Ga gets a haircut and the road to Laughlin

....a nice start with a bright day as we left Williams and the Grand Canyon to head for the Mohave desert and Laughlin Nevada, which is like a mini Vegas for sad older yanks.

Our first stop was a little town of Seligman, where we had to wait for Ga to gte his haircut which he does aat this barbers twice each season as its the best on Route 66 (not sure that is even remotely true) anyway Angelo who is some chairman of route 66 histotical society came and gave him a haircut.



The rest of us wandered up and down main street of this typical failed route 66 town taking in the deserted shops and motels and trying not to spend in the gift shops, Oh and we havde a fantastic massive brekkie at Westside Loli's - a German who came here 30 years ago, without a lot of prescience.

Anyway after this on the road and into the desert heading for Kingman and a harley dealer so we could all top up our T Shirt collections - all credit to Ga, he got us free bandanas (why would i want one?) and a 10% discount on the stuff we bought.



its now 3:30 and in typical Ga style we should have had lunch in Oatman at 3:00 still its only 40 miles away down a windy treacherous road over the mountains - with the famous deadmans curve....nice americans have made a mini cemetery there.

its a cool ride but Trudi dropped her bike (Trudi is tiny and cant reach the floor at slow speeds - why does she ride?) while we were admiring said curve and as a result decided to ride the rest of the 10 miles into Oatman at 10mph while we all stalled and stuttered behind.

Oatman is another ghost town - but this time because the miners all left - and when they went they left their donkeys which have gone wild and wander around at will eating tourists and gifts outside the shop - they were cool.


Despite arriving at 5:30 Ga still arranged lunch at the million dollar hotel (it has loads of signed $1bills stapled to the walls and ceiling)- i abstained and wandered the town with the icelanders taking pictures. From there a nice 30 mile sunset ride to laughlin, where we are staying in one of those huge lightless tacky hotel casino's - the Aquarius.

We are all meeting now for the buffet dinner with all you can drink for free promotion - cant wait; and then we are off to watch Steve play poker as its one of his main skills at work it seems - lets hope he wins as Ga wants 50%. Just like last time i went to las vegas i don't intend to bet 1 cent tonight!

.......3 hours later i am back in my room - the place is full of fat aging white people just sitting and pumping money into machines. There are NO normal bars in the whole town, so we (me Ian and Mick) went to the Outback steak house in our casino, and had some starters and a few beers - after, we checked on Steve who seems about $30 up aftre 3 hours.....why - and DaVid who was happily $50 up with Christelle standing faithfully behind.

Bed is calling - its 10:30 and we have 200 miles across the hottest part of the desert tomorrow cant wait.