Death Valley

Good morning and welcome to another addition of "Ride to Live". My days or riding seems to be getting shorter. I'm not sure if it's because I am leaving earlier in the morning or my routes really are shorter. I did almost 500 miles yesterday which wasn't that much shorter than the day before. I've had some pretty nice places the stay the last couple of nights, so it's been worth getting here early for.

Let's get to it! Woke up early and headed out about 5:30. The stars were amazing this morning and I tied to get a photo of them but my phone was just confused. I was able to grab this shot of the sun coming over the mountain.

It was about 60 degrees at the resort when I rode off (into the sunrise) as soon I as I got the south side of the lake the temperature dropped like crazy. I looked down at one point and it was in the mid 40's. Luckily this didn't last to long, but I think it hung around the mid 50's till about 9:00. 

I wish I had taken some photos of the Sierra Mountains, because they were amazing! The roads in Yosemite were all over the place, which was really fun. I don't think I realized eastern California had so many mountains. I knew there was a mountain range there, just didn't realize how big the peaks were. I came out of the park and the weather shot up. It was only a couple hours later and it was already in the 90's. Here's a few shots I tried to get.

I rolled into Las Vegas and it was well over 100 degrees and I was melting quickly. My legs were cramping up pretty bad this afternoon too. I'm not sure if it was from going from such cold weather to hot or if I was dehydrated. Maybe a little of both?

Got checked into my room and it's about as big as my condo at home.

I picked this hotel, one it's a Marriott property, but also because it's right across the street from BurGR. The food was fantastic! The service, not so much. I was torn between two different burgers, one was pork and one was beef, so I asked the bartender which one he would recommend. His response "well one is pork and one is beef, which one do you want?". We were clearly not on the same page. 

I would eat here again, just wouldn't sit at the bar. 

That's all I have for this day. The next couple days are going to be visiting family in Arizona, which I know I'm going to melt there too. I'll be hitting the Grand Canyon and Sedona.

I should also mention. It's really amazing how people like to move out of my way when I'm on the bike. Especially in the parks when they know I want to hit the curves. So either I'm just really annoying following people or they are just really friendly around here... Maybe a little of both? Either way, it's AWESOME!

Keep the rubber on the pavement.