Day 172, Wedesday, November 23,

The camp host was right about last night’s temps. They were about as cold as last night on the rim of the Grand Canyon. As I was packing up my tent this morning one of the kids from a neighboring camp site came over offering a trout that he’d caught. I’d have loved trout for breakfast, but must admit that I was feeling a bit too lazy to stop and clean and cook the fish. I also didn’t relish the smell of fishy hands in my motorcycling gloves, nor the feeling of hands chilled to the bone in the process of cleaning the fish. The boy was visibly disappointed that I didn’t accept his fish so I thanked him profusely for the offer and explained that I “didn’t have anything to cook or clean it with.” It was a white lie, but in this case, it clearly made him feel better. Another reason I didn’t want to cook any sort of breakfast at all this morning is because the sub-freezing temps kept me hidden in my sleeping bed ‘till nearly 9am. It was definitely too cold for me to try handling all the metal utensils and cook ware to make breakfast.
I drove all the way back to Hiep and Mei’s house this morning. I had to stop twice today to put air in my rear tire which has developed a slow leak. I’ll plan to take it to the BMW dealership in Vegas on Friday morning for an oil change and to get them to re-seal the tire for me. I’ve also got to get some sort of hair cover for inside the helmet. My hair is now longer than it has been since 1988! It’s getting in my eyes when I put the helmet on.
It turns out that the Chungs were at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon today and got delayed getting home due to a flat tire. Since I got to their house before they did, I dropped off my trailer and headed over to look at the Las Vegas strip. Bright lights and lots of exhaust smell.