Back in Las Vegas

From The Motorcycle Trip: Album 2

I'm back in Vegas now recuperating after a particularly dirty and eyeball searingly bright week of camping on the Bonneville Salt Flats. On Wednesday we headed out to the course early with a clear idea of how to enjoy the day's racing. We bought a program at the gates then parked the car about an 1/8 mile down the track from the starting line. With the radio tuned to the course announcer on 88.7, we spent the morning in the air conditioned comfort of the car, using the program to look up the specs and record attempted by each car as it went by. Before lunch I headed back to the starting line and snapped a few more pictures of racers as they took off. After lunch we parked at around the three mile mark and sat outside in camp chairs to watch the cars go by at speed. We saw a number of dramatic high speed spins and aborted runs but no serious accidents. As a bonus we were also sitting right by the return road, so we got to see nearly every car pass slowly by, getting towed to the pits. When we could stand the baking heat no longer, we headed back to camp for dinner. Thursday morning we left early for the long drive back to Vegas. Yesterday (Friday), I went for a ride outside of Vegas into Red Rock Canyon. After, Jeremy took me and his girlfriend, Franny, to the shooting range. Jeremy is a competitive shooter and participates in speed and accuracy competitions for pistols nearly every weekend. He put us through some of his training regimen using his specially modified competition Glock. I learned a new stance that improved my accuracy and made it much easier to shoot on the move. last night we went to a going away party for one of Franny's Air Force co-workers who was getting transferred to another base. They are a Predator drone maintenance unit, so I had a great time talking to some of the officers who are very serious gearheads. Today I am installing a new front sprocket that I had overnighted from MN. The new 17 tooth sprocket will give the bike longer legs on the highway by sacrificing some acceleration. Tomorrow I'm headed back up to Park City, Utah to stay with a friend there who is going to teach me how to fly fish. After Park City the plan is to pick up my Westerly course once again and head to San Francisco. In the meantime, new pictures are up! I started a new album because I hit the 500 picture limit on the first one. Both albums are linked on the top right of this page.