Greetings from the very hot southern Californian desert! Melting away already from the morning. I had arrived one day early due to the long flight, but I was ready to ride. Hooked up with the Victory guys at breakfast and was told that I had the day off to do whatever I wished to do. The official programme will not start until tomorrow. So what did I do first? Two hours sleeping by the pool, a cold shower and then I jumped into the riding gear and grabbed what I thought was a stage 1 Hammer S. Actually it was a standard one. I had just met the technical manager at Victory and he was about to head out on tomorrows route to check it out before letting the journalists out on it. Stacey favoured the Cory Ness Jackpot and I the Hammer S, we swapped on the way. I hadn't had time to grab any lunch yet, so courtesy of Stacey we grabbed some burritos on the way up into the mountains surrounding Palm Springs. The route went all the way to Salton City through the desert. All in all about 200 miles. We almost ran out of fuel, but made it to Salton just. If we hadn't the vultures would have had us for lunch in the heat. It's very unusual for me to ride in a desert and I quickly noticed the dry and dusty warm air dehydrating both nose, eyes and mouth (and mind). We stopped for whisky on the way as we were very thirsty. I thought for a second that I should head over to the Mexican border only 20 miles away for a couple of Tequila's and salt to further improve the hydration situation, but settled for some fire water at an Indian casino in the middle of nowhere. And then we had us some hookers, as John Wayne said "Out here a man settles his own problems." Now, Stacey can testify that 90% of what I have just said is not true. But I must be allowed to get a bit carried away in the heat, ehh? I think we got back and the bikes are good!