Surviving the desert

Viva Las Vegas!- and hello again civilization, cell phone service, and wifi. We biked over 250 miles the last 3 days through the Mojave Desert/Death Valley region, including a segment on the historic Route 66. It's been hot, hard, dusty, but very scenic. Several people are taking advantage of being in Las Vegas today by making some bike repairs and to shop for a hopefully more comfortable bicycle seat. The roads have been bumpy and chocked full of potholes, but that hasn't deterred some of our riders to cruise at 50+ mph during our descents (crazy- wear your helmets kids). We camped the last couple of nights in the desert with temps dropping into the 30s. One of the nights was an all-out dust storm so we corralled the vans into a semicircle to stave off the winds. These wild cattle on the other hand were not corralled- nor is this photo zoomed in. They were staring at me at mile 102 as I rolled into our campsite. They did not look pleased to have visitors and had quite large horns.

3/8/09- We had an 80 mile ride into Las Vegas which included going through Red Rock Canyon. The views of the mountains and stone formations here, as you can see, were just spectacular. It was hard to stay focused on the road, but also helped to distract from the lactic acid burn we were all experiencing after several days of tough riding. We have given several lectures to primary schools, churches, and medical schools which have all been very well received. Tomorrow we have an early rise and then more desert riding for a couple of days into Utah. More updates as wifi permits!