Day 23: Phoenix to Vegas and the kindness of strangers

The fates have a funny way of striking back at you when you poke fun at the unbearable heat of Phoenix.

As our road trip rolled through the high desert south of Las Vegas, our radiator hose decided to announce itself as a problem child by exploding off of the radiator and draining our coolant all over the engine. If we thought it was hot in Phoenix, we learned new things about heat over the next several hours as we sat stranded in the middle of the desert with nothing but visions of rattlesnakes and water bottles full of sand dancing in our heads.

Our Hero and race-car building hobbyist Clarence

Eventually we met our saviour, a man named Clarence who just happens to build race cars in his spare time. Although Bobby and I had spent a considerable amount of time staring into the mysterious area we refer to as “under the hood,” we had never noticed the giant rubber hose hanging loosely between the radiator and the coolant tank. It took Clarence all of five seconds to diagnose our problem, and another 30 to fix it. Minutes later we were adding water and coolant to the tank, and we were on our way within 90 minutes. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to Clarence, who was a true life saver.

Although we were late for set-up we made it to the Farmers Market in Las Vegas just as it was opening. It is located on the outskirts of the city in a lovely, leafy green park. It was a small but vibrant market with some of the nicest people, and definitely the best BBQ food we have experienced on this trip. We had some great conversations, and collected many signatures for the petition. A special thanks to Ginger for all her warm welcome and all of her help.

Ginger is the market coordinator, and was a wonderful host!

And, now we are in Vegas, with its limitless possibilities. We plan on spending a good chunk of Thursday cruising the world-famous Strip (we promised Buster he could see the sights!), and will spend the evening at the local minor baseball game between the Vegas 51’s and Portland Beavers. (For those who follow such things, the 51's are the AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers; the Beavers are part of the San Diego Padres organization.)

That’s it for now from the roadshow crew!

- Jeremy, Bobby and Buddy