the bazaar

When we aren't staying in churches or high schools, we usually camp out somewhere. Wells, Nevada falls into that category. Wells is home to two RV parks, a Burger King and a brothel. Signs for McDonald's aren't labeled with miles, but with time. One read, "McDonald's, turn right in one hour." This is the middle of nowhere. And we arrived here after a long day of sweep. So long in fact, that I actually fell asleep on the side of the interstate

After the scorpion incident, I decided not to mess around and I pitched a tent right away. Several others decided to sleep on the grass. Please note, we weren't in the middle of the woods or anything, our camp site was bordered on two sides by parking lots, one by the main road, and one with another RV. Basically, we set up camp on the front lawn of the RV camp. It wasn't just us, and all of our bikes, and luggage, and food on the site, but it was also laundry day, which meant that we had 90 chamois shorts hanging dry on fences, trees, bushes and cars.

Dinner was especially tasty. Hose-water macaroni and cheese. It took all of two seconds to realize we were going to have to rummage through all of the bins in the trailer for some seasoning.

Then, perhaps the Bike and Build idea that I am most proud of: the Clif Bar Bazaar. As you might be able to tell, our diets aren't exactly ideal. So, in order to mix things up a little bit, we all brought our trade-able goods and started bartering. I made out like a bandit - I traded a Luna bar, a pack of gum, four beef sticks and six MoJo Fruit and Nut Bars for a candy bar, patch kit, someone else to wash my dinner dishes and, the big one, someone else to ride sweep (riding behind all the riders) the next day.