I don’t really know how to explain Las Vegas other than the terminology that my beautiful wife came up with as referring to Vegas simply as the “Arm Pit of the World”! I mean this place is fucking seedy man! There’s a beggar/bum on every corner holding a sign reading their misfortunes in life as for instance in the Girl who’s been working the corner of Charleston Blvd. and the I-95 exit ramp for the last year. Her sign reads “Stranded for three weeks, no money, need to get back to Wa., please help”. Now she has been using this same sign for almost a full year and it seems to be working for her pretty damn well. At one time she was a pretty girl but in the year since she has been what I consider our personal beggar since we see her all the time she has went down hill. She is probably in her mid twenties but her face has weathered severely from the desert sun and most likely a lot of Crack. The locals will not donate to her Crack addiction but the tourist coming off the freeway throw money to her at a constant rate! Even the other night I’m at the little Windmill water stop (where everyone buys their drinking water out here) and the five minutes I’m there while my bottles were filling I had two bums come up to me trying to pitch their grief & bullshit on me and I have the local saying of “NO, IM NOT GIVING YOU ANY MONEY” . Now I know that sounds mean but if you give in to one theres 500 more with their hand out right behind them. And then theres the Shopping cart problem.

A lot of people out here do not drive, hell a lot cant even afford a bus ticket so they walk everywhere. And what better way to carry all their shit other than stealing a shopping cart from one of the million Wal-marts or Albertsons markets out here. It’s kind of funny. You see the little carts literally on every corner and in every alley. We have one lonely lil cart way up here on Hollywood Blvd that’s been leaning up against a sign for about four months now. It’s right beside of the street and I told Jax I wanted to start putting fake flowers and air fresheners on it just to see if other people would start decorating it with me. Theres even a few dudes that go around and pick them up and take them back to the stores where they came from. They make a living by doing this?? My favorite is the guy that pushes his bike every where (never rides it) and always, I mean always is wearing a full face helmet and a utility belt. I’ve never seen this guy when he is not either pushing shopping carts back to the stores or pushing his bike without that full face MX style helmet and his utility belt with gobs of shit hanging off of it. Then theres the guy who I call Chris McCandless, you know like the true life story by John Krakauer “Into the Wild”. This guy has been around for about six months now. He is maybe 25 and he has this Helter Skelter look with this crazy frizzy sun bleached hair and this Arab looking beard. You know he is having a good day when you see him hauling ass with his shopping cart full of scrap metal towards the recycling station. I wonder where he came from and how in the hell he landed himself here in the Armpit?

Every Saturday & Sunday I take the Darch Dog up to Sunrise mtn. behind the house and let him run his little paws off. As we are heading up there we pass the Caesar Chavez park at the top of the hill and there’s this high pitch sound of metal to metal. And as in every weekend it’s coming from the same playground swing and the same teenage girl who is giving it hell. I want to just go up and ask her if she is training for the Olympics or is she some kind of special swing tester or something?? It’s just weird to me why this 15 to 17 year old girl would be at this playground at 5:30 in the morning when there’s not another soul in site but myself & Darch and there she is EVERY single weekend just swinging as hard as she can go without ever letting up. It usually takes Darch & I about 30/40 minutes to get his feel of the desert and it’s the same pace she’s carrying when we go back by on our way home. Basher & Johnboy got to witness the “Swingset Girl’ as I call her when they were out last month. Just Another lost soul in this shit hole.

And about all the stolen cars & boats in the desert. Out where I go riding my motorcycle (about 5 minutes from my house) it’s pretty secluded and theres no houses, no business or people for that matter out there. Just lots and lots of desert. It’s really kind of funny to be riding along and see a boat just lying in the rocks. Theres alot of them out here. People rip them off and strip the motors and all the other goodies and then ditch them at my riding playground. And theres always a new stolen car out there as well. Last week it was a brand new Audi and a Nissan Titan pickup burned right beside the road and this week it was a brand new $75k M.Benz SUV that someone had “borrowed” and decided to 4×4 it until they hit a huge ditch which brought their little fun to an really fast hault! This place is so fucked up in so many ways. I’m really looking forward to getting back to NC with all of my redneck friends, humidity, freezing winters and a slow pace. What I know I will miss once I make the move back home is the desert sunsets, easy access to everything, and my new riding buddies & friends I’ve made out here. I don’t know exactly when we are coming back east but I know eventually we are but until then I will keep you informed on what’s going on out here in the Armpit!! Later BBA