I'm a little sad that the recap of our amazing trip is soon coming to an end. Today's post is the last official destination of the trip before heading back to reality.
On day 11, August 13th, 2016 we left Richfield, Utah for a 289 mile ride to the city of sensory overload in the middle of the Nevada desert. Though this was one of our shortest rides of the trip, it was one of the tougher ones (day 12 going home was right up there too). The last 90 miles into Vegas was the most extreme heat we experienced on the trip, hitting 113 degrees. There is no relief in that kind of heat. It literally feels like you crawled inside your clothes dryer and a set yourself to tumble on "Cotton/High" for the longest hour+ of your life. I had a few moments where I thought, I don't know if I can do this. I obsessively watched the miles tick down in a painful, watching paint dry kind of way. At one point we passed a sign that said "Valley of Fire, Lake Mead" next exit. I attempted to photograph this sign, but something was way off on my camera setting and the photo was so blurry that it was completely unreadable. But let me tell you when I saw that sign, I was certain that I was already in the Valley of Fire.
Finally Las Vegas came into view in the distance and my moment of doubt slowly faded away. I could see the light at the end of the Vegas strip. We pulled up to the Golden Nugget in downtown around 2:30 pm. If you've ever stayed in a Las Vegas hotel you know that checking in on a weekend is never a quick process. Especially if you are trying to get an early check in. I got in the line while Mike, Derek and Cari unloaded our gear from the bikes, waiting for the verdict if we would get a room now or would have to wait until official check in time at 4:00 pm. As I inched toward the front of the line, which was about 20 people deep, I downed an entire 32 ounce thermos of ice water long before it was my turn at the desk, still trying to recover from being overheated. I was so very thankful that we did in fact get to check in early!
Our first order of business was to stand in front of the AC in our hotel room until our body temperatures came back to normal. That really happened (for some of us anyway).
Speaking of temperatures...in case you are wondering what happens to a bag of M&M's that has been in your saddle bag for a few days and then through 113 degree heat....you get warm, crunchy M&M goodness that you have to pretty much suck out of the bag. Can't let a good bag of M&M's go to waste!
Our second order of business was to head to the pool. After drinks and pool time for a couple of hours we went back to the room to get ready to go out for the evening.
We did a little gambling, a little drinking, a little eating, checked out the scene on Fremont Street and saw the fake Guns n Roses play. Cari and I also found "the" golden nugget of the Golden Nugget. And cute little bottles of Fireball.
Special shout out to my brother who made sure we were taken care of for dinner at Claim Jumper in the Golden Nugget.The evening was pretty tame considering it was Vegas. It was a place for us to take a breath after 11 days of going non stop. I think we were also anticipating the ride home in the morning and hoping to get an early start to get ahead of the heat.
Even though no one vomited or got arrested, Vegas was a super fun time and a great place for our last hurrah!
Stay tuned for few more posts to wrap up this crazy, fun adventure...
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