Well early morning in Vegas is pretty quiet...a few left over from the night before stumbling about…I wanted to ride my moto down the strip and luckily it was a nice brisk morning to see all the extravaganza that Vegas has to offer in its building and fantasy…very cool feeling…Leaving..Hahaa
So I now head south towards historic Route 66…I ride over the beautiful new Hoover Dam bridge...last time I was here there was only about a quarter of it sticking out during construction…
The ride from Vegas to Kingman is open road with few curves so I completely got in the zone that people here in Arizona must love riding for…
I ride Route 66 from Kingman to Williams, stopping in Seligman for lunch…it was a nice open road, well-paved and pretty views…Seligman was a very touristy area with lots of kitsch for everyone! And yes of course I bought a few souvenirs…
Williams. AZ, was a very adorable town as well…it was lively with lots of people out on its main street…live music and lots of motorcycles…historic and charming…
After Williams I connected to the 180 N heading to the Grand Canyon…my hotel is actually in the park called the Maswik Lodge, part of the NPS…after getting checked in and resting for a but I put on some walking shoes and head to see the Grand Canyon!! It really is a 5-minute walk from my front door…
Wow! Pretty much the next 3-4 hours I spent walking around and taking pics…I hiked down the canyon a but and that is where I really enjoyed the views. Watching the amazing Condors in all their majestic glory!! I have now added new item to my adventure list…hike or burro down and over to North Rim…and I recall that this was the original reason I was inspired to quit smoking ciggies over 3 years ago! (thanks Eric L.)
After sunset, back to my room for some shut eye!! Sleeping with the Condors tonight!!
A long time ago, October 1986 in fact, my uncle and I had the opportunity to hike across the Grand Canyon. On the South Rim I stayed in a tent and woke to cold temperatures and a fresh snow. I thought what have I got myself into. Freezing, we broke camp and made our way to the South Kiabab? trail head. Down into the canyon and warmer weather we went. We hiked for three days and spent two nights in the canyon. Once we made it to the North Rim we were to catch a plane back to the South Rim, our shuttle bus dropped us at the edge of a snow covered cow pasture and we hiked across the snowy slush to get to the plane.(my first flight) On takeoff the plane started to slide sideways and the pilot aborted,then announced he was going to try again. (i had quit taking pictures). This time the plane started to slew again but the pilot pulled up on the stick rapidly to get airborne, so rapidly that the tail of the plane hit the ground. But then we were flying and saw the canyon and all it's majesty from the air. On landing my uncle informed me (he was a navigator in WWII) that in all his flights he had never experienced an aborted take-off, and, 99% of the time when the back of a plane hits the ground it will flip back over on it's top and crash.
ReplyDeleteSorry for rambling, your blog just brought back old memories.
Rick