Leaving the Westerner Mo'tel in Wickenburg behind me I approach the start of Highway 93 which will be my constant companion for the next several days. Route 93, in one form or another, starts in Wickenburg, AZ and goes all the way to Jasper, AB. Sounds great, but first we have to get though Las Vegas!

I thought that my time spent in Louisiana and South Texas would have sensitized me to the heat, especially as the humidity in the desert is at least 50 points lower than the South, but it did not. It was about 2 hours to get to Kingman, AZ then through the Hoover Dam and Boulder City area just south of LV. At Hoover Dam they used to let you drive right across the top of the dam until that wacko blew up a building in Oklahoma with a 3 ton truck full of fertilizer and diesel fuel. I guess it was the end of an innocent age!

Instead they built the highest concrete arch bridge in the world as a bypass. Here are some amazing engineering facts about the bridge: https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics /articles/construction-and-building/hoo ver-dam-bridge-top-10-facts

There was a reality TV series that was following its construction. They used a unique construction technique where towers on either side of the gorge held a cable that spanned the opening and was used to transport men and materials. One night the construction team left for the night and when they returned in the morning the whole thing had collapsed. In the years following 9/11 scenerios like this were often attributed to terrorism, but it was later determined it had failed due to natural causes.

Once many years ago I stopped at the dam and took a tour of it, fascinating. It was a most audacious and daunting construction project for its time, and it still stands as an engineering marvel. While on that tour they were also venting water as the reservoir was too full so they opened the spillways. That was an incredibly violent procedure that made the ground shake for miles around. The water fell in a huge arc as it blasted out of the spillways!

North of the Dam area I briefly had to get on I-515 and I-15 through Las Vegas. It was the usual maze of interchanges although I thought the traffic was not as bad as other places I had been through, but the heat! Holy *****, 110 degrees is 110 degrees no matter what the humidity.

Join me for the experience:

• Put 4 pairs of soaking wet jeans in the dryer and run on high, sit on top
  
• Put on 2 pairs of clothing and then wrap yourself in black leather including chaps and gloves
  
• Wear a motorcycle helmet
• Turn the furnace up as high as it goes
  
• Have a friend point a hair dryer at your face
• Have another friend blast dead bugs at your face from a leaf blower
  
• Sit perfectly still for 90 minutes at a time, taking 10 minute breaks
• Do that for 8 hours and then tell me you don't want a (or 7!) Jungle Jooz at the end of it!

However, I shant complain, too much at least, it is my chosen method of travel, and over the past 25+ years, starting way back in 1989, I have gone on a bike trip every year with only a few notable exceptions. I have ridden over 300 000 kms on motorcycles since my first bike in 1988. My very first trip was in 1989 with a childhood friend, Alan Firt. We went to Drumheller and the lasting memory I have of that trip was sitting in the rain in my rain suit at our camp site drinking take-out draft beer. Perhaps this is what has caused my life long aversion to wearing rain suits?

About 15 miles north of LV hwy 93 turns into an amazing road as it slices through some of the most amazingly diversified scenery. Generally the area is known as The Great Basin National Monument and is based on the fact that the area was once an enormous inland sea. The area was shaped by tectonic forces, vulcanism, glaciation and erosion. It once had the oldest known organism on earth, a 5000+ year old tree, that was cut down in 1964 for research! You can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bas in_National_Park

Hwy 93 runs between the high ground or low mountains that formed the shorelines and down through and across what were once the sea floors. It can run dead straight and true for 40 or 50 miles at a time. No curves to speak of, perhaps a gentle bend on rare occasions.

The speed limit in Nevada is 75 mph but these kinds of roads, especially as lightly traffic'ed as they are beg for hyper velocities! The vast plains are also very windy and when blessed with a 30+ mph tailwind it takes serious focus to keep the speed under 100 mph. Being caught doing 30 mph over any posted speed limit is considered dangerous driving and is an indictable offense. That same law is 50 kph in Canada.

The topography and scenery of the area is amazing. The desert is far from barren, in fact I think it is more varied than, say, typically Canadian scenery of mountains and trees. The desert area contains the ancient mountains, painted rocks and craters of the moon. The scenery varies from low to high mountains, desolate land to scrub and tree covered, Roadrunner style landscapes to black lava rock.

Everything is larger than life, everything is older than time and everything is beyond majestic. I stopped and shot video numerous times, but upon reviewing the footage it just doesn't do it justice so I have not included any. I have used some photos from pro photographers scraped from the web, just to show you the beauty, but even that fails to properly capture the majesty. I encourage you to come here yourself. Sit on a rock, listen to the wind blow. The serenity will recharge your soul!





The end of the day had me in Caliente, NV. I was pretty picky about the mo'tel but was able to find one with a paved lot and many pots of pansies! When I started to unload the bike I saw that the ether had taken my monopod from me. I carried it around with me the whole time but only used it once and I had complained about it every day that I packed it on the bike. Like Eryn always reminds me of; the Universe gives what We put out. I shant miss it!



Day 19
Wickenburg, AZ to Caliente, NV
620 kms