Day 32-35-Las Vegas !- 11-13 Oct. 2014,

After a quick dip in the pool we spent the first night in town taking in the neon excess of the old strip and wondering why anyone would bring children to this adult land of excess.

I remember it being bigger

The real reason everyone had come down to Vegas was not just to see me and Jason (although I’m sure it was a major factor), the main event was in fact the Red Bull Air Races. To this end, after everyone managed to find some breakfast we piled into cabs and made our way out to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway to see the spectacle.  

I found Tractor! Vegas is just like Saskatchewan!

On the second day the festivities had to be canceled before the final round due to high winds. As a result the pilot with the fastest time from qualifying the previous day was declared the winner. The winner turned to be the one and only Canadian pilot in the mix, Pete McLeod! In 2007 while I was earning my private pilot’s license in St. Andrews, MB I happened to meet Mr. McLeod when he stopped for fuel while taking his aerobatic stunt plane from show to show. So needless to say, I was cheering for him.

Somewhere along the way I found time to take in the Penn and Teller show with Kelsey and Judy. I also tried my hand at blackjack and found myself up after three days but on the final day in town Vegas took it all back.

The crew in the "Blaine Mobile"

Day 36- Las Vegas to Prescott, AZ-402 km- 14 Oct. 2014,

After 4 days in sin city I was happy to make my escape, the air races were excellent and seeing some friendly faces from home was even better. As for the city itself, I’m glad I took it in but I’m not in any hurry to go back to the carnival excesses of that city.

After packing up and lugging my bags back through the maze of the hotel we finally set off heading west to the Hoover Dam under a burning sun. It took nearly an hour to break reach the city limits but after that it felt great to be back on the open road.

Yes, it's big

Day 37-Prescott, AZ-15-20 Oct. 2014,

In Prescott we met up with our friend Christine H. and Brian D., both friends from the Air Cadet Gliding Program. Christine is learning to be a Helicopter Instructor Pilot while working a degree at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, she was kind enough to let us crash at her place for a few days. We had intended on staying only two nights but the combination of WIFI, hot tubs, showers, beds, and Christine’s incredible beer infused cooking (I really must get that cook book!) we wound up getting lazy and staying for six nights!

Hiking

Gliding from the front seat, weird

While in town I went for several hikes into the hills surrounding Prescott and we all went gliding on Saturday at the local soaring club. The soaring club used a winch (which appeared to have been taken directly from the set of Mad Max) to launch from the only runway suitable for takeoff; there was a few more options for landing. After coming all this way and patiently waiting my turn I managed to snag a ride in a Schweizer  SGS 2-33A, the same glider I fly in the Air Cadet Program. We didn’t have much luck finding lift so we returned to Terra Firma after 20 min in the air.   

Mad Max winch

More Hiking

  

Day 42-Prescott to Apache Junction, AZ -300km- 20 to 23 Oct. 2014,

After a lazy week in Prescott we loaded up and set off towards Phoenix, we were going to spend a few days with Jason’s Grandfather and his friend, ken and Sharon, at their winter home in Apache Junction (a suburb of Phoenix). In addition to visiting, we also had to get all our paper work in order for crossing the line into Mexico.

But before we buried ourselves in paper work we took a day to ride out of town on a road that steadily deteriorated from pavement to gravel to a narrow winding dirt road that eventually took us to the Roosevelt Damn. The rough road was a blast on our bikes but the bumps caused the spare tube and my license place to bounce off after back tracking for several kilometers I recovered the precious piece of rubber but the license plate had been swallowed by the desert. At least I won’t have to worry about getting any more photo-radar-tickets in the mail!

Jason likes to take the hard way

When we finally went to work to make arrangements for the border crossing we soon found out that there was no free WIFI in Ken and Sharon’s trailer park so we wound up camping out in front of the local public library, after dark, to tap into their internet pipeline.

After three days of home cooked meals , excellent hospitality, and sever swims in the pool we finally had all our documents in order, we were finally ready for Mexico! On the morning of the 23rd we loaded up once more and headed west. Since it would take all day to ride from Phoenix to the border crossing at Mexicali, we decided to ride until we were 50 km from the border, set up camp, and cross into the unknown first thing in the morning. This plan brought us to a stealth campsite along the Colorado River, the sunset was excellent... and then all the bugs from the wetlands surrounding the river came out to join us. We awoke flee bitten but ready, with a final stop of in Calexico, CA to grab some oil filters we finally rolled up to the border crossing...

Stay tuned for the next episode of "Dual Sporter Semi Weekly", where you learn how your hero (me) wound up trapped at desert oasis while Jason absconded with my precious motorbike back to sunny California.