Starting mileage 2020
Ending mileage 2248
I woke around 8:30 and checked out the weather channel. Same as yesterday, high chances of rain! I looked out of the window, rain! a lot! My weather luck was definitely thinning. By the time I had got my stuff together and packed the bike the rain had slowed. As I pushed the bike out backwards I noticed this was a lot harder to move than normal. I looked at the back of the bike and it was obvious why. Puncture!
So a lot of expected rain, a puncture and I had to be 200 miles from here by tonight. I nursed it up to reception where I could use the internet to find a local Harley dealer. Lucky for me there was one on route, 10 miles out of town. The hotel was right next to a garage where I was able to fill the tyre with air and hope it would stay inflated long enough to get me to the HD dealership. The rain stopped and the tyre held out.
The lady at the garage told me it would be an hour or so before they could fit me in. She made a call to Eagle Riders to see if my insurance covered the cost but it didn't cover the tyres, just the bike. The cost to me would be $330. Obviously no choice so I accepted the hit.
the problem as a 1 inch nail. This must have been there before my trip to the canyon and I thanked my lucky stars that it didn't completely go whilst I was out in the rain yesterday. There would have been no shelter and I could have easily come off.
A few hours later, with a new tyre on I was back on the road for another 200 miles. This journey was a lot less rain. There was one outburst of hail that hurt like hell and another 30 seconds of the heaviest rain I have seen in years. These 30 seconds were actually very scary as the road instantly flooded and there was a serious risk of aquaplaning. Outside of those two moments the two lightning storms I could see stayed to my left and right for the entire journey.
The change in elevation from Flagstaff to Laughlin goes from 7000ft to 2000ft. Laughlin is in a bowl surrounded by rocky mountains and the temperature increased rapidly on the descent. With the on and off rain I had to keep my leather jacket and helmet on and this meant a very uncomfortable ride.
Laughlin is a mini Vegas. It has one road about a mile long with old looking casinos and more resembles Blackpool than Vegas. The scenery is amazing though. The glitzy town nestled in a valley of Arizona mountains, on the banks of the Colorado river looks great but once you take a look around there is nothing special here.
I booked into the Aquarius casino hotel, a large place on the river bank, got changed and went fr walk around. It was too hot to walk far so I decided to try to make back the money I had to spend on the tyre. The poker room was empty so I took out $500 and sat at a blackjack table. 30 mins later I had $900. I put the $500 + the $330 to one side and lost the remaining $70. I felt that Laughlin had served its purpose. I headed back to my room for some sleep.
So much has happened in the past 12 days it feels like I have been away for a month. I have not been bored or lonely once. I feel like I am squeezing as much adventure and experiences as possible. It has been tiring but a lot of fun.
The weather has played such a big part in this trip and I feel I have been lucky to have not come off the bike. If there is any such thing as a guardian angel then mine definitely has tattoos and a beard.
