Day 12: West Wendover, NV | Las Vegas, NV

367 Miles

“You know, it’s gonna be hot in the desert this time of year?”

Really, No Shit!  Thanks for the info!!!

Thanks to about a dozen people who pointed out deserts tend to be hot during summer months, we decided to leave West Wendover at 5:30am.  It is interesting how much heat is stored in all the concrete.  I walked out of the hotel to easily 90 degree heat.  Ruggles and I looked at each other very a little concerned.  We fueled up seriously considering riding jacketless and gloveless in the morning.  Thank God Ruggles paid some attention in a high school science class, he was pretty convinced it was going to get bone-chilling cold once we got away from all the asphalt.  We feared up and headed off into the desert.  About 5 miles out of town I was freezing cold.  I was actually wishing I had put on a few more layers.

I snapped this picture on the way out of town.  A modern day drifter.

We were also aware that our bikes might have some trouble when the temperature got over 110 degrees.  With this in mind, we wanted to cover as many miles as possible while it was cold and pushing the bikes wouldn’t be so dangerous.  We blazed on…averaging 95mph through the morning stretch.  By time we hit breakfast it was already over 100 degrees.  Partially worried, but more excited for a few days of luxury we pressed on. 

We rolled into Vegas at around noon.  Checked into a nice suite at The Encore and immediately hit the pool.

*We now enter the Vegas portion of the trip for 3 days, which probably doesn’t need to make it into the blog.  A few parting photos though.*