From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

---

First of all my apologies in advance for any spelling/grammatical errors, I'm writing this on 21st Sept and if you read far enough you'll understand my woozy head - C

08/09/05 Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon

Again we raced west, this time to the Grand Canyon via Monument Valley. We ate at a roadside cafe where I had tomato soup with the colour and consistency of strawberry Angel Delight. Fortunately, it tasted of tomatoes.
Monument Valley was impressive, but strangely anti-climactic. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I thought there would be more 'monuments' than are actually there. We reached the Grand Canyon just before sunset - most of the crowds had gone and the colours were amazing. We pitched the tent in the Desert View campground and drove over to Canyon Village to get supplies (beer, beer and firewood as far as I can remember), whilst catching more of the views on the way. Dinner was cooked in the dark (as tradition dictates) over a log fire.

09/09/05 Las Vegas Ho...

The day started at about 06:00 when a pack of coyotes started howling not far from the tents in the campsite - I guess they were looking for food scraps. Somebody in another tent coughed and they all ran away (fearsome beasts, these coyotes). We drove to the viewpoints to catch the early morning sun then went back to camp and had a breakfast of porage, blueberry muffins and a peach. We struck camp and left for Flagstaff just as all the day trippers started to arrive. I would recommend camping (or staying in a lodge) at the Grand Canyon as you get the place more-or-less to yourself for the start and end of the day, when the light is best.
On the road to Flagstaff, near Snow Bowl, we came across a strange shaped chapel - the Church of the Holy Dove. This was set in a beautiful position at the foot of the mountain and had an air of great peace. We stopped to take a few photos and found that the inside of the church was filled with graffiti, mainly prayers for the support of friends and family. We took a few moments of quiet contemplation and left the church once more to its peace.
We stopped for lunch in Flagstaff at a nice cafe where they let us recharge the mobile phone, booked a room in the Luxor Hotel for a couple of nights and headed for Las Vegas via the Hoover Dam.
Las Vegas is just plain ridiculous. When you crest the hill, the entire valley is just a blaze of light. We drove all the way down the Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard), looking for our hotel. Eventually we saw a space with no neon lights and correctly surmised we had arrived at the big black pyramid that is the Luxor. It took 30 minutes to find the car park, and a further 15 to find the check-in desk. We dumped our bags in the room and went for dinner in one of the in-house cafes where food and service were abysmal.

10/09/05 Las Vegas

We took the car back today, having travelled 3337 miles in 10 days. we rebuilt the bikes in the Hertz lot and rode back to the hotel, where we gingerly wheeled the bikes in through the North entrance and into the lifts. We passed three employees on the way, and none of them said a word, so we figured that taking our bikes to our room was OK.
We dined at Ghandi's Indian cuisine that evening and walked back to the hotel via the Strip, taking in all the sights and getting lost in the shopping malls leading to the casinos. We spent until 2am packing the bags ready for the return to travel by bike. Tomorrow, we would be heading out into the Nevada desert.

---