It's Tuesday morning and the weather forecast is splendid to ride a bicycle in Red Rock Canyon.
It's around 6:30 AM and I'm listening to Shawn Tempesta, the radio host who took over for Chet Buchanan at 98.5 FM in the morning here in Las Vegas. I'm friends with Shawn on social media, but was happy to meet him in person at a 98.5 FM remote site in front of an Albertsons in Summerlin Saturday.
Shawn is really good and keeps up with local events and politics.
During Shawn's radio show the traffic guy gets his turn to quickly list the traffic jams and hot spots and I laughed when the traffic dude said watch out for Koval Lane because lanes were closed to install the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix race track a whole TWO MONTHS before the two-hour race happens on the Saturday night before Thanksgiving. That's Las Vegas for you. There's already a closed lane at the Bellagio for suite construction. Thank you LVSportsBiz.com photographer Hugh Byrne for getting these photos this week.
The big fish of the Strip -- the big hotels along the F1 race route -- have to be fed tourists and it's locals and Strip corridor workers who suffer from the traffic jams and disruptions. The Vegas tourism board and its consultant keep on telling us the race and big sports events bring in billions of dollars and I just wonder of that's actually true if Las Vegas ranks at the bottom for public schools, health care, mass transit and road safety with a stunning 429 Clark County School District students struck by drivers while they walk/bike to and from schools.
Speaking of avoiding being hit by motorists, I'm bicycling from my home to the Red Rock Loop entrance, which is about ten miles away. The gypsum mine and factory 18-wheelers and their trailers are rumbling along state route 159, which has a shoulder I use to hopefully reach the Red Rock drive entrance without being killed.
I'm in a pick up garbage mood because I see plastic bags, so I stop to pick up cans and bottles along the way and fill the plastic bags.
As I bike on the shoulder, there's a combo of gravel and small rocks; scattered leftover motorcycle crash debris; and makeshift memorials marked by teddy bears and crosses along the SR 159 corridor. I attended Nevada Department of Transportation meetings in nearby Blue Diamond a few years ago to offer comments on making this road safer but I have never seen any improvements and the 19-mile Red Rock Legacy Trail that began construction has a grand total of .99 of a mile built so far from the Summerlin side.
As the massive gypsum trailer trucks rumble by I hold my breath and wonder why Clark County, the state DOT, the BLM and other Feds have not built that Red Rock trail. It could potentially save my life.
Oh well, there's always money around to build stadiums in this town. In fact, the Raiders just got another $75 million to help build a plaza entranceway on the stadium's north side. Man, if Las Vegas only committed its energy and resources to building safe roads for ALL USERS like bicyclists and walkers like it did for the sports team owners, event promoters and stadiums Las Vegas would be a very cool and much safer place to live. The Raiders, valued at $10 billion, is getting $825 million worth of public assistance to build their stadium where owner Mark Davis gets most of the revenues. Not a single elected official has the backbone to utter a single word about that.
But the bike ride is nice once I get past the gypsum mine entrance and the old Bobbie Ranch and the views of the iron-rich red rock ridge always beings a smile when the weather is this nice.
I make it to the Red Rock toll booth where I see workers Brandon and Dee (Deelorius) and they're always in a chipper mood. I learn from Brandon that he is from Bentonville, Arkansas, the new home of bigtime mountain biking thanks to the bike-loving ways of the Wal-Mart owning Walton mega-rich family. Brandon shows me his amazing VW van that he saved from a piece of junk he found in the woods. He showed me a photo of the original piece of junk and I have to say it was a fantastic makeover because his VW van looks fabulous now.
It's disappointing to see the occasional beer can and water bottle along my beloved Red Rock Loop.
It was mostly quiet and I pedal long stretches uninterrupted by car drivers. It's a treat to soak up the lovely weather amid this wonderful landscape. It's such a mood lifter.
On the way home on SR 159, there's less garbage along the road. The speed limit is 50 mph but the car and truck drivers routinely go faster. It's Las Vegas. Things are just a little more loosey-goosey here and the bar for behavior, standards and expectations are just lower in Vegas.
Keep on bicycling and be grateful every time you return home without being hit by a motorist around here.
