Santa Barbara was so nice, palm trees lined the path along the beach, the beach volleyball courts were packed and as an added bonus we got to have lunch with our pals from Teva Shoes.
Before lunch we braved the chilly Pacific Ocean for a quick dip, it took a lot of convincing or more like pressuring from Kelly for me to get in but felt great for it afterwards.
Catching up with the awesome guys and gals from Teva is always a heap of fun, but unfortunately we couldn't stay long and we were on the road to the desert right away. With a 9ish hours drive to Virgin, we wanted to at least get as far as Vegas that night.
Having massively overkilled uptown Vegas in the past 12 months, we decided to go for a wee gander down at Old Town Vegas as although we had been there before there is always great people watching to be had plus the hourly show on the biggest TV screen in the world.
By the time we rolled into town, we were both hangry and tired, so we powernapped in a hotel carpark for 45mins before braving the crazy world of Vegas.
We were in luck as there was a Harley Davidson convention in town, and the streets were packed with your steriotypical americans who drive those hogs, so plenty of people watching to be had for sure!!
Pretty disappointed with the show on the big screen, just happened to be the exact same show we saw last year, so our next mission was to cure our hangriness....
Our meals that evening we not made with any love whatsoever, we both ordered chicken salads and I barely stomached the chicken and just left the rest. Those salads were definitely made with the attitude of 'I hate my job, minimum wage sux, these people are probably drunk and don't care about the food anyway, so I'm going to try my hardest to put as little amount of effort into this meal as possible'.
And on that note, we bailed from that insane city, and kept driving inland to find a spot to camp in the desert.
Not long after to leave Vegas, heading towards Utah, you go through an incredible canyon, which pretty much skims you through Arizona from Nevada and plonks you into Utah. Utah onwards is spectacular, if anyone ever has a chance to visit the USA, you HAVE to get to Utah, it is one of the most stunning states and I never get sick of the views.
On the way, we got in touch with some friends who work for Brian Head Resort, the highest mountain resort in the USA, at about 9,000ft up. They just so happen t have a gigantic air bag with about a 60ft jump into it for bikes, so we skipped the turn off to Virgin to cruised up the mountains for Kelly to get some vital practice for rampage in.
There was quite a crew up there when we arrived, so I shuttled them all to the top of the mountain, 11,000ft, for a warm up ride before hitting the jump,
Talk about a change of temperature! After 3 summers in a row, I'm not so great with the cooler temps, and with it getting down to 4 degrees while the boys were training my body went into shock, my hands were frozen from filming and taking pics and eventually had to retreat to the van to thaw out.
Lucky for us, our friends managed to wangle us a sweet hotel for the night, complete with indoor pool, hot tub, steam room & sauna, so we made the most of it!
The following morning was filled with more training, then on to Virgin for practice on the dirt at the site of past Redbull Rampages.
Our mate Chris, who is also competing this year, took us a back way to Virgin from Brian Head, up onto the high plateaus of Utah, along a road lined with Aspen trees of nearly every colour you can think of. Also we stopped to look over a valley filled with hoodoos so bright with vibrant oranges, reds & yellows, you could stare at it for ages in awe at it.
Our journey was made significantly longer by me constantly making us stop so I could take pictures!
Eventually we came out the other side of the mountain range and down through a small part of Zion National Park, and into the familiar stunning sight of the Virgin landscape.
We were here, the scene for the Redbull Rampage, where we will be for the next week, digging dirt, moving rocks, and carving a path down a cliff for Kelly ride to what seems impossible, it completely blows my mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment