Scoot and me bolted out of Boulder City at the crack of dawn. We passed the last Casino and descended down to the Boulder Dam and began the climb up the Arizona side. One of the reasons for the early departure is that US93, on the south side of the dam, has 16 miles of mostly very narrow road with lots of construction and it is all uphill.  I wanted to get through that area before any traffic built up because there a only a couple of places to pull off for faster traffic.

We cleared the area with no traffic and hit the four lane.  We were running into 20 knots of head winds and as always, this slowed. us down.  We pulled into Rosie's at 6:30 for breakfast.  The place was pretty busy for this early in the morning. Most were locals and many were buying Powerball tickets.  One guy got $80 worth.  He should have invested $79 in beer and then he would just have just lost a dollar. The breakfast was excellent and large. I did not eat all of it. I asked AJ, the waitress, if I could take her picture and she agreed if I would send her a print.  That is the what she charges everyone.  Last year she got a picture that was taken by a Japanese tourist 15 years ago. This is a small friendly place and there was lots of discussion about my sanity of riding a Vespa across country. The old guys said it was great.  Some of the young ones did not  think it was a good idea.

Down the road at Yankee pizza I came across this sign.  The "restriction" is that no trucks or buses are allowed to cross the dam and are diverted to another route for security reasons.  I found it interesting that Rosie's was rocking and this place is blaming some one else and looking for a hand out.  That attitude may be why they are losing business.

We rolled into Kingman and came across the local breakfast meeting of the old car club.  There was about 8 great cars, but I liked the bus. The body is a 1946, but it sets on a Ford F150 chassis.  This was it's second outing.  Nick, the owner, has been building it so that his daughter, who is in a wheel chair, can go to antique car shows in style. In Kingman we got on Route 66 and headed east.

We stopped in the Kingman airport.  This is where airplanes come to rest or be buried.  There were many more than the pictures show.

Back on Route 66 we came across some Harleys on the side of the road and saw a bunch of guys in green vests.  It was the Desert Rough Riders motorcycle club and they had adopted this part of the highway.  They had picked up a lot of trash. We talked a few minutes and then they went back to work.

Of course we had to stop in Truxton to visit Chuck and Charlie.  This place was very busy today with locals and tourist getting gas.  Two German girls stopped to buy cigarettes. Chuck does not sell cigarettes but the girls were thrilled that he would let them smoke in his store out of the wind.  He told about a lady that stopped in one time and asked if he sold cigarettes. He said "no, we just sell moonshine, marijuana, and unlicensed firearms."  She slid back her jacket and showed her badge from the Arizona Tobacco and Firearms commission. She did not see the humor in it.  Chuck sprayed some cleaner on Scoot to clean up a film of oil from the maintenance shop that had gathered dirt.  Charlie made me a care package of souvenirs. He had other stuff but realized I did not have much room.  We said goodbye again and I am sure that the business will still be here when I pass this way again, with Charlie following in his Pop's foot steps.

Again I say, great people.

I cruised on down Route 66 passing going businesses and some that were long closed. When I had the tail wind we were rippin'.

I got on I-40 about 10 miles before I wanted, but it was not a bad ride, even with the trucks passing by.  I got to pass one on a long climb up a hill, but shortly he blew by me again.


I pulled in to Ash Fork for lunch. A customer noticed my t-shirt and asked that I show it to his wife. Thus I met Hugh and Reba.  They have a small farm out in the country at the end of a 9 mile dirt road. They had had a 1963 Vespa that had all it's parts but did not run.  They had acquired or actually rescued it from a neighbor. He had finally given it to some one that made a table out of it. We had a long conversation about all the interesting things in the area that are not on any map or tourist route. There are old Indian ruins, a cave dug by Chinese railroad workers and lots of other things including a flying saucer. They invited me back any time for a tour of the area.

Ten more miles of I-10 to Williams and I was done with the interstate. Running through Williams I found a large group of motorcycles. I later learned they had turned out for a funeral for a local soldier killed in Afghanistan. The soldier had bought a new bike, but never got a chance to ride it.

We ran up AZ64 to the Grand Canyon and paid way too much for a hotel room at the Red Feather.  But it is the old story, location, location. I had tried the Holiday Inn Express in hopes of waking up smarter tomorrow but it was full.

View Larger Map

aa

I can not say enough good about Pat Clark Motorsports. They are the  Las Vegas Vespa dealer and many more bikes including Triumph and Docati  and others. They all went out of their way to make me feel at home and/or to get me back on the road as quickly as possible. When we had trouble getting the right parts in, they took what was needed off a floor Vespa.  Mike worked through his lunch hour even though I was only going 18 miles today. So, Troy, Bill, Mike, Fabian, Eric, Jack, Gustavo and all, THANK YOU! If you need a bike call them.  I will deliver it. Pat Clark Motorsports

I went to do laundry while they working on Scoot and saw this sign in the parking lot.  I liked it. Interestingly, there was a 1-800 you got a lawyer billboard above it.

In Pat Clark's workshop they had a Desmosede.  This is a $72,000 motorcycle made in Italy and only 1,500 were made.  The factory flew Mike to Italy for a one-week course just so he could work on it. The owner had had it up to 186 mph. It was in their shop because the owner had backed into it with his Ferrari.  Some people just have all the bad luck. Scoot was trying to talk trash to it, but it only speaks Italian.

We finished up around 2:30, and those who know me, know that I whine at any bill.  You will be glad to know that I was glad to pay this bill because it was worth every damn penny of it.  Any time I get service like this from genuinely caring and nice people, I am glad to pay.

I rode the 18 miles to Boulder City with the blowing winds again.  Everyone say Boulder City is a great place, not all corporate like Vegas and they were right.  The Boulder Dam Hotel is a historic old hotel that has been restored.  Sandy, the red headed receptionist, is a pistol and was really great to spar with.  It took some convincing to get her to pose with Scoot and she demanded review rights of the picture.

 I asked about a place to get a good salad and she pulled out Milo's Wine bar menu of things that I had not seen since I left home.  Not a burger or grilled cheese anywhere.
I was not disappointed as the first thing they told me when I got there was it is P.I.G.night. PIG= 'Professional, Intellectual, Gentlemen". All P.I.G.s receive half off on all drinks and that included all wines. I ordered two and a Chianti Platter of meat, cheeses, olives, tomatoes, etc.  Even I could not finish it. Bob, the manager came and sat with me for awhile.  Nice guy.  He and Milo had been partners in a small Casino operation in Vegas and sold out 3 years ago.  Perfect timing.  He gave me a tour of the place including the B&B that they run upstairs.
It was a successful day and were ready to get back on the road.

We were up at the crack of dawn. Scoot had spent the night visiting with his cousins, but was ready to go. Leaving town around 5:30 for a short distance there was heavy traffic.  The military must go to work early here.

We cruised along until we came to an intersection.  I stopped and got out the map to study it a minute.  I had not seen another car for 40 minutes and all of sudden here comes a truck. What are the chances? He stopped to see if I was ok and I asked him about the two routes to death valley.  He did not recommend the other way as the last time he did he said "I lost".  So we saddled up and followed him up to CA-190.

We entered the park and then did a refueling.  Behind us was the mountain we crossed last time but avoided this time by coming via CA-178.  The grades on the western slope are 9% and we would have slow going at that.  Ahead of was the Towne Pass at 5,000 feet that we had to cross again.

Scoot had been acting a little strange and was losing power up the hill, so we pulled over and cleaned the air filter again.  This seemed to help some.

In Stovepipe Wells we fueled and while we did, we met and talked with several people.  One was a tribal elder and she said there were only about 20 members of her tribe here in the valley. One was a Park Service employee and he had been in Death Valley for 22 years. There wer also several European visitors, some on Harley's, and by the time I thought of the camera they were all gone but this nice couple from Holland.

We headed on down the highway until we ran into Emily and Melody. Emily works with troubled youth at a 24 hour a day boarding school.  She thought holding the STOP sign was a great change for a while, but she was eventually going back to the boarding school.

Off we rolled and came to Furnace Wells.  The sign says -190 feet.  This place has been here forever and the Hollywood people used to come here with their girlfriends.  It even has a golf course here in the desert.
It is home of the "20 mule team Borax" commercial. The 20 mules pulled 24 tons of borax at 2 miles an hour for 10 days to the rail head. Only the older readers will probably remember these commercials.










We climbed up the mountain and down the other side to Death Valley Junction were there is a stop sign. As we pulled away from the stop sign, Scoot started to shake. I stopped and tried it again with the same results, so we limped the 100 yards or so to the Amargosa Hotel/Cafe/Opera House in Death Valley Junction. I did a little examination and decided it was something to do with the internal belt system that drives the rear wheel. So.....limp into Vegas at 127 miles; work on it here in 100 degree heat; or call the tow truck. I opted for the tow truck.

I went inside the hotel and met the 83 year old owner that had been here, in the middle of nowhere, for over 40 years. She had come here on vacation from New York City, where she was an artist and dancer, and decided this was the place to be. I was allowed to sit at the "staff table" in the cafe with Lynette, Ruthie, and Theresa.  There was a lot of laughter and good times in this small town. Like every place, these people are genuinely nice. If you pass this way, don't miss it, which you can easily do.

                                                                not much chance of 25mph
Progressive Insurance said it might be 4 hours to get out here in the boonies but Rick was there from Pahrump within the hour.  We loaded up and headed for Vegas. So, what is a $10 tow insurance policy worth here in the desert.......$800!  I think I got my money's worth.

It took Rick and I about 1.5 hours to get to Pat Clark Motorsports.  They immediately jumped on Scoot to find the problem. Good thing I did not decide to work on it in the desert as I did not have the parts.  The little rollers had had a melt down and chewed up the housing. It was too late in the day to get parts from Vespa, so we called a dealer I had done business with in San Diego and they are overnighting the parts.  These guys at Pat Clark Motorsports, Bill, Troy, Irish Mike and Fabian are great.  They even offered to take parts off a new Vespa to get me back on the road.  That was nice, but I was not going anywhere today anyway.

you rode what from where?!

They recommended the Boulder Station Casino which is way off the strip and not far from Pat Clark Motorsports.  It is a nice place but one of those places that can stick it to you.  The room is quoted at $48, but after the add-ons, is $68.  This is the norm here.

View Larger Map
x