Gremlin's Tall Stories

That cursed alarm is going off at 8am and it won’t stop. Unfortunately, I had to put it on charge last night, so it’s not by my bed, instead it’s on the table. I stumble over and turn it off. Murray is in the bathroom, and Anjum wants a shower, so I sneak a quick break between them.

Downstairs for the complimentary breakfast, this time there are also pancakes and yoghurt, so I have that as well. We were planning to go and shoot some guns this morning, but Ken found it was $99 each, so definitely not worth it. Instead I have a lazy morning, spending some time trying to track down a leather shop. I want a couple of pieces of leather for the bike, each side, in the crash bar. My patches (NZ and USA) then get stitched to the leather pieces, and it’s an easy way of using the patches while still easily transferrable to another bike in the future.

Once I had three places lined up to visit, I left around midday. First stop was Leather Headquarters, but his girl was on a day off and he didn’t have the materials. He sent me down the road to Tabics, but it was all or nothing. I could buy a full skin or scraps, neither suitable for my use. The next leather shop was the same, and even recommended Tabics. The manager’s suggestion was to try a thrift shop, which was actually a very good suggestion. Buy a garment then cut it to pieces

I visited the first recommendation, no leather, the second did, but I ran into the next issue… 100% leather. Sure… what leather? On the verge of giving up, I tried the last leather shop, only to find it was probably buried in a mall, so I gave up and headed back to the Hotel. Riding around, it was 44 degrees on the street, 46-46.5 degrees on the Interstate (the side walls trapping the heat in). I was naughty, wearing shorts, shirt and helmet, but for 2.5 hours in the temperatures, full gear and I would have been flat on my back.

Walking into the Hotel, I’m thinking pool, pool, pool. Upstairs, change into swimming trunks, straight back down and into the pool. Felt good for a short while, then it didn’t feel any cooler than I was. Back upstairs, I put some laundry on, and had a late lunch, just before 5pm. By having a late lunch, I wouldn’t need dinner, and there is the complimentary breakfast in the morning. I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, throwing the laundry in the dryer and writing blogs to try and get up to date.

Just before the end of the Manager’s special, I went down again to be social, having a couple of Sprites and finding out what people had been up to. Since the guys were married, they also wanted to know what I had been up to the previous evening. I told them I would have preferred a nice girlfriend instead. Ironic they wanted what I had, I would have preferred what they had… perhaps the grass is always greener on the other side?

Some headed off for dinner, Mark, Gerry, Murray and I joined Ken and Jan in their suite and chatted a bit more. Mark and Gerry headed off to pack, the rest of us headed down to the van to prepare it for the morning. We’re going through Death Valley, and Ken and Jan say that we need an early start. She’s specially told me no 11am starts either. Drat. Not that I am inclined to start at 6am like the rest of them though. Breakfast starts at 6am, so they will have breakfast and then go.

Back to the room, Murray headed for bed, Anjum appeared after being out all day with a friend and I wrote the blog for the day, while watching some TV (you’d think I’d learn… it’s so unproductive, it’s not funny). I’ve pushed hard though, and from being roughly 6-8 days behind, I only have 3 days I need to write.

With nothing significant to photograph, I only took one picture, when the sun was setting, and the lights were on in the area outside our window.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/iHSzrikbFKb5ctHg7