Two Long Days

Kalispell to Vegas

Allegiant Air got us to Las Vegas again.. No frills but they did assign us seats??... row 6. Since we didn't have any checked baggage, after deplaning, we bee-lined it for the taxi stand only for find a queue about a kilometer long! Friday afternoon on Halloween weekend is not the best time to arrive in Vegas.. Halloween in Vegas? As if this place isn't freaky enough already! We retrieved the bike from the storage unit with less trouble than expected. It was a tight fit. The bike fired up and we threw everything in the bags and headed for the Best Western. We stayed at a hotel "off the strip" this time. It saved a bit of cash for the hotel room. We walked to the strip but the area around the hotel was a bit sketchy so we cabbed it back. We are done with Vegas. The first few times the strip was "interesting" now it is just plain "weird".

Vegas to El Centro, CA

After spending a few hours trying to get organized but most getting grumpy we headed south. A nice sunny day 12C in the early morning warming to close to 30C by later afternoon. There were strong and gusty west winds all the way to El Centro so it wasn't a very relaxing ride and 500K is a long day for us.

We followed old Route 66 along the west shore of the Colorado River for a good part of the trip. South of Needles the scenery becomes quite nice. Green fields and tree along the river. There is a lot of irrigation in south eastern California. The sand dunes that extend essentially from  Yuma to El Centro are huge and they are a Mecca for dune buggies, quads and dirt bikes. There were thousands of people churning up the sand on this Saturday afternoon.

The affects of the financial crisis are much more obvious here than they are in BC. It is not uncommon to see boarded up banks, businesses and stores. One gets the impression that the "middle class", though not extinct, is definitely a threatened entity.

We are about 130 K from Tecate. Tomorrow morning we will head for there. Hopefully we can get vehicle permit and  tourist cards without too much problem and head down toward Ensenada.