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Blog 22: From Burque to Vegas.

iPad blogging for the first time, so it could get messy. But I shall forge ahead against all odds. Though it is somewhat less dramatic traveling in air conditioned comfort and a cooler of ice tea in the passenger seat. Hardship thy name is…well not Gavin.
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Ok…so the run down, if anybody cares other than the voices in my cranium (the voices like to pretend they are smart and use words like cranium instead of swollen melon of a head).

Left Albuquerque at 9am, full of piss and vinegar…and driving with a nice new car seat bead thingy. My wife wondered if I had mugged a cabbie…nope, just thought I would try it…a “on a whim” kinda thing…

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Insert visual image of your choosing of New York Cabbie with a brown beaded seat cover…I will not be an active participant at this time…iPad can’t allow me to properly alter any image to my liking.

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Thought about stopping at the Meteor Crater…cuz I LOVE the Meteor Crater. For some reason I can’t drive near it without looking up to the sky expecting a new meteor to hit. Like it would happen just then in the exact same area. But nowhere else do I do that. Look to sky expecting, almost hoping to see huge fireball flying at high velocity toward Arizona desert…crazy.

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When we flew to Seattle, the plane went right over the Meteor Crater…I have no idea why…seemed a strange route. But it made me happy.
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Didn’t stop because it was raining…maybe on the way back.
The rain was on and off. Mostly light rain. Until Flagstaff. I had planned to stop to get gas and a bit to eat in Flagstaff. Seemed a nice halfway point to today’s ride. Just a bit over 300 miles from Albuquerque and I planned to go 600 miles today.

I didn’t stop in Flagstaff…but it felt like I did. It was the hardest rain I’ve seen in years. Almost zero visibility. I was going 30 mph in a 65 mph zone….and I still felt like I was going dangerously fast. I couldn’t see the exits and I really didn’t feel like stopping in a biblical flood, so I pushed on to Williams, AZ for gas and horrid gas mart food.
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Short stop in Williams to stretch legs and then off to first and only detour before hitting Vegas: Hoover Dam.

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On the way back home I think I will take the bike off the truck a couple of miles from the Dam and drive the E over it. Having the bike on the truck felt wrong and wasted. The Dam begged for a more personal experience. A closeness. In the truck I couldn’t feel the mass and weight of the Dam. The heaviness and brute force of it holding back billions of gallons of water. This travel stuff is a constant learning experience.

Anywho…the Dam was Damn nice, as always. And then off to Vegas.
Aside from the downpour, a fairly uneventful trip. Bike stayed upright, truck ran smoothly…so all good…

Except one thing. At Kingman Arizona I had a sudden thought. So I called D and asked, “Hey Honey, I’m driving and can’t look through the truck, but I had a suddenly thought that I left the helmet cam at home. Could you look and see because that would kinda suck as I want to use it some.”
“Yep, sitting hooked up to the computer.”
“Damn,” was my reply…even though I was still 80 miles from Hoover.

Still, not the end of the world, and in the morning D is over-nighting it to Salinas…so I should get it sometime on Thursday. Hopefully in time for our group ride to here:
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Super secret still
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As for now…crappy motel in Vegas…but still I park where I want…

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Once it is no longer hotter than dragon’s piss hitting a propane tank, I still plan to ride the strip…maybe some iPhone video…depends on traffic and the crazy Vegas drivers.

I will be adding some video links here later tonight…so, voices in my head, come back and check this blog a bit later…doing this on the iPad is not nearly as much fun as on a computer…but then the proper tools always helps.

The videos are a mash up of various clips I saved from my “Trashing my videos” adventure.

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Till Next Time…

Gavin

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