Day 29

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Day 29 (riding):

After 2 full days in Las Vegas where the highlights were - Keith & Bryan took a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon – landing for lunch on the edge of the Colorado River. Ian & I did our sightseeing by a 20 seater plane (a twin engined DeHaviland Otter – info for Vic)

Walking the 4 mile long strip although very crowded & hot was an experience. Keith & Bryan took in the show Absinthe at Caesar’s Palace which they said was fantastic. Dinner in a few good restaurants. On our last day we visited the Mandalay Bay Hotel, convention centre & indoor shopping avenues. This is obscenely huge, the hotel lobby covers acres, the artificial beach is $50 for guys to access & free if you have all the right curves. The whole place must have contributed to a world wide shortage of marble & is packed with people watching people who are there to be seen & watch people? We then visited the Luxor which has a giant sphinx outside and is built like a pyramid. Must be seen to be believed. Ancient hieroglyphics everywhere which is amazing since the hotel was built in 1993. A 120,000 sq feet of gaming area no doubt contributes to its running costs.

Visiting iconic Freemont Street Experience on our last night on the helicopter pilot’s recommendation was interesting to say the least. This a 2km long historic Vegas street turned into a pedestrian only mall, both sides full of Casinos & shops. It is roofed for the full length & has 5 or 6 zips lines which run under the roof high above the street for at least 500 metres. At ground level the pedestrian only mall has every weird & wonderful busker from drummers using 10L plastic pails to a crippled guy doing amazing handstands, 2 kids probably 8 – 10 performing fantastic drumming, girls of all shapes & sizes striped off to their g strings & star nipple covers touting for photo $ etc etc Every hour at night there is a spectacular light show. A weird & wonderful place.

The lowlight of Vegas is the heat. The coolest at this time of year is 28 degrees C at 5am going to 41 C by 6pm. Too hot to do anything except walk to the pool for a cool off & then back to your airconditioned room.

Today our post rest days ride is main highway North to Tonopah. Leaving Vegas at 6.30 we were soon straight lining it on a 70mph highway across the desert. Temperature, being early was a comfortable early to mid 20s C. After 100km we stopped for breakfast at Amaroosa – famous for being in area 51.The gas station, shop & 1950s themed diner were all alien oriented with heaps of merchandise on sale. The next door brothel was running it's own marketing with no mention of aliens.

Exactly what goes on inside of Area 51 has led to decades of wild speculation. There are, of course, the alien conspiracies that galactic visitors are tucked away somewhere inside. One of the more colourful rumours insists the infamous 1947 Roswell crash in this area was actually a Soviet aircraft piloted by mutated midgets and the wreckage remains on the grounds of Area 51. Some even believe that the U.S. government filmed the 1969 moon landing in one of the base's hangars. Anyway it definitely made for an interesting breakfast stop.

Onwards across the desert we soon arrived at Goldfields which as the name suggests was a early 1900s gold mining boom town. Commercial mining is still going on but nothing like the 20,000 population era of yesteryear. The Goldfields hotel is closed for renovation but meantime they run ghost tours at night in there. The old store we stopped at for a drink had a full model railway replica of the surrounding rail system as it was & the proprietor (who looked a bit like a ghost himself) told us he had to have 26 ghosts & 1 demon exorcised from his basement by a local medium. Great work if you can get it.

Onward into Tonopah which we reached around midday having travelled 340kms. Checking into the magnificently restored Mizpah Hotel we read the local mining history checked the historic photo displays & enjoyed a relaxed afternoon.

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Comments

[David Vinsen]

Nostalgia
Brings back memories; I rode through here on a rented BMW R1200 GS with my stepson-in-law as pillion.