Two Wheels To Nowhere

Leaving Las Vegas April 30, 2016 ~ 

Las Vegas. The Meadows, as it was called in the mid 19th century. There were springs here that allowed the meadows to grow and travelers would stop here for water as they headed to California. In 1864 the US Army built a base here and finally in 1905 a railroad was built connecting Las Vegas to SoCal.

In 1931 gambling was legalized in Nevada; combined with lax drinking laws, Vegas became a place to visit for tourists to indulge. Sin City. The city grew out of the desert sands. A playground for adults. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. If these hotel walls could talk… As we pile off of the plane at McCarran Airport, I am always reminded of Paradise Island in the Pinocchio movie; you know, where the kids all drink, smoke cigars and shoot pool only to grow donkey’s ears… That’s pretty much Vegas.

I have been here many times for work over the last sixteen years. The place never ceases to amaze me. It is a completely artificially sustained spectacle of excesses. I don’t gamble (in the traditional sense) but I do enjoy walking through a casino and watching people. All kinds of people. Each with a life story of their own that would end with what brought them to Sin City today.

The most fun I’ve personally had here is when I actually left the city. With Chris, in 2004, when we headed east out of the city and toured the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon and the rugged desert that is in this area of Nevada/Arizona. Hoover Dam is an engineering wonder constructed in 1931-1936 when over one hundred men lost their lives damming the Colorado River river to create Lake Mead. Flood control, irrigation and generating electricity were the goals.

Then, in 2015, I was able to leave the city on a simple set of wheels that I pedalled into the desert. First, heading west to see Red Rock Canyon a geological spectacle of colourful rock formations that jut out of the desert. Onward to Blue Diamond, an old mining town where there are now more wild burros than people (290 residents). Gypsum was once dug out of the ground here and before that, Blue Diamond was a watering stop on the Old Spanish Trail, an arduous 1100 kilometre trading route from Santé Fe to Los Angeles. A couple of days later, I bicycled southeast through the Clark County Wetlands towards Lake Las Vegas and the city of Henderson. A rugged trail through the desert offered me a view of the Las Vegas strip that few tourists likely see. The Strip silhouetted by a setting sun, from twenty kilometres away. Beautiful.

Today, I am leaving Las Vegas, once again. It is nine degrees Celsius and raining to beat the band. Not a typical Vegas scene. After three or four days in this town, I am more than ready to leave. Hotels, cabs, concrete and air conditioning that I will not miss. Good food, good drinks and good times with some fantastic colleagues and customers make for good memories that are the one saving grace for when my work inevitably draws me back to Sin City