Day 16

Starting mileage is 14984
Miles to date: 6145
States to date: 24

Our route takes us up interstate 15 to Midvale UT, just south of Salt Lake City.


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Again, through the desert with lots of nothing around.  It's very brown and dry.  It's important to make sure you have enough gas for the car, and water for the people when traversing the deserts.

It did get a little more interesting when passing through the mountains...

And finally we got to the Utah state line. 

The scenery got a little more colorful in Utah, but there still wasn't much around.

As we got closer to Salt Lake City (our destination was just south of the city), we also got closer to the mountains.  We also ran into more of the ever present construction.  Many of these projects are labeled as stimulus projects.

This was a fairly short driving day, a little more than 400 miles so we were able to relax a bit and get some dinner at a local brew pub which had some good German food.

Vegas!!!

We spent a few days in Vegas to give us a break from driving, and to meet up with Pam and her friend Susan.  Since we were going to be in Vegas for a couple of days, we also made arrangements to have the car serviced at the Wynn Ferrari Dealer.  They are also part of the Penske group, and like the dealer in Phoenix, they have a second showroom that doubles as part museum where they have indy and stock cars in addition to newer exotics and older classics such as the Koenigsegg and the Shelby Super Snake (signed by Carrol Shelby).

We put in many miles walking the strip it felt as though we had walked all the way to Paris, but it was really just a mile down the strip from where we were staying.

We saw all kinds of wildlife, some indigenous, others imported.

There are lots of activities to do in addition to gambling, Quillan and I rode the XScream which hangs you out over the edge of the stratosphere.  Quillan wanted to try the freefall, which drops you from the 108th floor to the small black square in the center of the picture which is the landing zone.  Unfortunately, we didn't have time.

However there was time for the indoor skydiving.  It looked like a lot of fun, unfortunately I had to go pick up the car so I wasn't able to participate.

The guys as Wynn Ferrari were able to identify the problem with the suspension, it turns out the be the motor in the right front shock.  Unfortunately, none are available in the US so it will take a week for shipping.  Since it's not leaking it should be fine for the remainder of the trip.

Day 13

Starting mileage is 14689
Miles to date: 5850
States to date: 23

Another short driving day, with our route taking us across the desert from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.


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Our day started out heading to the Hollywood Hills to get a picture of the Hollywood sign.  It wasn't too difficult to find (there are actually web sites describing the best viewing locations).

Once we had our pictures we headed across the desert again, this time towards Vegas.  Along the way we ran into an interestingly named location.  I'm not really sure how to pronounce it though.

After passing Barstow, CA and crossing through death valley we entered Nevada.

It was a short trip to the Venetian on the strip in Las Vegas where we'll be staying for the next few days.  The car will be dropped off at the Wynn Ferrari dealership which happens to be one block north of where we are staying.  Hopefully they'll be able to identify the problem with the suspension.

Day 12

Starting mileage is 14291
Miles to date: 5452
States to date: 22

Our route takes us about 400 miles west to Los Angeles.  We originally hadn't planned on going through Southern California, but Quillan wanted to get a picture of the Hollywood sign so west we went.


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The majority of the route is through the desert, not much out there.  It's important to make sure that all of the fluids are topped off before setting out since there can be 100 miles between exits that provide services.

We did pick up another state along the way.  We weren't the only ones stopping for a picture of the state welcome sign.  We were going to wait for these folks to leave before taking the picture, but they were waiting to take pictures of our car.

We had seen some wind turbines along the way, but we ran into thousands of them in a valley outside of Los Angeles.  There was also quite a bit of haze making it difficult to see the hills in the background.

We made it to Glendale with a little traffic, but no real problems.

Day 11

Starting mileage is about 14053, another day where I wasn't thinking about documenting the trip when we got in the car.

This is a short driving day, a quick trip south to Phoenix.


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Along the way we stopped to see Montezuma's Castle.  The name is a misnomer, but it stuck.  The community that lived here began to break up around 1400 and the site was completely abandoned within 50 years (at least thats what the park rangers said).

While in Phoenix, we also met up with a guy I haven't seen since high school (way too many years ado).  He has a nice collection of cars, including beautiful purple Super Bee with a 440 six pack.  Jeff has taken this car on a road trip traveling route 190 all the way from Mexico to Canada.  Route 190 is the longest continuous road that travels border to border.  This is the same road we traveled on through the reservation a couple of days ago.  It was nice to catch up and talk with someone who also understands that the journey is the fun part and that the end goal is just a reason to go.

We also stopped by the Penske Lamborghini dealer in Scottsdale to see if we could get some information on the error code.  The error code was a generic front suspension error, not much help.  They spent a couple of hours testing the various components, but weren't able to isolate the problem.  Neither of the front shocks are leaking so they believe it's an electrical issue.  While there, we went through their museum and wandered out back where they had a little race circuit and an driving course where they test drive range rovers.

Day 10

Starting mileage is 13607.

Our route takes us from Durango CO, through Four Corners to Flagstaff, AZ.


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On the way Four Corners, we passed into New Mexico.

Unfortunately the Four Corners site was closed for the summer due to construction.  At least the site was accessible so we could at least see the four corners point.

Since the states all come together at Four Corners, it wasn't far down the road that we ran into the Arizona state line.

Four Corners is out in the middle of nowhere, and our route has us going through a reservation.  There isn't much out here, occasionally we would pass a few houses, but no services.

On of the issues that you need to be aware of on these back roads is that livestock roams free.  Along our path there were both cattle and horses in the road.

Along the way we ran into a little rain.  It really dumped, but didn't last long.  Apparently the engineers at Lamborghini didn't really plan on using the cars in rain, this is as far left as the wiper clears.  However the passenger side is cleared quite nicely.

We rejoined the interstate just east of Holbrook, AZ, and right before the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park.  It was still relatively early in the afternoon so we decided to run through the park.  Again, these pictures don't do it justice, it's really something you need to see in person.

We were actually followed most of the way through the park by a ranger, who came over when we stopped asking if she could take a picture of the car.  She also pointed out areas where we would run into problems due to rough roads and where the majority of the petrified wood could be found.

After leaving the park, we rejoined Interstate 40 going west towards Flagstaff, but had one additional stop to make along the way.  Since we were going past we went ahead and stopped in Winslow, AZ.

The rain had cleared by the time we reached Flagstaff and it was quite pleasant.  This is another area that we could spend quite a bit of time exploring, but our schedule doesn't permit it.