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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Las Vegas Bikefest Rally

We are here in Sin City, Las Vegas, Nevada. There are some changes to the city, some of the construction projects that were supposed to be completed by now have stopped due to lack of funds. You can see the effects of the economy even here, in Las Vegas. The casinos are not as full (which is really good for those of us who don't like crowded casinos...more chance to use the machines) and there appear to be several businesses that are no longer in business.

On the bright side, we were able to spend the last day catching up with our friends who live here. It was almost like a homecoming week, going from home to home, visiting all of our friends and catching up on news that is not usually discussed at length over the telephone.

The weather here was hot (upper 90's to low 100's) up until today. It got really windy last night and I don't believe the temperatures got much over 75 today. The main downside to the weather today is that I was unprepared for the cooler temperatures. I forgot to put sunscreen on my neck and have subsequently burned the back of my neck today (in the heat I don't forget to put on sunscreen). There were really big gusts of wind throughout the day, which made setting up tents in anticipation of the start of Las Vegas Bikefest quite a challenge. Despite the winds, the vendors were upbeat in anticipation of the start of the rally. Everyone pitched in to help each other, and the general consensus is that this was going to turn into a really good show. We even had some time to visit other vendor friends of ours today and catch up on what is happening with them and their business.

Steve got to show me around some of his old stomping grounds, and we were able to sneak in some time to wander around Las Vegas. It is nice wandering around, but I had forgotten how bad the drivers here could be. I ended up watching the road more than I have had to for a very long time. To think about it, we have not been in a large metropolitan city for several months. I forgot what it felt like to navigate through rush hour traffic. Even with the traffic, it was still wonderful to ride the bikes around and see some of the sights.

We did stop this evening at Mr. D's on Rainbow and got to watch again the "Globe of Death" show. I understand that this is the last evening that they are riding at this location so it was a lot of fun to watch the guys ride two motorcycles in this tiny globe. From the outside, the globe looks pretty darn big, but if you stuck your head inside the globe, you have to wonder why these two guys don't bonk their heads each time they pass in opposite directions in the globe. You get a whole new respect for the challenge and skill that is required to ride around inside basically a giant hamster ball... It was a fun show, and if you get an opportunity to watch these guys, do, they are very entertaining.

We also got to meet the World's Fastest Woman, Valerie Thompson. She is out of Scottsdale, AZ (small world when we are all in Las Vegas). She will be racing her drag bike the end of October and plans on going back to the Bonneville Salt flats next year to try to break her own record and get over 200 mph. Her current record is 187.42 mph (she is the 2x world land-speed record holder), so she is very close to breaking that 200 mph mark. We had the opportunity to chat with her a bit tonight, and she was very charming. We will be rooting for her to break that number next year at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

That is all for tonight. Tomorrow I will talk a bit about trying to decide what you want out of life... deep thoughts....Take care

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