We sat around Tony's pool today and once again went through our bags and I managed to rid myself of a couple things. Had some homemade coffee and then rode down the Vegas strip. I wished I hadn't thrown out my lock chain in June Lake or I would have used it to whip cars. We went through it pretty fast, stopping to gawk at the Venetian. Phil was appalled with what they had done with the precious idea of Venice and assured me the real one is much better.
A guy took our picture for us and asked if we were here for the bike convention. No, but it suddenly all made sense. That was why all these people were carrying their helmets around like totems. We didn't spend a lot of time on the strip because it was a little overwhelming and we had a couchsurfer to catch 12 miles away. So we headed one block off the strip where they were unloading bike gear into the convention center.... Right there some angry motorist honked at me and it was very ironic.
At a stop light we saw two bikers, we chatted till the light turned green, they said, "follow us." Then zoomed off at an incredible speed. We followed them to the parking lot where all the bike industry vehicles were. Brian and Dave(hope I got the names right, I was dazed) had traveled from Wisconsin in their cool Winnebago. They had cool electric bikes that Phil and I both test rode. These bikes had massive shocks and lots of power, they looked like i would have an amazing time off roading on them, currently wishing I had an electric assist. Their company is called USE bikes, I think.
We sat and chatted with them for a good while, Brian gave me a new back tire off the tandem they had hanging off the back of the RV and we put it on. While we were doing that Bryan from xtracycle drove by and asked me where Ross was. I had to explain that I had just happened upon all of this myself. He parked his vehicle and hung out with us for a while too. His bike had the biggest tires I have ever seen, very cool custom bike. All these guys had really great pedals, how I like them, big fatty pedals.
Unfortunately it was getting dark and we had to ride away. We put on the reflective Las Vegas Pavement Corp vests that Tony gave us and cycled away.
The ride through Vegas was pleasant enough, I had deja vu and knew we had gone a bit far on a dead end road. Turned around and carried on. We saw the Las Vegas temple and went up the hill to visit it. Eventually we made it to Rob, Destiny, and Dave's house where we set up camp for the night. They have a great view of Vegas from their roof where I slept.
We watched part of a documentary about happiness, simply called Happy. It was very cool, we spent the evening pleasantly in conversation. In the morning we rode to Lake Mead and made it as far as Callville bay. It is blazing hot and Phil is passed out on a picnic table. The desert is just killing us. I am going to try to see if we can get our bikes on a boat to catch a ride north a little to Echo Bay or Stewarts point.
