Valley of Fire

I was dead to the world all night and we both slept late. We did another walk way down the strip searching for some breakfast and coffee but alas, the hotels have all the food places inside, so we found a Starbucks and used the old "I just want a simple coffee" thing. I have never understood ordering coffee at Starbucks. Back to the room and checked out. This town never sleeps as it seems as busy in the casino early in the morning as it is at night and you have to go through the casino to go anywhere in a Vegas hotel.
We tore all out stuff apart and got it all down to both saddlebags full and one small LL Bean bag on the rack on the back. It was raining east and south of us so we decided to go north and do a loop through Valley of Fire State Park, which was beautiful. We went up Rt15 to get out of Las Vegas(yuck) and on the way got passed by dozens of Harleys all, as it turned out, also going to Valley of Fire. But being Harley riders, they stopped at the exit to fill the peanut sized gas tanks and we kept going (with our macadamia nut sized tank) and managed to stay ahead of them all day. The temperature was 70-80 so perfect. Not a drop of rain all day, perfect. The Harley ran perfectly, even though it sounds like a sap bucket full of gutter cleaner parts most of the time. The range is supposed to be 200 miles but the gauge said empty after 150 miles and it only took 3.3 gals to refill so I gotta Google this to see how far this will really go. These roads are pretty desolate and I do not want to run out of gas.
We stopped at Boulder City near Hoover Dam and had lunch. This is a nice little town with a nice community feel to it, and we went through some others as well.
The Beavertown cactus (Hannah says) are blooming bright pink and the Creosote bushes are flowering small yellow flowers so there is some beauty mixed with desert on both sides of the road. We passed some huge solar projects so these guys are doing the right thing out here.
We went south on 95 to cross the river at Bullhead City, AZ which is just across the river from Laughlin NV. The difference is there are big casinos on the Nevada side and none on the AZ side.  But I must say, these town seem to have a nice feel to them, with or without gambling. We had a little daylight left and it was warm so we decided to do one more push and end the day in Kingman AZ.
The sun dropped fast behind us and we were rewarded with a spectacular mountain / cloud combo, sunset. Awesome, even with power lines blocking the view. We got a motel (whose name shall not be revealed for continued marital bliss) and walked into another nice little town for a couple cold beers. Kingman has a Yoga studio next to a wine bar next to the Redneck BBQ place (with real rednecks) across the street from a local brewery (where we stopped) and a couple nice restaurants. It is a railroad town so trains seem to moving through continuously. We skipped dinner since we ate lunch so late in Boulder City. Nice walk back to the hotel and bed.
Nice first day for Hannah on the back. She did good..