Nov. 9-10

Sun. Nov. 9 We left Tuba city at 7:00 this morning headed to the Grand Canyon. It's 37 degrees, but we have plenty of warm clothes on. We turnat Cameron onto hwy 64. We stop before we reach Desert View to look at the Little Grand Canyon. On the ride thru grand Canyon Park we see 2 elk with nice sets of horns. We drive up to see El Tarvor Lodge and the beautiful view of the Canyon. Heading south on hwy 64 we stop at Valle to fuel-up and rest. Talk there was a front was coming in later that evening or tonight with snow. We turn on hwy 180 and go thru the San Francisco Mountains on our way to Flagstaff. Elevation signs say we're at 8046 ft at ane point. Lot of aspen trees. Get in to Flagstaff at 1:00 and stop for lunch at Sizzler. Stop at Grand Canyon H-D before heading west on I40 to Seligman where we will get on Route 66. We see rain coming so it's time to put the rainsuits on. Starts to rain some then it turns to sleet and then snow for about 6-8 miles before we run out of it just east of Seligman, where we fuel-up. Then it's on to Kingman on Route 66. Coming out of the hills we can see Kingman down in the valley 27 miles ahead of us. And just coming over the mountains on the other side we see another rain headed towards Kingman. We pull under the awning at the motel just as the heavier rain starts. The lady at the desk said we could leave the biker under there and she would keep a check on them. As we were checking in a family of 4 pulls in headed to )regon pulling a u-haul, they're moving their military daughter back home from Al., said they came thru white-out conditions west of Flagstaff. Lucky us for we kept on moving to stay ahead of the storm.

Mon. Nov. 10 As we left Kingman we continued west on Route 66. A few miles outside of town we miss a left turn and drive about 5 miles to the end of the paved road. A guy pulls up to the stop sign and I ask him for directions. He said we were suppose to turn left at the cattlegape. We were concentrating on the cattlecrossing we didn't see the small sign pointing out the turn. Back on the right track we we head thru the desert to the Black Mountains ahead of us. There are rough rocky roads that criss cross the desert with road names signs at each one. Houses and trailer homes dot the landscape. As we start up the mountain the road seems to get narrower. It is the original Route 66 carved out of the side of the mountain, no more than 14 feet wide at some points. That's why no vehicle longer than 30 feet are allowed along this streach of the road. In places it's pretty crooked as it zig-zags up to the top. But when you reach the top & pull over at a wide place for viewing, the ride is well worth it looking down on the desert below. We go by the Goldmine before reaching Oatman. When Theresa and I were out here a few years ago you could take a tour down in the mine, but now they have put new razor wire and gates up and no more public tours. Locals say they are going to resume mining opperations soon. We pull into Oatman where we meet more bikers that we share our travel tale with. After eating lunch we check out the town before heading to Bullhead City which is on the Colorado River. The motel that Clark Gable and Carol Lombard spent their honeymoon at is still here. The wild donkeys still roam the streets. Just north of Bullhead City we cross the Colorado River at Laughlin, Nevada on hwy 163 which Ts into hwy 95 leading us to the Hoover Dam. I guess with the holiday weekend is the reason there was so much traffic headed to the dam. After looking at the dam and the new construction of the new bridge that will allow them to stop the flow of traffic across the dam, we head to Las Vegas. We drive down Las Vegas Blvd. from the south end to the north end looking at all the sights. We work our way back to Tropicana Drive where we check into the Hooters Hotel ($39.00 a night) for the night. That night we walk down the strip to the Harley-davidson Cafe for supper and afterwards took in the water show at the Bellagio. The next morning we ate breakfast in Hooters where we talked to the waitress and she was telling us of all the layoffs at the big casinos. She said here they just cut everyones hours so nobody was laidoff.