Utah into Nevada

Once again the morning was clear and warm. We hit the road early after making the decision to miss Bryce Canyon in favour of a shorter ride direct to Vegas (still around five hours). Kayenta is typical of the small towns that dot this landscape, real mainstreet USA. A main street backdropped by mesas and mountains, the usual franchises such as McDonald's, Starbucks and Burger King are always represented  These are normally centred around gas stations and malls, but you also get local cuisine and this is normally very very good.  

Everyone of these small places is gearing up for the 4th of July. The Americans aren't afraid to fly their flag and most of the streets we travel down are full of houses with "Old Glory" proudly displayed. With the 4th of July approaching the flag waving is reaching a new high. Breakfast (once again) was in a diner in the middle of nowhere that always seems to have local people  in them. Where the hell do they come from?

The ride had us go over the Lake Powell dam and the lake behind is a popular destination for boaties of the seriously big V8 engine kind. This is another aspect of the US culture that you really cannot get away from. Big engines and going fast.

We hit Vegas around 3.30 and it was seriously hot. Straight to the Harley dealer and more T shirt buying. This takes the T shirt toal from Harley dealers well past ten. Once again the female relatives of Miss Universe and her twin sisters from Dallas were in attendance but with noticeably less clothes on. In the interests of keeping this a family blog I will leave this to your imagination. While in Kayenta I logged on to the net and booked a suite at the historic Sahara Casino. This is where the rat pack aka Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr all performed and cut loose. It was once owned by the mob and  sits on the strip as the last of the old school casinos. As we pulled in to the carpark I noticed a large group of bikers parked up. As both Bo and I were "patched up" with the Ulysses Club vests I got a bit concerned when this 6 foot 10 inch dark guy ambles over to us from the group. Fearing we had inadvertantly upset them I was prepared for the worst, however he introduced himself as Jessie, the President of "The Regulators" Motorcycle Club and invited Bo and I to their Pool party at a nearby address.  We graciously declined, but thanked them for the invite. Not sure where this would have taken us had we accepted, but I am sure it would have been interesting.

Vegas has changed since we were last here, but not significantly. After showering and putting on our best "stepping out" clothes we asked the concierge to send us to the best bar in town to kick the night off. Funnily enough that turned out to be Margaritaville (so yes Bill, you have a T Shirt), where upon we made friends for life with everyone in the bar as we worked our way through the entire margarita menu. From there it was straight to Mickey Gillies Bar at Treasure Island where they had a kick ass country rock band. From here it was a blur as we walked the strip calling in to various bars to top up. When I finally looked at my watch it was 4.30 in the morning and we were seriously "rat legged". As we had seperated from the main group (they were in Lake Havasu) we dicided to save the money put aside for the Vegas Wedding and keep it for New Orleans. None the less we went to the Little White Wedding Chapel to make sure we knew what we were missing out on.

  

As we had a passing drunk in a tuxedo ( I kid you not) take this photo the Minister appeared and told us we needed to ride the bikes round to the side entrance and wait in the line that had already formed to get married in the drive thru tunnel of love. Elvis was not in the building so we rode off heading for Havasu. As we did we passed the "porn shop" (no not the sex one) and there was also a line of about thirty people waiting to sell whatever they owned worth anything to get more money for gambling. It sort of sums this place up, winners and losers. You sure as hell do not want to be in the latter group. The ride to Havasu was gruelling. We spent most of it in the Mojave Desert in temperatures in the late 50's. We passed out of Nevada, into Arizona, then into California. By the time we got to Havasu we were exhausted. We reunited with the team who were in good spirits just in time to farewell Mike who was off to New York to visit friends before heading home. It is ribs on the BBQ tonight mexican style, washed down with beaucoup beers and of course... the guitars and some singing. No sleep tonight for the locals.