With the amount of drinking that has been taking place, I was surprised at how easily everyone was greeting the mornings. Not a sour puss in the bunch. It was early and I had to wait for the shops to open to run my errand, so I suggested breakfast. Off to Denny's we go. Oh, my turn to order, I'll have some gravy with a side of gravy please. No really. With breakfast done, we head back. At the house we/I notice a huge deformation/slice in the rear tire of NotNot's bike. I knew he had a lot of miles left to do with us and many more to do after he split off after Vegas. Time for an emergency tire change. We removed the tire and threw it on the SuperHawk's Ventura rack and had Adam show NotNot the way to the local bike shop. With that taken care of, I blasted down to finish my last minute errand and returned to find most of the bikes almost ready to pack. Time was ticking and we were a little behind schedule, but nobody was to worried. That kind of understanding took some stress off me. I got packed, clean up and ready to start the adventure.
As I said a few years before, "It's time to blow this taco stand", and that's just what we did. Day one players and their rides, Chewie(996 Honda SuperHawk), Bucket(955 Triumph Sprint RS), Hockeyfan(Triumph 1050 Speed Triple), Nimec(Suzuki SV650), NotNotRazorback(Triumph 955 Speed Triple) and myself(Honda RC51).
The route, run up Hwy 18 past Lake Arrowhead to BigBear, down the back side through Lucerne Valley and on to Vegas for the evening.
As I am cruising up towards Running Springs Hockeyfan motions me to pull over. I do, he says something is wrong, ok what? I go to the back of the RC51 and the license plate plastic mount has folded up underneath the seat. During a right hand turn and hitting a bridge expansion joint at the same time compressed the suspension enough to grab the mud guard and suck it up onto the tire...damn. Well we took a bungee cord and pulled the mudguard out and secured it from doing that again. It only took a few seconds but it wore through part of the license plate, in doing so it left a white stripe down the center of the tire..haha. We continue on because the temps and roads are perfect. Everyone was loving the sights and roads, we pass through BigBear Lake and head down to Lucerne Valley. The 18 is twisty with lots of great views, the sad part is that you have to pay attention to the roads. Why? because anything can happen and the road was covered with tar snakes. I will let Hockey tell his side of the story because me and Chewie were WAY ahead of all the other riders(because we were on Hondas). I like to keep a close watch on the group behind me when I lead a group, after a few minutes of not seeing anyone behind Chewie, I pulled over. A car comes by and gives us the news, rider down. DAMN, not this early I think. I hope everyone is ok, Chewie and I race back from the way we came. When we arrived all the bikes were upright and everyone looked fine. I park, ask who went down because I couldn't see ANY damage/carnage. Hockey raises his hand and I go to check him and the bike out....unscathed for the most part. It was amazing the lack of damage to the bike or him, literally minor scratches. WOW, I was relieved, no seriously I relieved myself..
another pat down of the bike and David to ensure that they are ok. (Later in the trip Hockey gets a new CCC name) Lets get going, daylight is burning. A few gas/water stops and we were almost to the State line just past Baker, Ca. I passed a flatbed transport truck that had a cool Mustang muscle car on the back. I took notice like all red-blooded Americans. I pass it and keep rolling, David come up and throws up a bunch of gang signs with a bunch of sign language zeros at the end to me. Ok, the heat(did I mention that it was 115 in the shade?) is getting to David I assume, he motions me to pull over. We do, and he can fill in the rest of that story.
After the brief detour, we had another stop at the Cali/Nevada state line.
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From there the day was waining so the temperature was cooling a tad. Not much but anything was welcome. The posse rolled out and crested the hill to see Vegas in the distance and almost at night. I detoured the group to the south side of the strip and the Venetian
to see the Vegas Strip from the seat of a bike. It was Thursday evening so I figured that the traffic wouldn't be to bad, it wasn't and we got to see most of the strip in the early night with all the lights blazing. Cool stuff if I must say so. The group runs around the side of the check in and we park the bike, unload gear and lug the gear to the front check in....gawd was it HOT. We finally get two adjoining room, pay a bellman to carry the luggage and off we go to our posh rooms.
We all clean up and in the mean while we have J-Pip(Joel) coming to meet us for dinner and to meet the Aussies. J-Pip meets us at our rooms, most of us are hungry to an extent. Down the strip we go, except all of the places that we go into are just closing, DAUM. Ok, time for the ole reliable...that's right, Denny's to finish off the day. I'm exhausted mentally and physically, so anything would have appeased me. I think I ordered gravy again. I recall Bucket had another chocolate shake. Me and Hockey started a tradition of sharing desserts,(apple carmel cobbler) because we didn't feel like a whole one ourselves. How cute. I'm secure with myself damn it! Chewie and Bucket had salads. I knew that I wouldn't be able to party like a RockStar because I was a worn out wuss(the pressure of the past few weeks of getting all the bases covered depleted me), I mentioned to everybody that I was heading to the room and gunna sack out early. Chewie, Bucket and J-Pip came with me, Bucket stayed outside for a few minutes to smoke and got lost. The rest of the fellas decided that they were going to experience Vegas and headed out to have a few drinks. Have one for me fellas. Next thing I know is that I'm doing one of many fist bumps with the Aussies for the great ride/scenery/day. It didn't take me long to fully enjoy the large queen bed all by myself.
David says:
Last night the drink of choice for most was Jim Beam. Mr. Beam and I had a major disagreement back in the day so I didn’t partake. After some early issues and a Denny’s breakfast we hit the road. I’m not sure of the road names but we headed up through Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead. On the way I was third in line behind Dan and Leggy and I noticed a line just off center on Dan’s rear tire. All of us except NotNot are running the same tires and I had never noticed this line before. I passed Leggy and got a close look and tried to tell Dan his tire looked funny but how do you say that with hand gestures when it might not warrant a stop. We rode for another 15 or so miles while I watched that tire and I even got up close to try and see if a rock got caught in the swingarm, nothing. Finally as Dan was pulling off for something I noticed he didn’t have a license plate. Well he had one but it was flipped up under the fender rubbing the tire. Quick bungee fix and we're rolling again. Somewhere east of Arrowhead I went into a 20 mph left hander at about 30. Just at the point when I rolled onto the gas the front end stepped out about a foot. I wasn't going fast so I wasn't prepared and made a rookie mistake and looked right at the guard rail. I must have gotten it turned a little more because when the bike and I hit the ground I slid along the guard rail and not into it. Today is the reason I've been wearing my gear all these years. I bounced up and Chad and Bucket helped me pull the bike out and pick it up while NotNot slowed traffic down. Damage looked to be minimal and except my big toe on my left foot feeling like it was on fire, I showed no signs of just bouncing off the ground. We decided to move down the road a few hundred yards to a pull off and collect ourselves. Ok. I needed to collect myself. After a good look, the bike and I came through just fine. About then I was thinking someone should try and catch Leggy and Dan to tell them we would be along shortly when the sound of the RC started bouncing off the canyon walls. Dan rolls up and says "So who went down?". I raised my hand and he gives me the strangest "no shit" look. After a quick assessment agrees it was one of the gentlest get offs ever and we come to the conclusion that it must have been a tar snake that upset the bike. Dan assured me there were no more curves between here and Vegas so we rolled on.
Somewhere between there and the state line we catch up to what appears to be a bad ass Mustang on a roll back. As I get closer it starts looking familiar to me, then it hits me that's the Obsidian SG1 mustang. I saw that car in Hot Rod Magazine once.
http://www.hotrod.com/featuredvehicles/hrdp_0902_1967_ford_mustang_obsidian/index.html
At 1.3 million dollars this was by far the most expensive car we would see on this trip and it was being hauled on an open rollback down the interstate.
We roll in to Vegas as the sun setting and cruise down the strip. I must say it's a lot to take in at once but it looked like one giant party. We park in the Venetian parking garage and take a looooong walk to the front desk to check in. After a round of showers to wash the days ride off, we catch up with J-Pip and head out in search of dinner. "Vegas, we're always open" my butt. At 10 o'clock almost all the restaurants close, except Dennys. After dinner and a brief walk NotNot, Chad, and I decided it wouldn't be right to come to Vegas and not have a drink. I must say a hundred dollar tab won't kill too many brain cells in Vegas but the company was good and I think it was a perfect way to cap off an eventful day. Day 13, 4760 miles so far.
Bucket says: Well after the previous 2 nights alcohol consumption I didn't feel to bad when I woke up. Then it finally hit me "Us crazy fools are gonna ride across the god damn United States of Merica" Awesome feeling it was. I do forget a lot of details but I remember as we climbed up into the hills all the altitude signs up and over Arrowhead, a lot higher than our highest mountain, but as Chewie informed me Australia's mountain ranges are some of the oldest in the world and hence they are more worn than others, take that ya newbie Merican mountain ranges. So much to take in that a lot of the roads all mingled into one but I remember that sinking feeling as I came around the corner and saw Hockey on the ground, he was up in a flash and all was reasonably well,(thank whoever you pray to in this spot). After a brief check on man and machinery and urinations on the side of the road(I think that might have been my first outdoor piss in Merica , ooh yeah! ) The heat was wrong as we got down out of the hills, but that's what it is all about, still better than being at work, still better than driving a cage. We stopped at the state line into Nevada, unbelievable. Here was downunder Bucket getting his photo taken in Nevada USA. Rolling into Vegas and seeing all the lights(I like shiny things) was amazing, man it was hot. After what seemed like a gazillion mile walk to our rooms we cleaned up and J-Pip(top bloke) came to meet us. Took a walk down the strip and finished the day with Denny's just like we started it with, BURP!
miles traveled today=275
map of the day:
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