A Tale of Two Cities

   I asked the guys to suggest a blog post title for today.  Here are the ones that I turned down - "From Heaven to Hell,"  "The Valley of Fire," "From Zion to Hades," and "Descent into Sin City"
   I guess that you are getting the idea that it is hot here.  102 degrees as I type this.  We have been to Las Vegas a few times before, and once even in July, so the heat here should be of no surprise to us, but the fact that we rode in wearing jeans, leather jackets, and boots probably made the difference.
   Why were we wearing so many clothes?  Let's just say that it is a very hard decision when you ride motorcycles and try to make it safe.  There are probably a lot of people that would say that riding and safety don't go together at all.  I won't really attempt to argue with you or with my doctor friend that refers to our bikes as "donor cycles," but we do try to ride as safely as possible.  We ALWAYS wear helmets, and most of the time, we wear boots, long pants, long sleeves, and gloves.
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    I didn't take any pictures today on the trip into Vegas - not much to see there.  I will post some more pictures from Zion later.  We went on a beautiful 2 mile canyon hike before we got on the road.
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    One observation from Vegas.  We have always been a little conflicted about coming here.  Before we accompanied Jerry here for a conference the first time, we talked to our kids and told them how they would have to be purposeful about where they looked or didn't look, told them not to accept anything handed to them, and to be careful on what they focused on, etc.   We have enjoyed horse back riding, Hoover Dam, and many other more family oriented things here.  There are some good entertainment options here like the "Celine Dion" show that my daughter has enjoyed or the "Phantom of the Opera" and Cirque Soleil shows that we have seen, but it has always been contrasted by the people handing out "strip club" cards, the suggestive billboards, the drunks walking down the strip, etc.
   This time it seemed to be a particularly shocking contrast to me.  Having just left the beauty of God's creation in Zion National Park, it was almost too much to process.