Day 08 - Dirt, Dam and looking back

I haven't washed the bike on this trip, and I only gave it a cursory cleaning before putting it on the truck. It brought some East coast bug guts with it, and it had gathered several states' worth of bugs along the way. Well, it was beyond even my "I couldn't care less" threshold of dirty. So, this morning, since it was a down-day, I decided to give the bike a bath. Wayne wanted to do his, too, so he and I headed out a little before lunch time to wash the rides. I stopped at an Auto Zone on the way and bought a bottle of Simple Green automotive cleaner and a few bundles of towels.

We found a self-serve car wash and I sprayed down the entire bike with the Simple Green, taking extra care to really soak the especially dirty areas from our off-roading adventure the other day. I then soaped it up and rinsed it, getting all the nooks and crannies.

Before the great washing...









And after the great washing...







Then it was back to the motel to meet up with Adrian, Brian and Keith, and off to Hoover Dam. We took the $15 tour and walked around for a while. Lunch at the cafe. We made typical jackasses of ourselves and had a lot of fun.






Traffic on to the bridge was absolutely horrible. It took is better than a half hour to go 2 miles.

They're building a new roadway to limit traffic on the actual dam itself. I believe I remember hearing that there will eventually be NO traffic allowed on the dam and all tours will start with a shuttle ride from up at the main parking lot. I don't know for sure.


The new roadway is as yet incomplete, but is quite visible and in the works. Wow, it's WAY up there, too.






Adrian is obviously a dog lover.

Then it was deep into the bowels of Hoover Dam to learn everything about it.


These large pipes carry something like 38000 gallons of water per second to the turbines.


500 feet below ground we walk around. Just thing... if a cow popped out of a side tunnel in front of Wayne...


A total of 17 turbine generators supply electricity to millions of homes around the area and in to California.


How the heck to they get a truck INSIDE the deep innards of the dam?


Hey, look... giant versions of the Givi sides cases on my Sportster!












Well, we've solved the question asked by AC/DC. Hoover's got the biggest balls of them all!












These metal-heads were singing along with classic 80s metal and having a ball!





After the Dam Tour (that's what they call it), we rode back into town. I stopped and shot a couple of pictures of a rain storm in the valley. Pretty intense!





So, here we are, 8 days into the trip. I show just about 2260 miles done so far.



We've got a little over a week before we expect to arrive home. We're heading to Utah to ride in the canyons, into Colorado to ride more mountains, then buzzing across Kansas and Missouri. From there, if there's time, we'll consider heading down to Barber Motor Sports race track for a visit. Or maybe not. we're not planning that far ahead just yet.

We've had a few stupid arguments, ridden some exceptional roads, ridden in some horrendous wind, ridden every road surface you can imagine, met up with friends and acquaintances along the way, and taken some down-time.

I'm loving it. I still think I would have really enjoyed this trip solo like I'd been planning on doing for several years now, but this is a great group of guys I'm with, and riding with friends eases minds and keeps everyone at home a little less stressed. We've all learned quite a bit about each other, and made some great long-term memories.

Oh, and yeah... you can rock some twisties on a Harley.

Stay tuned... we hit the road again tomorrow so there's more to follow.