The wife was taking off to Hawaii without me and I decided I needed to go for a ride. I picked Laughlin since it was winter and things are cold, but usually the desert isn’t too cold this time of year. Okay, so sometimes it is cold this time of year! L

I advertized on the ST-Owners forum to see if anyone was game to go with me, but I had no takers. I asked Dave if he wanted to go, and he couldn’t afford the trip. Bill, one of the guys at work recently bought an older Goldwing, so I asked him if he wanted to ride with me?  He said "Yes". 

I made the arrangements for a room in Laughlin and then Bill and I started the planning. Come to find out, Bill was planning on going up to Las Vegas that weekend, so this was a perfect opportunity for him to ride with someone.

So Bill’s plan was to ride with me to Laughlin, then take off for Las Vegas. Although my plans changed several times due to a change in the weather, I decided to go down to Lake Havasu to see the London Bridge, then ride up to Hoover Dam to see the new bridge they recently completed.

It’s not often I take off on a ride like this, just to ride, but that is exactly what I was doing.

The day of the ride, Bill had taken the day off since he was putting his bike in the shop and had a few other things to do. I would take off early from work so I could get home and swap things out between my commuter bike (’05 ST1300) and my trip bike (’04 ST1300).   The plan was to leave my house between 3 to 3:30pm.

So, of course things didn’t work out for Bill as he had planned. Something about he had to get his Harley and parts out of a shop that he had been working at, restoring it. He hadn’t planned on doing that, that day, but because the shop was moving, he had no choice.

The Ride.

My planned route was one very familiar to me, CA79 North to I10 to CA62 to TwentyNine Palms  to Amboy Road to Route 66 to US95 to NV163 to Laughlin. I have been over this road probably 20 times over the last ten years. This is the route Chris and I take anytime we are going to Las Vegas.

Bill showed up around 4:30 or so and he wanted to attach some wired glove inserts, but we couldn’t get the battery out where we could connect anything to it, so he said heck with it, let’s go. At about 5:15pm we rolled out of town. Of course, at that time of night, the Sun was gone, it got cold and there was plenty of traffic, so we did what we could to get through it. It took us about two and a half hours to get to TwentyNine Palms, longer than I expected. We stopped at the Chevron in town and Bill filled up. We then went over to the McDonald’s where Bill got some dinner and I just got a snack. I ordered a Hot Chocolate and when I looked at the receipt, I saw Mocha! I asked the girl behind the counter, "Does this Mocha have coffee in it?" and she said "no". The first sip told me different. I had Bill try it and he thought the same thing as I did. One of the managers was walking by and I asked her the same question and she said that the Mocha did have coffee in it. She took it back and brought me my Hot Chocolate.

Bill and I finished and then redressed to continue our ride. I should mention that I had my electrics  (liner and gloves, but no leg or foot electric coverage) and Bill had bought a bunch of cold weather gear over the last two days. Suited up and off we went. As we were turning on to Amboy road, Bill started flashing his lights at me. When I went back to check on him and he said the bike was missing on one cylinder. We looked it over, couldn’t find any issues and Bill felt if he kept up the revs he could make it. I reminded him that it was 150 miles of nothing out there, but he was pretty sure he could make it. So we continued.

We both handled the next three hours and 150 miles with temps ranging from 26F to 35F.  It was dark and cold, but Bill’s bike managed to limp into Laughlin.  We stopped at a service station and we both filled up. I was on reserve by then, but I made the entire trip on the one tank.

The next morning, after breakfast, we suited up and Bill was off for Las Vegas and I was heading for Lake Havasu. We split as we left town and I traveled through Bullhead City, down AZ95 to I40 east, then AZ95 south again heading down to Lake Havasu. It took me about 1.5 hours to get there. I made the mistake cutting off on the road called London Bridge road. Since I was going to London Bridge, this must be the way…right?  Wrong!  Yeah, it got me there, but it was slow and took me forever. I found a parking lot on the east side took a couple of pictures, then rode over the bridge and explored the island a little, just a really big loop.

I then parked in a small shopping center next to the bridge. I bought a couple of Shot Glasses, for my collection, and a Pepsi. Then started down below the bridge and saw a Harley Apparel Shop and bought a Shot Glass from them. I then walked around and took a number of shots with my camera, including a panoramic. Got some good shots, and then headed back to the bike. As I was getting ready to get the gear on, a guy on an old Goldwing came riding up and started talking to me. He had a few stories to tell, then took off. I got back on the road and headed the way I came On AZ95, not that London Bridge road..:/

I was again on I40 east, heading to Kingman, about 40 miles away. I was going to meet up with George, from the ST-Owners Forum, who lives in Kingman, but I found out that the temperature was only going to be around 32F when I was supposed to meet him, that’s when I cancelled with him and decided to go down to Lake Havasu instead.. Where it was warmer.

I caught US93 north and headed out of Kingman. By then the temp was up to about 36 – 37F, still good and cold. It was around those temps all the way to the Hoover Dam. Until the last 10 miles or so of US93, before the dam, the road was pretty straight. As I got closer to the dam, the road got a little more interesting, but even those last few miles were easy miles, just COLD & windy!

I tried to look at the dam as I passed over the bridge, but you can’t see anything. Up a couple of miles, there was a turnoff for the dam and they had some parking near the bridge. I pulled in,  and left all of my gear on since it was not only cold, it was also pretty windy. Getting up to the bridge was a challenge. You could either take the stairs or use the wheel chair ramp.   I chose the stairs, faster, but quite the climb.

From the bridge you could see the dam quite well. If you don’t like heights, you might not want to go out on it. I didn’t find it a problem at all. I took a number of shots, and I just love my new camera. I took some telephoto shots of trucks down at the dam and could almost make out their license plates. No that’s a good telephoto camera!

After taking all the pictures I wanted, I made it back to the parking lot, geared up and found my way back to the highway. I didn’t even think to go down to the dam, I’ve been there before, but I could have gotten a couple of good shots looking back at the bridge! Duh!

I was back on the road again and heading on through the town of Boulder City. As I was passing through, I saw a train museum, not a big one, but they had a couple of old steam locomotives there that I went and took pictures of. Maybe some time when Chris and I are passing that way again, I’ll take her over to the museum and bridge. Not sure how she would do about the height of the bridge though.

It was getting late and I needed to head back down to Laughlin. I wanted to get back before the sun went down since it gets good and cold after sunset. Because of the roads, cold and wind, I went through my gas a little faster than normal and stopped and put in two gallons at the Chevron in Searchlight. Again, back on the road and I was just getting over the mountains on 163 when the Sun disappeared. I was soon in Laughlin, where I got a full tank of gas.

I then headed back to the Hotel and turned up the heat in the room. Nothing much was on TV, so I watched the Miss America pageant that was in Las Vegas. Big Whoop!

The next morning I was going to go back to the Denny’s on the first floor, but saw the Sunday Buffet would be just about the same price, so I went in there instead. Now the day before Bill said something about no one can screw up breakfast… cooking eggs. I hate telling him, but I found someone who could! I’m not sure what was in those eggs…I ordered just an omelet with bacon & cheese, but it stayed with me all the way home and then some! L

After breakfast, I went back up to my room to pack and get ready to leave. But I wasn’t in any super hurry to get out of there, since my route home was still cold, ALL THE WAY HOME. But I was soon ready and did it anyway. Once on the road, I just gave it the gas and kept on going! As I was riding, I would knocking off my check points as I went; US95 south, Route 66, town of Goffs, I40, Amboy, before I knew it, I was coming into TwentyNine Palms. And I just kept on going. It was a good 45 miles to I10, then Beaumont and 79 south to Hemet, then the Domenigoni Parkway and Winchester Road. I was almost home! 

I had to fill up just a couple of miles from the house and then home. It took me 4 hours and 15 minutes to make the run from Laughlin, with no stops, other than my gas stop at the end.