My husband and I are motorcycle enthusiasts from Winnipeg, Canada. Every year we take a bike trip exploring Canada or the U.S. This year, our destination was the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and Bonneville Salt Flats. Traveling from July 10-21, we anticipated hot days, but we found out that 116°F plus is way hotter physically than what we had conceived it to be intellectually.
The ride to the Canyon and our days exploring the south rim were scenic and enjoyable. On July 18 we made our way from the Canyon to Hoover Dam and took our time walking around and taking pictures, figuring that our final stop for the night (Overton, NV) wasn’t too far of a drive.
What we failed to take into consideration was the intense heat that we would endure riding through the Lake Mead area in the middle of the afternoon. Luckily the park rangers at the gate were kind enough to refill our two gallon water supply. We stopped frequently to douse our heads and shirts with water, trying to cool down. We forged on but met with construction that brought us to a halt in what was becoming unbearable heat.
A kind man in a red work truck offered that we sit in his air conditioned vehicle to get some relief until the traffic started to move again. He gave us two bottles of water from his cooler. We hopped back on the bikes and thought we were home free when we encountered more construction and had to stop again.
This time, a wonderful couple in a light blue car asked if we could use some relief from the heat and invited us into their vehicle. We thanked them and hopped in. When traffic was about to move again, I was still a little dizzy from the heat, and the construction guy flagged down a wonderful game warden named Mike Geist who turned out to be our guardian angel.
Mike let us take refuge in his air conditioned truck for as long as we needed to regain strength and cool our core temperatures. The construction worker told Mike that as long as we would follow him from that point, we could all ride straight through rather than wait for the pilot truck.
When we hopped back on the bikes, Mike led the way, keeping an eye out that we were still following behind. We rode for quite a while, but all of a sudden, my husband radio’ed me that he had to stop before he passed out from the heat. I waved ahead to Mike who promptly turned his truck around and welcomed us back into the air conditioning for more relief.
By this point, Mike informed us that we were only about 10 miles or so out of Overton. Finally, we felt ready to tackle the last 10 miles. We asked Mike to guide us to the first business in town that would have air conditioning so that we could rest before heading to our hotel for the night. Mike led us to Lin’s grocery store.
At Lin’s, we were greeted with very friendly and caring clerks who ushered us to a table and chair, telling us to rest for as long as we needed. We were touched that the clerks and many patrons checked on us often to assure that we were doing okay. We were there an hour before we felt strong enough to ride the last mile to the Best Western.
We want to take this opportunity to express our tremendous gratitude to all of the folks who put themselves out to help us. Without your kindness I’m certain that we would have ended up in the hospital…or worse.
We saw some magnificent sites at the Grand Canyon, but it will be the kindness of strangers that will be the most memorable part of our trip. Thank you again to everyone.
Susan and Daniel Gravel
Winnipeg, Canada
