Bit of a late update here, we've been out in the sticks so no wifi!
Well we're a couple of days into the trip now so it's about time for an update! I'll start at the beginning - the flights all went smoothly out here, we had a short changeover in Atlanta and straight onto Vegas. It is a long old way and the internal flight to Vegas wasn't quite so fun. I have to say that both of us are suitably jetlagged and rather exhausted!
Well we're a couple of days into the trip now so it's about time for an update! I'll start at the beginning - the flights all went smoothly out here, we had a short changeover in Atlanta and straight onto Vegas. It is a long old way and the internal flight to Vegas wasn't quite so fun. I have to say that both of us are suitably jetlagged and rather exhausted!
All that said we've been here 2 full days now and we've got
a lot done! Much of our time to begin with was spent trawling craigslist for a
vehicle while swearing at the appalling wifi. The first day we met up with
Mike, Ben's contact out here he met on travellers point and arranged to meet up
the following day to hit the car search hard. In the meantime we went out to go
explore the Mojave desert in the rental car.
Friday morning we met up with Mike again and headed out to
look at a Chevy Suburban, it turned out that Mike had already dealt with the
sellers before as he’d helped an Australian couple buy a minivan from them. It
seemed good so we took out for a test drive, part of which was spent testing
the car but most of which was spent being lost and trying to make our way back!
Then we went ahead and broke the first rule of buying a used car and got the
first one we saw. Anyway, a deal was done and Ben was the proud owner of the
magnificent beast you see below.
The only thing left to do was to register and insure this
huge lump of American iron. Thankfully Mike knew the drill and we wasted no
time in getting it firstly insured and then straight over to the DMV to
register it and pick up the new licence plates. It had gone well: the car was
bought, insured and registered all in the space of around 6 hours. Unfortunately
due to not being able to view the car till 11am, time ran out and another night
on the strip was required.
With a night in a hostel behind us, all we had to do was get
together the gear we would need. Mike had a fair amount of hand-me-down stuff
that other people had left with him and the rest was bought in an epic shopping
spree at Walmart, they really do sell everything! Finally, there was nothing
else to do but dispose of the rental car and hit the road.