Aug 23 Day 7

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

Day 7, the rain has stopped, and the temperatures have returned to normal for this area. That means HOT. Our plan for today was to spend a little more time in Paris in the morning then head off toward Barstow California in the early afternoon.

When we were ready to leave, the bag handlers helped us get our luggage from our room down to the main casino entrance. I spent a few minutes loading everything into the trailer and bike, and we were on our way.

Paris was nice, but wasn't generous to us :)

We pulled out of Paris onto the "strip" and headed south.

We passed the new City Center area, which is another MGM property. There are a number of lodging choices here, a casino, and a bunch of upscale (meaning unaffordable) shopping facilities. The architecture is really interesting.

We passed the Monte Carlo...

New York, New York....

The Luxor...

And Mandalay Bay on our way to the South end of the strip.

With the temps back to normal, this sign was appropriate. Not sure what is was advertising?

At the Southern most end of the strip, is the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. We had to stop and take a couple photos.

Lennie wanted the obligatory shot of our bike in front of the "Vegas" sign. Fortunately, there is a little pull off just for that purpose.

A short sprint down I-15, and we cross into California !!!! Our goal is now complete, with this border crossing, we have now traveled through all 48 lower states on our Goldwing !! We still have a week of time to spend buzzing around California, but it feels good to finally get that last state.

You can see signs of the heavy rainfall from yesterday. This is NOT a small lake, it is flooding from the rain.

You really get the feel that you are in the desert, as there are actually some pretty large cactus plants along the roadway.

Some of the cactus are pretty large.

Ok, this will date me little, and show my geeky side. When I saw this exit sign in California, the first thing that popped into my head was "xyzzy", and I immediately said out loud "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike". Lennie of course said "WHAT"???? :):)

Very desert like scenery out here... very little vegetation, just some scrub brush on the flat ground, and rocks in the hills.

Not what I usually think of when I think of California?? I always jump to visions of 7 lane jam packed freeways.

This was interesting, we got stopped at an agricultural inspection point.

Perhaps they thought that Lennie and I were a couple of notorious melon mules??

After a short ride of 161 miles, we hit Barstow California, our destination for the day.

The East side of Barstow looks like it has some sketchy lodging. I hope the West side of town is a little more well kept?

Tomorrow we will spend some time doing some mountain driving in and around the Sequoia National Forest. We will end up in Porterville California, setting us up for Kings Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks visits on Saturday, then on to Yosemite on Sunday.

We covered 161 miles today from Las Vegas Nevada, to Barstow California. This brings the trip total to 2367 miles. Below is a map of the route from today.