Bike trip from Las Vegas to New Orleans

[Ezio]

Hello. I'm from Brazil and I am planning my second motorcycle trip in the USA. On the last time I took a guided tour from LA to Vegas on a Harley and I intend to choose my own route now. On august I'll be in Las Vegas again for the marriage of a couple of friends and after that I'll have a spare week to do a new bike trip. Searching nice cities not very far from where I'm going to stay, I had the idea of going from Las Vegas to New Orleans, as it is possible to go trough parts of Route 66 and I really like the idea of knowing the city.
But I have some questions about that. What should be the best route? I intend to stick to secondary roads, because riding a bike is much better when you have nice views to look at and I really do not plan to drive through cities that are very big - and the traffic is too complicated. What would be the best cities to stay, considering that it would be a 1700 miles trip? I think that 5 days (340 miles a day) would be enough time and I could spare 2 more days to stay in New Orleans, do you agree? What would be the best touristic places to visit in the way? And what is the weather like in that region in august?

Thanks for the advices!

Ezio

[Charlie H]

From Kingman, AZ to Amarillo, TX, you would be in the Route 66 corridor. Most of the sections of Route 66 that are still in existence would be nice, easy rides with little traffic. The only big city you would go through on 66 is Albuquerque and it is pretty easy to find your way through. After you leave Route 66, you would go through Dallas and traffic there can be pretty hectic.

The worst city you will face as far as traffic is New Orleans. Traffic is heavy and it is a difficult city to find your way around because for the most part, there is no grid system - the streets kind of run every which way as is the case with many cities on the water.

I don't want to rain on your parade but five straight days of over 340 miles a day on a motorcycle is a pretty tough schedule.