The Big Texan

19/05/2024

Living our best lives - 2023 The Big Texan Tour. Now taking bookings for our next epic Texan adventure 2026 - please email any inquiries or to book this 35 day tour
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Click on the link below to check out the video of the Big Texan Tour

Check out the AWESOME adventures we had on our 2023 BIG TEXAN Tour. We've opened up bookings for our 2026 BIG TEXAN Tour and you can BOOK NOW at bigtexan@usa...

09/10/2023

Day 35
Queen Mary, Long Beach California

Our final night of the tour started with pre-dinner drinks in our Eisenhower Suite on board the Queen Mary where a few toasts were made and nice words spoken. Thank you!

We then arranged for Taxis to take us all to Parker’s Lighthouse restaurant in Long Beach where we enjoyed a great meal and service while looking across the harbor viewing the Queen Mary as the sunset and night rolled in. Spectacular!

After dinner it was back to our suite for the after dinner room party with lots of singing and laughter late into the night.

What a fantastic way to spend our last night together with very special people!

08/10/2023

Day 34
Palm Springs to Long Beach, California

Our 2nd Go Kart race saw Sleepy Steve wake up and take his 2nd Win. And Andrea once again showed the Boys how it is done coming in 2nd place!

Our home for the final 2 nights of the tour is the famous Queen Mary moored in Long Beach.

06/10/2023

Day 32 & 33
Lake Havasu City to Palm Springs

A great driving day with long straight quiet roads. We crossed over the Colorado River at Parker Dam and entered California.

A few if us stopped for a swim in the river before driving through the Joshua Tree National Park which is very scenic.

Our Hotel in Palm Springs has a great pool for cooling off although the weather is perfect!

Today we did the Aerial Tramway 8500ft to the peak in a stunning day. The “Cars” rotate as they travel at 19mph over this 11 minute journey. It is a MUST DO when in Palm Springs.

Tonight we visited the Thursday night markets which were packed and much better than they were when we visited last month.

We love Palm Springs!

04/10/2023

Day 31
Lake Havasu City

Another day of fun in the sun ☀️

A free day of RnR with some shopping, checking out cars, RVs, boats and antiques.

Then lots if splashes in the Hotel pool and water slide before taking the $4 return Ferry boat ride across the Lake for dinner with a beautiful sunset.

03/10/2023

Day 30
Lake Havasu City

We wanted to try something new for our tours so today we rented 3 pontoon boats, loaded up our chilly bins and picnics to spend the day on the lake/Colorado River. Thanks to Captain Steve & Skipper Shippy for being “responsible” for the other 2 boats.

Warm water, sunshine, good music and great company made it a special day with Copper Canyon being a highlight.

Then it was back to our Hotel for a swim and waterslide action.

One of our FAVOURITE days!

02/10/2023

Day 29
Sedona to Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Sorry we didn’t get too many photos of the crew today - unfortunately we had our 2nd flat tyre for the tour which put us about 1.5 hours behind everyone else. This was the 4th flat tyre for the tour - a tour record we don’t want to beat! Lol

We traveled through Jerome, a very cool old mining town high in the mountains before driving a small section of Route 66 through Ash Fork and Seligman. A quick visit to Angels Barber Shop and lunch at the SnoCap for a laugh….

Our base for the next 3 nights is the London Bridge Resort in Lake Havasu City.

01/10/2023

Day 27 & 28
Tucson to Sedona, Arizona

We traveled the country roads to Sedona. The variety of scenery on this drive is impressive from mountains, deserts, mining towns, lakes & forests.

We stopped for lunch, and All Blacks rugby updates, at Jakes Corner Bar which is a popular Biker Bar in the middle of nowhere.

Sedona is one of our favourite places and for the first time we are spending 2 nights in this beautiful spot.

Today we explored Sedona with optional visits to the Chapel of the Holy Cross which is the most photographed building in Sedona, a Vortex, shopping and an off-road Pink Jeep tour into the back country.

We LOVE Sedona!

30/09/2023

Day 26
Tucson, Arizona

We had a free day to explore Tucson or relax by the pool. Some went for the scenic drive up Mt Lemmon while some visited the plane museum.

A relaxing day…

29/09/2023

Day 25
Tombstone to Tucson, Arizona

Our day started with a BANG! Yes we went shooting on the Ranch with cowboys Bill & Cliff. We fired guns from the 1880s - a rifle, pistol and shotgun. Shippy nailed it hitting 11/11 targets while Deb, Trudie & Monique did the ladies proud! It was great fun…

We then took the back roads visiting the cute town of Patagonia then took a private tour of the Titan Missile silo which was incredible. Our guide Mike gave us an in-depth history about the Cold War and walked us through the steps that would have happened if the button (actually 2 keys). Thankfully it never happened but the missile program was a deterrent to ensure there wasn’t a war. Standing next to, then on top of the missile gave us goosebumps…

Our Hotel for the next 2 nights is Loews Ventana Canyon in Tucson - it’s beautiful!

27/09/2023

Day 24
El Paso Texas to Tombstone Arizona.

Today we left Texas and crossed the border into New Mexico and followed the border wall between the USA and Mexico.
Then we crossed the border into Arizona and stopped for lunch in the historic mining town of Bisbee, and had a little look around the town center.
Our next stop and highlight for the day was Tombstone which is famous for the shootout at the OK Corral, and we attended a recreation of the well known gun battle which was very entertaining.
Our hotel tonight is the Tombstone Monument Ranch where we had a Western dress up night which was a lot of fun. After a wonderful meal we learnt how to play Texas Holdem Poker with Wyatt Earp which was a lot of fun.

26/09/2023

Day 23
Alpine to El Paso, Texas

Our day started with a visit to Dave at Stable Performance Cars in Alpine. Dave’s a real character and let us check out the Fords and Dodges - he’s not a fan of Government Motors (GM Cars).

Our next stop was Marfa which has been settled for over 10000 years.

Just out of town was the tribute to the 1956 movie “Giant” starring James Dean, Liz Taylor and Rock Hudson which was filmed in the area. There was even music playing by Mike Nesmeth from the Monkies… very cool.

30 miles up the road was the Marga Prada Store. It wasn’t open - in fact it never is! It’s a fake store and a piece of art featuring 1 shoe from each of the 2005 collection and handbags. It’s in the middle of the desert and very clever.

We took the scenic drive over El Paso which overlooked Mexico- we even walked down through downtown El Paso right up to the border!