Road Tripping in the USA!

Man of Honour
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I dont want to overly worry anyone, but I suggest having a read of this: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...tting-visitors-to-us-share-contacts-passwords

Note it's only a plan, but it's a bit scary.

Surely aside from the invasion of privacy angle it's a data security nightmare - potentially millions of social media accounts, passwords and associated data being made available to the US authorities increases the risk massively of the risk of loss. This just creates a massive and obvious target for anyone looking to harvest a lot of data and it isn't as if American government organisations have impeccable records on resisting hacking attacks to begin with.

Would someone who doesn't share America's ideology (whatever that is defined as) give up details of whatever accounts they've been discussing the downfall of America on or would they just not bother to do so? It doesn't seem much of a stretch to think that anyone who wants to cause America harm might be ok with lying by omission about what social media accounts they use...
 
Soldato
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14,187
The ESTA form already asked you for your social media details, thought that section is optional currently. I don't know who would actually fill it in...
 
Soldato
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The ESTA form already asked you for your social media details, thought that section is optional currently. I don't know who would actually fill it in...

I noticed that when I did mine the other day. I saw that it was optional and I was like "yeah.. no you're alright". I'd be amazed if anyone filled that in?!
 
Permabanned
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scotland
The Pfeiffer bridge on the PCH is closed for repair until Sept 2017. Your only option is to go south from Monterey then turn back or go north from LA and turn back.
Due to the geography there are no junctions or detours that I can see that can easily bypass the blockage.

This has kinda bu**ered up one leg of my USA road trip, from Carmel to San Simeon in May.
However I have travelled it a few years back
 
Associate
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28 Sep 2008
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We're going travelling around the US for 3 months. I'd like the kids to see some racing, maybe Destruction Derby or Monster trucks, but I can't correlate this to my plans, we'll be in FLoriday June/july then California July, then Utah, Idahol, Wyoming in August.
The only thing I booked is Boneville Salt Flats speed week. Anything else that happens in those places on those dates?
 
Man of Honour
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Feeling rather silly - so looks like I've kinda mucked up some of the route for my trip in early May - I had very wrongly assumed the Yosemite bit would be much more open than it is - but clearly most of the closures can go well in to June.

So at the moment, I've got a 2 day window to get from Las Vegas through to San Francisco (via Death Valley).

Though not ideal - I'm thinking these two options:
-a) Travel northwards to the East of Yosemite, towards Carson City, then head across south-west through Sacramento down to San Francisco. Possibly Stay
-b) Travel through the West side, up through the central parts - though no idea where best to try stopping?

Anybody done either and recommend places?
 
Soldato
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9 Mar 2003
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Just checked the site and the snow pack as of 1/4 was 148%

https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/tiogaopen.htm

Comparing that to previous years it looks like it will not be open until June. Keep an eye here:

https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/tioga.htm

Alternate driving directions are here:

https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/tiogaclosed.htm

From DV the site suggests go via Bakersfield and Fresno to get to YNP which takes about 9 hours.


I am due to hit Tioga on 11/6 which will be cutting it close. If it's not open 2 days before I will be cancelling my hotel in Bishop and going the other route. I plan on just push on as far as I can into the evening as there is nothing really to see in that area.
 
Soldato
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Northants
I've driven it the other way San Francisco to Vegas i5/i15 via Bakersfield (Yosemite was closed due to the US Government shutdown a few years back so I had to change itinerary!) proper boring drive! Though I did it in 1 day straight (about 9 hours) and didn't stop anywhere but to be honest don't think there was anywhere decent to stop anyway!

Don't know about the other way you mentioned.
 
Man of Honour
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I'd found those pages - and as b0rn2sk8 said - the snow pack is very high, so I'll be back in the UK before any chance of that clearing I think!

I'm leaning towards keeping my Bishop booking or cancelling it and going as far as Mammoth lakes (seems to still be open around there), then have a long drive round to Sacramento (around 5-6hr), then a short drive to San Francisco from there the next day.

I've not found anything too exciting looking on the route you drove Psycho Ned, it looks long and easy though.
 
Permabanned
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Feeling rather silly - so looks like I've kinda mucked up some of the route for my trip in early May - I had very wrongly assumed the Yosemite bit would be much more open than it is - but clearly most of the closures can go well in to June.

So at the moment, I've got a 2 day window to get from Las Vegas through to San Francisco (via Death Valley).

Same here, In early May I was going to do the Ely to Carson City run, down to the ghost town at Bodie, then west to the 120 route to Yosemite and on to Merced. That looks increasingly unlikely.

The mountain routes 120, 108, 4 , 88 all look to be closed till mid May and beyond, 50 is open all year as is I-80
 
Soldato
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6 May 2004
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Fareham
Just got back from the US. I ended up with two hire cars - a Mustang and a Camaro. Camaro felt pretty cramped inside compared to the Mustang but I enjoyed driving it more. Was surprised to find that the Mustang was the 2.3 Ecoboost though, especially since it actually costs more than the base spec 3.6 V6 so I don't quite get why they bought those in.


mustang.jpg


camaro.jpg
 
Associate
Joined
8 Jun 2016
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Just got back from the US. I ended up with two hire cars - a Mustang and a Camaro. Camaro felt pretty cramped inside compared to the Mustang but I enjoyed driving it more. Was surprised to find that the Mustang was the 2.3 Ecoboost though, especially since it actually costs more than the base spec 3.6 V6 so I don't quite get why they bought those in.
Man, I miss driving the yellow mustang around Yosemite and Monterey. Last summer was awesome. It's not quite the same driving a Nissan Juke around south London :(.
 
Associate
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Edinburgh
Going to California in July with a mate. We initially wanted to rent a car for the duration of the trip as the prices seemed reasonable. However, it turns out it almost doubles with the additional taxes and young driver fee. We are 23 and 22 and can't find any way to get a reasonable price. Does anyone have any advice on car rental for under 25's? Also staying in Vegas for a few nights and car rental prices and taxes are much higher there than in California.

We may just have to rent on days we really need a car :(
 
Associate
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Belfast, N.Ireland
Going to Orlando at the end of the week and I am looking to hire a car literally for a few hours to drive from Orlando down to West Palm Beach and back for a music festival (350m round trip).

Anyone recommend a good company to hire from? I would be returning my car at like 2/3am so I am guessing I would need to book from an airport location because they would be open for 24 hrs.
 
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