Leaving Las Vegas!

Steve acting like he doesn't know us!

     Alright, we're back at it after spending the last 6 nights in Vegas. We spent a couple days on the strip with Marybeth's brother Steve, giving our money to Harrah's, Flamingo, Caesar's and Bally's.

 
Friday night we celebrated Cathy's 50th with some of their friends at Claim Jumpers.  The food was good but the service was pretty bad!

     We took a hot ride on Saturday out to Good Springs and the Pioneer Saloon where we donated to the historical marker that is being erected next September marking the Saloon's centennial.  The Pioneer is where Clark Gable waited on word of Carole Lombard's fate on January 16, 1942 when her plane crashed on Mount Potosi, Nevada, and then we headed up to Mountain Springs before returning to the 101 degree heat of Vegas and hitting a Diners, Drive-ins and Dives spot, Bachi Burger.

 We finished off Saturday with a trip to the M Casino and South Point Casino with Bob and Cathy. On Sunday, We went with Steve to the Sun Coast Casino to watch the Browns game.
The casinos weren't kind to us but we still have gas money so we're hitting the road and heading to Nashville for a few nights. We left Bob and Cathy's a little after 8 Vegas time. Loading the bikes in Bob's garage was hot and humid and my T-shirt was soaked with sweat and I was really anticipating a hot steamy ride today, but as we headed out, it was really quite comfortable. We got off the highway in Henderson to fuel up both us and the bikes. We hit McDonald's for a quick bite and headed down the road toward Boulder Hwy and spotted a 7-11 gas station on the corner. As I approached the driveway, there was water running in the gutter. No big deal, a little water never hurt anyone. I start making my turn and when my back wheel hit the wet gutter, it was like ice! My right leg shot out as the back wheel slid left and I manage to catch it in time and didn't go down. Whew! That was close. Pulled up to the pumps and gassed up, then walked over to see what was so slick. It looked like some oil had soaked into the concrete and created an ice skating rink. I told the cop sitting in his car at the other end of the lot and he said he'd look at it. He drove that direction and didn't look at it for long before driving off. I'm hoping he called someone to take care of it or else he'll be taking an accident report later. A guy getting into his pick up asked if there was oil there or something because he had seen my dramatic entry into the lot. He had said the same thing I said when it happened. "OH SHIT!"                                                                                                                                                
We motored on and made our descent to Hoover Dam. What an awesome sight as we approached and Lake Meade  could be seen to our front left. The signs were advising of high winds across the new bridge. http://www.hooverdambypass.org/. Luckily there are high enough side on the bridge that we couldn't get blown over the edge.     

     We made it to the Arizona side and stowed the helmets before heading down RT 93 toward Kingman, AZ, formerly a 2 lane road but is now a 4 lane divided limited access highway. In 1993 when I drove this, there were signs warning of how dangerous the road was because of its 70 or so miles of nothing and a lot of people nodding out and crossing left of center. Now they gotta travel through 20 yards of median to get ya!

We reached I-40 and headed east. Still nice temps but some dark clouds up ahead. We hit some light showers but not enough to put on the rain suits. We stopped for gas and water and headed on to Flagstaff, about 54 miles away to grab some lunch. About 30 miles from flagstaff, the sky darkened and shafts of rain could be seen in the mountains ahead.

    We pulled off and put on rain jackets and our full face helmets. We hit enough rain to wet our lower pant legs and make the full face helmets worthwhile. We made it to flagstaff a around 1 pm and had lunch at Salsa Brava.   After dining on some really spicy pork tacos, we headed out toward Gallup, NM, our destination for the night. As we got close to our exit, both our bikes went on reserve but I figured we had enough fuel to make it and since we could see black skies ahead lightning ahead. We made it to the Hampton Inn and unloaded and parked as the wind was whipping up and the rain was starting. Perfect timing again! Tomorrow, we're off to Amarillo and a night at the Big Texan Steak Ranch and Motel.