Vegas Baby!

     We got up at 5 am yesterday planning on leaving Richfield by 7. I tried to finish my blog from Sunday and Monday while Marybeth was getting ready for breakfast but that wasn't happening because this Google Blogger isn't real user friendly when it comes to loading pictures and placing them where you want them. We made it down to breakfast and we grabbed a table furthest from the buffet. I got some food and took it to the table and went back to get a fork and napkin and this heavy set eastern European looking guy is now standing in the walkway between the tables. I say excuse me. He continues standing there looking in the direction of the buffet. Excuse me! He still stands there! I squeeze by and get what I needed and when I come back to my table, he's now sitting with his chair slid back into mine and I can't even pull it away from the table to sit down. I end up dragging our table over about a foot so I can pull my chair out and sit down. Then I hear the talking heads on CNN praising Michelle Obama for being so in touch with the youth of America because she talks to her teenage daughters! I guess that qualifies Joe Biden then too!

     We finish breakfast and head back to the room to finish packing.
That's done so I go back down stairs to grab the one and only
 luggage cart and as I round the corner, it's rolling very very slowly
 out the door loaded with a pile of luggage being pushed by a
couple very senior citizens. Well, no cart for us today. I go back
up and we grab our 5 bags and head to the bikes to load.
We gas up and head out. The temperature is in the mid 50's and it feels awesome. We're on I-70 heading to I-15 and about 13 miles short of it, we hit single lane road construction and they got us riding on the berm with it's rumble strips. Then we end up behind one of the construction trucks. Finally, about 3 miles from I-15, the construction ends and I start to pass the truck on a big sweeping right hand curve when BAM! I feel a sting on the inside of my right leg, just above the knee. I brush away what's there without looking down and I see a bee fly up toward my face and bounce off my chest and up in the air. Damn thing must have got trapped between the gas tank and my leg. Now should I pull over and drop drawers to see if the stinger is in there or just wait. I ride on, paying attention to if my throat is closing up or any thing. Nothing, I'm ok.
     We hit I-15 and the speed limit is 80! Once in a while it drops down to 75 when passing through a city limits. There is a car pulled over by a Trooper. I wonder how fast you gotta be driving to get stopped for speeding in an 80 MPH zone. On down the road I see a farm with about a hundred head of cattle and a couple hills made out of either dirt or manure in the barn yard. A small contingent of cows are on the tops of the hills while the majority are standing on the flat land. I'm thinking the cows on the hills are the outgoing adventurous types.

  Up ahead, the sky is looking gray and off in the distance, shafts of rain can be seen. We're in southern Utah now just north of Washington and St.George. Along with the shaft of rain now are vicious looking bolts of lighting. Then a double bolt of lightening! One for each of us. I see the exit coming up for Washington Utah and try to signal Marybeth to see if she wants to exit and suit up or take shelter. I can't figure out her response so I exit and there I see Zion Harley Davidson. Perfect. As we park the bikes I feel the first rain drops. We do some shopping and 2 T-shirts and $70 later, the rain is stopped and the storm is north of us now. Another couple pulls in and I asked what direction they came from and if they hit rain. They came from the south and didn't hit the rain. Just heat!






       We gas up and head south. We hit the Arizona border and the landscape turns to canyon. The scenery is spectacular. On down the road, we hit the Nevada border and pulled off to put the helmets on. It's too damn hot for helmets! It's going to bake my brain. It's about 100 degrees but its a dry heat.
Another hour or so and I can see the Vegas skyline in the distance. We're getting close. Then we hit the downtown traffic and I'm thankful that it's not rush hour. Vegas has installed express lanes with the divider being a double white line. That'll stop em from changing lanes! And the fresh black pavement holds the heat nicely.
We arrive at the Tvrdik's a couple minutes after 1 pm. And it's hot as hell. We leave the bikes in the driveway and have a cold beer with Bob and Cathy and the dogs. When we returned to the bikes to push them into the garage, the grips were so hot that I thought my skin was going to come off on the controls.

After freshening up, we headed to M for lunch and beers. Had a nice Reuben sandwich with pastrami while I gave the video poker machine $20. Thank God Marybeth won $30! Back to the Casa De Tvrdik but not before a stop at Lee Discount Liquor for some tequila. In the locked case I find some Semental Añejo marked down from $44 to $28. It's mine. And then Marybeth finds some Alma ańejo which we've been looking for ever since we had it in Santa Fe, NM in 2010. Gotta get it too. In the car I'm wondering if I'll be able to finish two bottles by Monday. Who am I kidding? We opened the Semental, or should I say Marybeth opened it and we took care of half the bottle last night. It won't be a problem.