many huge things today, scaring myself and getting into bat country.

it's October 3rd, 11pm and i'm totally exhausted.  It may have helped if i would have had a decent shower in the morning.

Damn shower head was level with my shoulders. odd.

I had decided to wake up very early and go to Meteor crater, which was an hour and a half from where i was, then i'd have to back track that distance and hopefully go past Las Vegas for the night.

he wanted to hitch a ride

it was a nice ride past flagstaff to meteor crater.

see those ridge lines? that's the crater lip.
huge.

There's a museum (indoor) here which is actally really well done, and well worth the $15 price tag.  A lot of interactive set ups and edutainment.  It's not a big exhibit, but it's very well done.  Did you know they astronauts trained at the crater?  I did, but that's besides the fact.

the road exists solely for the crater.

The crater. it's massive. absolutely huge.  when i was there, there was a few tourists, but no herds.  quite and nice. see the center of the crater? look below to try to get a scale of things.

the center, see the white spot in the top right corner? see below

on the left side the black object is roughly 10 feet high by 20 feet long. if you could zoom in more, there's an astronaut wood cutout near the center. it's too small to see on my camera, but they have telescopes you can use (free)
like i said. massive.

Was hungry and they have a subway there for food, so i ate.  I also got a free cookie with admission. yippie.

cold cut on jalapeno, i got them to add avocado.  took the Jalapeno kettle chips and a cherry coke.  Pretty much everything we don't have back home... except for chocolate chip cookies. delicious.

back west i go

HERRO!

just a tad over 16000 kms.  That's 10000 miles. booyah.

More storms? srsly??

it's clear again, after having to battle my friend the bitch (wind) and rain.

nice clear skies behind me though

srsly.  what's up with all the storms in the DESERT?

and i have to head into that shit.

know why i'm awesome? because of this picture... taken while riding at 80 mph. heh.

the long road is long.  these people don't know what a curve is. srsly.  I ran through the rains and wind and it came clear again.

see? behnd me to my right

on my way to hoover dam. the scenery is amazing on that highway (US 93) as you can see everything from up here.  only problem was that due to construction, all the viewpoints were closed.  I couldn't take many pictures due to the amount of traffic... it was bad traffic.

Hoover damn, the lake side. I didn't feel like paying full price for parking, only to fight the mindless herds to get a glimpse of something a million people already took pictures of. 

took this shot while clutching with the left, camera in my right hand, over my shoulder at 5 mph. hah. you try it and tell me if it's easy.

best shot of the dam i could take.  if i wanted to visit the dam, i'd take the whole tour and do it right.

Lake Mead.  nice...

pictures will never do any image justice.  you really have to see things for yourself as your eyes are better than a camera...

onward to Las Vegas!
and you know what i did in Las Vegas? look for Wifi (couldn't find it), got frustrated with tourists on the strip, and went by Fremont experience.  now THAT i want to go to.  I'll fly in at a later time.  Fremont has the old school casino style.  love it.  All cheese.  On the other hand, the drivers here are absolutely CRAZY?

can someone tell you americans to get the fuck out of the PASSING lane? it's a passing lane. not a 'i want to stay in this lane forever and ever for no reason while i talk on my cell phone and eating a burrito'. fucking idiots.

love it.  now this is how i imagine Vegas to be.  no huge sphinx, no castles, no pyramids... just tacky signs, cheap food and booze and lights that blink. heh.

I went as far as hitting up a McDicks for food and wifi, only to find out their wifi was busted. shitty.  I needed to know what road to take to get to Rachael.

leaving las vegas... nice, the storm is following me.
damn, just busted my backspace key.arg.

I headed north, hopefully going to find a motel or a camping spot up the road...

I headed into the basin.  wow.  surreal.  desert on both sides, mountains on all sides and a storm up ahead.

long and straight as an arrow. the winds were starting to really pick up again... and a sprinkle of rain.

ghostrider moment.

i was raining quite hard so i decided to pull over and put everything that could get wet put away.

more rain

wait for it... wait for it...

DOUBLE RAINBOW!!! WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

heh.

I kept riding for a long time... that basin is huge and turns into a wildlife preserve.  since i was in a basin, i didn't realize how fast the sun does set and started getting darker, and rain. meh.

I found the turn off for Rachel, NV (where the alien Cafe is) but decided to go to Caliente where they would probably have a motel and wifi (which they obviously did)
It became eerie riding at dusk in the  basin... essentially a big bowl of desert surrounded by mountains.  Then it got dark.  real dark. pitch black dark. and i never got that shine job i wanted. heh.

It turned from eerie to downright scary.  i avoided running over a rabbit (it avoided me rather)  and finally got out of the basin, and more into a canyon.  Now, i like canyon runs, with many turns and blind corners, but not in the dark, and rain.  Did i mention cold?  it was really cold.  i shivered.
I got to Caliente at around 7pm, it was already dark at 6pm.  it's getting dark earlier these days.

the motel is a gas station/restaurant/car wash rv park all in one.  everything you need basically.  I walked into the restaurant and they were closing, but the cook said he'd cook me something but to hurry up.  awesome.  only in small towns does that happen.  everywhere else, you're just a number.

good burger, good fries, and took some drink i've never heard of.  some zero calorie juice/soda thing.  was good.


I don't regret backtracking today, losing 3 hours in the process, but i pushed hard today.  real hard.  I did over 840km, left one desert for another, saw a huge crater, learned a bit more about earth impacts, saw a huge dam, rode through a huge city, avoided tourists at all times, and rode through the basin during light, rain, dusk and dark.  BTW, a crap load of bats around here.

pretty awesome.  now i'm tired to all hell. bed.  tomorrow, the push for the loneliest highway in america, US 50.