'Round the US in 21 days -- GA to CA and back

[All4Fun]

Having (very painful) experience with black ice and a motorcycle .... how did you avoid ice and crash problems with those freezing conditions? It sure affected my balance - need to know!

[Roboter]

Did the family with the mega-motor-home have a website? I wonder how they will get that thing over the Gap.

[ghostryder]

[Northstar Beemer]

Those of us who actually live in the Frozen North occasionally forget that it can get cold down there too! Keep it coming!

[biketherapy]

cool report

[AdvRydr]

Here are a few photos from the La Posada in Winslow, AZ, where we spent Sunday night/Monday morning (Day 7/8):

Intruders at the gate:



A rear sitting area, overlooking the railhead; The hotel is on a railway, and Amtrak will literally drop people at the back door of the hotel.



One of several pieces of artwork by one of the hotels' owners: this one portrays a party among suicides in purgatory (and much of the other artwork was also rather morbid).

[AdvRydr]

Day 8/Monday: Meteor Crater, and the Grand Canyon

From Winslow, we had a pretty short drive to Meteor Crater. Meteor Crater is literally in the middle of the desert, and you take a several-mile, isolated road to reach it. The road coincidentally passed through a free-range area for cattle, so some caution had to be used when cresting hills and the like, to make sure we wouldn't run smack into a herd in the road... and we did see some cattle perhaps 50 yards from the road at one point. We heard that if you actually hit a cow out here, in addition to your own injuries/damages, you also get to pay the farmer for his (likely deceased) cow.

The crater:



A big piece of the meteor that created the crater; it is very metallic, and has more of an appearance of unpolished silver than anything else:



From there, we hightailed it across some pretty desolate terrain to the Grand Canyon; here's the view from one of the more populated lookouts on the south rim:





People throw coins into the canyon; included in this batch of coins were many foreign coins, and we also heard many foreign languages among the other visitors to the rim.



We were disappointed to find that every single room in the park with a canyon view was taken at the rim lodges; on the other hand, this forced us back out of the park into the neighboring town of Tusayan, which is two miles from the park entry point. There, we stayed at a really nice hotel, the Grand Hotel, for much less.

A neat trick we've discovered is, after making friends with the hotel desk clerk, ask whether there are any ghosts in the hotel, or if there have been any recent or otherwise notable deaths in the hotel. So far, we're two for two; a suicide in the La Posada, and a natural-causes death in the lobby of the Grand Hotel.

[AdvRydr]

Day 9/Tuesday: More Grand Canyon, then the AdvRydrs run off to Las Vegas

This morning, we decided to splurge and take an aerial tour of the Grand Canyon by helicopter.. here is our trusty steed:



We got to sit in the front with the pilot!



This is a vantage that you just can't get by looking over the rim!



The size of the Grand Canyon is so vast that it is hard to get perspective on what we were seeing; the canyon is a mile deep, and several miles wide, and what look in this photo like small bushes scattered over on the north rim were actually 100+ foot trees.



We seemed to be nearly hovering, traveling slowly across the canyon, when in fact we were traveling in excess of 130 mph... very awe-inspiring, and difficult to describe.





Once we left the Grand Canyon, we stopped at Seligman for gas, and discovered how far we were from, well, pretty much everything:



Not far from Las Vegas, we spent some quality time enjoying a colorful desert sunset, complete with 'purple mountain majesty' and clouds that looked like cotton candy made of gold.



We traversed Hoover Dam shortly after nightfall... much construction here, as well as police checkpoints both approaching the dam, and leaving it; we wish we'd seen this one during the day, but the night view was pretty cool too.



After nightfall, and having just crossed over into the Pacific timezone, we entered Las Vegas, and spent some quality time cruising the streets...





(...not a single bike in front of the Harley Davidson cafe, by the way...)



...before parking to take in Fremont Street and to check out one of the casinos.





Here I am about to marry the guy, and what does he do? He gambles away our life savings! (OK, so it was more like $5 of pocket money.)

Speaking of which, we saw so many Vegas wedding chapels, including two that will perform a drive-through wedding. A disconcerting number of them were located next to porn shops and extremely seedy hotels

I'll conclude with this special advrider.com-inspired photo; we may update with more tomorrow (Wednesday) night, or it may be a day or two later, depending on how we make out with wireless internet access on the next leg of our trip. Tomorrow, we will be focusing on more mysterious, perhaps even alien, areas of the western US.

[AdvRydr]

Originally Posted by All4Fun

Having (very painful) experience with black ice and a motorcycle .... how did you avoid ice and crash problems with those freezing conditions? It sure affected my balance - need to know!

I think as much as anything, we were lucky that we got through that stretch without any consequences more serious than chilled toes.

For my part, I'll say that the ice we hit was generally in straight, level areas rather than in curves (for example, there was a lot of ice under overpasses and on bridges), and so all that seemed to be required was to not change anything when going over the slick spots. Don't brake, don't hit the gas, don't chop the throttle, don't shift from one side of the seat to the other, etc... and rely on inertia and momentum to carry you through. In other areas of the highway, enough snow had fallen and blown across areas of the highway that it was difficult to figure out where pavement ended and shoulder or median began, but for the most part that snow had not melted/refrozen to become black ice like what you experienced.

[AdvRydr]

Originally Posted by Roboter

Did the family with the mega-motor-home have a website? I wonder how they will get that thing over the Gap.

They mentioned that UNICAT has a site, and that they may be mentioned on it... see what you can find there.

[mtnhead]

Looks like a great trip. Can't wait for the next update.

[Chanderjeet]

Originally Posted by AdvRydr

Sandia dealership is great. Especially because one of the best ADV member works there. I hope you knew that because your were INSIDE GSDude's office.

He desk is right opposite to those bikes where you took the picture.



I hope you met him ???

[mudinureye]

As I have said before, reports like this are what keep me coming back to ADVrider. I get to see a wee bit of America from all the way over the water in Ireland, plus getting to hear the wonderful tales told along the way. Fantastic report!

Mud

[rebel346]

Thanks for sharing your adventure. Great ride report!

[AdvRydr]

Originally Posted by Chanderjeet

Sandia dealership is great. Especially because one of the best ADV member works there. I hope you knew that because your were INSIDE GSDude's office.

He desk is right opposite to those bikes where you took the picture.

I hope you met him ???

If we met him, we didn't know it... is he the service manager?