Las Vegas Vacation - Take 2

Las Vegas Trip 11/27/10 Entry

We are now on our way back home and here is the current map plan to head back.


View Larger Map
If you look at the map you will no doubt realize we did not make that many miles today. I think it was a little less than 230. First as usual our first day out on any trip, heading out or returning home Val takes forever to get ready. We did not leave the hotel until 1005 AM and we lost an hour just about 1 hour into the trip headed back East. But the biggest problem was the traffic getting through Boulder City Nevada. For some reason they have two lanes out of Arizona but one lane headed from Nevada. We ran under 15 MPH for about 30 minutes; I think I figured we got 24 miles in about 1 hour from the hotel to just about the dam.

Also if you look at the map (pictures to come in future takes) you will notice we only plan about 262 miles tomorrow. Why you ask, we are now in Wickenburg which happens to have some kind of Gem and Art fair tomorrow so Val wants to go to that, so needless to say it will be a late start tomorrow so I know we will not get very far plus I want a good spring board to get us past El Paso well into Texas the following day.

Here is a Map of our Journey to Las Vegas.
View Larger Map

Now that I know how to put maps on my blog site I now know I can use them for reference when remembering what pictures were associated with part of the trip based on the date. I have a bunch of pictures to publish and to go through and that does take time. At any rate here are a few shots of the trip on the way to Vegas from Clarendon Tx to Gallup NM.

Our first stop on day 2 was at a rest stop and man it was already getting cold. The cold on the way to Vegas as well in Vegas was so bad that we (thanks to Val's idea) decided to take the longer but warmer southerly route home.





Our second stop on day 2 again was at a rest stop. The last two shots are of a dinosaur bone that had been bitten by something bigger in its time. This rest stop was the first in NM at the welcome center which I was very impressed with as I am with Texas welcome centers. The wind was so bad half my coffee got spilled from the center to the car so Val also brought me another cup to fill my roader cup.





Our Third Stop was at a gas station further into NM.



Our 4th stop in NM was a place called Clines Corner, over all I was not all that impressed. But here is a couple of shots.




Well its getting to be about 10 PM local time here in Wickenburg AZ so I am going to call it a night. I will put more out on day 2 in take 3. It was a great Thanksgiving visit with the family which I will get in to that on the following takes. Have a good day and I hope this was worth viewing.

Pj

Las Vegas Vacation - Take 1

On the road again and in starting the writing of this on day 4 while in our hotel room I have been contemplating many opening lines. I need to explain a couple of details that I am sure some of you will no doubt have some comment on. For instance why is this “cager”, (car) ride on a motorcycle blog site? Well my thoughts were to bring the bike on the trailer and of course ride when I can. After doing some very minor research on the web for normal weather patterns between DFW and Las Vegas it became clear that if we have good weather I could ride, if we have normal weather I could ride but it would be at best chilly, and if the weather was bad it would be fruitless to even try to ride. Just a snippet from what we found on the morning of day 3 at our hotel in Gallup New Mexico. The white stuff is snow, not much I agree but snow still the same.



I will get more into weather details later.

So I have not yet answered the question on the bike versus cage on a biker blog. Well the original plan was to trailer the bike then I thought, well if the weather is normal I would get some riding in but I would say under 50% and if the weather was bad it might be 0% and if the weather was great it would be in the upper 70’s %. So I continued to watch the nation weather pattern and it was a short time that I realized the upcoming weather was going to, well let me say “sucky” for riding. So I thought hey, with the money I save in fuel costs tailoring the bike, wear and tear on the Van and trailer and for that matter the bike itself getting bounced around I will just rent a bike if the weather turns favorable in any state we happen to be in. So as we go the hope is that we can rent a bike and then therefore call this an official bike experience. Now if not, well I guess this is just a cage ride report on the bike blog.

Ok, I know too many words; “we want pictures” especially if this is a cage ride report so far. One other question to answer for those who follow my writings may notice. “Why is this blog report (or if you are reading this on Total Motorcycle website) changing from time to time?” Well the answer is simple, I have not been keeping up on a few rides we have taken this year as when trying to write a contiguous ride report it takes hours, getting the pictures organized and uploaded, and then putting some words to what happened. So I am going to write and update as I get time versus wait until it is all complete and it seems to be and project with no end, as after all I do work for a living. As time goes on I will determine if this new idea works well or not as I know the folks who read these are not shy in their opinions which is exactly what I want.

Day One – Nov 20th

As most of my reports start off when Val is involved we started quite late in the morning, 1110 AM. The weather was nice and warm with forecasts stating we would be headed for some colder weather but we might just be south enough of it to miss most of it. Since we did leave late we were in kind of a hurry to make some miles. As a hindsight comment, Texas has more things of interest for me to take photos of then New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. Now I know we could argue that point but please take note that I said “interest for me”. On our return I am going to stop much more often to take some of the shots I wanted to on the way out. I will to be fair do the same in the other states as well pending weather as it has been windy, snowy, and cold getting to Vegas.

Here is one of our first stops at a rest stop in Texas. I do not really post these pictures for the seen or realized beauty but more for the unseen or unrealized beauty of the view. I will try to remember to elaborate more later on but you will get my point later.


The above is Val and Lucy.



In one of my walk about’s I found a couple of what I would call ponds behind the rest stop.

I think in the next picture someone thinks of them as more then ponds. Notice the boat on land next to the dock.



This pond (picture below) to the right of the one with the boat looks more like a pond I would put a boat in as there is far less sea weed.


Our second stop was a bit windier and the clouds were moving in. The rest stops in Texas are rather nice and the facilities clean. In New Mexico we found most of the rest areas closed, in fact I do not think we even were able to stop at one.


Every State has its hazards.



This rest stop had a small pond as well.

Our next and last rest stop for the day was in a Town just short of Clarendon called Memphis. We have had trains going back and forth on the entire westerly trip on 287. Val shot these when we stopped. All along she was counting cars of the different trains, of which most were at or over 100 per train.





We drove on up to Clarendon and stayed at the Best Western which was a very nice place and the hot tub was outstanding, we both really enjoyed it and felt like rubber after we got out.
Next report is Day 2.

Turner Falls Ok. April 10th Weekend

Turner Falls Ok. April 10th Weekend
This is our first overnight trip in 2010 as it was one heck of a winter down here in Texas. We had snow storms that took two of my trees out by the roots and heavily damaged others and collapsed my deck covering which was one of those portable tent like garages.
Anyway we started thinking the weather might just be decent enough to take a ride so it was a very last minute decission. We were sitting around a few nights before and decided let’s go for it. A few folks cancelled as it was a last minute decision and but Philip, Dennis, and Cecie were up for it so we met at my house and took off.
We decided to take the back roads up and in from the West. Our first stop was the park in Justin Tx.




We stop for lunch in Muenster (I have and have posted so many pictures of Muenster I did take any on this Trip) and then take a break at the bridge over the Red River on HWY 89.






We took the back roads in from the west and started getting a bit tired and thirsty from fighting the wind most of the way (spring time in Texas brings high winds and unexpected showers). I found this little road with a few abandoned buildings and we pulled off. Of course we just had to go in. As we were about to leave a pickup truck pulled up, stopped and offered us a beer as he pulled one out of a cooler in the back. We declined and chatted very briefly and we all went on our way.








We get to our cabin, got unpacked and decide to check out the bar down the road we saw. When we got there the weather was fantastic but they had a private party on the back deck so we decided to have a drink (3.2 mind you in OK for beer) and look at the menu. Once we saw that we would be paying a left lung for dinner and need to sit inside to boot we took off for town. After a fuel stop we talked about what to do for dinner and Philip mentioned he saw a Subway so we grabbed some sandwiches and headed back to the cabin. The next moring we got up fairly early but we did move slow. We all but Cecie forgot coffee but no one thought of filters, so Dennis rigged some paper napkins into a filter and whala we had some coffee. Here are a few shots of the morning before taking off. The night before was a lot of fun out by the camp fire with some other folks.






Dennis had mentioned he wanted to see Turner Falls so we stopped at the observation area on our way home.







As we were riding home I realized that I took us down a road that missed Lake Murray but we did manage to find a little park to take a break at. It was really meant as a retirement RV park as it was gated but we managed to get in since there was no guard. On the way out it was a bit tricky as they have those one way spikes on the exit but we found a way around that challenge as well.





On our way back down I think it was Hwy 377 we ran in to a lot of bumpy road. Dennis and Cecie had disappeared from my mirror so I pulled over and then folks where honking at me as they passed me so know I knew something was wrong. I turned back and sure enough on of the exhaust pipes on Dennis’ trike had fallen off. We were so busy making temp repairs that I did not take any pictures, but just before we got back on the road we did talk about food. They told me the first BBQ place would work so just past the boarder I found this place. Here are some shots of Dennis’ trike with the exhaust pipe bungied to the back. Oh Dennis you still owe me those bungee cords.








We all split up along different roads and got home safely. It was a great trip!
Ride safe and seize the moment.