Las Vegas

Tuesday 25th and Wed 26th

Tuesday we bought tickets for a tourist shuttle buse and travelled down the strip. Big WOW factor at every turn in Las Vegas. From the hotels and the architectrue to the people on the street and the small vendors it is all entertaining.

Had a visit to Frement Street to see the overhead light show running two blocks. Big technical upgrade since my lastvisit 11 years ago. Featured a tribute to Queen and others. Great color light and sound. Draws a large crowd several times an evening.

Last night a show at The Mirage with master magitian Lance Burton. Beyond magic it was full on with great sets, costumes and magic.

Today a free day. Three of us went to the outlets shops on the edge of the city. More Wow factor.No tool shops for the men but did manage to get some cloths and luggage to carry it all home with.

Tonight a show featuring Cher followed by supper. In all a fair test for the body. Back to the bikes and Death Valley tommorrow.

Lake Powell Utah

Lake Powell Utah.
The photo shows a back section of lake Powell. The sand stone curves are quite interesting. Other parts of the lake are wider and more conventional. The lake is about 200 miles long and is so winding in the sand stone canyons that it has approximately 1200 miles of shorline. Flows are used to generate hydro power half of which is sold to southern California.

The lake is used for recreation and we could see a mariner at Frog Hole with houseboats dotting parts of the lake. The white line above the water represents the drop of level over the last ten odd years due to drought. That line as seen from 9000 feet above see level is 100 feet high!

Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.

Sunday 23rd
Paul, Gerald and Hugh take an early morning, 2.5hr flight from Brice over the rugged canyons and stepped lands to Monument Valley. Good to get a perspective on the area, the Monument Valley was a little dissapointing and the flight a little too bumpy.

"split in the camp".
SUV loaded and everyone rugged up on bikes. Paul and Ken set the heater to a steady 23 and headed for Las Vegas while the remainder (who had not seen the Grand Canyon before) headed off in a strong cold wind to the Grand Canyon. They experienced some tough winds and overnight snow, (see photo) some what of a record snow for this time of year. Like Brice the wall of the canyon is at 8000 feet plus, so cold and snow is always possible in the non summer period. After having a good look at the canyon on Sunday evening they chipped the snow off the bikes in the morning, and headed off to LV on Monday in great weather and passed through Zion National Park, from all reports a great ride and good scenery again.

Meanwhile Ken and I battled LV traffic and navigated to the MGM hotel where we found about 6 lanes of cars and taxis at the entrance out front of the lobby and at least 20 staff serving at the check in counter with visiters 5 deep. We managed to negotiate all this and took in some of the miles of poker machines in this hotel which has 5,005 guest rooms. The MGM is seriously large I think the largest hotel in the world. This morning just getting from breakfast back to our room on the 16th floor and back to the lobby took 17 minutes without any hold ups. Apparently ther are 4 Star bucks here, I have only seen two so far.

Monday evening the bikers turn up in time for dinner.

All back together and the split in the camp is history.

More canyon stories

^{Saturday Ken, Gerald & Graham took a day off for house hold duties & Paul, Rory & Hugh couldn’t help themselves and did a all day 250 mls round trip in a blustery wind – but found some more great roads- including a little gravel to keep Hugh in familiar territory –}

The all time classic trip story especially for the Mt Gambier Ulysses news letter. Unfortunately we don’t have a picture but imagine this; a well known local member part of our team needs more tooth paste, but forgot to take his glasses as usual. First attempt to clean his teeth completely broke the party up, Ken fell about laughing at Rory’ mouth full of denture glue. We are still trying to prize open his jaw. Actually we think we might leave it stuck as the silence is golden.

We have just today received blog comments from the first few blogs. Not sure why it took so long but we appreciate all the comments and have shared them with the team.

Mongrels enter Bad Lands

Thur– Sat 20^th – 22^{nd May}

^{Thursday has us riding into more great scenery along high plateau with distant snow capped mountains AGAIN. Took a side road for a better pic opportunity – but even then the photos do not}

^{Show how great it looks in real life, sorry.}

^{Friday we arrived at Bryce Canyon for a 3 day camp. Saturday Rory, Gerald, Hugh and Paul took the Canyon Shuttle bus into the canyon area for a walk down into the canyon floor. Boy was it a steep walk down into the canyon a real goat track, but we even saw recent Bobcat tracks – that driver must have some serious skills and big b…s! The walk was fantastic the views simply unique. We were lucky enough to catch a talk by a Ranger who helped us understand the geology of the whole Colorado Plateau.}

Heading for the bad lands

Wednesday the 19th.

The ride today was from Diamondsville Utah
again through mountain passes and wide valleys, avoiding as much as possible the interstate freeways. The photo opposite is on a plateau on the way with a large canyon below and snow on the mountains opposite. It was windy and very cold, down to 7 degrees at times. We rugged up well. Ken kept the vehicle warm and we were worried about his responsibility in keeping the heat right as well as navigating and the ocassional country hit played over the two way for us, and all we had to do was ride and figure a way to keep out hands warm.umping out. I did have a white tail deer run along side me for several hundred meters today.

After Green River and lunch the ride warmed up and took us through a long canyon with steep hills on either side and some cattle ranching alongside the road. Very isolated and not exactly profitable ranches. Most riders said it was the best afternoons riding so far with the right mix of bends, hills, scenery, weather and light traffic and not too many deer jumping out in front of us. We are definately in low rainfall range land, which is a big change after the dense forrests and grassy valleys, but still often quite high in elevation. Today we passed through 9000 feet.

We finished in Price still in Utah. Tomorrow we should visit Brice Canyon and Arizona.

The escape

We have often mentioned how good the weather has been. Well our luck ran out yesterday. We started in Victor Idaho and ended in Diamondsville Utah. First thing the sun was out and we rode a short 20 miles to Wilson for breakfast. The ride took us through a mountain pass and in some light rain at snow level. Hugh said it wasnt much rain but that is compared to Lucindale. I thought it enough for a Mallee cocky to start seeding. After a delightfull breakfast we rode through some valleys and mountains with a post card view at every turn and riding on magnificant roads. Are you getting sick of us talking about views, well we are not sick of seeing them.

We did have two other rain events and managed to find a coffee shop, or as the picture shows a petrol station which happened to have coffee and a warm lounge to wait out the hail.

We ended in a wind swept Utah town of Diamondsville with not much to recomend it. On riding out today the mining and gas industries were very evidnet. 50 to maybe 100 well heads each extracting gas and sveral large factories either burning coal or manufacturing products from local mines.

Old Geisers visit Old Faithfull

On our visit to Yellowstone we were fortunate in seeing Old Faithfull give its display. There would have been 1000 people there to witness the spectacular geiser. The car park was almost full and this is the sholder season. It must be very busy mid summer.

Rafting Snake River

Gerald & Rory took a rafting trip down the white water, foaming torrent of Snake River just near Yellowstone park. They survived to tell the story.

Yellowstone and some time out

Sat/Sunday/Monday the 17th.

We had three nights in Gardiner Montana. A small town on the nth entrance to Yellowstone Nat Park in the Rockies.

On Sat we had a trip through part of the park including a look at Old faithfull the geiser that blows every 90 minutes or so. It is still very early season and many roads in the park are not open. As we discovered on Sunday morning not too many shops or eating establishments are open either. I would not like to be visiting Yellowstone in peak holliday season. The traffic on these narrow roads would be hell.

On sunday mroning three of us took an early ride back into the park to see the animals before they retreated into the woods. Plenty of Bison are around all day. ELk are quiet tame and we just missed a bear which crossed the road into a large bare hill. Two more corners and cars were stopped, tripods out and cameras ready incase the bear came their way.

We had some bike trouble on that trip. One Honda had a flat battery and Hugh had to roll start it several times. Being on large hills helped. We went back to the Motel and investigated and decided the system was not charging.Charged the battery off the SUV and got through today, Monday. We stopped at a large m/cycle dealer who did not have the parts but bought a new battery and charger. Should get a few more days out of it if we do not ride at night.

Enjoyed a break Sunday afternoon. the high altitude saps energy and I think most had a nap.

Rode through the park today and came out of the Sth entrance at about 5 degrees air temp. Even saw a few frozen lakes due to the altitude. Lakes at lower levels are not frozen.

Have moved Sth East into Idaho. Looking for interesting roads to Vegas. I think this is the seventh state plus Canada in our trip. Have done around 3,100 miles or 4,800 Klm's. Hope to slow a little or we will be back in LA too soon. The other stat that occured to me today is we have ridden many mountain passes and have possibly had snow in site and a stream/river full of snow melt on all but one riding day over the last eight or so days. We came away for adventure and to see things that are different from what we see at home. Todate we have exceeded beyond expectation.

Hope all is well with the folks back home. We are well and still enjoying the trip.

Gardiner with snow capped peaks

Friday the 15^th

Missoula to Gardiner

Had a short shopping visit in a Wal-Mart at Missoula. Gerald bought a year’s supply of jeans and shirts for about $70. Graham bought a new pair of boots for a bargain price. Then on the road to Gardiner, which is just outside the gates to Yellowstone. Graham had a full day on the bike. He’s back! But he declined an offer to go boot scooting tonight.

As we travelled the country opened up to a wider valley. The mountains were a little lower at first and less wooded than Washington but always we had a view of snow capped peaks. Lunch at Butte and a chance chat to a local. He had taken up riding in the last five years and gave us some directions to good bike roads South and West of Yellowstone for later. The snow capped mountains got larger and at times were 180 degrees around us, but still the valley was wide and many ranches had cattle but very little grass. Apparently they had snow last week and the weather was foul. Today it is low 70’s, how lucky have we been with the weather? The view from the motel tells some of the story.

Apparently to send a message on the blog you have to go to Google and sign up as a “friend connect” or similar. Not difficult I am led to believe. Alternately you can email me and I will relay the message. I can be emailed at onroad@nutwood.net.au