June 09, 2010 Goodbye Beatty, NV, Hello Hoover Dam & Kingman, AZ

We were off early today, we had a nice fattening breakfast at the Stagecoach Casino, gassed up at the Chevron next door to the motel and headed out of town.

We nearly made it but I spotted a bunch of rusted car parts in a flea market so we turned around to see what they had. Nothing we could take with us so we continued on our way.

The temperature rose and we were both outfitted in lighter wear to keep from croaking in the heat. Riding in hot weather is nicer than freezing your butt off but you have to drink lots of water which we’ve been doing.

Following the GPS we rode south towards Las Vegas where I’d hoped to meet up with my friend Dane. He’d bought my old BMW and had hooked up a Ural sidecar to it and I was anxious to see it. It was hot as hell when we entered the Las Vegas area so we pulled over and I tried calling his cell but got a “Disconnected and no new #” message. Not easily discouraged I told Chuck, “Hey, I have his shop address plugged into my GPS, let’s just drop in on him” and away we went. Following the route per Garmin & Co, we ended up on what appeared to be a semi-abandoned road. By then we were hot and ready to abandon the entire mission so I had Chuck take my picture just to prove we’d been there and we moved on. (Got an email from Dane this afternoon asking where we were so I sent him the photo…)

Once we’d decided to move along we stopped briefly for refueling and a pop, then got back on the blistering hot slab and headed south to Hoover Dam.

What a bummer that part of our ride was, it took us and hour and a half to get through the 4-mile long line over the dam. Security guards eyeball everyone who passes that way but evidently our bikes didn’t match their profiling criteria so we were flagged right through without being searched.

Continuing south my butt was starting to feel like it was ready to drop off when we discovered the little known tourist trap Arizona Trading Post. It's located on highway 93 about 20 miles north of Kingman, AZ, you can't miss it... 

It's a fun place to stop for a break as they had all sorts of neat kiddy stuff we could play with and take pictures of.

From there it was more miles of hot riding accompanied by blistering cross-winds nearly all the way to Kingman, AZ where we elected to haul it in for the day. Chuck’s back was bothering him and my butt was fixing to fall off again and Motel 6 was calling us.

We checked in and before I could turn around Chuck was headed to the pool. It didn’t take me long to follow, no wading in torture, we’re real men and jumped right in. Actually Chuck jumped in and I wasn’t about to admit I didn’t want to so in I went right behind him.

We must have lucked out as we were the only ones there, no little kiddies, no mamas to deal with, and so on. An hour later it was mayhem.

Once we’d cooled off it was back to our room for some reorganizing and getting ready for dinner at the place next door, The Calico. It was a good pick, the food was great and Chuck paid! Can't get much better than that.

Back from dinner we watched the final game in the Stanley Cup playoffs which got our adrenalin pumping. Now the bikes are in bed, we're both pooped so it must be time to call it a day.