One Hell of a Group

Aw yisss! Today started with the perfect breakfast! Last night we were served the most delicious homemade bread there is. We were all tired of toast and ham & eggs, our go-to dishes for the last two weeks, so in the morning I asked - bold as I am - if we could get some of that tasty bread for breakfast. Oh boy, they were really, really proud when I asked that and brought us three loafs freshly out of the oven! It was Breakfast Heaven for us! Just soft, warm, white bread with butter and honey... Mmmmh!

Everything went great! Until... I wanted to start my bike in the morning. When I turned the ignition switch all the lights started blinking wildly. What had happened?! Everyone else had already started their machines and I was sitting there, confused and with a blinking bike. Thomas got off his Harley again, came over to me and asked where my key was. In my pocket, of course..............not?! Holy hell. I ran back to my hotel room (which fortunately was about 10 m to the right of where my Road King was parked) and started searching for it. Until I remembered, that I've cleaned out my side bags and thrown lots of stuff away. I ran over to the trash can, emptied it on the

floor and yes, there it was. I've thrown away my key.
Thank god my bike was too far away from the hotel room to still receive a signal from the key or I would've had the same problem at our first photo stop, only there wouldn't have been much that I could do... Stupid me!

Around 10 am we stopped at the White Mountain Trading Post in Mt Carmel before driving up to the Zion N.P.. We had more than enough time to go shopping for souvenirs (of course, I bought a T-shirt) and to buy something to eat for lunch. I came to talk to one of the cashiers, a fifty-something year old Harley-loving guy whom I told how much I love his country. Oh, was he proud to hear that! He told me a bit about the area and also about the rattlesnakes in the area. They had a few rattlesnake articles in their gift shop, such as hides or preserved snakes. And there were little bags saying "Rattlesnake Eggs"... He proceeded to tell me how tourists can buy them here and... I forgot the rest, because he gave one of the bags to me and told me to take a look for myself. I grabbed the bag, wanted to get out what's in it and HOLY SHIT, WHATEVER WAS INSIDE THE F***ING BAG RATTLED AND SHOOK AND TOUCHED MEEEE!!! Everyone in the store heard my screaming. And laughing. He really got me there. I have no idea how on earth I could've ever fallen for

that prank. It was hilarious! :-D

Packed with food, drink and lots of souvenirs, we continued our ascend to the Zion N.P.! To be honest, I thought the Zion N.P. was more like the Yosemite N.P. and that we'd spend half a day there. But in the end, we just followed the road right through it, only stopping once - not even in an official parking area. Free parking spots were so scarce throughout the entire park, so there wasn't really anything we could do. I'm glad I got everything on video at least! Although there's gonna be a lot of cursing to hear... There was a little caravan riiight before us. And its driver really took his time. I mean it. We weren't going any faster than 10-15 miles per hour for several miles, sometimes stopping entirely, because the caravan driver decided to stop in the middle of the road to take pictures. I mean, at least we got enough time to look around and enjoy the beautiful canyons and

valleys, but my engine got so hot from driving in first gear for so long that I burned my leg again (not that bad though!). Once we thought we'd lose him, because we had to wait to drive through a tunnel. The caravan had a good 2-3 min headstart and we thought that was enough to let us enjoy a smooth ride through the rest of the National Park. Driving through the tunnel took 2-3 min at least and when we saw the light again...... there he frickin' was!! How on earth?! Did he wait for us?! We couldn't believe it. It was getting hot from both the sun and our engines and there would've been several turnouts where he could easily let us pass. But no. Sigh.

We left the National Park rather quickly as soon as we weren't behind Mr. I-don't-care-about-the-traffic-jam-behind-me anymore. The last part of our ride to Mesquite led us not only through Southern Utah, but also Arizona and lastly, Nevada. We started at 8°C in the morning and arrived at our hotel at 43°C. (I honestly don't know how I'm still alive after dealing with these extreme changes in temperature!) As we had more than enough time until dinner (we gained one hour due to changing time zones!), we all went straight down to the gigantic pool area with a beautiful waterfall right in the middle of it. It couldn't have been more relaxing to just float around in the perfectly cool water, drinking Piña Coladas in the pool and taking funny pictures. For the first time it felt like being on a summer vacation. ;-)

At dinner we were afraid that the restaurant staff might kick us out for being way too loud and disturbing the other guests. But... We had a blast, "we" being Axel/Heike, Martin/Tine, Markus, Thomas, Birgit and myself! Axel was completely out of control, being funny as ever and we could hardly contain our laughter. After the second bottle of wine (I drank just one glass, otherwise I couldn't drive tomorrow) we decided to hit the Casino area! I've always said before that I won't gamble, because I'm only going to lose. And lose I did. Fortunately, I only bet 5$ at first. But did that stop me? No! I then went to another slot machine, betting 1$, just because. And lo and behold! I won 24 cents! On my first play! I was ecstatic! Luck was on my side! I asked around if I should just cash out or continue playing. Well, nobody answered, so I continued playing at the 1c-machine and within not even a minute lost everything. Let that be a lesson! ;-)

Seriously, what a perfect way to end the last day before we get back to Vegas. It was a great ride and an even better evening and Axel said it right: we are one hell of a group! :-)