All Over

From Vegas we rode back up to my sister's place in Concord which is near San Fransisco. Spent a nice relaxing couple of days with her. Got to meet her new puppy tank who destroyed Marty's Mahia jandles. He was gutted. His favourite footwear. Haha

Rugby the elder statesman would never do such a thing.

We left there 6.30am on  a Friday morning and headed fown to LA. Decided to take the 5. Its long straight and boring but you can cover some ground. The speed limit is mainly 75mph but you are definitely in the slow lane if that is all you are doing. We sat around 80 - 85 mph to avoid being continually passed by trucks. Was an ok ride till we hit the 405 just north of LA. That 77 miles took nearly 2 hours and the traffic was awful. Thank goodness we were not on it at peak hour. We arrived back in Westminster at 3.15pm. Travelled over 400 miles today and ended our journey.
We have ridden just over 11500 miles, (18500 kms).  Seen some great places, meet some really nice people and ticked a few things of the bucket list.

Now we have to find the enthusiasm to clean the bikes so we can hopefully sell them before we return home. I'm sure Chris would like to have his garage back.

Hoover Dam and Las Vegas

Our route to Vegas took us through Zion NP. We didn't stop to take the bus tour through the park as we have done it before. I think to really get the most out of a visit to Zion you need to do lots of hiking and it was way too hot for us.

We were then on the freeway till we turned off onto the I67 that took us past Lake Mead

 and the Valley of Fire NP.

By the time we reached the Hoover Dam I was very hot thirsty and exhausted. We parked up at a view point and admired the engineering feat and commented on the very low water levels.

Note where the ladder ends. 

Marty wanted to walk up to the new bridge and view the dam from there so we jumped back on the bikes and road back up to the bridge carpark. By the time I had climbed the first set of steps I knew I wasn't going to make it.

 I felt like I was going to pass out. My water was all gone and there was no filling station. I told Marty to go on up and I would go back down and find a shady place to sit. I did and removed my boots and socks to try and cool off. Felt very 2nd hand. We sat there for a while longer after Marty returned until I decided I was ok to carry on. First stop would be where I could get a drink. That was the Hoover Dam Casino about 2 miles up the road. Still felt pretty whoosey so I sat while MJ raced about getting me a drink. I must have looked pretty bad as even the cafe lady was concerned about me and bought me a wetted towel to drape around my neck. About 2 gallons of fluid later I felt a bit better and I felt I could ride the 40 odd miles to our motel in Vegas. I was totally whacked by the time we arrived. I crashed out while poor old MJ went in search of a cold drink outlet. By early evening after a snooze more fluids and a shower I was feeling my old self again. We went to tea at Coco's dinner just infront of the motel. Very nice food and excellent value. We then ventured across the road to the enormous MGM Grand Casino.  So much bling. Too much for this country kid.

Next morning we caught the monorail and began our self guided tour of Vegas.

Managed to find a JimmyBuffet Tshirt for my brother and since we were there (Margaritaville) I had myself a very lovely Marguretta. We then wandered into Ceasars Palace. Wow what a building.

We wandered around all the shops and I ot sucked into buying a expensive (by my standards) braclet that is supposed to have all sorts of magic body healing properties. I knew it was all rubbish but the guy was funny and I just wanted to do a bit of rash spending. MJ tried to drag me way without success.  Next another guy, this one a beautician type tried to sell me some expensive eye cream. He asked me what my beauty regime was and was quite startled when I said I didn't have one. So was that because I was too busy or just lazy. Lazy I said. He then applied this magic cream to my right eye and then showed me the result - and so now having seen such a wonderous transformation would I like to buy this little tube for the paltry price of $700. Crikey that's more than I've spent on stuff in the last 20 plus years. As we continued to walk around I never noticed anyone looking at me and pointing at my new improved eye so don't think the improvement was that great. By the time we had found our way out of Ceasars we were knackered so caught monorail back to our motel for a wee rest before heading back into the night time action.

 We had bought tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show called The Beatles Love Show. I think Marty agreed to go initially just to humour me. We had to be at the theatre at 6.30 and as you know I hate arriving at these sort of things late. Well no chance of that. We hadn't updated out time pieces so arrived an hour early. Shit we had to wander around the casino killing time. So bloody boring.

The show was fantastic. Were almost tempted to buy tickets for the 9.30 show so we could see it again. We had done our dash with Vegas, had enough of the bright lights so headed back to Coco's for dinner then bed. I'm not a casino person at all and have no desire to rush back. Was good to go and have a look around but isn't a holiday destination for me.

Dever to Bryce National Park

Said our goodbyes to Caryl and Maree this morning. Seems a bit strange being only 2 but I'm sure we will cope. Worse thing was I woke up with a sore throat that got worse as the day progressed. We had a beautiful ride south to Durango. Traffic was heavy for the first 100 odd miles but that meant we could enjoy the scenery.

The roads were pretty cool to. Big sweeping corners and a few little twisty bits as well. We arrived in Durango about 6pm. I was feeling like crap and very tired. We went to a bar where they had live music but my ph wouldn't work which meant I couldn't look for a motel so we went back to the bikes where we discovered we had a parking ticket. Another souvenier. Found a motel but she couldn't hear me or understand me so we rode there instead. Got an ok room. I had a bit of a rest then went across the road to the supermarket bought some tea and cough and flu medicine. Hope it works.

 Still not feeling 100%  so we had a very slow start to the day. Headed of to the Stopped for brunch at subway in the town of Aztec and the owner came out and starting yakking to us. He was so impressed with us and the trip we are doing. Reckons we are the real deal. Nice guy and a bike nut as well.

Carried on to the Aztec Ruins National Park, a place I have always wznted to visit.
The ruins were pretty cool. They are actually ruins from the Puebloan people.

They have reconstructed a Kiva which is quite impressive.

 We then went onto Vesta Merde National Park. Now that was stunning. The views on the road in and out were spectacular.

We also went on a tour to Cliff Palace. This is the biggest cliff dwelling in nirth america, having over 150 rooms.

A great day finished by having a very nice Indian meal for tea. Now to get rid of this cough and runny nose!

We headed off about 8.30 this morning and our first stop was the four corners monument. This is on Navajo land so we had to pay $5 park entry but I'm ok with that. But man was I disappointed. I thought it was a big statue type monument we couldpark the bikes by and take a photo but no it is a big quadrangle with heaps of stalls all the way around selling Indian crafts etc and in the middle is the four corners monument and flags. I had to kneel down on it to be in all 4 states and get the picture.

 We then just basically rode thru Arizona and into Utah stopping only for gas and drinks. At Kanab we had just filled up and the heavens opened complete with hail so we parked up in Wendys and had a drink. When it looked like it had cleared we headed off but some of the town was flooded so we were detoured by the police - right into a street of raging water and mud. I got well and truly stuck in the mud and it took 5 of us and a spadeand a hell of a lot of pushing and shoving to free the bike. We then waited for things to subside before we continued. While we were waiting we helped the same guys who helped me free a car driver who had also become stuck.

Never a dull moment on this trip Carried on to ur motel in Orderville. The lovely lady here let Marty hose the bikes downbefore the mud set.

She even heated our pizza for tea Am very tired tonight. Been a long day and still coughing and blowing.

 Saturday and still feel like crap when I woke up so MJ booked us in for another night. We had to change rooms so that meant we didnt have to rush so I had a sleep in.

 We headed off to Bryce Canyon just before lunch. Stopped at a little cafe along the way for a bite to eat. Bryce was stunning as per usual. Nice ride there and back.

We didn't do the loop track down to the bottom of the canyon. Bike gear on a stinking hot day just doesn't allow for that. We were quite happy just to take in the view.