This is the end

Sorry I didn’t post last night, but they charge $13 at the excalibur for internet in the room. So the podunk hotels in Cortez and Moab treat you better than the casinos.

So to catch up. Yesterday, we hiked the Navajo Loop trail at Bryce, 1.3 miles and something unexpected around every corner. Water and air are the most patient and amazing builders. The Two Bridges in Bryce, just hanging there in the air, just cool, nothing else.

From Bryce we rode 12 to 89 to 9 and stopped in Zion. Hot. Just fucking hot. We didn’t ride on the shuttle bus, it would’ve taken too long and we may well have been sceneried out by that point. We liked the tunnels and the roads are are excellent, as usual. Michael found a book about stories of the National Parks and was talking to a Ranger who had come to the parks later in life. I think he wants to be a Park Ranger. I can’t wait to see him in the hat.

The ride from Zion to Vegas was just misery on top of misery. Hot and oppressive and nothing but highway the whole way. The speed just climbed and climbed the longer we were out there. I just wanted OUT. We actually didn’t mind stopping to put our helmets back on because we got to stop in the shade for a few minutes. Then we stopped again to get gas and drink 3 waters, we stopped just to get off the damned hot highway.

Finally got into Vegas about 5 and I was just nuts. Surly, mean and confused. I snapped at Michael because he kept reading off the damned room numbers as we were walking down the hallway. After a few minutes in the oxygenated environment and a soda and a gatorade, I was much better. We went down to the casino and I played some cheapie slots and we played the Let it Ride table so that Michael would get the chance to gamble in a relaxed, slower paced environment. I left the table up each time I played. For about 125 total for the trip.

As the sun went down we walked the strip and Michael got to see the breadth of humanity that roams the streets. Depravity with a high gloss and depravity in it’s more natural state were abundant. They’ve changed the free show at the TI as the Treasure Island is now called. It used to be just a sea battle but now they’ve added Sirens that look a lot like Pussycat Dolls instead of sailors. Lot’s of fireworks and fire and the ship still sinks, so it’s still a good little free show.

We walked across the street to the Palazzo (new) and went the wrong way trying to get to the Venetian and ended up in Barney’s of New York. There was a Bentley parked outside, we fit in quite nicely. We ended up eating at the McDonald’s near Harrah’s (Michael’s idea) and that was entertaining. Girls that were very overdressed for a McDonald’s though there wasn’t much dress there. People walking in to the restaurant carrying beers, just the overall Babylon aspect of the street was vastly entertaining. One casino had a Go Go dancer in a cage right over the card tables. Vegas has defnitely gotten less family oriented, which is as it should be, in my opinion.

Michael enjoyed the blue sky and the canal ON THE 2ND floor as well as the people handing out stripper cards indiscriminately to grandmothers and anyone who would take them. There were women who we were invisible without 100 million in our bank accounts as well as some 400 lb women in ill advised cut-off jean mini-skirts. Our favorite phrase overheard was, “I want your ID and I’ll give you 40 bucks”.

We were pretty beat after we got back to the hotel, so Michael went to sleep and I went back to the casino, just because it calls to me.

It was an uneventful morning, getting the bikes back to the Harley shop. Michael finally got his Jack-in-the-box Super Taco nostalgia (it’s called a Monster taco now) out. This time we got advice on telling the cabbie the route to take to the airport and the cab ride cost us less than half what we got robbed for on the way out.

Total miles for the trip, 1671.
Final stats, 7 National Parks in 5 states. Only rode in the rain twice. Went from 2000 feet to 9600 feet in elevation.
Pigment Qoutient, a mellow brown, occasionally broken up with ashy burnt skin. We didn’t get fried too badly, but we got fried.
Money Situation, we made it out with money, always a plus when leaving Vegas.

We’re beat, but it was a great vacation, giving us a taste of so many different things that the southwest has to offer. If you haven’t been out here, come at least once, especially if you ride. Every American should see the Grand Canyon and Vegas before they die. Both have they’re own grandeur in different ways.

I’ll post more pictures after September 1st, when my upload allowance on flickr increases.