Day 14 Highway 93 South of Hoover Dam, Arizona

Stats

Daily mileage 67 Ride time 5hr 15min
Avg speed 12.38mph total mileage 647

Alarm rang at 0600hrs and I began packing my gear. Kevin and I had oats and coffee for breakfast and we decided to pop to Wal-Mart for some groceries. When I returned home last night I noticed I had developed a flat tyre so I fixed that before leaving the house.

I thanked Kevin profusely for his hospitality and eventually got on the road by 1030. I had no idea where I was going to end up tonight as the environment will be very baron. It took about 2 hours to get out of Vegas and I had to ride on my first motorway, albeit brief. The ride to the Hoover Dam was congested and hilly. I passed a cycle race that was about to start in Boulder City and was very tempted to join in. I could tell I was feeling fitter now than when I first left 2 weeks ago.

The main road actually passes over the Dam and I took some more dam photos! There were tourist everywhere and many of them were taking photos of me. Lots of people were asking what I am doing and when they reply “that’s a long way to Florida son” I shrug my shoulders as if to say no problem In truth, I cant wait for the day when people reply “not far now son”.

With the heat hitting low 90F I was running out of water very fast. There was nothing between the Dam and a bar some 30 miles away, so I took the opportunity to fill up when I could see some tourist.

With the sun setting around 1730hrs, I was hoping that bar would let me camp there. I rocked up with little sunlight left and they showed me a spot in front of someone’s trailer. I went to the bar with all my belongs as I didn’t trust my stuff around there. Most of the folk could barely string a sentence together, but the swear words were easy to distinguish. I had a few beers and snuck away. I had a bad feeling they would transform into creatures after midnight and I didn’t fancy being on the menu!

I retired back to the tent and the owner of the trailer came out. Couldn’t understand a thing apart from Vietnam War. Hopefully, my bike and I am still around in the morning. I am setting my alarm early tomorrow, wonder why!!