Lamborghini is a name synonymous with unparalleled luxury, speed, and innovative design in the automotive world. 

By MarkSweep - Own work, Public Domain, Link

However, the brand's influence extends beyond the roar of high-performance engines and sleek car designs into the realm of lifestyle and dining with Tonino Lamborghini Cafés. These upscale cafés, scattered across the globe, are more than just eateries; they are a celebration of the Lamborghini brand's ethos, offering a fusion of high-end dining, sophisticated ambiance, and an immersive brand experience. 

Elephant Butte, Monument Valley, Navajo Nation (Arizona), USA

Hello traveler! My name is Shehzadi, which means princess—literally, a king’s daughter. I am a Toyota Tundra with a twin-turbo V6 heart wrapped in steel. One June morning in Hyattsville, Maryland, my humans—the ones I call The Vagabond Couple—loaded my bed, patted my dashboard and pointed my grille west.

For almost 9,000 miles, I was their rolling home on a 31-day loop around the United States. My elder brother, Storm Trooper, a desert-bred first-generation Ford F-150 SVT Raptor, had already carried them from Maryland to Banff and Jasper in Canada and back. I eventually closed my own loop in the final homecoming from New Orleans to Hyattsville; this page is the complete 23-episode logbook.

Shehzadi at her parking spot in New Orleans

It was the final morning of our final planned stop. New Orleans had cast its spell on us, as she tends to do, and it was tough peeling ourselves away from the jazz-soaked streets and beignet-laced breezes (see NOLA Deep Dive - a Perfect Day in the Crescent City | New Orleans, Louisiana). But the road was calling. Again. Always.

Shehzadi, our faithful Toyota Tundra, was rested and ready. We gave one last glance to the streetcar gliding past our BNB on St. Charles and Euterpe, loaded up the gear, cranked up the playlist, and pointed our wheels northeast. Ahead was a 1,098-mile familiar home stretch from the Crescent City to our little corner of the world in Hyattsville, Maryland. We had been on most of this route many times over the last 25 years of living in Maryland.

Paddlewheel Steamboat "Natchez" sailing on Mississippi River in New Orleans

We reached New Orleans the previous afternoon (see NOLA Calling - From the Cajun Capital to the Soul of the South: Lafayette to New Orleans via Baton Rouge), parked Shehzadi in a secure paid lot near our BnB, picked up Jazzy Pass fare cards for the city’s public transit, and took a first look at Bourbon Street before calling it a night. Our base was near the corner of St. Charles and Euterpe. This morning the truck could stay put: our last full New Orleans day would run on streetcars, ferry decks and shoe leather.

Mardi Gras ornaments hung on a tree on Melpomene St, New Orleans

Mardi Gras beads still hung from neighborhood trees as we stepped outside. They were enough scene-setting on their own; New Orleans did not need a brochure paragraph from us. We were headed first for Canal Street, then across the Mississippi to Algiers Point, back through the French Quarter, and finally into a night of jazz on Bourbon Street.

Sing the River on the Mississippi River levee in Baton Rouge.

Part 20 ended in Lafayette after dinner in neighboring Scott, where boudin and gumbo had made a persuasive case for staying put. We resisted. The previous leg had brought us from San Antonio to Lafayette via Houston and Beaumont, and Shehzadi—our Toyota Tundra—was ready for the road east.

The day's route was simple on paper: I-10 to Baton Rouge, a stop beside the Mississippi River, then New Orleans. By evening we expected to trade interstate miles for a St. Charles Avenue streetcar and Bourbon Street jazz. Louisiana had apparently decided one transportation system per day was not ambitious enough.

A framed 2019 Scott Boudin Festival poster at Fezzo's, using Scott's official “Boudin Capital of the World” title.

Part 19 ended on the San Antonio River Walk, where a proper hotel bed felt almost suspicious after the Terlingua cabin. The next morning, Shehzadi—our Toyota Tundra—was waiting in the garage for the road east. The previous leg carried us from Terlingua Ranch to San Antonio via Langtry and Junction.

Our route to Lafayette stayed mostly on Interstate 10: Schulenburg, Houston, Beaumont, Pinehurst, Lake Charles, then an overnight in Lafayette and dinner next door in Scott. The highway looked uncomplicated on the map. Houston would soon file an objection.

Evening beside the San Antonio River Walk

Part 18 ended back at our Terlingua Ranch cabin after the rowboat crossing into Boquillas del Carmen and the drive through Big Bend National Park. That border-country leg runs from Pecos and Big Bend to Boquillas and back to Terlingua Ranch. The cabin gave us one last quiet night in Far West Texas: the Milky Way above the ridges, Shehzadi dusty outside, and no compelling reason to unpack anything else.

Coffee on the porch came with sunrise over the mountains. Then it was time to leave the ranch and aim east for San Antonio, trading the previous day's border crossing for a long road leg across West Texas and into the Hill Country.

Riding toward Boquillas del Carmen after crossing the Rio Grande from Big Bend National Park.

Roswell had given us UFO museums, alien burgers and Zog, the small gray souvenir passenger from Part 17: Durango to Roswell. By morning, the saucers stayed behind while Shehzadi, our overlanding Toyota Tundra, pointed south on US-285.

This leg carried us into Far West Texas: Pecos for cowboy folklore and rodeo history, Terlingua Ranch for a cabin beneath the Christmas Mountains, Big Bend National Park for desert geology, and the Boquillas Crossing for a rowboat-and-mule hop into Mexico. Texas had apparently decided one border was not enough scenery.

Alien Zone — a staged extraterrestrial bartender served as Roswell’s unofficial host.

Part 16 ended in Durango after Monument Valley, Valley of the Gods, Bluff and Mesa Verde. That route is covered in Trans-America Overland Part 16: Page to Durango. Roswell was next, and the alien bartender in the hero photograph had already volunteered to supervise our arrival.

We had one long driving day, one full day in Roswell and a departure morning pointed toward Texas. Shehzadi, our overlanding Toyota Tundra, carried the same Utah dust into New Mexico, where roadside history gradually changed from cattle and rockets to flying discs and gift-shop mannequins.

John Ford Point — valley overlook from the back of a rented horse

Part 15 ended in Page after Lake Powell, Antelope Canyon X, the Painted Desert Project and Tuba City. We left Page for a two-day run through Monument Valley and southeastern Utah before climbing into Colorado for Mesa Verde and Durango.

The route offered two unpaved 17-mile drives, which seemed a suspiciously tidy coincidence. The roads quickly corrected that impression.

Antelope Canyon X — a shaft of midday light reached the sandy floor beside us.

Part 14 ended in Page after our Grand Canyon drive along Desert View Drive, US-89, Antelope Pass and Horseshoe Bend. Page became our base for Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, a Navajo-guided descent into Antelope Canyon X, and a long southbound loop past roadside murals and Sunset Crater before turning back toward Tuba City.

The map called this a short regional detour. The odometer, as usual, had read the fine print.

Horseshoe Bend — the Colorado River turns around a sandstone promontory below the overlook.

Part 13 brought Shehzadi from Yosemite to the Grand Canyon via Fresno, Route 66 and two Punjabi dhabas. After the overnight stop in Tusayan, we left before dawn for Mather Point, then turned the truck east along the South Rim and north toward Page.

The route was short by expedition standards but vertically ambitious: Grand Canyon viewpoints at sunrise, the Little Colorado River Gorge, folded rock beside US-89, a repaired mountain road and Horseshoe Bend nearly 1,000 feet above the Colorado River. The Southwest had placed several billion years of rock beside 130 miles of pavement. We supplied the petrol.

Ludlow, California — Route 66 and the flag share a bench outside a roadside business.

Part 12 ended in Oakhurst after our Death Valley-to-Yosemite crossing by US-395 and Tioga Pass. The next road day began below Yosemite’s southern gate and ended outside the Grand Canyon, which is a perfectly normal sentence only in the American West.

Between them came Fresno, Bakersfield, CA-58, Route 66 at Ludlow, Interstate 40 and two Punjabi dhabas. Shehzadi would cover about 650 miles. We would cover butter chicken, dal makhani, pakoras and chai, because expedition planning should include the major food groups.

Glacier Point — Half Dome and Nevada Fall behind us. Yosemite supplied the granite; we supplied the hats.

Part 11 left us on CA-190 after a full day in Death Valley’s badlands, salt flats, film locations and 130°F roadside heat. We were still below sea level, Shehzadi was still behaving better than we were, and the Sierra Nevada had begun blocking the western horizon with considerable confidence.

This chapter climbs from Furnace Creek through Panamint Valley and the Alabama Hills, follows US-395 beneath the Eastern Sierra, crosses Tioga Pass into Yosemite, and returns the next morning for Mariposa Grove, Tunnel View, Glacier Point, Olmsted Point and Tenaya Lake. The desert-to-alpine change took two days. California apparently dislikes gradual transitions.