little mercies

Day 9: Left Coast Time

Flight Planning
At an elevation of 7300 or so, Flagstaff is cool, even in the summer (60+ degrees this morning). My first impulse was to get down to someplace warm as fast as possible. Instead, I made a quick trip to the Grand Canyon. It was a bit of a drive-by because I was nervous about getting on the road to beat the thunderstorms that were forecast along my route for the afternoon.

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Losing the Rain Race
I got hit with a good part of the downpour just three or four miles from my Las Vegas exit. I was drenched. Half an hour or so later, the sun was out again. An hour later still, there was no evidence it had ever rained. (Note to Self: Hwy 93 from Kingman to Vegas is another visual highlight of the trip, but Albuquerque to the Arizona border is still the best. More important note to self: Avoid downpours.)

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Odds and Ends
The portion of the road between the Grand Canyon and the Deluge was fairly uneventful. Three phones calls (two tried to call me as I talked to the first). A stop by a Honda-Harley-Yamaha dealership in Kingman. (Looked for and found a bolt for the battery post. Drooled over the new bikes.) A short jaunt on the official Rte 66. A viewing of the Hoover Dam. (What I said about Mother Nature applies to the designers of and the namesake of the dam.) Riding in 102 degree heat.

[The Las Vegas weather people seemed a bit over-impressed with their “suffering” at the hands of the thermometer. The bulk of the whining was about the “abominable 25%” humidity. A move to Florida would allow them to experience 95 degrees with 95% humidity–day after day after day. That might be instructive.]

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The Other Bright Lights
The Strip seems to be about a four mile stretch of neon golden. It’s Tuesday evening, but the sidewalks are packed. All for the gambling? Lots of kids? What do parents do with their kids here? (I’m not really interested, but I thought I should show some small ability to “care” about our future–even if I don’t.)