Top TEN Clues .......

.....so you know you're in the desert (explanations below).

10. You drink a lot of water, but you never have to visit the washroom.

9. You can never have any exposed skin.

8. Whenever you stop, you pour water all over your clothes.

7. There are more trucks on the road than cars.

6. Whenever you see a sparse tree, you know it is a rest stop but when you get there your cheese has melted.

5. After 10,000 miles in the saddle, Dave has saddle sores and walks like a bow-legged cowboy.

4. People ask "Has your bike overheated yet?"

3. The cactus at the side of the road are taller than you.

2. The road signs now read "Flash flood area"

and finally you find that....

1. The Las Vegas KOA won't let you book a tent site and then suggest an air-conditioned motel because it's 117 in the day and cools only to 96 at night.

Explanations:

10. In a dry heat, you sweat a lot of fluids without realizing it.

9. Bev began to wear a bandana around her face to keep the hot air away, she resembled a bank robber. When the temp. gets over 100 or about 40C, you can't ride a bike with a t-shirt as you loose too much fluid without realizing it.

8. In Edmonton, in anticipation of travelling in the desert, we bought "cooling vests" and these have really been great. They look light regular winter vests, but they are filled with crystals that absorb water. We soke them and they fill with water, creating a gel within the vest. As the air travels through them, it evaporates cooling the wearer. They are great because we can continue to wear our protective leather jacket, yet deal with horrific heat.

7. No one drives unless they have to.

6. At the rest stops there were taps so we could feel our water bottles and trees were set around the picnic tables, like a modern day oasis.

5. The beaded seat doesn't seem to work in this heat. I guess it only helps taxicab drivers with their rear ends. We got some sheepskin in Las Vegas so we'll see how that works in the next couple of days.

4. Ahhh come on....give us a break!!

3. See picture and Dave is 5'11"

2. The highest reason for premature death in the Sahara Desert is drowning....why? because of flash floods. What happens is that when a heavy rainfall occurs, the ground is so hard and dry it can't cope with a lot of water and so it accumulates fast. In the Sahara it can rise to 10 feet in a few minutes, it disappears once it has softened the ground but if you can't swim you're in trouble. The Tuaregs haven't taken swim lessons....We used to see in California "tsumani evacuation" route signs and now this !!!! water rules down here.

1. Well, we had to listen to the KOA.