King of the Desert

Since we are going to be doing this race on a motorcycle, the last thing I want to worry about is if the bike is going to be up to the challenge.  We will be running a 2003 Kawasaki KX500, 2 stroke beast, AKA the King of the desert.  The bike has a reputation for winning these long races and has a proven race history.  So I believe it was a good choice, and I also found it for real cheap and in amazing shape.  We didn't want a bike that we would have to strip down and spend a fortune to make reliable or have a bike that could only make it on a million dollar race budget either.  Knowing that other teams are still racing these bikes in nearly stock form and being competitive with it is good news to me.  All in all this is a budget friendly bike to start with, parts are cheap, and can easily be worked on by ourselves.  No computers, fuel injection, valves, chains, fancy stuff that requires a degree in computer programming and rocket science to tear into and fix.  So here is the pic of the bike a few days after I got it, just need a few safety things, and some armor i.e. skid plate handguards type of stuff and its ready to race.  I plan on taking it out to the desert to run it around in the next few weeks, and shoot for a District 37 or 38 race in October for the first practice race.  So I will keep everyone posted.

Best in the Desert, Vegas to Reno, 1 year out

So now that im out of the military, going to school, and working, I can actually make plans that extend past next week.  Anyways, if you know me I am always coming up with some crazy ideas and plans, I have a long history of taking the road less traveled and more difficult.  Whether is tearing up and old bronco and slapping a bunch of hardcore stuff on it to make a rockcrawler from scratch, long crazy backpacking trips into the Utah desert and mountains, joining the Navy and fighting my way into the Marine infantry community as a Corpsman and learning everything I could, trying the Navy EOD pipeline, pushing myself to the limits in Crossfit, and going back to school at 28.  I am always looking for the next big challenge in life, usually a long, challenging, miserable road, but in the end VERY rewarding to me and something I can be proud of.  I think the next plan fits into that category and is going to be very fun.
Best in the Desert, Vegas to Reno off road race should fit the bill.  This is the longest point to point off road race in the United States, and is something not everyone wants to do, or has the oppritunity to do.  I am not going out to win overall or destroy the competition, I just want to complete it and have a good time in the process.  Its hard to come across people just as crazy to join you and help out.  So the ride team has been formed, consisting of myself and a friend Tim Layton, currently an active duty Navy Corpsman.  The point of this Blog is to show progress, show the adventure and insanity we will be going threw this year just to get to the race, and hopefully next August show the race and how it went.  So over the next year I hope to do as many practice races I can, prep on the bike, and equipment.  As with many Vets who recently got out, my first order of business was to grow my hair out, not shave, and stop running everywhere every day.  Along with bike prep I will have to prep myself mentally and physically to be where I need to be just to survive the race.
Again this is for friends a family who care to keep up and watch an idea turn into reality.  Also for anyone who is interested in knowing what it takes to do something like this.  Not too many people attempt this type of endeavor, so the people to ask about this are hard to find and ask questions about previous experiences.  I hope to share that knowledge with everyone.