Little Fiat Big Adventure

Some times you wonder how on earth you end up in the situations that you do...

I'm 17000 miles from home and the crazy woman working in the tourist trap that I find my self wandering round in Big Sur, California looked at me with eyes that I knew had seen one to many summers of peace and love as she asked   'Do you know how the panda got it's colours?'

I looked up and tried to look non-committal in that way you look at the very old or the very young but she continued anyway....

Well....

There was once this young man who went travelling.  He met a panda thats fur was all white as all pandas where then and they became friends and  decided to travel together on his adventures far and wide.

One day, as he was travelling, a mountain lion attacked the young man and mauled him badly before leaving him for dead. The lonely panda went to get help from all the other pandas near by and they rushed to the scene of the attack but the young man could not be revived so all the pandas could do was mourn his loss by putting black bands of soot on their arms as a mark of respect.   Crying at their loss and they rubbed their eyes, held their heads and hugged each other causing the soot to leave marks on their fur. The man's friends heard the pandas crying and came to the mountain to see what it was and found him surrounded by pandas, all weeping. They where able to tend to the wounds and save him from the attack but the pandas, now knowing the man was safe all left the mountain side to go deep into the forest and vowed to keep the black marks as a reminder of why they should never again travel with humans....

Photos from the trip...

Picking the panda up from the New Jersey docks. Its looking kind of lost in between all those huge 4x4's

The first time a Fiat panda has been on an American freeway...

Winning a few trophies at the FiatFreakout. Think we could safely say we'd the furthest car traveled!!

Dropping down highway 101 and looking some what out of place in the big American Cities.

Heading west out into the desert....

A few seconds of the panda heading out to 'Death Valley with Alan overtaking in the Mustang support car that we rented.

'Support car' does makes me feel like a proper explorer but on the other hand when it comes to exploring....  Captain Cook was killed by natives, Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded, and Columbus probably died of syphillis!

So maybe staying at home isn't that bad after all!

 Then finally we get to the West Coast and meet up with something else a long way from home. It's a little bit older and a little tiny bit bigger...

 Heading back east again we stop off to have a chat with GeorgeW  but he seems a bit busy with stuff like running the country and such so we just stop in his parking lot for a snap.

 It's been a long and amazing journey for Alan and Me and the panda.... Now after nearly 6000 miles of travelling West and South it's time to head home via route 66

 Rather tired looking after a lot of driving.... Next time we'll take a car with Aircon!

And finally....

The most fun bits of the trip were the folk that I met and here are some of the best quotes from the trip....

From a hotel staff member in Tennessee....
"You speak really good english!"

From a couple at Hoover dam...
"Whats that hunny?"
"Its one of them little european cars... Like they have in europe"
"Wow....."

Also at Hoover dam...
"Is it really only for 2 people???"
(yes, she was refering to the car!!!)

Another hotel worker...
"Does that car run on that funny stuff you get from corn?"
(I think she means ethinol but I could be wrong, it was Arkansas! I really wanted to tell her that it ran on chicken poo but she was soo sweet it would of been cruel!)

...and finally, from a trucker called Nathan who was from Napa in California that I met 

"I'll give you 200 dollars for it!"
"What for, you can't even drive it here, theres no paperwork!"
"We'll put it on a 30ft poll outside my dads shop!"
"Reallly....."