Mozzies on the Move

Starting the day was a bit depressing especially for those Collingwood fans as we were unable to see the game at all. Col was a philosophical about it all.  However, I think we made up for it with the out of Big Bear Lake towards Los Angeles. It has truly  beautiful scenery and  there was a lot of Go Pro footage taken to try to do it some justice.  It was a bit of a shock to come down out of the mountains , turn a corner for a fuel stop and be confronted by an 8 lane highway. Talk about shattering the serenity! Stopped for fuel but to also exchange a couple of the bikes as both Maurice and Paul were having issues. Maurice's bike had no clutch fluid so consequently no clutch and Paul's bike had no top end power so Eagle riders met us there and swapped over bikes. Across the freeway and back up into the mountains to ride along the Angeles Crest Highway. 66 miles of some more spectacular scenery that is a favorite haunt of the local bike community. At this sate we a...

This morning , we checked out of the hotel and met up with a couple of Skip's friends that would be joining us for the rest of the trip - Steve and Stacey. Skip is going to get them to take over running a couple of his tours . This couple were also riding a GS - not fair. I shouldn't complain as the Harley is quite comfortable for the type of travelling we have been doing of late. Headed off to "The Omelette House " house for breakfast. I didn't actually have one but they would have to be the biggest omelettes I have  ever seen . You could easily share one between 2 or you can ask for a baby omelette. Now it was time for us to tackle the Mojave desert . What can I say - hot, hot, hot. The bike showed an air temperature of 108 F at its hottest . This is the desert that has the Joshua Trees. If you are a U2 fan , you would know they named an album after these tress. Apparently the woodpeckers set up homes in them and there are thousands of them. Again this is par...

Well what can I say about Las Vegas - it exhausts me.  We stared the day early with a walk around Old Vegas. Grabbed a coffee and decided to head into New Vegas on the bus that runs 24 hours a day. $8 for 24 hours so very easy to get around .  We had looked at trying to go to a show but with such late notice, Cirque de Soleil show was going to cost us around $500 Au so we decided to give it a miss. Caught up with Carolyn and Maurice Knight as it was was their first time in Vegas . We ended up being the tour guides and showed them a few highlights including a walk through some of the Casinos , lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe , a visit to the M & M  store , a visit to the Levis shop and then back to see the dancing fountains at the Bellagio Casino. That certainly used up the whole day. Everybody else was a bit wiser ans spent the day relaxing around the pool!!. Another visit to see all the crazy people in Fremont street that night and once again collapsing into bed.

Stared the day with another of Skip's favourite breakfasts haunts. He has a knack of finding great homegrown authentic places to eat. We left there and headed off into the desert like country and then over a range which is called Sitgreaves Pass. This is still part of the original Route 66 but would have to have the most spectacular views of the trip. Very unexpected. Skip once again let us go at our own pace and we met up again at a place called Oatman. Oatman is a very unusual place as it has wild burros ( donkeys) roaming the streets. They don't care about anything and just walk up and down the street and the footpath, lie in front of the shops and at times try to go into some of the buildings. Very pretty markings but we were assured that they would bite and kick so you had to be careful. These animals are descendants of the originals that were used in the mines around the area. Lots of great leather goods shops as well so bought myself a nice belt . Still very hot as we a...