There we were, in the lobby of the Casa Blanca Hotel, all checked out and ready to head off to Las Vegas.
“John, my @#$%&$ tire’s flat again.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding?”
“Nope.”
“Okay, let’s get a ride.”
It was that easy. First we were getting a late start, it was past noon and we had 82 miles to our hotel in Las Vegas. Our previous high had been 65 or so miles. And since we had just changed time zones, it was getting dark much earlier in the day (yeah, I know it’s not intuitive, but trust me.) Then it was hotter than predicted, 93 degrees as we stood in front of the hotel, and the last time we biked when it was that warm, we covered 20 miles before a thunderstorm dropped the temp 20 degrees in 45 minutes. And last but not least, there was the flat, number five for Mike, and we’d be even later after we fixed it. We’d be going into the city with our blinking LED’s on and we’d never done that in a city the size of Las Vegas. That is if we made it through the desert.
That did it. There were shuttle services available between Mesquite and Las Vegas, and as we reminded ourselves, having fun was objective number one on this trip. We smiled at each other, emptied our canteens in front of the hotel and called for a shuttle.
To be continued.
Below: Mike in the Virgin River Gorge
Perhaps your adventure should be retitled to “Bikes, buses, rental cars and shuttle service.” Good idea.
it’s been great catching up with your adventures! and i was very glad to see the pix of mike along the side of the road in the gorge – i was imagining a bridge with a drop off of thousands of feet. i know you two are crazy but am glad you’re not that desperate to get home. take care and we hope the temps have dropped when you hit the road again.
love ya’