The Final Ride

I'm really sad. I don't think anybody on this tour is as sad as I am right now. My beloved Harley is now back at the Harley Davidson Store in Las Vegas and I'm sitting in my hotel room thinking of the great time we had. :-(

But let's not start that melancholic, because the last ride on the "American Dream" tour exceeded all expectations! As always we departed from our hotel at 8 am at a rather chilly temperature of 31°C. (Seriously, we wished we still had to deal with just 31°C later that day!) Today's final highlight was the so-called "Valley of Fire". It really deserves that name! The stone formations were shimmering in bright red and the valley did seem to be on fire! Everything was just so beautiful to look at...
Our tour guides took us "off the leash" and let us drive by ourselves up to the peak and back to the Visitor Center. Oh, what an awesome, winding road awaited us! For the last time we could enjoy bend after

bend and it was heavenly! Riding my bike there was so much fun, especially in the bend-dip combinations! I feared a bit for my footrests, but as always my Road King took turned smoothly around every corner. ;-)
My personal highlight was seeing two mountain goats each hiding in one cleft in one of the rocks, chewing on whatever they had to chew on. :-)

Back at the Visitor Center there was so much to see as well. They installed a huge exhibition with live and mounted animals, large displays showing the different layers in the red rocks and huge rocks as well that had Anasazi petroglyphs on them. It was so interesting and I wish we'd had more time to explore everything.

But we had to be back at the Harley Store by 3 pm, so we continued

our way to a beautiful, almost hidden place, where we had a little picnic. Unfortunately, there were deadly bacteria living in the water, otherwise we would have dipped our feet in it. Although... It was thermal water, so we couldn't have used it for cooling off anyway. ;-)
Nevertheless, there was a beautiful litte cascade flowing down the stones. It's astonishing how you can find a place of such beauty with water and palm trees and whatnot right in the middle of a desert. A real oasis!

With every mile we rode after our lunch I knew that the time with my bike was running out. I savored every mile on the road, with every single slight bend there was, but after a short time I saw the skyscrapers of Las Vegas in the distance. One last refill at the gas station and we were back. Saying goodbye to my bike was tougher than I expected! It carried me safely through 4 states, not even once tilted over, it had no problems with the huge temperature differences

or driving around in the blazing sun... It's an amazing bike and I wish I had the money to buy a Road King at home (as a second bike, of course). :-(

We had time to shop once more (one cannot have too many shirts, right?), before we were brought back to our hotel by Georg and Birgit. At the parking lot our group made one final "Kontakt" (an awesome tradition we upheld almost every day: as you can't clink glasses with so many people at once you put your glass, or in our case the can, on a surface that connects everyone - the floor or the edge of a table - and then raise your cans at once). Vasi, Cipi and Titi played that Romanian song they played so often during our trip (Nik Lupu - "Te cunosc dupa sandale") and everyone started clapping and dancing. That was a very special moment for each and everyone of us and a perfect ending to a perfect final ride.

The day didn't end there, though. I quickly showered and got ready for my evening at the Rio Hotel & Casino. Originally, I had planned to walk there, but the receptionist highly recommended to take a cab there. And thank god I listened! When I told the taxi driver that, he laughed and informed me that I would've had to walk over the highway and would never have made it to the Rio in one piece. Phew!

At the Rio I picked up my ticket and had 2 hours left until the show started. So I went on my search for the KISS Minigolf area! HOLY HELL, that place is a Rock'n'Roll paradise!! There was a huge KISS gift shop with not only cool gimmicks, but also tons of autographed articles and custom-made guitar picks and whatnot! I spent quite some time there, bought a few gifts for my parents and asked if I could just walk around the minigolf tracks, because I'd feel stupid playing minigolf all by myself. The nice staff at the shop allowed me

to do that and I took tons of pictures of this awesome place. :-)

At 9 pm Penn & Teller's show began and WOW, it was extraordinary!! I expected an entertaining evening, but I couldn't have ever imagined how that evening turned out to be!! Not only were they funny as hell, they also didn't hold back with their witty criticism and of course their magic tricks were completely stunning and left me (and all the others, for that matter) sitting with my mouth gaping wide open. How on earth did they do all that?! I got sore abs just from laughing during their Dracula trick. I just love them! :-D
But that's still not it! They were including audience members in several tricks during the entire show and for the last trick, where they wanted to make a spotted pygmy elephant (a cow in disguise) disappear, they needed 20 audience members. Of course, I raised my hand... and was picked! OMG! I got up on the stage with bloody PENN AND TELLER!!! Penn even approached me directly, telling me to not under any circumstances let the pygmy elephant escape. He let me swear it by everything I loved. :-D Well... The elephant did escape - I have no idea how they did that - and left a chicken in its place. ;-)

The show was over after that trick and I thought that the evening couldn't get any better. But wait! Outside in the hall, Penn and Teller were taking selfies with the guests! Oh boy, oh boy!! I told Penn to please take the photo for me, because I was shaking so much. These two guys are just the nicest people on earth! :-)))

I'm so pumped right now, I fear I can't even go to sleep! But I have to... Tomorrow's gonna be a long day, starting at 6 am with our trip to Death Valley, my "surprise act" and the evening in the limo and the visit of the Fremont Street. Let's get ready for the final day of the journey of my life!