Day 4 – Las Vegas to Williams, Arizona

by tailored on November 23, 2011


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We woke early in Vegas and had breakfast at the French restaurant right in front of the Eiffel Tower replica.

We had a middle-aged women as our waitress who made everything very fancy due to her French accent and ability to carry large amounts of plates at the one time.  Bloody impressive if you ask me. 😉

Huge meals for not much money.

Everything is bigger in Vegas

Everything is bigger in Vegas - Pancakes included

Harry and I sat and talked for a while before taking one last walk down the strip.

Finally Lost My $500

Then it was back to the hotel for one last punt – I decided before I got to Vegas that I was going to lose a maximum of $500 or win $5,000.

In a surprise to no-one, I lost.  But for the amount of gambling I did in Vegas I was happy to leave just $500.  Had a blast for that $500.

We had a quick and easy checkout and then we headed out to Boulder City.

We continued out of the city and up over the relatively small hills that surround the city  The GPS had us, I thought, heading away from Boulder City, so I pulled off the highway to check the maps.

There was a Park Ranger there having his lunch.

Lost in Boulder City?  Means You’re Using A TomTom

I said, “Mate, I think we’re lost……”

“You’ve got a TomTom haven’t you and you’re headed to Boulder City,” he replied.

Impressive!

Psychic??

Either he’s a psychic or lots of people with TomToms get lost looking for Boulder City.

Turns out he ain’t psychic and a quick check of the map had us heading back the way we came to Boulder City.

Boulder City was a small and basically empty town.  We filled up (fuel was $3.58 a gallon – $20 to fill the Harley from empty).

It was from there that we took the turn to the Hoover Dam which took us along a long downhill stretch with a view of the water.

We checked out the Dam and then headed along Highway 93, a plain desert highway, to Kingman, Arizona in the Mohave County.

Hoover Dam

Checking out the Hoover Dam

We found a small coffee shop for a quick bite.

I managed to drop the bike for the first time here as I was backing it into a park.  Bloody heavy thing!

It was there, at about 2 pm, that we realised that there was no way that we would make it to the Grand Canyon that night so we agreed that we would go to nightfall and then stop at the next appropriate town – we aimed for Williams along Route 66.

We left the café and went onto Route 66 for the first time – that was the one road both Harry and I were looking forward to riding along.

On Route 66

Beside an old Route 66 sign

This section was pretty much like I had expected it to be – heaps of small towns that were completely deserted or in the process of dying.

It was lovely riding the historic route (we rode a fair bit of it along our journey) – along the side of the road there were heaps of abandoned farms and houses and a lot of abandoned vehicles littering the bushes.

We left that section of the road – flat desert road with mountains in the distance – at about 4 o’clock as we turned at an intersection in the middle of Seligman.

We headed along Interstate 40 into the town of Williams.

My Old Trick – Always Ride Through The Town

One of things I’ve learned when touring around on a bike is to never take the first hotel you see.  Always ride through the town to the end, then back again and pick the nicest hotel for you.

Williams is a lovely little tourist town, keeping alive Route 66 with memorabilia and the feel of a 1950’s town.

We decided that we would try a Motel 6 (that’s my review on Trip Advisor) – $45 for a double room – as I knew that they were all over the country so thought it would be good to try it and see what they’re like (we hardly saw another one on the trip).

Dinner at Cruisers Cafe 66

We headed out for dinner at Cruisers Cafe 66 – try the Buffalo Wings and the local beers.  Both delicious.

We walked back to our motel via a hunting shop and took a look at what a lot of locals do as their sport.

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