Hopkins 4K for Cancer

July 21, 2006

Amargosa Valley, NV
Las Vegas, NV to Amargoza Valley, NV

~104 mi....
actually
~14 mi. + ~450 miles of driving

“I’m leaving Las Vegas

And I won’t be back

No I won’t be back

Not this time” – Leaving Las Vegas, Sheryl Crow

Someone should have told Sheryl that her lyrics are a bit mistaken, because it is possible to leave Las Vegas, and have to turn around and head right back about 14 miles later.

The day out of Vegas began with wakeup calls to everyone’s rooms at the Excalibur at 4:30 am. Some rooms got an extra bonus of a 3:50 am wakeup call, but that only meant that we’d bee able to hit the road earlier, and hopefully beat most of the desert heat. Thanks again to Heather and all of the wonderful staff at the Nevada Cancer Institute for the tour of the facility, and for providing us with such WONDERFUL accommodations in Vegas. It was a break on the trip that we’d all been looking forward to, and I can’t say how much people were talking about the Institute after our visit there. I had first heard of the Institute during the trip two years ago, in a small town in Nevada of 59 people. To see it in person was to understand why it’s a facility that people all across the state know of and were looking forward to the opening of. It’s truly cutting-edge in terms of technology, artistry, and personability. I hope that we will bring some of what we saw and learned there back to the Hope Lodge in Baltimore.

Anyway, packing the vans went fairly quickly and the group then hit up either Krispy Kreme, or the hotel buffet for a final meal before tackling the busy, urban streets of Vegas. I rolled out with the first group of Garrett, Raffi, Kaylin, and Nicole and we made pretty slow time through the many stoplights of the city. It was sad to slowly see the city, tall buildings and bustling streets disappear, and the sandy mountains of the desert start taking over the landscape.

My group had just made the turn onto the main road for the day, and were waiting for a van to catch us for the first water stop, when we saw the dreaded sign “Pedestrians and Bicyclists Prohibited.” Our day was about to end at 8am at the Sinclair gas station. It turns out that the road we were to be on for the next 80 miles was actually illegal for cyclists to be on, something that we couldn’t have foreseen on our maps of the area. The whole group gathered at the gas station, and the decision was made that the only thing to do was shuttle people into Amargoza Valley. That means sour, btw. As I was one of the day’s original van drivers I was going to help shuttle groups in while others hung out in Vegas and caught some new movies. The highlight of the driving (besides annoying groups with the same CDs playing over and over again) was making the next turn up the road at the 95 mile mark onto “Death Valley Junction”. That’s right- Amargoza is just 10 miles away from the Funeral Mountains and Death Valley, CA. The names all sound so positive in Nevada, don’t they? Death Valley, Funeral Mountains, Last Chance Mountains… Doesn’t sound like such an ideal place to bike.

That night, the Amargoza Valley area put on a huge potluck dinner in their community center. There was setting up for a wedding going on, but they generously allowed us to use the facility and trusted that we wouldn’t ruin the gorgeous table set ups. The bbq beef was great and basically disappeared by the end of the meal. We had leftovers to get us through the next two days, and plenty of delicious peach cobbler for breakfast. Thanks to Bruce for arranging our stay, and for sharing some great stories about the area, and some real estate advice- buy in to the valley now, before you get priced out!

We all finally went to sleep, knowing it would be another hot one the next day. The temperature didn’t go below 90 degrees after dark, pretty incredible. Thanks again Amargoza Valley!!

-Katie R