Went to a little local muscle car show in Vancouver and was blown away by how well the cars were built and presented. Thought I throw them up as it not often you see so much american muscle all really well presented, I added a couple from the Vancouver Auto Show too.

Sorry about the quality but my ph just couldn't handle how shiny all the cars were in bright light.

Excellent photos there Arron All of those cars look to be in perfect show quality, well presented indeed.

That 2 tone black on silver mustang looks killer!!

My mate had some better photos so here's some more car porn:

After lot of looking at Motorhomes we decided to keep it simple and just get a van and kit it out. We plan to do 20,000 - 40,000km over the next couple of months an the big motor homes use about about 24L/100km and we could make do with something smaller.

This is what we are starting with:

2008 Ford E-150
4.6 V8 auto
11,400 miles

It's pretty basic but still has 2 years of the factory power train warranty so should be all good.

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I guess I should do a bit of an update... Currently in New York State where we are encountering the first decent amount of rain when have seen over the last 4 months on the trip.

Within the first week of getting the van I had the all the back windows tinted, built a bed in the back with storage underneath, picked up a little gas cooker and a little fridge that runs on 12v. Once that was done we tracked down a bike rack that would actually hold our DH/Freeride bikes properly and hit the road. No changes have been made to the van set-up since.

The van has been awesome; we have travelled over 15,000 miles (24,000 km) in the last 4 months and have visited 22 States, 3 Canadian Provinces and about 15 US National Parks.

There have been no real mechanical issues so far with the van and I have just been getting it serviced along the way. Of course there a few things have popped up over time like blown fuses, the odd screw/nail in a tire and steel posts that jump out of nowhere in car parks and attack the side of the van leaving big lime green streaks down the side of the van.

Some of the highlights have been driving the Pacific Coast Highway in California, driving to the top of Pikes Peak (14,100ft), Driving through Death Valley when it was 50 degrees and then having to turn the aircon off so we could drive up a hill without overheating the van. Also just seeing the most random s**t ever such as Walmart shoppers, trailer parks and epic thunder storms in between riding at nearly every (chair lift accessed) bike park in the States.

Still have a couple of months to go, travelling down the east coast to Texas and then heading back towards California. Don't regret going with a van over a camper but it would be nice to have a built in shower as occasionally it's a bit hard to find a shower while on the road. My GF must really love me cos after nearly 10 days without a shower she still let me sleep in the van.

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Haha, yip Macca's for the win. Free internet is grand.

yeah I did want the Model T, but not as much as this one below, I don't even know what it really is /was but still a 5 window coupe from this era of any make is worth good coin. Unfortunately it was at a State Park and protected so couldn't rent a U-haul trailer and go for a wee midnight mission.

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North American road trip done and dusted; We clocked up over 23,000 miles (38,400 km) in six months and managed to visit 41 states + DC, 22 US national parks and 25 mountain bike parks.

Tried to sell the van in California but it would have taken 2 -3 weeks for the title to get changed in to my name so I could sell the van there. Ended up hauling a*** back to Vancouver and was able to sell the van within a couple of days.

Packed up the bikes in California and they should now be on a boat somewhere making their way home to New Zealand.

Was a f**k awesome trip and hope i can pull off another trip like it again some day. Flying out for mexico city tomorrow to start backpacking towards South America - it's a hard life.

Could be a new toy rolling into a container shortly too... more details about that later.

Looks like an awesome time. Thanks for sharing it and the pics.

Was the van 100% when it wanted to overheat? Or is death valley just that brutal? You would think the American stuff would be built for that weather. We had 46/47 here a few years ago and my old EF was fine in peak hour traffic with the AC on full..... I just find that interesting is all!

So what are you sending back!?

Anyway thanks for sharing.

I haven't sat down and worked out the milage for the van but I think it was about 18mpg. We would get about 500 miles to a tank and the tank held about 27 gallons.

Haven't had Maccas in Mexico and don't think i will get a chance to either as I be crossing to Guatemala in the next couple of days. I did stop by one in Mexico city but they didn't have free wifi so we didn't eat there. I did try some KFC.... not good results on that one.

I've put the purchase of a toy on hold too. It's to much of a hassle to organize from Mexico; I think i will pass back through LA went we fly home so might look into it then. i might even have a crack at getting my own container too. I'm sure I can fill it no worries.

Ash, there are lots of RV parks and you can just rock up to most; but it may pay to book if trying to stay close to a big city or busy national park. Like everything the quality and range of facilities varies a lot.  Most are just for RV's and offer different levels of hook up but from memory they are  normally about $30 - $50 per night. Best to avoid the ones that have long term or full time occupants - you will know why as soon as you drive in.  KOA kampgrounds are the most reliable in terms of facilities and cleanliness but you pay for the name too.

Most state parks and national parks have campgrounds too. They normally will only have a longdrop loo but some have shower blocks too.  They are cheap and most sites come with a firepit and picnic table. (byo firewood). They can range from $6 - $25 per night; but the really popular national parks can cost the same as a private RV park and sometimes you won't have a choice as they are the only ones within the national parks.  Staying in the forest campgrounds was one of the highlights of our trip they are so dam awesome. Places like the redwoods will blow you away; a cold beer beside the campfire in the forest at night is unbeatable.  Most of the ones we stayed at we just found along the way or happened to be driving past. Lots of them just have an honesty box, some have a caretaker camped there that will also sell fire wood.

If you just need a place to park up for the night the Walmart superstores are the best as the have fresh produce and groceries in addition to the normal walmarts. Sometimes you can park at k-marts and home depot's too.  These are great options as if you have a self contained RV with a generator as you really only need some where to sleep so roll in late and stock up and leave early. 

Most RV parks will give discounts for AAA or Good Sam or Camping World members and if you visiting more than one or two national parks just get an annual pass for $80 as it will pay for itself very quickly. It costs $14 to visit each National park.  Any landmark, lake, river side or nice picnic spot out side of a state or national park can cost a fee to visit so beware of that and prepared to turn round as it can cost the same for a day pass just to eat lunch there.

Where are you looking at going? It would be such a cool thing to do with your kids,  if you go to the national parks do the junior ranger program from memory it's for kids about 4and up

Just booked some flights home the other day so will be back in nz by the end of the month; actually looking forward staying in one place for a while. Not sure if I will stay in Christchurch yet - it kind of depends on what I end up doing work wise... Got to decide whether to find a job or have a crack at being self employed.

Cool, I'll have a look later and drop you an email, I only have an iPhone and iPad with me in central America and I wrote out a reply only to have it disappear as apple sucks a*** when trying to email or type out anything more than a sentance. I think I'll smash them both once I get my hands on my laptop again.

Finally back in NZ... 3 days later than originally planned; to cut a long story short I won't be flying Air Pacific again.

Been out and looked at my cars; both the V8 Fairmont and the XE turbo's days are numbered... both cars will be up for sale soon. Have a bit of work to do them so will have to pull finger and get stuck in.

Yeah we are not to happy about how it turned out we should have been home on Tuesday but arrived on Friday morning instead. Thanks to all the delays, cancellations and flight changes we ended up with two extra nights in LA, a night in Fiji and Auckland.

Still nice to be home after 10 months of travelling.

The bikes arrived in NZ before xmas, they were shipped from California with Chucks Restoration Supplies who works in with Performance Exports so they were just added to a Container when there was space available.

They got here quickly and undamaged so quite happy with the service. It cost almost as much to ship them from Auckland to Christchurch as it did to get them from LA to Auckland but it was still worth it. There was no way were taking them to Central America with us.

As for Air Pacific definitely stare clear of them; stick to the big airlines with regular and reliable service.

Finally had a look over the transmission out of the V8 today and also pulled down the auto out of the XR6 I wrecked out as well.

Found an issue in the V8 box but not sure if it was present when we rebuilt the trans the first time or appeared when the box ate itself after the rebuild. Either way nice to finally be making some progress with it again.

The LSD Diff centre out of the XR6 is in getting rebuilt so will have a 3.45 diff to go in the V8 shortly too. Unfortunately I've misplaced my black speedo gear somewhere.

Hopefully it all comes together ok as I leave for Melbourne in less than a week... I'm not crossing my fingers this time... it either works or it's the death of the car as the CBF factor is pretty high.