Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, Death Valley…

Another long and especially hot day in the saddle…!!

Visited the Hoover Dam and met two amazing guys on their Harley’s… Ed Rieken and Dain Chapman, who hail from Tennessee, are riding their bikes around the southern states… What makes them remarkable, is the fact that they are both amputees, but have never let the fact that they are each missing a leg, get in the way of the their love of motorcycles and riding…

The Hoover Dam, although spectacular, was not as big as I thought it would be…. The Maguga Dam wall is just as impressive…!!

“Fast Eddie” and Dain, travel with their dog…!! See you in Memphis and Nashville, boys…!! Keep the beers cold…!!

I arrived in Las Vegas at 11.00am, not the best time to see the Sunset Strip in all it’s glory….!! I rode straight through it without stopping… I am not a gambling man, except when it comes to the type that involves four legs and a rider who “owes me favour”… That usually makes the odds a lot better, I find…!!

Egypt in Vegas…?? Chalking up another Pyramid on my World Tour…!!

We rode on into the furnace of Death Valley National Park, where the temperature was at an unbelieveable 48 degrees Celsius…!! At one point we were at 30 metres below sea level, the lowest point on the North American continent…

Parked at one of the many monuments that were once used to mine Borax in this area… Furnace Creek, Death Valley.

As you can see, it can get pretty hot in these parts…!!

The ride out of Death Valley, and all the way to Bakersfield where I stopped for the night, was made on a road that I would have loved to ride again….!!

Kingman, Arizona to Bakersfield, California… Another long day in the saddle, covering 785 km….!!

I will be spending the weekend in Santa Barbara on the Californian Coast, where I hope to be able to “flesh out” my last two posts and bring you up to date with the details of the two great rides I have just made…

I am now more comfortable with the time I have left to ride to Alaska and back to New York… Hopefully I will not have to make too many more long rides, to get it all done in the time I have left…!!

GB

Bakersfield, California.