Parrothead Jeff & Friends

Surprisingly good weather prevailed in Las Vegas for the last day of 2011   Of course, I took advantage of the weather and went for a motorcycle ride and had a most enjoyable time out in Red Rock canyon

31 December 2011 - Medevac helicopter at the Red Rock Canyon overlook

 I had hoped to ride through the scenic loop before going to the overlook on the main road, but when I arrived at the entrance plaza I was informed that the loop was closed due to an accident.  I headed on up to the overlook to wait before seeing if the loop would re-open and found quite the scene.  It turns out that the accident involved a rock climber and all the emergency responders decided to use the overlook as a base of operations.

31 December 2011 - Motorcycles at the Overlook

31 December 2011 - Motorcycles at the Overlook

31 December 2011 - Motorcycles at the Overlook

31 December 2011 - Motorcycles at the Overlook

31 December 2011 - Motorcycles at the Overlook

 I don’t know if everyone wanted to see a helicopter take off, but it seemed like every motorcyclist within a 10+ mile range had converged on the overlook.  Cruisers, touring bikes, sport bikes, standards, dual sports and a bit later even a scooter all showed up

31 December 2011 - Medevac helicopter leaving the area

 The helicopter eventually took off and just about everyone else left as well.  Here’s wishing the injured climber all the best and a speedy recovery!

31 December 2011 - My new watch and just about 7,000 miles since I started riding

 I’m not leaving my new watch on the handlebars – I just wanted to make sure a watch would work there   That watch is one of my Christmas presents   It’s a Casio G-Shock GWM850-1 and it wasn’t cheap   For the money, you do get some really great features.  This watch is solar powered and will charge from even relatively dim light sources like fluorescent lights.  It also sets itself daily using the radio signal from the atomic clocks around the world so you know it will always be accurate

The idea of strapping a watch to the GPS mounting bracket worked perfectly, so I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a very inexpensive Casio that’s not a G-Shock but is still waterproof and has an electroluminescent back light that’s easy to activate even with gloves on.  Finally, I have a clock in easy view on the bike

You might also notice the odometer reading – I’ve now officially traveled 7,000 miles on my V-Star!  The odometer read 8436.5 when I first rode it and it was up to 15461.8 when I took this picture.  Remember that my daily commute to work is only about four miles round trip and you can get an idea of just how much I love to ride this fine machine

31 December 2011 - The last evening of 2011 in Red Rock Canyon

 It’s always a treat to have good lighting like this when you have a camera handy

31 December 2011 - Heading south in Red Rock Canyon

31 December 2011 - Panorama - The sun has set on 2011

I couldn’t believe how gorgeous the sunset turned out tonight   These pictures really don’t do it justice, especially when you’ve seen it from the saddle of a motorcycle.  Still, I don’t think they turned out half bad at all

Actually, after watching a few James Bond movies (especially the ones with Sean Connery), going for a good motorcycle ride that produced some pretty decent photos, and chatting with friends on the phone, I’d say today was pretty darn good

That’s all for this post, but I’ll have another one published soon.  Have a great day everyone