AMA Supercross

Patty had wanted to go to the AMA Supercross Finals at Sam Boyd Stadium on May 4th. We have been watching Supercross (motocross racing) all season, and Las Vegas is the finals and always a huge event. About a week ago I had checked  on tickets but all the tickets (over 40,000) were already sold out and after sales marketers like StubHub were the only place to purchase them. Nose bleed seats were going for over $100 and average seats with face value of $75.00 were going for over $200! I told Patty we would be watching on TV!

Then last Saturday in Salt Lake City Ryan Villopoto gained enough points to win the championship before Vegas. Although Vegas is STILL the big event, and second place was still up for play the ticket prices started to drop! Friday morning May 3rd I found some $75.00 tickets on StubHub for $30.00! I jumped on them!

We were able to drive on Friday to StubHub's Vegas office to pick up the tickets. We also noticed that the Endurocross was happening Friday night at the Orleans arena. We have tickets for the November Endurocross finals, but what is cool is that you can see the qualifying events during the day for free so we headed over to the Orleans events center for a few hours and watched us some Endurocross!

Destry Abbott at Endurocross

Being that the Saturday Supercross is the finals they make it a big all day event. The pits are open to the public and you can see and meet some of the racers. They also have freestyle events.Although the races start at 7:00pm the gates opened at 12:30!

Sam Boyd Stadium

The freestyle event was being done on trials bikes. Here is a knack-knack trick.

Knack-Knack

Then they did a back flip, and actually they had two bikes do a back flip at the same time.

Back flip!

We then moved over to the pits, here is Chad Reed. Even though we don't really care for Chad, he has won two championships and is still very popular.

Chad Reed

This is Ryan Villopoto. He completed his Three-peat by winning in Salt Lake City. He has now won the championship three years in a row. He did not need to win Saturday night, but he still poured it on and did win. He is by far the best rider right now!

Ryan Villopoto

Second place came down between Ryan Dungy who we like and Davi Milsaps. Milsaps was leading Dungy in points, so Dungy had to beat Milsaps to take second and Milsaps had to do two worse then Dungy.

Here is Milsaps posing for Patty!

Davi Milsaps

Dungy did come in second for the night but Milsaps came in third. For the season Milsaps beat out Dungy by ONE point for second place!

There were several monster trucks on display. Here is Patty standing in front of the Monster Energy monster truck. Notice that the tires are taller then Patty! LOL! Patty says her dream is to drive one of these. REALLY!

Patty and the Monster truck

We stayed at the pits for a couple of hours. We left and got something to eat at In-N-Out. We then went back to our home and rested for awhile. About 6:15 we headed back out to the stadium just in time for the festivities to begin. The used a lot of pyrotechnics to start the event. You could really feel the heat from them in the seats!

Start the festivities!

The racing consisted of the East 250 main event and the West 250 main event. The top 9 of each of those raced for a National 250 championship. 

The view from our seats

Then of course the 450's had the 2 heat events like normal for qualifying into the main. It was an exciting race, and a great evening.

Finish line

Garmin (GPS) found us a way to cut through a residential track to leave so we were able to skip the horrible traffic leaving. We realized that we were hungry because we ate at about 3:00 so we went to Arizona Charlies and had their cheap breakfast special. Good food for cheap! What a deal!

That's it for today,

Love you all!

Brian and Patty

Las Vegas, NV

On Thursday, May 2nd we left Bullhead City, Arizona for Las Vegas, Nevada. Actually the Thousand Trails we are heading to is in Henderson, but it is called Las Vegas Thousand Trails.

We crossed the Colorado River into Nevada and drove on highway 163 to the 95.

Highway 163

We went over Christmas Tree Pass and headed down the other side.

Christmas Tree Pass

The thing that really surprised me was that although there was some serious grades both up and down it was four lanes all the way from Bullhead to Vegas so the roads were great! Here we are starting an extended 6% grade. Again we were glad to have our exhaust brake!

6% downhill

This is a little a little town called Cal-Nev-Ari. Look how the road continues straight as far as you can see!

Cal-Nev-Ari

When we got to Searchlight we were getting close to our campground. This leg of our adventure from Bullhead was only about 100 miles.

Searchlight

We made it to the Thousand Trails. They squeeze about 250 sites into where they should have about 100. The joke here is that you can have your slides out or your awning, but not both!!! 

Thousand Trails Las Vegas

We are fortunate that they gave us a site next to an end site. Because this is not their busiest time of the year (Winter is the busiest), they try not to place on the end sites because the turns are tight. Because of this it is like we have a double site out our door. 

It turns out we are really happy with our site here!

Well that's it for today,

God bless you all!

Brian and Patty

Oatman, Az

We took a side trip to Oatman, Az which is an old ghost town on old Route 66. It was hot in Bullhead, but it was about 10 Degrees cooler here.

Oatman, AZ

One thing that Oatman is known for is their wild burros. Although they are tame in that they are used to people feeding them, they are free to come and go as they wish.

Wild burro

This was a mining community. Here is an old entrance to a mine shaft. You could walk into it about 50 feet.

Oatman Mine

Here is Patty with several of her burro friends. Don-KEY!!! Lol

Don-KEY!

This is one of my favorite pictures! You know how all of the cruiser bikes back into their spots? Well this burro backed into his spot next to the Harley's! It was really funny!!

Harley and the Burro

This sign gives a little more information about the town of Oatman. We enjoyed our time here. We have been here several times before with Crystal and Matthew when they were younger. Always a hoot!

That's it for today,

Love you all!

Brian and Patty

Bullhead City, Az

Saturday, April 27th we left Williams for Bullhead City Arizona. We learned about a week before that it was  the Laughlin River Run motorcycle rally. Thousands of motorcyclist converge on Laughlin during the weekend and all the RV parks and hotels jump their prices up during the weekend. More about that later.

We left Williams and traveled Highway 40 to Kingman, Az. In Kingman we got off on Highway 93 and then to Highway 68 through Union Pass to Bullhead City.

Union Pass

When we got to to Golden Valley we started to see a bunch of bikes and they just got thicker from there. Some of them were not riding within the posted speed limit! :)

Bikes and Cops

After Union Pass it was about a 12 mile downhill at about a 6 percent grade. I was very glad we had our PacBrake exhaust brake. I just had to tap the trucks brake a few time during this whole 12 mile downhill!

Downhill grade

You can see Laughlin across the river in this picture. Bullhead City is on this side and Laughlin is just across the river.

Laughlin

HEre we are almost down. You can see more and more bikes.

Almost Down

This is our campground amongst the trees. 

When we got there the grumpy old lady in the check-in told us we were lucky we weren't paying $70.00 a night because it was "River Run" time. I assured her I was not in fact lucky because I booked months ago at the $10.00 RPI rate! LOL...

Some people....

Well that's it for today,

God bless,

Brian and Patty

Williams, Az

We had a long drive from Albuquerque, NM  to Williams, Az., about 350 miles.

New Mexico Highway 40

On the way we stopped by the SkyLine Casino which George and Anna had told us about. They give you freeplay so you don't have to risk your own money. We got free soda's and won about $30.00 plus got a little break from driving so it was a nice break.

New Mexico

We crossed the Continental Divide, where rivers flow to the west on the west side and to the east on the east side.

Continental Divide

We hit the Arizona border. We stopped here and made sandwiches.

Arizona border

This is the flagstaff area. Notice how there are a lot of trees here. This is about 40 miles from Williams.

Flagstaff, Az

We will stay in Williams for two nights at the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park at the Passport America rate. On Saturday we will head to Bullhead City for 5 nights.

That's it for today,

love you all!

Brian and Patty

Petroglyphs Nationanal Monument

On Wednesday April 23rd we went to the Petroglyph National Monument in Albequerque.

Petroglyph National Monument

The ranger told us that the trail did climb about 200 feet in elevation but that it was an asphalt trail the whole way. He made it sound like it was a meandering easy trail all the way to the top and the way back down. That was the furthest from the truth.

Although in this picture it looks like an easy trail....

Trail to the petroglyphs

It started getting tough from here. It was NOT asphalted the whole way! Although there was patches of asphalt almost everywhere.

There was also petroglyphs on the rocks everywhere right along the trail!

Petroglyphs on the rocks

And more petroglyphs!We thought this one looked like it has two penguins on it.

More petroglyphs

The meandering asphalt trail continued up the mountain..

Trail up the mountain

Around every corner there were more petroglyphs. We saw a few that had been defaced, but most were intact.

and more!

The petroglyphs keep coming!

This is the trail on the way down. Not sure what the ranger was talking about! :)

Trail

There was a few places that had steps and railings. We met a couple that was retired that had really nice walking staffs. They are pricey, but we decided when we get back we are going to buy some. There have been many trails we have walked that having that balance point would have been nice to have. We have used each other but rather then weighing each other down the sticks would be better. They are very high tech now and even young hikers use them.

Steps and railings

That's it for today,

God bless you!

Brian and Patty

Sandia Peak Tram

We have had very poor internet so have not been able to update the blog. We are a little over a week behind so I will try and catch up this next week.

We decided to go up to the top of the Sandia Peak in Albuquerque on the Sandia Peak Tramway. The tram has the 3rd longest single span in the world!

Sandia Peak Tramway

The day we went they told us that it was cold and windy at the top and they could shut it down at anytime. If they shut it down because of wind, they find a window of opportunity to bring you back down.

Cold and windy

although it was 45 mph winds, they were not crosswinds so they said it should be okay. I will say that when we got to the top and the cable car was docking it did sway back and forth quite a bit, and did infact bang around alot when they brought it in to the dock!

Tram

This is the top span, what an awesome view!!

Awesome view!!

As we said, it was cold and windy at the top, but we decided to take a hike. They had a 3/4 mile well marked nature trail we walked.

Trail

This is why we do what we do! God is great and what he created is beautiful!!!

God's creation

There was still some ice and snow on the trail.

Ice

The sky just seemed bluer up here! What a sky!!

Blue Sky!

The wind was blowing so fierce this deck was shaking back and forth. Kind of creepy for someone like me that has acrophobia. Notice I am holding on to the railing! :)

Viewpoint

We ended up spending about 1 1/2 hours at the summit. It was one of many highlights of Albuquerque for us. 

More to come,

God Bless,

Brian and Patty