Day 8, Bryce Canyon to Sin City

Disturbed again in the night by someone from UK calling my phone. More jumping out of bed and swearing! It'll go off tonight.

Dud and I went over for some brekkie quite early, as we wanted to take a quick shufty in the park before we set off for Vegas. Bit chilly this morning. Lovely clear blue sky but we're quite high up, so the air hadn't warmed up. Boy hadn't it warmed up!! As we headed into the park, Barbara and Tony in tow, my hands were freezing. That's fingerless gloves for ya!

With a smile, the lovely  young female 'ranger'  at the entrance kiosk  (they all seem to be, except the 'man' at Joshua), ushered us through and we headed for Sunrise Point. We'd missed the sunrise obviously but it was still a decent view, even given the number of stunning vistas we have witnessed thus far.

At the point, there were some Aussies (yes, they let them roam free here too), with a little remote controlled hover thingy, to which was attached his Go-pro. He'd just sent it down over the canyon, apparently not worried he might lose $2k worth of kit if he were to suffer a Dudley moment. I expect the footage will be quite stunning though.

Sunrise Point, Bryce Canyon

Cheryl (remember ssh) and Geoff had joined us at the point and we all remounted, setting off, so I thought for a run further into the park. I turned left, whilst the others, apparently nervous at not being back at the hotel in time for departure turned right and headed for the exit. Their loss. A short distance up the road there was a clearing, in which stood a lone deer. I stopped and took some photos. I turned round to retrace my tracks, when blow me but another, larger deer, was just a few feet from the road edge. I slowly cruised up and grabbed a couple of shots on the phone. It wasn't fazed at all and just went on munching the grass.

Caution! Deer crossing.
 

A little further round the corner, now on my way back to the exit, I rode passed a little Prairy Dog (?) sitting up Meercat like at the edge of the road. Cute!

Back at the hotel, the others tried to suggest I had turned the wrong way! Pah!

Barbara, wasn't feeling well after a bad night, possibly due to the buffalo burger and decided she couldn't ride the distance we we going to be travelling, so she got to ride shotgun in the airconditioned truck!

We popped across the road to fuel up, then set off for Vegas. Our next target, however, was the Zion National Park. Dean had given this a big build up and wanted us to get a group bike photo in front of the Zion sign. Can't beat a good bike line-up group photo, so when we arrived, we were somewhat disappointed to find a couple of cars in the lay-by, forcing us across the road. Soon though it cleared and we commandeered the space for about half a dozen bikes. Wat to go!

The Gang, Zion NP.

And so on into Zion. We were left to make our own way through the park, to allow us to stop and take photos at our leisure. Dean had said this was his favourite part of the tour, because you actually get to ride down inside the canyon. He wasn't speaking metaphorically either, as part way through, there is a huge tunnel, cut through the rock in the 1930s, that takes you down and round to a lower part of the canyon. Orsum! Let me tell ya, those Harley pipes kick up quite a racket in an enclosed space too, in the wrong hands :-)

Having marvelled once again at what this part of the US has to offer, we rendevoused with Dean and take a short ride to our lunch stop. Wild Willy's, I think it was called. You'd think doing a blog, I'd pay more attention to these little details, eh? Lunch was a huge chicken ceasar salad, was hed down with raspberry iced tea. The pretty and spunky young gal serving us, belied her demure stature by carrying a tray of about a dozen drinks on one hand! Dud tried, in vain, to persuade her to come along with us, I think more for someone to help lift the bike, should he have another mishap, than for any sort of hanky panky ;-)

After lunch we got into the serious business of riding to Vegas. A stop at Zion Harley, the first of several 'cooling' off stops, gave people another to chance to buy their overpriced Harley gear. Alec, our Bristolian Trucking Magnate, was interested in a $30k fullly loaded Electraglide, pondering whether it was worth shipping one back to blighty. I think he decided it wasn't.

Our last stop before Sin City was a little diner/ice cream parlour. Several of us had ice cream. A single scoop waffle cone, for $3.45 would probably feed a family of four back in blighty......OK, slight exaggeration but it was still extremely large.

The last leg of the journey was on a superb twisty and undulating back road, skirting around Lake Mead. It's hot and desolate out there, so we were a tad surprised, first to see a sign saying, 'Watch for animals' and then to have some big curly horned goat thing run across the road in front of us. Billy Goat no mates, out there, I reckon!!

All too soon the road brought us into Henderson on the edge of Vegas. We had a quick stop for a panaramic snap of Vegas in the distance, then joined the madness of the highway to take us into the city. As we approached, the hotel, our way off the highway was blocked by police cars. We believe the VP, Mitt Romney was in town. Hence, Dean spent the next 10 -15 minutes trying to negotiate us round the blocks of towering hotels, until we finally found a way into the Monte Carlo car park.

Parked up, we met up with the truck for some ice cold beers. It had been a hot and tiring second half of the day.

Later we met up for a farewll dinner, as Alec & Sally, Barbara and Tony are only doing the first half of the tour. Dean gave a little (did I say little?) speech (he sure can talk) and then it was off to bed or the bar, depending on how shattered you were feeling. Dud and I were done in, so it was bed for us.

Tomorrow we have a day of rest. I expect we'll take a walk along The Strip and pop in the various hotels to marvel at their sheer size and some might say, vulgarity.

Incidentally, Cheryl won $115 dollars on one of the slots, so we'll be expecting her to buy the beers before the week is out ;-)