My Motorcycle Adventures: 2016 Motorcycle Adventure (DAY Thirteen)

Another beautiful morning to wake up to. I had just put on a pot of coffee and was cutting up my grapefruit when a little brown chicken came running into my campsite. He was very friendly and quite curious about my breakfast preparation. I have no idea where he came from but he stayed very close to me like we were best buds or something. I gave him a few cheerios which he gobbled up. He even hopped up on the picnic table so I took a few photos just in case you thought I was making this all up.

I was just minutes outside the east gate to Zion National Park so I was in no big hurry to break camp. I eventually rolled out at 10:00 only to find a long line of traffic to enter the park.
Once through the gate I had only driven less than five minutes when I spotted a photo opportunity and pulled over into a scenic outlook. There wasn't a lot of room so I was trying to pull in so the trailer wasn't still out on the road. My front wheel went off the pavement and sunk into the soft sand and I knew instantly that I was stuck. The wheel went in so deep that I could climb off the bike and it would stand up all by itself. The only way to get out was to disconnect the trailer to take the weight off the back wheel. I was worried that it might just dig a deeper hole as the rear wheel spun but it just lifted itself up and I was out in no time.

This place is a photographer's dream come true so I took lots of pics of the incredible rock formations that have been formed by glacier and natural erosion over millions of years.

Now shortly after taking this last shot the traffic again came to a complete stop as I approached a much longer tunnel. The tunnel is 1.1 miles long, which is amazing in itself but because it is 11' 4" tall and quite narrow and many travellers are driving huge motorhomes they only allow one lane at a time to go through the tunnel. This means that they halt traffic in one direction and then after so many cars have gone through they halt traffic in the other direction and so on. The tunnel was constructed over ten years between 1920 and 1930. There are no lights inside the tunnel but every so often they have cut "windows" to the outside for light and ventilation. Because you aren't permitted to stop inside the tunnel I took shots after leaving it to show the holes or windows cut through the rock.

The views are endless so here are a few more.

My original plan was to take the shuttle to all the even cooler spots that can't be seen from the road but the crowds and the heat were just too much so I decided to push on to Las Vegas. Just outside the west gate I passed a little gallery and had to stop for a couple of photos of their spinning sculptures. Last summer I saw some similar sculptures and I really want to make some for Chez Monet.

Once out on the interstate I was overwhelmed with the heat and because I just had on a t-shirt and my arms were getting overcooked I pulled off to put on a long sleeved shirt and have a refreshing drink. I was just getting out my shirt when a highway patrol officer pulled along side and asked if I was okay. I explained that the heat was killing me and he looked at his dash thermometer and told me it was 120'F. I verified this by looking at my on board thermometer.

I have now passed into Pacific time zone so I'm three hours earlier than back home so I've gained an hour. I finally made it to Las Vegas about 3:00 pm and found a KOA that's connected to the Sam's Town Hotel and Casino. It's just too hot to ride anymore today.
The KOA registration dude offered to take my photo in front of a huge wall photo of Vegas.

And of course any trip to Las Vegas must include a visit to the "strip". I had spent a few years visiting Vegas each month as part of my sales territory with American Honda Motorcycle Sales division but I just wanted to see if the place had changed much in the last 16 years. I'm afraid it's the same old glitzy seedy place it always was.