Week 5

 

peterbrown2025roadtrip.blogspot.com

Monday 13th October 5 week american road trip

It’s been a cold and windy ride to Bryce Canyon but at least it stayed Dry. We checked into our hotel and dropped all our gear off including our wet gear, and set off to explore the scenic route around the Canyon. We took some pictures at Sunset point and was about 5 miles into the route when the dark clouds and rain moved in so I decided to do a U turn and try again tomorrow. Well the thunder and lightning struck and hale stones soon followed. Then I felt a weird sensation of my Crown Jewels getting surrounded by cold water then overflowing and running down the legs and filling my boots. Pam also experienced a similar sensation, we both waddled back to our room like a pair of ducks. Thank god they had a launderette on site, hopefully it should be a better day tomorrow. I’ve also booked our last hotel which will make a total of 20 hotels over 35 days.

Red Rock Canyon on Route to Bryce Canyon 

Photo shoot before thunderstorm 

Ps I believe my YouTube clips look better when played on a TV 

Tuesday 14th October 5 week american road trip

Well what can I say Bryce Canyon is absolutely stunning. The sun was shining however still on the chilly side. We rode the 17 miles to Rainbow point which is as far as the scenic route takes you. Then we doubled back pulling in at each of the stops. Some of the scenery is truly breath taking and can’t believe how nature has created this over millions of years of weathering. I took far too many pictures along the route as each stop the scenery was getting better. 

This is our last day of site seeing and currently looking at a scenic route to our next hotel before heading back to Las Vegas to drop off the bike. I can’t believe we are coming to the end of our adventure as every day has been a brand new experience and wouldn’t change anything. However when I plan the European adventure next year I won’t be booking a return date.

I think this shot looks Biblical 

Wednesday 15th October 5 week american road trip

It’s the first time that the Satnav has lead us to a dirt track this morning which cost us about 1 1/2 hrs delay. It didn’t worry us to much and on the plus side there was Kodachrome Basin State Park nearby so we had a ride round that before heading all the way back to Bryce Canyon to pick up the correct route. We hit quite a few heavy showers today but was prepared this time with all our wet gear on, and pleased to say the Crown Jewels kept dry this time. The Last 50 miles was hard work but the scenery was great. We had to take the freeway and keep up with the flow of very fast moving traffic against some high cross winds, and was relieved to take the exit to our hotel at Mesquite.

Kodachrome Basin Park

Rain clouds moving in

Thursday 16th October 5 week american road trip

Wanting to get every minute of what’s left of our holiday I found another place to visit prior to dropping the bike off. We headed to Overton, then took a right turn and paid a $10 entrance fee to allow us to ride The Valley Of Fire Highway. I know I’ve used this phrase many times on this holiday but the scenery was incredible and well worth the money. Time didn’t allow us to travel the full length as the bike had to be back for midday so had to double back and take the Lake mead scenic road to avoid the freeway traffic back to Eagle Rider.

We are now checked into our suite at the Venetian which has 8,000 rooms. The lobby and check in area is like a madhouse and people are asleep at the gambling machines and must say we can’t wait to leave. There won’t be much to report on tomorrow as we will be leaving the hotel about 10.00am and heading for the Airport straight for the VIP lounge prior to our flight.  Check Fridays post for some extra bits and the YouTube Clip

The Last Load Up

The Valley of fire highway

Just Waiting for the Taxi now

It’s to posh for us brownies 

Friday 17th October 5 week american road trip

We’ve had a fantastic holiday doing 4,282 miles and would like to share the ups, downs and tips not that there are many downs

The ups
The riding excluding the locations has been out of this world. It’s a great feeling to load up the bike in the morning and ride through some fantastic scenery. Other than Los Angeles we haven’t seen any traffic jams and rode mainly on the back roads.
The Locations we have visited has been the icing on the cake and so fortunate to be able to visit all these destinations on one holiday 
We have had no issues with the bike which is a big relief, I’ve often thought on particular parts of the route we could have waited ages for assistance 
Considering we have been away for just short of 5 weeks we’ve had some fantastic weather and only rode through about 4hrs of rain
Downs
It was a shame we couldn’t go up Heavenly Mountain at South Lake Tahoe if I had known I would have only booked 1 night
Gutted we couldn’t ride through Petrified Forest as this is the second time a government lockdown has prevented this
The radio reception on the bike was rubbish other than the bible bashing channels god bless them. So mostly it was turned down and with no intercom I was at piece with the world, other than the odd interruption from the camera crew tapping me on the shoulder saying STOP STOP I need a wee stop I need a wee now. Then it was doing an emergency stop and standing at which ever direction the on-coming traffic was coming while she did her business and I pretended to be taking a photo 
Tips
I’m so pleased I didn’t pre-book our hotels it’s given us so much flexibility and have been able to add additional destinations such as Lake Havasu and Zion National Park and also skip places we didn’t fancy
Packing
I thought we had packed light but we still could have taken a lot less because most places have laundries and it’s more practical to carry clean clothing rather than dirty ones
Tech stuff 
I took my iPhone, iPad and DJI action camera and pleased with the results but next time I would invest in a small laptop 
The Blog
I’m also glad I set up the structure of the blog before the holiday. I’ve enjoyed doing the posts and YouTube clips but it has been rocket science doing some of it. It will also be nice for me and Pam to read when we’re back home to refresh our memories as all the places we’ve visited seem to have blended into one
Costs
I never thought it would be a cheap holiday and whilst we don’t do all that fine dining malarkey we do prefer the better accommodation and happy to settle for a takeout or ding meal to eat in a nice hotel room. We were surprised how much more expensive America is and think I’ve spent about £25,000.00 and will  fill in the actual spend of £25,419.00 hen I check my bank statements and if we struggle paying our bills I’m sure Steven and Joanne will help us out

That’s it for week 5 but click on the YouTube link to see a video summary for the week and if using phone view in landscape or even better put it on your TV.

https://youtu.be/SFd7O2SVSXE?feature=shared