So I'm going for a drive, and would like some advice.

[Chessmistress]

Not my kind of drive, but it sounds funny.
Advices: I think you should carry with you medicines (especially intestinal disinfectants and the likes, not just only first aid kits and the likes), and also a lot of well-concealed cash, dividing it in different places within the car and also on yourself.
I also hope you're good at making emergency repairs to the car: you may need it.

We will certainly be taking a good medical kit. With regard to emergency repairs, we're probably less good at that

I also suggest to use a navigation system supporting GLONASS and GALILEO - GLONASS is particularly meant to cover former USSR.

[New Hayesalia]

We will certainly be taking a good medical kit. With regard to emergency repairs, we're probably less good at that

I also suggest to use a navigation system supporting GLONASS and GALILEO - GLONASS is particularly meant to cover former USSR.

GPSs are technically not legal on the Mongol Rally. Part of our adventure is also to never use GPS except for when we need to find a really specific place (for a video etc) or for safety. But I feel like a general GPS will work for us

[Luziyca]

I suggest visiting the Crimea to enter Russia. Donetsk can be safely avoided.

As for Canada, you should end it in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at the Delta Bessborough. Good luck!

[Lydenburg]

Reading the OP really makes me wish I hadn't turned down that chance to go on the last Camel Trophy.

This sort of thing is still something I'd like to do one day, though now I reckon I could try circumnavigating the world by sea.

[Republic of Canador]

Goddamn I'm jealous. Good luck, and have the time of your life!

[Deuxtete]

Allow me to begin this post by quoting the Adventurists, the 'organisers' of the Mongol Rally.

Welcome to the Mongol Rally: the greatest motoring adventure on the planet.

The Mongol Rally thunders 10,000 miles across the mountains, desert and steppe of Europe and Asia each summer. There’s no backup, no support and no set route; just you, your fellow adventurists and a tiny car you bought from a scrapyard for £11.50.

If nothing goes wrong, everything has gone wrong.

Bollocks to tarmac, ABS and gadgets that help you find your navel. The Mongol Rally is about getting lost, using your long neglected wits, raising shedloads of cash for charity and scraping into the finish line with your vehicle in tatters and a wild grin smeared across your grubby face.

Neither your car, nor your life, will ever be the same again.

Now, I'm not one to half-ass things. Mostly. Sometimes. Anyway, not this. I am dedicated to using this opportune time in my life, a gap year as it were, by legitimately travelling the world. My idea of doing that is to be at least a little extreme about it. In my mind, circumnavigating the planet is one good way to be able to claim that I've actually traveled the world. I have assembled (but not confirmed) a team of three, comprised of myself (an up-and coming social media manager [Australian]); Matt, a qualified chef [Australian]; and Tanya, the Muscovite medical student [Russian].

We do plan to get corporate support for this effort, with fundraising efforts to be made for Airline Ambassadors International, a unique and global charity. I am not asking for money on this thread, fear ye not.

Click this spoiler for a look at our sick ride.

This is a 1976 Leyland Mini Moke, with an engine size of 1018cc, fully equipped with a steering wheel and an esky.

As a part of our grand non-plan to travel the world, we will be producing a web series for youtube on our travels- looking to be 15 minute episodes every week or so. In addition, Matt will be running a mini-series within that, to become one of your favourite travel cooking shows featuring local cuisines and weird restaraunts.

As a part of this, we're looking for weird and wonderful places that we can visit. I'm talking about places that are absolutely out of the box. Going to Chernobyl is on the list, as is a KGB simulation in Lithuania, or the gopher museum in Alberta, Canada. I would like to ask then, my fellow NSers, that you would have a peek at the list of countries we are going to, and recommend some places you've heard of in weird documentaries, local tales or strange dreams. Awesome and unique restaurants or suggestions of local specialties are also greatly appreciated.

• England
• Belgium
• Luxembourg
• Germany
• Czech Republic
• Poland
• Lithuania
• Belarus
• Ukraine (not the war-ry bits)
• Romania
• Bulgaria
• Turkey
• Georgia
• Azerbaijan
• Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan
• Kazakhstan
• Russia (from Altai to Vladivostok)
• Mongolia
• US (Cali via Nevada to British Columbia; Alberta to Texas; Texas to Florida; Florida to NYC)
• Canada (BC and Alberta)

Cheers all!

Team Stupid Drive Thing is attempting to drive this odyssey in an underpowered car (that looks like a truck) driven by people without any great understanding of the concept of preaparation, for the single reason of ‘why not.’

The team seeks to engage with local cultures in more than 20 countries, while recording and professionally preparing video episodes for the viewing public and our supporters to share in our experiences.

We hope to encourage people around the world to follow the spirit of adventure, demonstrating that you can trust the world around you, all by sharing it's cultural treasures.

Your US route looks rather touristy.
You should add Detroit, you can the Ambassador bridge up into Canada, or come down into Detroit from Canada, go south hit New Orleans(when it isn't Mardi Gras), cut into Cajun country, go to Florida, come up from Florida to new York, but you must stop by Gullah island first, nobody goes to Gullah island.

Come on, see America that nobody sees.

[North America Inc]

Ah, what a day. What a lovely day!

[Cymrea]

In Alberta, if you go as far north as Edmonton: West Edmonton Mall, biggest edifice of shameless commerce in the world!

[New Hayesalia]

Luzi, maybe not Crimea time. As an aside, the plan is to ride through Turkey, as it's tastefully longer. Lynde, try looking at the Adventurists, they have a few ideas. Try this one - I have no interest in the sea, so this didn't appeal for me, but it might satiate your sailor mood.

Duex, ideas on where to find the real America? i thought hitting up Montana at least would be pretty out of the way. We are planning to hit up Louisiana, down to Isle de Jean Charles. Then to Florida to NY, but I'll check out Gullah.

Cymrea, that looks crazy and I think the cameras would love it, totally added to the list. Cheers!

Thanks to Canador as well

[Deuxtete]

Luzi, maybe not Crimea time. As an aside, the plan is to ride through Turkey, as it's tastefully longer. Lynde, try looking at the Adventurists, they have a few ideas. Try this one - I have no interest in the sea, so this didn't appeal for me, but it might satiate your sailor mood.

Duex, ideas on where to find the real America? i thought hitting up Montana at least would be pretty out of the way. We are planning to hit up Louisiana, down to Isle de Jean Charles. Then to Florida to NY, but I'll check out Gullah.

Cymrea, that looks crazy and I think the cameras would love it, totally added to the list. Cheers!

Thanks to Canador as well

Montana is big sky country, its a good place.
Detroit, it gets you Canada, honestly there are fewer cities more demonized in the collective conscious, at least US ones.

I'd have to see the route your planning....

Let me check something.

Edit: yeah I was going to say from west going east you could run route 66, but that would cut the western side of Canada out, which is mad beautiful, so.
If I can suggest Detroit, and gullah island.
And staying off the interstates as much as possible, find a map book with the old routes...that way you're always down in it.

Good luck.

[New Hayesalia]

Luzi, maybe not Crimea time. As an aside, the plan is to ride through Turkey, as it's tastefully longer. Lynde, try looking at the Adventurists, they have a few ideas. Try this one - I have no interest in the sea, so this didn't appeal for me, but it might satiate your sailor mood.

Duex, ideas on where to find the real America? i thought hitting up Montana at least would be pretty out of the way. We are planning to hit up Louisiana, down to Isle de Jean Charles. Then to Florida to NY, but I'll check out Gullah.

Cymrea, that looks crazy and I think the cameras would love it, totally added to the list. Cheers!

Thanks to Canador as well

Montana is big sky country, its a good place.
Detroit, it gets you Canada, honestly there are fewer cities more demonized in the collective conscious, at least US ones.

I'd have to see the route your planning....

Let me check something.

Edit: yeah I was going to say from west going east you could run route 66, but that would cut the western side of Canada out, which is mad beautiful, so.
If I can suggest Detroit, and gullah island.
And staying off the interstates as much as possible, find a map book with the old routes...that way you're always down in it.

Good luck.

Who needs a map when you have a compass?

[Deuxtete]

Montana is big sky country, its a good place.
Detroit, it gets you Canada, honestly there are fewer cities more demonized in the collective conscious, at least US ones.

I'd have to see the route your planning....

Let me check something.

Edit: yeah I was going to say from west going east you could run route 66, but that would cut the western side of Canada out, which is mad beautiful, so.
If I can suggest Detroit, and gullah island.
And staying off the interstates as much as possible, find a map book with the old routes...that way you're always down in it.

Good luck.

Who needs a map when you have a compass?

Even better.

[Shamhnan Insir]

I had friends that did this. For all their "adventuring" they really shat on local customs in many places they stayed. My advice; keep your behaviour neutral, don't parade around the place, and keep your opinions to yourself. Two of my friends spent a night in jail in one town, and were snubbed/abused/chased out in other places too because they made too much of a show of their homosexuality.

[Holy Marsh]

See the mystery soda machine in Seattle. There are actually a lot of quirky things in Seattle, but I am craving a soda at the moment.

[Diopolis]

Destinations in those places? Hmm. California has a sasquatch museum.

[Paleocacher]

Visit the Center of the World!
Felicity, CA

[USS Monitor]

Pay me a visit on your way through Virginia, would you? At the Mariner's Museum in Newport News.

EDIT: Better yet, see if you can go diving in the Monitor Marine Sanctuary and come visit me at the bottom of the sea. You might have a hard time, though since it requires some diving skills and access is limited because of concerns about damage to the site.

[Cenetra]

Not my kind of drive, but it sounds funny.
Advices: I think you should carry with you medicines (especially intestinal disinfectants and the likes, not just only first aid kits and the likes), and also a lot of well-concealed cash, dividing it in different places within the car and also on yourself.
I also hope you're good at making emergency repairs to the car: you may need it.

We will certainly be taking a good medical kit. With regard to emergency repairs, we're probably less good at that

At the very least, you should seriously consider the availability of spare parts: it sounds like there's a high risk of getting stranded in the middle of nowhere in a highly-modified car which no mechanics can fix.

[Olthar]

Don't crash. And if you hit a pedestrian, make sure you're going fast enough that no one can identify the vehicle.

[Cannot think of a name]

This delights me. That car super delights me. There's nothing about this that doesn't delight me.

I road trip small roads in Northern California with my girlfriend all the time in my own shambly ride, so I can give you a scatter point of shit you can try on your Nevada/California/BC thang.

If you're coming into California from Nevada at Reno, go in through the Lincoln Highway, more commonly known now as Hwy 50. Sure, 80 will take you past Donnor Pass, but it's just some place where people ate people. Along 40 you'll find a historic souvenir store. Seriously, it's a little brick building with a sign next to it saying it was a souvenir store.

But if you go through the Lincoln Highway, you're going through one of the major highways that first connected the continental United States. Plus, while Carson City is a flat dirty place where the seat of the state government and a few more brothel billboards than you would think appropriate, there's also this dude who put a VW Bug on spider legs on the side of the road.

You can even side step the Lincoln Highway to go through the six building town of Genoa and then up Kings Highway (a two lane twister) to South Lake Tahoe, which will drive you right by a pretty cool lake. In town, Yellow Submarine has a big ass tasty sub, Sno Cone has good milk shakes, Heidi's is awful. Sprouts was alright, too hippy for my girlfriend.

Down that mountain there's a one building town called Strawberry where the owner of the general store has a 21 window VW Bus out front, which is cool for me so I'm mentioning it for no reason. But it's nice people and a kind of Mayberry General Store vibe.

Further down around Pollock Pines way there's a group of apple orchards called Apple Hill. Kind of a place where families go to bore their kids or couples go to check to see if they're ready to resign themselves to being boring, but you can get some good apple foodstuffs.

Around Placerville you can cut off the freeway and go to Marshall State Park, known locally as Sutter's Mill where you can find out why everyone moved to California in one year, the gold discovery spot. Not super sexy, so might not be worth the side trip.

At the bottom of the hill is Folsom, my home town. Get it out. Feel better? You can visit that prison in so much as drive by round about where it is and go, "Yep, there's Folsom Prison. Doesn't give me the blues. Must be what side of the fence I'm on." Other than that there's a lake where you can see yep, we're running out of water.

If you're coming from Las Vegas, you can take 395 to 84 I think, or 88. That will take you through Mojave which includes some NASA stuff and where hot rodders used to go to drive fast without there being things to hit. That will dump you out just west of Tahoe again, so we're back in the business.

Unless you really feel like checking out Death Valley, which has a lot of weird shit in it, most of it named 'devil's this' or 'hell's that'. Picture time!
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/503x335q90/r/41/dsc0209ql.jpg

You can still pick up 395 in Ridgecrest and watch Navy jet fighters fly super low over your car and shit.https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/503x335q90/r/407/dsc0507o.jpg

Drive through late at night and you might see a kit fox or something.

Alternately from Death Valley you can head to the coast just south of San Simeon and pick up the Greatest Highway Ever (clear bias, but it's on those lists, so...) Hwy 1. From there you drive up north past Hearst's Castle if you want to spend a few bucks looking at the house a tycoon built. Along the beach you'll see elephant seals that might be bigger than your ride. In San Simeon, I am told (but too late for me to make it) there is a place that serves an awesome tritip sandwich.

Going north you'll eventually reach Big Sur. Pick your Americana author for poetic notions of its tranquility, mine is Jack Kerouac with the novel Big Sur. There is also the Bixby Bridge which is in the opening of Here Comes Bronson...which was a tv show. I don't remember it either, that's something I found on the internet a while ago.

For $30 you can see sea otters in a tank at the still cool Monterey Bay Aquarium, but for free at the end of Fisherman's Wharf you can see them flopping about. Or if you want to get close up, there's a little harbor north of Monterey called Moss Landing. In there they swim about in the harbor pretty close to you. And there's a pretty good seafood restaurant there where you can see the boats your food came in from.

Up through Santa Cruz you'll pass the regular stuff like Steamer's Lane if you're into surfing, but in town around Pacific Avenue you have Planet Fresh Burrito and Jack's Burgers depending on what you're into. Also, the Boardwalk is kind of cheezy but still cool. Plus, if you're a Lost Boy's fan, that's the boardwalk from the movie. If you take Hwy 9 you'll end up in places like Ben Lommond and Boulder Creek and a lot of dudes on motorcycles and some fancy cars. Plus a bigfoot museum in Felton.

San Francisco is San Francisco, north bay is the north bay, you can find a ton of stuff on that. The tide organ at aquatic park is cool.

North of San Francisco is another movie location, Bodega Bay where The Birds was filmed. There's also a little town that doesn't want to be found, but I forgot its name.

Staying on 1 heading north you find all sorts of cool shit. There's a General Store in a town I forget that has soooo many different types of sodas I've never heard of and they'll make you a decent sandwich. In a town called Gualala (waa la la) there's a drug store in a building that looks like it used to be a church (when you get into town just pull into the first shit you see on the right, it's back there) that has all manner of crazy shit in it. And usually a car the owner pulled out of a field and gave a new coat of paint. If you're there on a Saturday there's probably an open mic going on.

Further north there is a a spot that's hard to find. There is a pioneer graveyard on the left side of the road right where you'd turn to go to the petrified forest. Behind that graveyard is a path to something called 'The Blowhole', which turns out to be a giant hole with a little hole at the bottom where the tide comes in in the forest (which ends shortly at the sea shore) but it's cool as hell.

Further north you're traveling through the Avenue of Giants or something like that, redwood trees. Some you can drive through. Picture time.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/372x558q90/r/195/img1403ic.jpg

Also, there's a big ass Paul Bunyon and Babe the anatomically sorted Blue Ox. More picture time:
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/503x336q90/r/692/img1391uw.jpg

Further up, there's some town that has a ton of metal sculpture people. I don't remember what it's called but you'll know it because it has a lot of metal people in it.

There's also a museum in a giant ship on land. It was closed when I found it, but it looks cool.

OH! Forgot, concrete dinosaurs. Somewhere in the Redwoods is a place with goofy looking dinosaurs. Aw, no picture time. I don't feel like uploading just for this post.

There's also some place called "The Crazy Norwegian" but I just took a photo of the Bus in front of it and didn't go in.

Oh shit, yeah, Samoa. Just south of Eureka (yeah, you'll get used to the place names) there's a place that's called Samoa that was supposed to be a resort town for the logging industry but didn't take. There's a row of abandoned houses there, but that's not the real draw. There's the Samoa Cookhouse, the last cookhouse or something like that. It's a place where you go in and order "Food" and then they just keep bringing you food until you're like "Alright, ease up with the food, man." Apparently there's a college women's rowing team that kills it there. (I asked, as a fat dude, who the hell was eating the seconds they offered when I was ready to swear off food for life after the first courses)

Again with the 80s movies, when you're about to cross from Oregon to Washington you're in Astoria, OR. The location for The Goonies and Kindergarten Cop. The school and the house are in the town. Also Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles in Time, but I have no idea where.

Um, I skipped a few things. Glass Beach in Fort Bragg. Mendocino is cool, just don't get gas in town.

I only stopped at the Space Needle in Seattle, which has a Science Fiction Museum. That was cool. Also a music museum but I only had time for one.

Somewhere in Vancouver are bear statues decorated as batman and other random shit. It's cool. Also I loved Vancouver even though I was only in it for a minute. If you take a ferry to Vancouver Island it's got a lot of weird tiny shit on it like a town that has a bunch of totem poles and one that has murals and one that has a butterfly...thing, and then of course Victoria which has a tiny place place. I mean Miniature World. Cool. To me at least. Little dioramas and shit.

There's a bunch more obviously, but this is only one small ass leg of your trip.

[Cannot think of a name]

Not my kind of drive, but it sounds funny.
Advices: I think you should carry with you medicines (especially intestinal disinfectants and the likes, not just only first aid kits and the likes), and also a lot of well-concealed cash, dividing it in different places within the car and also on yourself.
I also hope you're good at making emergency repairs to the car: you may need it.

We will certainly be taking a good medical kit. With regard to emergency repairs, we're probably less good at that

Mini Mania in Nevada I think, they can cover you for the first leg of your California trip for your parts needs if that's a Mini Moke under all that stuff.

[Rusozak]

Mongol? My tip is to remember to pillage BEFORE you raze.

On a serious note, though, be very very cautious? Sounds like a global strip mall for serial killers.

[New Hayesalia]

On the suggestions of Marsh, CTON and Monitor; I'm adding the mystery soda machine, the squatch museum, reenacting Wayne's World with Navy FA/18s, and the monitor museum if in the area. I've also added Area 51, because yo to the lo. CTON particular thanks, you really do know your west coast! The advice on mini mania is good, we'll probably be missing a few moving parts a this point.

Cenetra, that is a good point. We're going to handle that issue as it appears, i.e., hope that duct tape works efficiently It's not fundamentally monitored from the original machine- most of the changes are just cosmetic, except the truck horn and the additional seat. Olthar, I think our moke will be pretty identifiable, especially with a few rally stickers.

And cheers Rusozak, but the Mongols did the pillaging and they'd probably see us three coming.

[Reploid Productions]

To add to CTON's list, if you're going 395 through Bishop, the Meadow Farms/Mahogany Smoked Meats place in town has the most amazeballs beef jerky. And smoked bacon. And other such smoked meaty deliciousness. There's a shitton of stuff to see along 395- my friends and I managed to turn what should have been a meager 6 hour drive to Lee Vining from LA into a 13 hour adventure with stops at Fossil Falls, Red Rock Canyon (though that's off 14, not 395,) Hot Creek, and a lengthy side trip into Mammoth to check out the Devil's Postpile (and revel in the fact that there was still snow on the ground in July that year!) Plus the entire point of that trip- taking a friend who'd barely ever been out of LA to check out Bodie up above Mono Lake.

[Farnhamia]

To add to CTON's list, if you're going 395 through Bishop, the Meadow Farms/Mahogany Smoked Meats place in town has the most amazeballs beef jerky. And smoked bacon. And other such smoked meaty deliciousness. There's a shitton of stuff to see along 395- my friends and I managed to turn what should have been a meager 6 hour drive to Lee Vining from LA into a 13 hour adventure with stops at Fossil Falls, Red Rock Canyon (though that's off 14, not 395,) Hot Creek, and a lengthy side trip into Mammoth to check out the Devil's Postpile (and revel in the fact that there was still snow on the ground in July that year!) Plus the entire point of that trip- taking a friend who'd barely ever been out of LA to check out Bodie up above Mono Lake.

Oooh! Endorheic lakes! Calderas! Deriving nutrition from the pupae of alkali flies ... *burp* Ah, wilderness!