. Have someone competent check all the running gear especially the steering system, differential and rear wheel bearing assemblies before departing on that drive....most of the other components should be easily handled by any competent mechanics if something should crop up along the way.
Take the time to pre-plan most of your overnight stays as that area is a popular tourist area and reservations are pretty much required in Zion/Bryce Canyon areas during the summer holiday season. Bryce Canyon is an awesome place to hike around, the altitude is around 7000FT so you should be in good shape and bring backpacks for water/salted nuts if your doing any of the longer hikes into the canyon.
You can buy a USA mobile phone at Wal Mart with prepaid service on it, try to stay on a Verizon system if you can....maybe the others have better coverage now, Verizon has always had some of the best coverage.
Last edited by Solid LT1; 04-17-2016 at 10:19 PM.
The following users liked this post:
Yankeededandy (12-15-2016)