Las Vegas

Hey everyone I know it has been way too long since I have updated this but believe it or not it is actually harder to find internet access in America than it is to cycle across it! But anyway we did make it to Las Vegas alive. In the end we decided not to take the Death Valley route. It meant a bit of a detour and a lot more of the Nevada Desert but at least it was a bit cooler, 39oC as opposed to +50oC. So far the trip has been amazing. It was so hard to leave San Francisco but it has been getting better ever since. American people are so friendly. Every time we stop anywhere people come over and talk to us and give us stuff! People offer us food, maps, water, everything! One couple even offered to let us stay in their house. They said their daughter was just back from a cycle across Aisa so they knew how we must feel. We had more cycling to do that day though. One guy I talked to had never heard of Ireland. Another guy thought Ireland was inbetween Scotland and England! All very nice people though. The cycling hasnt been too tough so far. We would be quite tired every night but legs aren't too sore. The most we have cycled in a day so far is 145km but we usually do about 110km. We mostly camp rough somewhere on the side of the road every night. Local people are really friendly and dont seem to care where we camp. Except one night someone saw our bikes and reported us as a road accident. The cops came out to investigate and moved us on but they showed us somewhere else to go. One night we camped beside a railway track and the tent almost collapsed the naxt morning cause of the wind from the HUGE trains over here. Already our journey has taken us through some pretty exciting places including mountains with bears and mountain lion, black ghettos, the Nevada nuclear test site and possibly Area 51! The day we left San Fran we had to go through the black ghetto of Oakland. We asked a cop (who turned out to be Irish) for directions and he tried his hardest to convince us not to go that way. He even offered to drive us through! Of course we declined and made it through in one piece but did get a lot of stange looks from the locals. We crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. It turned out to be much higher and farther and farther than we thought but eventually made it. Our first major stop was Yosemite National Park. It basically took us 4 days to get there. 2 of those day were climbing steep winding mountain roads. It was totally worth it though when we arrived in Yosemite. It was an absolutely spectacular place. Unfortunately there have been a lot of forest fires in California recently so the views of the mountains were quite hazy with smoke. We arrived in Yosemite valley in darkness. All campsites were full and the offices were closed. You cant camp rough in Yosemite cause of the bears! Not really knowing what to do wandered through Camp 4 and got talking to some really cool climbers who immediately put a bottle of whiskey down in front of us and let us stay with them. We pretty much spent the next few days climbing mountains and drinking whiskey round the camp fire with them. There are so many bears in Yosemite park that all food has to be stored in special bear proof boxes. About 3 or 4 times every night a bear would invade the campsite and get chased out by people. Our first night we didnt bother pitching the tent cause it was warm enough so just slept outside. Daithi nearly got trampled on by a bear that was being chased out of the campsite. He could have reached up and smacked his ass as he went by! After a few brilliant days in Yosemite we hit the road again. It was a steep cycle back out of the Valley and another days cycle to get out of the park. The road went to an altitude of nearly 1000feet.

This was the road to Yosemite. Not easy!



The ground was too hard to peg the tent so we tied bungee cords around the bikes to hold the tent up.

Daithi inside a giant redwood in Yosemite

This is a bear even though the picture is terrible

At the top of Half Dome Mountain

Coming over Tioga Pass with snow on the surrrounding mountains

After the long descent from the Sierras we hit the desert for the first time. I clocked a speed of 74km/h going downhill, my new personal record! The desert was hot, but not too hot to cycle like everyone had told us it would be. The biggest problem is carrying enough water. Between the two of us we can carry about 15 litres at full capicity which is enough to get us about 80 miles without a refill. is We have only had one real water emergency in the desert so far. In the town of Benton we filled up about 6 litres of water in the morning between us thinking we could fill up again up in the next town of Bassalt about 30 miles away. Bassalt turned out to be a ghost town so we had to continue on to the next town, Coaldale about 20 miles away. By the time we got to Coaldale we had less than a litre left and it was about 350C outside. Coaldale also turned out to be a ghost town. And the next town, Tonopah was 40 miles away. Oh shit! We took shelter in one of the abandoned houses till it cooled down a bit. Luckily we managed to flag down a car a the people gave us another 3 litres of water. We were still a bit short but set off for Tonopah anyway. We were very relieved when we found a rest area with a tap about 10miles from Tonopah! A lesson learnt, don't just assume a town exists just cause there is a dot on a the map, always ask local advice! We camped rough about 5 miles from Tonopah that night. The next day it was agreed that we needed a day off to recover. By then we hadn't showered in about 10 days (there were no showers in Yosemite) and had't washed our clothes since San Fran. We booked into the Clown Motel in Tonopah and spent the day lying on our beds watching TV and eating food.

Thats what most of Nevada looks like

Our Motel room in Tonapah

A spikey desert tree

We actually went quite close to Death Valley but didnt go in

Tonapah was about 200miles north of Las Vegas. It took us two and a half days to get to Vegas from there. It got progressively hotter as we went farther south and dropped in altitude. As you might expect there eally isn't much to see in the Nevada desert just the odd Casino and Brothel every 50 miles or so. Even though we were going down hill all the way we had a strong wind in our face which slowed us down a lot. Not a lot goes on in the desert. We passed by the place where they tested the atom bomb for the first time but all it was, was a plaque. Sounds way more exciting then it actually was. Was also passed the military base in Indian Springs where the Americans launch and control their Predator aircraft. These are the little white unmanned planes that fly all the way to the Middle East, drop their bombs and return home all controlled remotely by a guy in a trailer!

Anyway we are in Vegas now! We are staying in a cheap motel just off the Strip (the main street with all the Casinos) beside the Stratosphere Casino. This place is crazy. Beer in the Casinos is free if you are gambling, or pretending to gamble! You can sit at a 1c slot machine for 5 minutes and a cocktail waitress will bring over free beer all you pay is a tip. After 5 minutes in a Casino Daithi had signed up to a $60 poker tournament. 10 minutes later he was out! But since then he has actually gotten pretty good at Blackjack. After a day and a half in Vegas he is $100 up. I was $30 down last night on the way home but won it back on $5 Blackjack in the last Casino before we got home. So right now im breaking even! We hit an all you can eat buffet in the Sahara Casino for Breakfast yesterday. We noticed that to go to the bathroom you had to leave the buffet so they gave you a ticket to get back in for free. So after our breakfast we got a bathroom ticket when leaving and got back in again for free at 7 for dinner! They say the house always wins, but I think we won that round!

Anyway we have another 2 days in Vegas before we set off for the Grand Canyon. The next stage of our cycle will probably be the most difficult. We will be going farther south than Las Vegas so it will be even hotter than here. Its over 40oC here right now, I hear its raining in Ireland!

Later
Cormac