Aug 21/22 Day 5/6

Where are Tom and Lennie Now? - Click here for our current location !

Day 5 begins with another day of cool morning temperatures.... wait, wait, nix that. I think those cool mornings are gone for a while. Today we wake up to temperatures in the upper 70s, and quickly heading for (yikes) triple digits! Our destination today is Las Vegas Nevada, where the expected high is 104 degrees. As they say, "but it's a dry heat"... dry or not, it feels like the skin on my arms is frying :)

Just a handful of miles left in Colorado brings more of those road to no where views, with out a sign of civilization. There are very few exits out here, and most have signs that say "No Services" on them. Better do some good fuel management when traveling out here.

We cross the border into Utah, and very little changes. Although it does seem like there is less green growth around than there was in Colorado. At least the welcome sign is interesting, with a shot of Arches National Park.

Ah, now things start to change. You can see the wide range of colors in the rocks in this area, reds, whites, greens, and even blues.

This was a really neat formation. It looks small in the photo, but it was pretty far off in the distance, and was actually pretty huge. What was neat, was the way the formation is swept off to the right of the picture, with two actual rock sections layered. They look like large flakes that could break off and fall at any time.

Here is a closer look at some of the white and red colored formations.

This turned out to be a pretty shot. You can see the black asphalt winding through the red, green, and white rock formations. You can tell the temperatures are rising, based on the hazy blue skies in the background.

On some of the long straight stretches of road, I flip on the auto pilot an take a little rest. The auto pilot usually keeps the bike close to the center of the road :)

More of those red, green, and white rock formations. Lennie does a pretty good job with the camera while sitting on the back seat.

This section of mountains actually had some green vegetation growing.

Now the fun begins. We have had excellent weather since we left home, but now the gps weather radar unit is showing a bunch of thunder storms between us and Vegas. We will spend the next 200 miles hoping to dodge the storms. You can see the nice storm clouds, and can actually see where the rainfall is occurring.

This was a temporary sign in a construction area !!! I guess Utah isn't too concerned about it's road crews??

I did not pay much attention when laying out this route back in February, and completely forgot that we end up clipping the North West corner of Arizona for about a 40 mile stretch. Not a big deal, as we have already traveled through much of Arizona on previous trips.

There were some really neat areas where the road just seems like it does not belong, as it winds through some tight rock formations. More dark skies ahead as well.

We really start dropping off some altitude as we make our way across the corner of Arizona toward Nevada. Hard to tell from the photo, but this area has about a 7% grade.

Finally, after three and half days, we cross into one of our two missing states. 47 down, and only one to go!!! We continue to cross in and out of some rainfall. Most of the rain is fairly light, and actually cools us off a little (no rain suits needed yet).

We are about 30 miles from the north end of the Vegas strip, and you can start to see the Vegas skyline in the distance. If you look close, you can see the Stratosphere at the right side of the photo, and Mandalay Bay at the left. The whole strip from 30 miles away !!! Lennie is starting to get excited, and is pretty fidgety in the back seat.

We need one more fuel fill prior to hitting Vegas, so we hop off near the Las Vegas Speedway. A little petrol, a few laps around the NASCAR track on the bike (just kidding), and we're back on the road.

We passed by the Nellis Air force Base and saw this neat freeway exit treatment. Nellis Air Force Base, is one of the largest fighter bases in the world. Aircraft from Nellis operate on the Nevada Test and Training Range, which offers more than 15,000 square miles of airspace and 4,700 square miles of restricted land. More than 75 percent of all live munitions used by the Air Force for training are dropped on the Nevada Test and Training Range. Many communities in southern Nevada see and hear Nellis aircraft 24 hours a day, seven days a week. From 100 feet above the ground to twice the speed of sound, Nellis conducts advanced combat training, performs operational test and evaluation, and develops tactics. We saw a number of F-15E Strike Eagles out flying in the area. The F-15E Strike Eagle is a dual-role fighter designed to perform air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. An array of avionics and electronics systems gives the F-15E the capability to fight at low altitude, day or night, and in all weather. The aircraft uses two crew members, a pilot and a weapon systems officer. Previous models of the F-15 are assigned air-to-air roles; the "E" model is a dual-role fighter. It has the capability to fight its way to a target over long ranges, destroy enemy ground positions and fight its way out.

We finally make the "strip". These are some shots from I-15 which runs down the western side of Las Vegas Blvd. Notice the still dark skies? We managed to actually thread the needle through a number of heavy downpours, and were just subjected to a few lighter showers, and some great lightning shows off in the distance.

We're close now, as we hop off the highway onto Flamingo Street, and head for our hotel. Here you can see the front entrance to the MGM Grand Hotel.

And just across the street is NYNY with a Liberty of it's own.

Finally, we pull into the Paris main entrance. The bell folks help us unload the trailer and take our bags up to our room.

We spent Tuesday evening, all day Wednesday, and a portion of Thursday morning here in Vegas. I had huge plans for this Vegas visit, which included winning millions. I quickly realized I had to move on to plan B. My plan B was brilliant, and I was hugely successful. The plan was to move money, and I did that well. I won about $200 playing penny slots, then sat down at a three card poker table and gave it all to the dealer. Later, I won another $100 playing slots, and successfully moved it into another slot machine just down the row. This pattern continued for most of the trip. Needless to say, while plan B was fun, it leaves me still having to return to work after vacation.

One more note on the weather. When we pulled into Paris, the temp was 104 degrees, just as forecasted. On Wednesday, we just left the bike in the Paris parking garage, as it rained ALL DAY. Remember, we are in the desert, and this area normally get less than 6 inches of total rainfall ALL YEAR LONG, with January and February being the wettest months with about .6 inches each. Well, on Wednesday, Vegas got 1.5 inches of rain in one day!! There was a lot of flash flooding in the area, as the desert ground could not soak up the rain fast enough. Also, the temperature dropped from 104 on Tuesday, to 75 on Wednesday, which is WAY under the normal temps for this time of the year.

No separate blog entry for Wednesday, as we just spent time on the strip, moving money around.

On Thursday, we will head on to California.

We covered 528 miles today from Grand Junction Colorado to Las Vegas Nevada. This brings the trip total to 2206 miles. Below is a map of the route from today.