Four Corners Tour – Ride Day 11- Tour Day 8 – July 25, 2015 – Saturday

Start Time: 1:15 AM PDT
Stop Time: 6:47 PM PDT
Start Location: Las Vegas, NV
Stop Location: Yuccu Valley, CA
Lodging: Black Rock Campground
Breakfast: Spring Suites Hotel (waffle)
Lunch: Bacon Bar (hamburger and cole slaw)
Dinner: Campsite (PB&J on a flour tortilla, peach)
Miles Traveled Today: 239
Weather: 75-111, Sunny

Route: I-15 to a bunch of backgrounds (too many to list) through the Mojave National Preserve (the desert).

I have spent the last three days working our tradeshow booth in Las Vegas, which turned out to be a very successful
trade
show. 
I arrived on Tuesday afternoon, and left after spending about an hour in the booth this morning. I will have to say that this Vegas trip, like almost all Vegas trips was saturated in very good food.

 

On Thursday evening, we were able to go spend a few hours with my good friend (and our programmer), David McClatchey. I tell you that because I needed to tell you where this picture was taken. David was staying at the Cosmopolitan, and this was his view of Vegas (pretty spectacular, huh?).

When I went down to load my luggage this morning, I noticed that my back tire was low, so I checked the pressure, and sure enough, it only had 10 pounds of pressure in it. Since I knew it was some sort of slow leak (the bike had been sitting in the parking garage for three days), I pumped it up with my mini compressor, and then contacted the service department at RideNow Powersports, which was only 20 minutes from the conventions center, so I finished packing up, went on over to the trade show for an hour or so, said my goodbyes, and headed over to see Kayla at RideNow Powersports to get my tire checked out.

When I arrived, the technician was just finishing up on another bike, and Kayla said he would jump right on mine as soon as he finished the other bike. I asked Kayla for a restaurant recomendation in walking distance, and she sent me to the Bacon Bar. It turned out to be an excellent recommendarion.

While I was eating lunch, Kayla called and said there was a screw in the tire, so I told her to go ahead and repair it, to which she responded that they could not repair motorcyle tires, but that she had the Dunlop Elite 3 MT in stock, and they could get right on replacing it if that was OK. I really had no choice, so I told her to proceed, but to save my nearly new tire with the screw in it (I just put it on before leaving on this trip), and I was able to put it under the tonneau cover of the trailer (hate to haul it around for three weeks, but I think I can either get it repaired, or I can repair it myself when I get back).

 

 

 

Outside of having to purchase a new tire today, the ride was not only great, but one of the most adventurous. I expected I might need my RotoPax 3 gallon auxiliary fuel can, and I was right.

Riding through the Mojave National Preserve means riding through the desert, and I mean the deserted desert (no gas stations, no nothing).

  
  
  
  

I also knocked out another state today, but on the backroads I traveled, there was no indication that I had left Nevada and entered California.

The ride was incredible, and even though the temperature reached 111, I never really felt overly hot, even when I stopped for a couple rest breaks, and there was no shade.

My campground was also in a desert, but in the heart of the Joshua Tree National Forest, and in spite of the barrenness, it was georgeous. The sunset was spectacular, and the stars were plentiful in the abscence of man made lights (I just laid out on my pick nick table and star gazed for about 20 minutes).

  
  
Not a single human tried to kill me today, but then again, after I got out of Vegas, I didn’t see very many humans.

Thank you Lord for allowing me to experience your creation in an incredible and meaningful way (our church bible reading plan has been all about Joshua for quite a while now, and I was surrounded by Joshua Trees for a good part of the day, warrior trees warring effectively against the elements).