I reached Las Vegas in the early afternoon. I decided
I'd have to cruise the Strip once, but it was more a stop'n'going then
a cruising. Later I called Dillan and we agreed to met at 6pm at the Rio
Hotel. Of course I was an hour early because I still was on Mountain Time
;-) Dillan arrived at 6pm and she introduced me to her partner Ken from
their Harley Rental Business
'Eagle Iron'
. We went for lunch, a few beers, and later they showed me their
shop. We arranged to meet there again next morning (sunday) and we all'd
go for a ride.
When I arrived at Eagle Iron around 10am, Ken gave
me a bucket, a sponge, some liquid soap and a hose and insisted that I
wash my bike ;-) With all the rain that I've been through, she sure looked
a mess...
Finally we went for a great ride, up some mountain where we stopped
for lunch, through Nevada desert and back to the city. Later in the
afternoon we split and I took off towards Arizona.
I rode over the Hoover Dam and took Hwy93 towards
Kingman where all of a sudden it crossed historic Route 66. I figured that
might be a nice ride so I followed old 66 for a while and it sure was.
When I reached Peach Springs I decided to turn around and go back to Kingman.
On my way back I stopped at the "Old Route 66 Visitor Center" in Hackberry.
It's an authentic 1930's roadside Homestead & Station, well worth a
visit. I talked a bit with Caretaker Robert Waldmire and then proceeded
towards Kingman.
When I arrived there, I met two guys on Harleys,
Kevin and Less from LA. We all went to a nice steak place, had some fine
T-bones, a few beers and a good time. Hey, Kevin and Less, thanx
again for buying dinner !!! :-)
Monday, June 16th. The destination was Banning, CA where I hoped to meet with Adrien Litton. I took I40 for a few miles, then 95 to Lake Havasu. From there I followed the Colorado River to Ehrenberg where I finally hit I10 which led me directly to Banning. I had called Adriens place earlier, he wasn't home but Hollie invited me to come over and gave me directions. Just when I'd shut down the bike in Adriens driveway he showed up. We went in, I got to meet Hollie and Oscar the dog, we had a bunch of beers and a great Lasagna that Hollie had made and they even had a place for me to crash for the night. Again, it was great to get together with a fellow digester, finally being able to put a face to the name.
From Banning I headed towards San Diego the next
morning. I took I10 west for a little bit further, went off in Beaumont
and took some nice backroads. When I reached Lake Perris I felt like going
for a swim, so I followed the signs to the beach area. On my way there
I stopped at the restrooms. I parked the bike right in front of it, locked
it and went for a pee. I came back a few minutes later, unlocked the bike
and rode another few hundred yards to the beach. When I stopped there,
to my sheer horror I had to find out that my leather jacket, which I had
bungeed on top of my luggage was gone!! I'm sure it was still there when
I stopped at the restrooms, so I went back right away, asked everybody
but nobody had seen anything... I went to the lost+found but of course
they didn't had it either...
There wasn't any money or creditcards in the jacket,
but besides a bunch of little stuff, my passport and my airline ticket
was in there!! So while I walked around with the panic growing inside,
I passed a Park Ranger and he shouted after me "Hey, what's your name??"
I told him and he said "Well, I guess I found your jacket..." He told me
he'd just found it a few minutes ago at the jetty, thrown into the bushes.
We went to his truck and indeed, there it was!! I searched the pockets
immediately. Well, somebody had done that already: the camera, buck knife,
wristwatch, the swiss army knife I once got from AdriAn, all gone. But
to my big relief, my Passport and Tickets where still in there (and of
course, that's where the Ranger knew my name from)!!
And here's the reason why all the pictures from
Strawberry Springs, Utah and Nevada are missing: that exposed roll of film
has been in my jacket also, and the scumbag that took off with my jacket,
had stolen that too :-(
Well, now that my desire for a swim was gone, I hit
the road again. In Perris I went onto I215, then further on I15 until I
went off somewhere around Fallbrook and took some smaller roads to Oceanside.
And there it was, the Pacific Ocean!! After 18 days
I had crossed the US of A from the north-east to the south-west, about
4.500 mls so far....
From Carlsbad I called Beate Ehrmann-Enn in San Diego. We agreed to meet in Del Mar and so we did. She offered me her guest room for my stay in San Diego and I happily accepted. So we first rode to her place in Clairmont, I dropped off my stuff and then we cruised around for a while. Later that evening we met Tim'Willie'Williams and the three of us went for some great mexican food and a few beers.