Travelogue -- Dr Bob's Wrap-Up Motorcycle Ride
	Send a message to Dr Bob

12 May 2018, 9:30 PM PT, Henderson, NV

Last night I was about 200 miles short of my preliminary plan, tonight I am about 260 miles short. If the daily average is to be 350 miles, that means I am about 75% of a day short. I am near Las Vegas. I decided to not spend the night in the city, it has no advantage for me. I would not be going out, I would be sitting here at my computer writing my story for you.

I rode 318 miles today, I now have a total of 3,538 miles. That's an average of 393 miles per day. Riding was much more pleasant today, the heat was gone, I didn't even have to turn on my Harley air conditioner. I did have a little issue with the bike, in Kingman the tour pack would not lock. The key could not turn the locking mechanism. Using my app that finds Harley dealers, thanks to Ralph who told me about it a ride or two back, I discovered that the nearest Harley dealer was 0.7 miles away. I hustled right over there, Mother Road Harley-Davidson, and met Service Advisor Roy Sheppard. He took a look, and instantly fixed it. He opened the tour pack, turned the actual locking mechanism at the same time he turned the key, and that unfroze it. Thanks Roy.

My first thing I did today was to ride about 20 miles to get to the Arizona Capitol. Here's the Capitol.

The winged beauty atop the dome is the "Goddess of Victory, Statue of Justice and Winged Victory". She is also known as the Wounded Goddess. She originally was a weather vane, but cowboys leaving the saloon at night had a habit of shooting her to make her spin.

The House of Reprensentatives and the Senate are in buildings facing each other, and form a U-shape with the Capitol.

The House of Represenatatives is on the right when you are facing the Capitol.

The Senate is on the left when you are facing the Capitol.

Here's a cactus garden on the Capitol grounds.

As I drove on from Phoenix to Nevada, I had my eye on saguaro cactus. I wanted to find some good ones for you. Here was my first attempt.

I had another image in mind, though. Way back in 1952, I posed with a saguaro cactus.

From the left, that's my brother Johnny, my sister Carolyn, me, and my brother Larry on the right.

Here's what I came up with today.

I sure look small, don't I.

Did you see the flowers on the saguaro?

Farther down the road, I saw many Joshua Trees. There was an entire forest of them. I was unable to take a picture of them, though, because the shoulder was only about a foot wide, not wide enough for me to pull over. I was able to get this picture at a rest area on the roadside.

There was another kind of cactus there, but I don't know what it is called. Maybe somebody can tell me.

After I took these pictures and headed back to my bike, I noticed that a State Trooper had pulled into the rest area. We spoke for a few minutes, he had stopped here because an emergency phone had been picked up and put back down at the rest area, so he was checking it out. I asked him if I could take a picture of him by his vehicle and include it in my story tonight. He said yes. Thank you Justin.

I like the way the saguaro grows like a forest on the hillside.

I rode through a short section where there were many rocks, big rocks.

This is Burro Creek.

This is part of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, about ten miles south of Hoover Dam.

Here's a view of Hoover Dam from the new US93 bridge. The railings block the view, it is hard to get a picture from the roadway. You need to hike up to the the pedestrian portion of the bridge. As I have said many times, I am not a hiker.

This is a view of the lake on the other side of the dam. You can see the US93 bridge.

That's it for today. See you tomorrow, maybe in Nevada or maybe in Idaho. Most likely Nevada. Good night.