I'd planned on stopping at Zion Harley Davidson in Washington, UT to check it out and maybe buy a shirt, but on a hunch I stopped by the service counter first. Turns out that they could get my bike in around 10:30, which meant I'd only end up waiting a half hour. Rather than getting it done in the Vegas area, this seemed like the right thing to do. Again, if you're ever in the area and you need work done on your Harley, this shop is first class. My bike only ended up getting on the lift at around 12 noon, but I was still happy as they took me in with no notice. My bike turned over 40,000km on the short ride from Cedar City to the dealership, two months left before I hit the two year mark of owning this bike.
There was a large group of bikes in the parking lot, 43 if I'm not mistaken, which turned out to be a H.O.G. ride that was taking place. Walking into the store I saw a bunch of them walking around, including one that wore a patch that caught my attention. It was a Black Sheep Harley-Davidsons for Christ patch, and I ended up talking to that man for a little while after I commented on his patch. Turns out the Black Sheep club does motorcycle ministry among H.O.G. members and chapters.
After watching the group leave myself and an older biker ended up shooting the breeze for almost half an hour, he was one of those people that puts a smile on one's face. He eventually left and I hung around the shop waiting for the work to get done on the bike. I was happy to have it done with today though, so that made the waiting quite easy.
It was 2:30 by the time I was done there, and almost 3:30 by the time I'd grabbed some lunch and fueled the bike. The ride through the Virgin River canyon is pretty nice, miles and miles of winding downhill road. I wish I'd had a chance to take some pictures there, but the interstate traffic volume was a little congested for that stretch. Once I crossed the state line into Nevada I took the first exit of the freeway to strap on the helmet once again. The temps were up close to 30C, so the jacket could finally hit the saddlebag as well.
At Crystal, NV two bikes pulled onto the freeway ahead of me, and only a mile or so down the road the back bike pulled over. I saw it too late to follow, but pulled up behind the front bike as he noticed his partner was no longer behind him. I figured I'd make sure they were good to go, which they were. Turrns out the guys were from Alberta as well, what a coincidence! I rode with the two of them until I pulled over in North Las Vegas to fuel up the bike again. While fueling the bike two fighter jets flew by overhead, man they're loud!
Riding to the hotel, in Henderson, on I-15 once again reminded me how much I dislike cities compared to smaller towns. I saw all the familiar casino names (I have a $1 poker chip collection featuring all the big and small name casinos in the Vegas area) as I passed by on the freeway, which will be as close as I get to them tonight. I've battled some pretty gnarly headaches the last few days, just one of those stretches I guess. For some reason there's very little that calls me to the strip, mostly my dislike of crowds probably. Maybe I'll fly here someday with a few others and get the Vegas experience, maybe not.
As a side note, tonight is the first time I've had to use an elevator to get to my room, riveting I know. Really no pictures today as I spent most of the day waiting at the Harley shop and then riding here. Tomorrow I'll see the Hoover Dam in the morning and then make my way into California, starting the trek north.
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