Thank you to everyone who helped with my trip planning. Here is the summary of our trip.

Days 1 and 2:
We flew into Adelaide, arriving early morning on day 1. We stayed at the Intercontinental Adelaide for 2 nights. This gave us time to help adjust to the 16 1/2 hours of time difference from San Diego as well as see some of the sights of Adelaide. We rented our car from Hertz midday on day 2. The Hertz office was immediately across the street from the hotel. We found a rate of roughly $300 AUD for a week plus $300 AUD for the drop off charge. It had been suggested that I might reduce the drop off charge if I rented in Alice Springs and drove south. I spoke to folks who rented in Alice Springs and were dropping in Sydney. They had to pay a $500 drop charge. We drove to Hahndorf, a very picturesque village south of Adelaide, that afternoon.

We picked up a cooler at Woolworths, bought a case of water and some other beverages as well as some snacks. We parked the car at the convention center lot, adjacent to the IC, for just $10. Parking at the hotel was $40

Day 3
We drove to Port Augusta via the Clare Valley and Quorn. We happened on Old Bakery Stone Hut north of Laura. I highly recommend it. It had a wealth of tasty pie variants as well as a number of tasty desserts. Our stop there made us feel as though we were really enroute to the Outback. Oddly, none of the roadhouses in the Outback gave that same feeling.

I recommend the Wadlata Outback Centre in Port Augusta. We learned about the four key explorers of southern Australia and the Outback. The movies were well worth seeing. One was about 15 minutes long on the explorers, the Ghan Train, and camels. The other was about 45 minutes long on current day people of the Outback. Fascinating. We stayed at Majestic Oasis Apartments.

Days 4 and 5
Once we left Port Augusta, we were immediately in barren land with no inhabitation. The highway is excellent, paved the entire way with very light traffic. We did not see speed limit signs til we got to the border with the Northern Territory. We saw a lot of 3 trailer road trains. 4 trailer road trains are not allowed in this territory. We pushed on to Coober Pedy and were there by mid day. It's a very odd place. It's the largest place for opal mining, though the town has been hard hit by the larger mines for other minerals recruiting. We had a wide variation of population numbers given to us, with one saying the town went from 7,000 to 2,000 in 5 years. Once the miners were given stable employment in the western mines, they moved their families to Adelaide. They had a well paid job with a predictable schedule on and off, and Adelaide is a better place to live.

We stayed at The Underground Motel. For all its positives, and there were many, I do not recommend it. We had booked a suite, and the bed was a double pushed against the wall, with a mattress that wouldn't surprise me if it was 20 years old. Several of the restaurants are owned by Greeks who do a good job on food. The Greeks, Serbs and Croats came to Coober Pedy some 30 to 40 years ago to mine opals.

We took an excellent half day tour from folks at the Stuart Caravan Range Park. It cost $65 while a tour from the competition cost $98. We saw mines, an underground church, underground home, the dog fence and the Breakaways.

Day 6
We drove to Uluru, Ayers Rock and the Olgas. We stayed at Desert Gardens Hotel, a sprawling complex that might leave you far far from the restaurants and lobby, the only places with internet. I learned once there that the hotel is now part of Novotel. There's discussion in the Acor forum on FlyerTalk of ways to get the hotel more affordably than we did. We drove around Ayers Rock both directions as well as driving to the Olgas. We saw the Rock at sunset when it is particularly beautiful.

Day 7
We drove to Kings Canyon and stayed at Kings Canyon Resort. The evening food was remarkably good in their restaurant. I recommend that you drive to the end of the paved road in late afternoon. When you turn around and return, you can really see when some claim that the rock formation looks like a dingo and her seven puppies. My husband took a heli ride to better see it. We intended to take quad rides at Kings Creek Station on the way in, but one of the staff was away. I had considered staying here but am glad I chose Kings Canyon Resort. The Station is about 40 kms away, and you only see Kings Canyon when you are within a few km of it.

Day 8 and 9
We drove to Alice Springs and stayed at the newly branded Doubletree. It had been the Crowne Plaza. I've got a report on it in the Hilton forum. The hotel has a superb Indian/Thai restaurant that we enjoyed both nights we were there.

I really enjoy Alice Springs. There is a lot there to educate me on the Outback.

• School of the Air - 138 students spread across some 1000 km
• Flying Doctors with a superb adjacent cafe - medical support for folks out on stations
• Aborigine Mission at Hermansburg, 125 km west of Alice thru the beautiful McDonnells
• ANZAC Memorial with a panoramic view over the city. As an aside, Alice Springs was conscripted by the army in WWII to send supplies north to Darwin. The train only came to Alice. Darwin was flattened by Japanese bombs in WWII.
• Old Telegraph Station where the telegraph was completed across the Outback, shortening communcation from England from months to a few hours
• Home for half Aborigines at Old Telegraph Station- used during the time when children were taken from the mothers

We were highly satisfied by our trip. We didn't get bored with the long drive as the scenery was constantly changing. We never saw a live kangaroo, a great disappointment to me. Kangaroos are nocturnal and we were off the road before dark. Weather was idyllic. It got dark at about 6pm each night. Buy a fly net for each person in your group in Coober Pedy as you will need it the rest of the trip. Don't worry about how dorky you look. Everyone else is also wearing a net.

I highly recommend an Outback trip to anyone.