Part 3 of 9
Sunday Oct 7, time to head to
Bryce Canyon, our 3rd national park. It didn't take too long to get there, the roads were perfect for motorcycle riding. We decided to spend the day hiking in the park, and camp there that night. The hiking was great, a really beautiful park! I loved the
Hoodoo rock formations.
Me, I love to camp, brought lots of gear on the trip, and cold weather doesn't bother me.. Which is a good thing cause it got down to 21 degrees that night! Jeff tho, he woulda preferred it to be quite a bit warmer. It was damn cold tho I admit! The campfire we had going that night helped a little, but it was a long frozen night in the tent when the firewood was gone. Brrr!!
Monday Oct 8.
Morning finally arrived, the glorious sun came out, and things started to warm up enough to get moving again. This day we headed to
Zion National Park, #4 on our trip. I was able to get Jeff into these national parks for free using my pass card. A short ride to Zion, it is like 4000 feet in lower elevation than Bryce.. and much warmer thank goodness! Again we decided to camp there and do some hiking. They have a real nice shuttle bus system that takes you throughout the park. It was a fun filled day.
I really liked Zion alot, I can see why its one of the most visited national parks we have. That night was a warm 43 degrees, much needed after the 21 degrees from the night before. It was great visiting this awesome park in October when the crowds were few, the weather was perfect. Just beautiful...
Tuesday Oct 9
Our final leg riding together, Jeff and I packed up camp at Zion and headed to Vegas, where a reservation at the
Monte Carlo awaited. We arrived looking pretty scruffy from 2 nights of camping. I spent the next 2 days playing poker, Jeff hit the buffet and blackjack tables. On Wednesday I took my GT over to BMW Vegas for an oil change, and for them to install a
Kisan LED license plate frame, which I brought and didn't have time to get installed in Houston. The folks at BMW Vegas were very nice! Great service, friendly chat about my ride, suggestions on where to go in California. Later Wednesday I rode thru
Red Rock Canyon, which was, um, very red! Quite beautiful actually. That night Jeff and I rode down LV Blvd to downtown Vegas, checked out the
Fremont experience. After we parked our bikes we saw a fat pissed off lady running down the street taking her clothes off, big [censored] flopping everywhere, cussing about something. Only in Vegas. I suspect Fremont street looks something like this when you're drunk...
Thursday morning, our Fellowship of the Ride was coming to an end. Jeff had to get back to Alb on Friday then drive/trailer back to Houston Sat & Sun.
We packed up our gear and parted ways. On the way back to Alb Jeff visited the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, stayed around there that night.
He spent Friday night at my uncle/aunts house, loaded his bike up Sat morning, then checked out the
balloon festival they have every Oct in Albuquerque. Afterwards he drove straight home to Houston. He said it was a wonderful vacation, tho woulda been better if he had stayed away from the blackjack tables. As I told him many times, blackjack is evil! Poker is great fun tho.. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Me, I left Vegas Thursday morning and headed West. It was time to go thru Death Valley, alone.
to be continued....