Las Vegas, NV

We left Moab on the 8th day in the morning (11am, both of us are not morning people...). It was sunny, but pretty damn cold, so it was back to multi-layering and full blast heated vests and grips. The route we decided to take was cris-crossing several times through the Utah-Arizona border. The scenery was a little dull at first, but then got interesting again in Arizona. The low temperatures and windy conditions spoiled the ride a little, and by 8 pm I was fed up of riding, but we still had 300 km ahead of us. 

About 2 hours before arriving to Vegas,  it got really windy, and in a few places it was actually scary. We were getting shaken like rag dolls, and we had to fight against the wind to stay in our lane. Lots of butt clenching moments, especially when passing trucks, which added turbulence to make it even more fun :/

We entered Vegas around 12:30am. The view coming into the city from the mountains is pretty surreal. From higher grounds, the city appears like a huge pond of light in the middle of nowhere. Since we arrived there Thursday night, the prices of the casino hotels were already jacked up for the weekend crowd (rooms are much cheaper from monday till wednesday), so we had a booked a rather ordinary motel right around the corner from the MGM Grand. We had done close to 900 km on that day, so we were pretty burned out and passed out soon after.

The following day was mostly spent chasing after a few things we were still missing. Knowing that we would need fresh tires before entering Mexico, I had ordered two sets that were supposed to ship to San Diego. That same day I received a message from my contact there that the tires still haven't arrived. I then called the online retailer to see what's up, and the CR told me that they ship tires to CANADA only once a week, on Mondays! So they basically screwed up the order, and they were going to ship our tires to Montreal. I told them to cancel the purchase, got on the phone, and spent close to 3 hours looking for tires in bike shops in the Vegas and San Diego area. Finally I found 2 sets at Chapparal Racing in San Bernardino, which conveniently was on our way down South.

Later that evening, we took a little trip to the liquor store, had dinner at Hooters, and the hit the Strip to explore a little. No pictures from that night were hidden or deleted: we have to watch our budget, so we didn't explore any bars or clubs. And even if we had money to burn, I don't think they would have let us in, because our warderobe sucks...lol. We ended up walking around 15 km along the strip, before heading back to our room around 2 AM.

 

 

Belagio: the fountain show is impressive.

 

Enjoying the marble washrooms.

 

Cheesy, but still worth a picture.

 

 

 

Mihai and his favorite Quebecois star

 

Mihai and his second favorite Quebecois star: GSP

 

Random Thoughts:

 

Almost every gas station we stop at, people come up to us to inquire about our whereabouts. The loaded enduro bikes are definetely people magnets, unfortunately not chick magnets (yet?) :P. It's actually amusing to see the reactions we get when we mention that we're going to Argentina. I enjoy this gas station stardom. This is one of the many advantages of travelling on a motorcycle versus a car. The bikes trigger off conversations all over the place, whereas in a car no one gives a shit about you, unless you drive something exravagant or just cool, like a Land Rover Defender.

 

We've done a lot of riding by night so far, but will stop doing that once in Mexico. For one, because we will slow down our pace and adopt a more leisury one, but also because of road hasards such as dogs and vehicles without lights, and higher risks of encounters with crime.

 

Not much to do in Las Vegas if you are broke or on a budget. We don't gamble, so after one evening of walking around, we were ready to move on. Nevertheless, it is still very impressive and definetely worth seeing.

 

Vegas carries it's nick name ''Sin City'' well. The amount of advertisement for escort services (hookers) is astounding. There are people at every street corner or almost, trying to hand you out flyers for call girls. It actually gets annoying after a while. Drinking on the street is legit, and so is smoking indoors. What a contrast to some other places in the US where I've been, the so called ''dry counties'', where you can't even buy alcohol.

 

I was under the impression that I was hearing more Spanish than English all over Vegas. There is a very large Latino population, probably even majoritary in the area. All the signs are bilingual as well. Hearing and seeing Spanish all over the place will make the transition into Mexico a little easier.