Las Vegas, NV

I've been here in Vegas staying with my friend Jeremy since Friday. It's been a real treat to live in civilized style for a few days. I'm on my computer now so I'll backtrack a bit and fill in some of the details since Sturgis that the audience has been begging for (new pics are up, btw. Take a look, they probably tell the story better than I can). The first thing people should know about Sturgis is that the average rally go-er is probably around 45, wears shinny new leather chaps and jacket, and rides a big gleaming Harley. As a young man travelling by myself wearing a full face helmet, an armoured, synthetic, reflector clad jacket, riding the Frankenstein of dirtbikes, I felt a little out of place. Fortunately, there are enough hardcore riders scattered among the packs of dentists and accountants to give the event plenty of credibility. The best part for me was seeing all the bikes. My favorites were the bikes that at first glance might get dismissed as beat up junkers but upon further examination reveal themselves to be lovingly personalized and expertly maintained. The partying kicked off around 8 with folks parading wild bikes and skimpy outfits up and down motorcycle packed Main Street (see pictures). As things heated up I stopped by some of the famous downtown saloons and witnessed more debauchery in the form of wet t-shirt contests and burnout competitions. Sometime earlier in the afternoon I had decided that one day and one night in Sturgis was enough for me. After seeing some great bikes and catching a glimpse of the wild Stturgis nightlife, I headed back to my tent relatively early in order to get an early start out of town the next morning. Before I left town in the morning, on a whim I stopped by the Alaska Leather tent to look into getting a sheepskin saddle cover. I struck up a conversation with one of the company reps. He turned out to be from New Zealand and had just spent the past two years riding around the dirt roads of North and South America on the Suzuki equivalent of my bike. All in all he racked up 48,ooo miles before he finished up in Alaska where he hooked up with the Alaska Leather guys. His trip made mine look like a short luxury cruise in comparison! I ended up buying a saddle cover from them at his recommendation and so far it has been great. From Sturgis I headed south through the Black Hills and then west through the Big Horn mountains. That afternoon I crossed a pass at 9600 feet where the bike nearly ran out of breath. I found a campsite on the other side of the pass that was at 8500 feet. The altitude started to get to me and I felt a little giddy as I set up camp. By the time I was done it was still pretty early so I headed down out of the mountains and into Tensleep so I could send in a quick update. While I was in town I met a couple guys from Long Island and a couple from West Virginia. They had all also left Sturgis that morning and we had a great time comparing notes about our experiences. That night, back up at the campsite, I nearly froze to death from the high altitude chill. Even wearing every scrap of clothing I had and with my sleeping bag completely over my head, it was by far the most unpleasant night of the trip. That cold made it really easy to wake up in the morning but getting up and going was another matter. After a few false starts I got my gear packed up and headed back into Tensleep for breakfast. It was there that I met the guys from Toronto and the couple from Illinois I mentioned in a previous post. This day has already been covered in detail in an earlier post so I'll skip ahead to the next morning waking up in a hotel in Jackson, Wyoming. Determined to use every last minute in the hotel room I had bought myself, I left late and headed south out of Jackson, towards Utah. In the morning, the road wound along the snake river and the riding was excellent, so good that I got mad whenever I caught up to a slow car that disturbed my rhythm. In the afternoon I experienced some of the worst riding conditions I have ever seen. A combination of course altering wind, a nasty dust storm and Salt Lake City rush hour traffic convinced me that the Mormon promised land was motorcycling hell. When I finally reached my campsite on the shore of the lake just outside of Provo the dust had permeated everything and I started cooking dinner immediately hoping to get the taste of dust out of my mouth as soon as possible. As I was setting up, Rodger, the resident VIP (Volunteer In Park) stopped by and struck up a conversation about bikes. It turns out he is yet another fellow ADVer and native New Yorker who owns an impressively modified BMW GS that is currently in the shop getting fitted with a sidecar for his wife. He was great to talk to because he really knew his stuff and we chatted about everything from tires to off road driving lights. Later when I was coming back from the bathroom, I noticed that Rodger's truck was at my campsite. As I approached he drove up and rolled down his window. "I interrupted your dinner before," he said "so there's a Wendy's double burger, fries and a soda on your table. From one New Yorker to another and one rider to another, enjoy." Thanks Rodger! Meeting friendly riders like Phillip, Mark and Rodger has been one of the unexpected bonuses of this trip. As usual, I broke camp early the next morning and jumped on I15 South for a rare blast on the interstate to get the Jeremy's house in Vegas. The ride was pretty brutal as there was nothing to break up the long monotonous high speed drone of the arrow straight highway through the desert. At one point I nearly ran out of gas when I hit my reserve supply about 50 miles sooner than expected. The bike conked out while I was doing around 75. It took me a few panicked seconds to realize that I only need to switch over to my reserve and than nothing more serious was going wrong. The high RPM highway cruising had given me dismal gas mileage, 40MPG compared to the usual 50-60 I have been getting so far. Reducing my speed to 60, I limped along to the next station on my reserve. I had no idea how far it would be. Luckily I made it. When I filled up the tank took 7 gallons, the most gas I have ever put into the bike at one time. I made it to Jeremy's completely exhausted. After a great weekend of regular showers and big meals I feel like the grime of the road is almost completely gone. I got to do some much need maintenance on the bike in Jeremy's spacious garage and we managed to take in a UFC title fight as well. Tonight we're packing up the bike and the car to head up to Bonneville where we'll camp out for a few days and watching some land speed racing. Stay tuned for Bonneville. In the meantime there are lots of new pictures to check out. All the shots from the end of Oshkosh to Vegas are up. Just click the photo on the top right corner of this page to see them all.