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Grand Canyon – At the Grand Canyon, the wind whips our faces

Las Vegas doesn't have to suit everyone, our plan is to spend two nights there. Personally, it's a bit too much hustle and bustle for us, but we also tend to be nature lovers and feel much more comfortable in the wide open spaces outside the cities. 

Las Vegas Harley-Davidson Cafe

A visit to the casinos is a must, if you don't gamble, you'll gladly pay 10$ for a beer, but a bit of fun is also part of it, pulling the one-armed bandit once until the jackpot is hit, that's okay. But to be honest, there's no getting around the fact that almost every hotel has its own gaming area, those who are prone to gambling should really sew up their wallets until they have left the city again.

We took the latest 360° photos of the legendary Harley-Davidson Cafe.

Fortunately, we still have the opportunity to visit the legendary Harley-Davidson Cafe in Las Vegas, but sadly, the cafe will be closing in October 2016 and completely cleared out.

We enjoyed our visit to the café, apart from a few minor details, but unfortunately some bikers had different experiences. In any case, they were all friendly to us and the visit was worthwhile for us.

I took a few more 360° interior shots of the Harley-Davidson Cafe, which will now be included in the memoirs. (Link to the report)  

 

The buildings in the city are impressive, but the advertising signs are truly remarkable. Some of them are in 3D LED, which makes the advertising stand out in a very unusual way.

The whole atmosphere on Las Vegas Boulevard is just like in the movies. Unfortunately, we're both feeling a little queasy, so we head back to the hotel. That's it for us—we're both hanging over the toilet. We may have both gotten food poisoning somewhere. I had organized a Las Vegas sightseeing flight for us in advance, but unfortunately we have to cancel it.

We turn off the lights pretty early in the evening. It's just a shame that we have a group of teenagers next door who have put their subwoofer in the hallway, along with a box of ice for their drinks.

We weren't really sure whether we should think this was good or bad. Normally, we would have joined in the celebrations, but this boom boom was somehow annoying. But we were just too exhausted to start stressing about it, and at midnight everything finally calmed down a bit.

Today, the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon are on the agenda.

 

The second day in Las Vegas is canceled for us; we are both exhausted and stay at the hotel. A new morning dawns and Hermann is back in the race, while I still have my problems, but mine started later, so I am hopeful, but I also have no choice.

Now we need breakfast, which isn't easy to find in the Circus Circus Hotel because the hotel is huge. Refreshed with bananas, we collect our things and look for our cars, which are somewhere on the parking deck, but that's not easy to find either. In these mega hotels, it's often a long way to get from A to B, but the view makes up for it.

We have stowed everything away and now we are continuing on our way. We want to drive past Hoover Dam and on to the Grand Canyon.

I took the "drive by" part too literally. Unfortunately, I took the wrong turn and there's no way to turn around here. Never mind, we can see something of the Hoover Dam, and that's enough.

The weather is mixed but dry, unfortunately it's not really warm, quite the opposite. The closer we get to Grand Canyon The weather is deteriorating and it is getting cooler and cooler.

We are, of course, climbing higher and higher, and now the weather changes abruptly, with storms and rain, and temperatures hovering between 5 and 7 degrees Celsius. Now we are heading for the Colorado River; the name alone draws you to the river.

Anyone who remembers the Western comics of yesteryear will understand this, as names like Grand Canyon and Colorado River in Arizona were always a guarantee of adventure stories.

We're currently on another adventure of our own, a violent storm is brewing and, as always, we're right in the middle of it. In the USA, the weather is often not much fun; storms here can quickly become really dangerous and we're once again traveling through a completely deserted area.

We drove to the Grand Canyon, but before the descent we kept going straight ahead towards Colorado River, until we couldn't go any further at South Cove. There was no way around it: after taking a few photos and recording a live video for Facebook, we had to take shelter until the worst was over. 

The wind whips our faces on the Colorado River

 

The wind whips our faces, but we still want to go to the Grand Canyon, we want to fly in a helicopter and go to the Grand Canyon Skywalk Definitely.

We are back on the road to Grand Canyon We have arrived and are approaching the Visitor Center. The route is superb, we have a wide view and can see the canyons with their different layers of color in the distance.

The mix of black Clouds, rain and sun are at our backs and we slowly arrive with our e-gliders at the parking lot attendant from the Peach Springs Visitor Center pulled up. 

The Hualapai Indian looks at us with wide eyes and is amazed that we are in this weather on the Indian reservation with the Harleys drive up. I mean we have March, why he's surprised wasn't quite clear to us.

The Hualapai Indian tells us that we are like bears.

We earn respect from the Native Americans

We would be like bears, he said to us, which was somehow a very special compliment to receive from a real Native American. It probably has something to do with the fact that Americans, and probably Native Americans too, have much more respect for bad weather than we Europeans do.

It's a bit stronger in the States than it is here, and it's handled differently here too. When bad weather is forecast, everyone closes up shop and goes home.

And that's exactly what happened to us at the Grand Canyon. Except for the Indian parking lot and a few Native Americans at the center, everything here was closed.

No helicopters flew anymore, the skywalk had been closed and the buses were no longer running. We were done for; apart from coffee and a sandwich, there was nothing to be had here. Our dream was now shattered; we were standing a few hundred meters from the Skywalk and couldn't get there.

It was wet and cold, so we are slowly getting used to the situation and are now thinking about driving towards Needles in California. There is a lot to do there in connection with the Route 66 and we also have a hotel room waiting for us there.

Then, for once, we might not arrive in the middle of the night. It's only 200 kilometers, which we can cover in three hours. It's already 7:00 p.m., but we're feeling optimistic.

We set off again, even though the weather is really not nice. Suddenly, the clouds break and the sun fights its way to the forefront. A rainbow forms right in front of us, and we are both completely overwhelmed by the fantastic sight. We take a few more beautiful photos before continuing on our way, taking the time to do so.

The Grand Canyon National Park is an unforgettable experience.

 

We continue along the beautiful route and see a motorcyclist approaching us on his old Honda, but he wasn't riding, he was pushing it because he had a flat tire.

We asked him if we could help him, but he didn't need our help; he wanted to push his truck home. We just wondered where he lived. We didn't see any houses anywhere. Incidentally, that's what most Americans do when you're stranded somewhere on the road: they stop and ask if they can help you. We've seen that happen many times and experienced it ourselves.

This route from Grand Canyon according to Needles It's really great, like everything else here. The weather has calmed down again, the mostly dark clouds have cleared, and the temperature has risen again as we slowly lost altitude.

We stop a few times just to look around, it would really be a shame not to enjoy this nature for a few minutes. These long grades and the wide views into the valleys are amazing, for us it's the first time we've ridden a Harley in this area, and now we understand why so many people don't like it. Harley rider are so enthusiastic about the Grand Canyon. 

Our destination is Needles, an old town steeped in history on Route 66.

We'll arrive before midnight in Needles and stay overnight in Best Western Hotel. As always, we have a good, clean hotel to stay in.

We let this eventful day come to a relaxed end. For me, it started off tough, but I started to feel better again at the Grand Canyon, and by the evening, I had actually forgotten all about it. The moments on the Colorado River and at the Grand Canyon were far too beautiful for that, despite the storm.

External web link

Tips for Grand Canyon

Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon

Hotels:

Las Vegas Circus Circus Hotel, Casino & Theme Park (Free Parking)

Best Western Needles