Red Bull Soapbox Races in LA.

The last few days have been pretty easy-going. I have been hanging out with Evan and Andrew at Evan's beach pad at Hollywood Beach in Oxnard. Evan has had alot of work to do, and can be seen suffering through a tough day at the office below. He still manages to find time to enjoy a beer on the beach at sunset most evenings though.

We managed to fit a couple of games of ten pin bowling the other night, and met up with Wade and his girlfriend Michelle. I had played against Wade when I was here last year, and scored my best game ever. Wade was looking forward to our return match, and sure enough, this time around he beat me, but it was a very close and exciting match.




The next day I dropped Andrew off at the railway station, as he headed for Burbank airport, and then on to Las Vegas on his journey eastwards. That evening Evan and I wandered along to the local bar, a wonderful little place right on the sand at the end of the peninsula, where we played pool and darts.

I have been wandering the beach most mornings trying to maintain a bit of my new-found fitness from my Colorado climbing adventure, and have been swimming a couple of times in the surf. The weather is really nice here at the moment.

I have also been trying to secure a position as an extra in a Hollywood movie, but this is proving to be a little trickier than I imagined, as I do not have any sort of work visa for the USA. I see that as a minor technicality, and am hoping that I will be able to work on a voluntary, unpaid basis. Unfortunately, the extras casting agencies seem to see this as a bit more of a hurdle than I do!!

Today's entertainment was awesome! Earlier in the week I found out that the Red Bull Soapbox Race was due to be held in LA city centre, and after seeing some of the photos, decided that this was a must-see event.

Evan and I headed into the city in the morning. The traffic was a bit slow on the way in, and it became obvious that we wouldn't quite make it in time to have a look around the pits before racing began at 1pm. We found a parking garage close by and got to the main corner of the course just as the first soapbox headed down the track.

The street was packed, and we tried to find a good vantage point, but all seemed to be taken already. We watched from a tall cafe garden for a while, and then made our way up to the start of the course, where we found a pretty good view of the start line, just below a huge monitor where we could watch the whole run on the screen.



The course, marked out by hay bales down a pretty steep hill twisted and turned a bit, taking the crazy vehicles over a small jump before reaching the sharp left turn, where a huge berm was set up, and the carts could angle up the steep bank to take the corner. From there another couple of turns and jumps took them to the finish line.

There were some spectacular crashes as competitors didn't manage to negotiate the corner, or when a wheel fell off after a jump. Some of the elaborate constructions did not seem to have the required robustness to finish the course.



The event was very well organised, the atmosphere was fantastic, and the racing spectacular. It reminded me quite a bit of the fun atmosphere at the jump off the pier at the Worthing Birdman Competition last month.

Evan's favourite soapbox was "Pole Position", a mobile pole dancing table!!

Goal 59 - ten out of ten!

From Las Vegas I spent a long hot day on Saturday driving down to Los Angeles, where I turned up at my friend Evan's house, in a lovely location right by the beach, about 50 miles north of the city.

I first "met" Evan when he helped out with some of the online publicity for ALife4Sale, and then met him in person last year when I came to LA in November, when I achieved Goal #17 - skydiving in a wind tunnel.

Evan was away for the weekend, but had left me the keys for his apartment and car, and a note asking if I could pick him up at LAX airport at 10pm the next evening. So on Sunday afternoon I went to meet another internet contact, Chris, and his mate Nick, in The Corner Office sports bar in Costa Mesa. I managed to gain a slightly better understanding of American football, but am still somewhat confused by all the plays.

After the game, we arranged to meet the following weekend again if we didn't manage to catch up during the week, and I made my way to the airport, where I was pleased to see Evan again.

On Monday I borrowed Evan's car once more, and went to meet Andrew, who had just flown in from Australia. Andrew had joined me on my trip to Israelite Bay earlier in the year, and had planned to join me in Las Vegas, but unfortunately had not been able to make it.

We wandered around Hollywood Boulevard, and took a drive out to the coast at Santa Monica, and up Highway 1 to Malibu, where we watched the sunset over a huge field of commemorative flags at Pepperdine University.

That evening we met up with Eric, who I have spoken to several times on the telephone, and was looking forward to meet. Eric chose Dukes Restaurant right on the water's edge at Malibu as our rendezvous, where we had a great Hawaiian chicken meal.




Eric is a TV producer, and I had had an amusing conversation when I spoke to him the first time, right at the very end of the ALife4Sale auction, about three or four minutes before the auction closed. At the time of the conversation there were three different TV crews in my living room, a news helicopter flying overhead looking for a place to land, and a live uStream internet video feed from my house. When I think back about that time it all seems so long ago now.

Eric is actually the tenth person on the the list of people that I wanted to meet in person, who I had come across during the course of selling my life. After I finished ALife4Sale, and wrote out my list of 100 goals, I decided that I would like to meet some of these people who had contacted me to offer support, or ideas, or encouragement during that process. There were about twenty people on that list, and I have now met ten of them. In actual fact, I must have met at least fifty people, maybe more, who knew of me and contacted me because of ALife4Sale, or 100goals, so the goal has been well-and-truly achieved!

The ten people that I have met that were on my original to-meet list are as follows:-

Misty
Misty wrote to me to tell me she was doing a painting inspired my my life for sale idea, and I got to meet her, and see the picture, in Las Vegas in November 2008

Evan
Evan White helped me alot with PR for ALife4Sale, and we became good friends. We met and went to Perris Skydiving in California, where Evan did a tandem jump, and I tried out the wind tunnel. EvanWhitePR

Yvette
Yvette writes a couple of blogs herself, and made a few comments on my ALife4Sale blogs. She also was trying to achieve a new adventure each month in 2008. Her idea was that one of her adventures might be to try to meet me, and we went for an evening out in Los Angeles when we discovered we were both there in November 2008.

Brandon
Evan introduced me to Brandon when several people were asking about movie rights early on during the development of media interest in the ALife4Sale story. I finally met Brandon in person when we went for lunch in Beverley Hills.

John
John email me to tell me that he was using my idea as inspiration for his own life-sale, and offered his home and lifestyle living and working as an artist by the beach on hus website artistlifeforsale.com. I experienced the life that was in offer when I visited him in Santa Monica.

David
David was the winner of my video clips competition that I ran in the final days running up to the auction, and chose the book "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" as his prize. We jept in touch, and I mrt him and his family in Portland, Oregon as I passed through.

Moe
Moe had offered to take me dogsledding in the wilderness if i fancied a change of pace after selling my life, and that idea subsequently went onto the 100 Goals list, and became a wonderful reality when i flew up to Whithorse in Canada for an amazing week.

Matthew
Matthew was my dedicated eBay help representative for the whole of ALife4Sale, and we talked alot during that time. We finally got to meet when I was in his hometown of vancouver.

Richard
Richard branson was quite an inspiration for my final decision to go ahead with ALife4Sale, and although I did not speak to him during those months, I did blog about him here, and finally got to meet him in London.

Eric
Eric seems to have a remarkable ability to call me just as somethng big is happening. He called duting the final minutes of the auction, and then completely at random he called when I was in Australia, the evening before I was due to set off on the second part of my 100goals journey - great timing!

There are so many others that could have been on this list that I have met over the last 14 months, and I imagine many more wonderful people yet to meet before this adventure is all over. Thanks again to everyone who has offered help, support and encouragement on this amazing journey. It would never have been possible to have achieved so much without your kindness and generosity.

Top marks - ten out of ten to you all!

Poker in Las Vegas - Day 3 - Goal 58 achieved!

What an evening! I am quite drained by my time at the poker table tonight. This evening's game certainly took me well outside of my comfort zone. After a lazy afternoon by the pool I took the 4.30pm shuttle into town, and made my way to my chosen game at The Wynn.

The walk from the shuttle stop was a nervous one, as the money I had chosen to play with, although not absolutely devastating if it did all go, was certainly a sum that would be uncomfortable to lose. But most of my poker experience is in very cheap tournaments, and I didn't really know what to expect of a bigger cash game. So with some trepidation, I put my name on the list for a seat at a table. My choice was a Texas No Limit Hold 'Em $2/$5 cash table, without an upper limit, so I could "invest" a sum of $1,000. I had to wait nervously for a while for a seat, and eventually sat down to play just before 6pm.



I surprised myself a little by playing fairly aggressively with the first couple of hands, when I received some decent cards, but lost both of the hands I got involved in pretty quickly, and was down by about $300 within the first ten minutes. I settled down though, and decided not to let the early setback get to me, and half an hour later won a pretty good hand, bringing me almost back to my starting point.

From then on I played fairly steady, winning a few, and losing a few, but my chips slowly dwindled. At one point the crunch came, and a young Australian guy across the table from me with a huge stack of chips went "All In", and after a brief hesitation I called him, reasonably confident with a ten in my hand to go with the two other tens on the board. The other guy had the fourth ten, and we split the pot, both profiting fairly well from other players bets.

I felt that was the moment when my goal was achieved, as the last of my money had been at risk, and felt pretty proud to be still in the game.

I ended up down by the time I had to leave, having lost over half of my stack, and when I cashed in, I collected over $400, just less than half of what I started with. However, I am generally a "glass-half-full" type of guy, and in this case, I reckoned anything that I came away with was a bonus.

It is pretty clear to me now that I am no poker genius, and at tonight's table there were guys that had a much better idea of what they were doing than I did. Others can see things that I simply miss, or discuss finer points of betting strategies that I only half understand. I certainly have no mis-conceptions about winning the World Series any time soon. However, I did have a fantastic time, and I know I will be taking part in many more, but less costly, games. I am glad to have experienced the excitement of a game at this level though, and do think that I got great value for money in terms of thrill and experience.

After I cashed my remaining chips in, I tried to find my way out to the street, but got completely lost in the huge place. These casinos are deliberately designed to let you find your way in, but make it very difficult to ever find an exit, I am sure! Eventually, with a little help I found my way out, and just made it to the Riviera in time for the last shuttle back to Sam's Town. If I had missed it, the taxi fare would have made serious inroads into the remnants of my capital!

I arrived back at Sam's town, and went into the casino there to grab a beer, but somehow found myself at the poker room, wondering how much the 11pm poker tournament might cost me! "What are you thinking?" I asked myself. "Quit while you're ahead - well, not ahead - but at least while you are no further behind than you need to be!" I really didn't think the $50 entry fee would be a good investment, and in the end I think I made a great value-call by investing a further $3 in three more beers and heading back to my RV to watch a movie.

Poker in Las Vegas - Day 2.

Day 2 didn't start so well. I took the shuttle bus from Sam's Town RV Park to The Strip, and walked to The Rio in good time for the start of the noon tournament, but was dismayed to find that the tournament now started at 11am, and I was too late to enter. The next one was not scheduled until 7pm.

I wondered what to do, and eventually decided to head back to Sam's Town for an afternoon of lounging around by the pool, and then drive in again for the 7pm tournament, as I am really keen to play at The Rio, home of the World Series Of Poker.

The shuttle wasn't an option for the evening game, as the last one back would be too early for me unless I managed to get knocked out of the 7pm tournament very early, which wasn't part of the plan!

I returned to The Rio at around 6.30pm and couldn't find a space big enough for the RV in the parking lot there, but managed to park easily in the huge Gold Beach casino parking lot just across the road. I registered for the $70 tournament, and drew seat number 6 on the only table to be used, and sat down to play at 7pm. With a couple of early bust outs and a couple of later arrivals there were about twelve people in the tournament, the smallest competition I have ever played in.



I think I played quite a bit better than yesterday, and won a couple of good hands, remaining competitive for a good while. I won a great "All In" hand against three others, with my pair of queens, and had a pretty good stack for a while. Unfortunately I lost about half of my chips in an unlucky hand just before the ten minute break, but did survive to return to the table.

Shortly after the break I had two possibilities for a straight, eight cards in all, and called what I thought was an "All In" bluff, but neither of my cards came up, and I was beaten by a pair of queens, ironically, leaving the table with only four players remaining.

My wallet is $70 lighter, but I had a brilliant evening. I loved playing in the home of the World Series Of Poker. Poker really is an exciting game, and in terms of thrill for your dollar, I reckon it beats many of the adventure activities I have spent similar sums of money on. It is a different sort of thrill though - a longer, lower level, but constant tension and awareness of nerves and concentration.

I am excited and nervous too about tomorrow. It will only be the second time I have sat down to play in a cash game, the first time being in Deadwood last year, where I blew $60 pretty quickly. I know a bit more about the game now, and am hoping that my conservative style of play will serve me well at a cash table.

As Kenny Rogers train-travelling gambling buddy told him:-

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em.
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money, when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin', when the dealin's done.

I hope I do know when to hold 'em, and when to fold 'em tomorrow night!!

Poker in Las Vegas - Day 1.

I left Justin's place on the west side of the city shortly after he went to work, and after doing a bit of grocery shopping, headed in towards The Strip. At the Sahara it was quite obvious that the RV was not going to get into the low clearance parking garage, but the valet parking guy directed me to Circus Circus, where there was plenty of open parking space.

Back at the Sahara, I paid my $45 and drew seat 7 at table 2. With twenty minutes to spare I found my way out to the swimming pool area for a short while, and then took my seat at the table, and with 4,000 in chips in front of me, began to play. It was quite a luxury to have a dealer, as in most of the pub games I played in in Australia, everyone had to take their turn to deal. It was also nice to have someone bring you whatever you wanted to drink. I stuck with coffee at 11am.



I didn't get much in the way of decent cards for the first hour, and found myself reverting to my old ways and playing very conservatively, and my chips were slowly nibbled away. I made it to the break though, as a couple of the other more aggresive players around me were busted out.

At one point I had one of those moments of wonderfully satisfying clarity, when I realised where I was and what I was doing. I had just won a hand, and was stacking my newly-won chips, when it hit me! "I'm in Las Vegas, playing in a poker tournament," I thought excitedly, "and I know what I am doing too!"

However, it soon turned out that I didn't know what I was doing. I had two pairs, aces and queens, and ended up "All In" with the meagre balance of my chips, and was beaten by a flush that I hadn't even spotted as a possibility. Amateur!

Oh well, it was good fun to sit back down at a table and play, and I am really looking forward to tomorrow's game at The Rio. I only have three episodes of the 2007 World Series Of Poker, which was played at The Rio, left to watch as part of my homework!

Afterwards I made my way to Sam's Town Hotel, Casino and RV Park a couple of miles out ofrom The Strip. It's a pretty nice place, only $18 per night for the RV, and there is a nice pool to lounge around by during the afternoon, and a free shuttle bus to The Strip. What a bargain!

Gambling in Las Vegas.

From Zion I drove down yesterday afternoon to Mesquite, just inside the Nevada border, and at the Nevada Welcome Center there I found a free wireless internet connection. I decided to stop there for the evening to update the blog and attend to my much-neglected email. Once the computer battery went flat, I went for coffee in Burger King just nearby to recharge it, and discovered that the wireless connection to the Welcome Center still worked from there. I was turfed out at 10pm though!

I stayed overnight in the parking lot, and when all my online jobs were done this morning, I picked up some Las Vegas info, and started my gambling research. An email from my friend Misty, who I met last year in Las Vegas, gave me some suggestions on casino choices for poker playing. Unfortunately Misty is away on holiday, so I won't get to catch up with her and Michael this time around.

I continued on to Las Vegas. I planned to visit Justin, Val's nephew, who had done a couple of the 7 Peaks with us, and made my way to his apartment complex with the assistance of the ever-useful GPS. I managed to get in to the gated complex via an unlocked gate, and made myself comfortable by the pool, meeting Justin when he finished work.

My plan is to head down to The Strip tomorrow to begin my poker goal. I haven't played since leaving Australia in May, so have decided to enter a couple of smaller tournaments first, to get back in practice, then achieve the goal in a bigger cash game.

So tomorrow (Wed 16th September) I plan to enter the $45 tournament at 11am at The Sahara, as suggested by Misty. On Thursday I am going to go to The Rio, home of the World Series Of Poker, and play in their $60 tournament at noon.

I then plan to play my $1,000 game on Friday evening, either at The Wynn, or Caesar's Palace, both of which run $2/$5 games with maximum buy-ins of over $1,000.

I have changed my poker goal slightly since first adding it to the list of goals, when I had no real knowledge of how tournaments are organised and played. It has become pretty clear to me that to enter a tournament that has a buy-in of $1,000 would really mean that I would be way out of my league, and I would probably just be throwing my money away.

So what I have decided to do is enter a game with $1,000 to play with, and potentially lose. To satisfy myself in terms of the goal, I think there are three ways that the goal will be achieved, and these are (in the most likely order, I imagine!):-
1). I lose all of my $1,000.
2). I play for at least 3 hours, and come away with whatever I have when I decide I have had enough, or
3). I end up well into profit, with over $3,000 in front of me!!

I can't wait to get sat down at a table tomorrow at The Sahara, but I am really looking forward to playing at The Rio on Thursday. As part of my preparations for this goal, I have on the computer the TV series of the World Series Of Poker 2007, which was played at The Rio, and have been watching an episode or two each evening as I have travelled through the National Parks over the last week or so. It will be very atmospheric to actually play there.

More on poker tournaments in Las Vegas here:-
AllVegasPoker.com

Zion National Park.

I set off from the Grand Canyon late in the afternoon, and found another great camping spot for the night up a country road just before the entrance to Zion National Park. In the morning I was up before first light, and entered via the east gate, through a very impressive old tunnel completed in 1930, and saw sunrise over Virgin River in Zion Canyon.



I first heard of Zion last year at Palo Duro Canyon State Park, when a couple who I chatted with told me how magnificent it is. Since then I have heard it mentioned quite a few times, the most recent being by username:tacobet on the Forum pages.

I followed his (or her?) suggestion, and decided to make the hike up to Angel's Landing. The park is very well organised, and you park at the visitor centre, then take a free shuttle bus to wherever you want to go.

The climb to the top of Angel's Landing is about two and a half miles, and climbs 1,500 feet. It is a superb walk/scramble, offering incredible views. But be warned, it is not for those who have a touch of vertigo - the path is very narrow in places with enormous vertical drops! The route up is great fun, and the view from the top is breath-taking. Highly recommended.




On the way back down I took a look at the Emerald Pools, the top one of the three pools being set in a lovely shaded hollow at the foot of a monstrous cliff.





What an absolutely fantastic place! The southwest states keep on offering incredible experiences and awesome views. My goals seem to have fallen a little by the wayside this past week or so, as I have marvelled at the fantastic wealth of natural beauty here. I could spend so much more time travelling around this area - I absolutely love it here!

More info on Zion here:
Zion National Park

And another suggestion from username:tacobet on the Forum pages - check out these awesome photos of Angel's Landing and other parts of Zion from much more skilled photographer than myself, Joe Braun:-
Joe Braun Photography

Early in my day at Zion, I met photographer Jeff Tangen, as we bothe enjoyed the sun coming up over the magnificent view of the Virgin River. Jeff now has his photos from that visit to Zion online, and you can see them here:-
JeffTangenPhoto.com
They really capture the spectacular nature of this place so much better than I can.

Grand Canyon - East Rim.

I had planned to be up before sunrise and make my way back into the National Park to see dawn break over the canyon, but when the alarm went off I really did not feel like getting up, so turned over and went back to sleep. When I did finally wake I decided to remain in the forest for another day, and relax a bit.

However, after breakfast, relaxing too the form of a four mile hike up through the forest to the East Rim, where ther was not another soul. I spotted what looked like a wonderful viewpoint further down and around the valley, and tried to make my way ther, but could not find a path. Undeterred, I made my way through thick undergrowth and on very steep slopes scattered with dead trees, towards where I thought the vantage point was.



Eventually I made it, wondering what it is that causes me to set these challenges for myself. But sitting there in silence, watching a couple of eagles soaring back and forth on the updraughts just above me, I reflected that it is often only through such extra effort that such wonderful moments can be experienced.

By the time I made it back up to the forestry road, with a four mile hike ahead of me back down to the RV, it was starting to rain. Fortunately I bumped into a forest ranger, who kindly offered me a lift back down to the main road near to where my RV was parked.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening reading, and sitting out by a lovely glowing fire.



I did manage to get up when the alarm went off the next morning, and drove back into the national park, but instead of heading to the visitor centre, I turned off the main road onto the Walhalla Plateau, and saw sunrise from one of the viewpoints looking to the east. Once again, there wasn't anyone else around. It really does pay to get up a little earlier, and make that extra effort to get away from the visitor centre area, and be able to enjoy such majesty in total peace and silence.

Cape Royal Point further alont this quiet stretch of road offers stunning views of the canyon, and the Angel's Window is quite breath-taking too. This is the only place in the North Rim National Park where you can actually get a glimpse of the Colorado River, over a mile below in the depths of the canyon.



It is hard to capture the incredible grandeur of the spectacle, and even multiple pictures of the sweeping vista do not truly do it justice. Eventually I stopped trying to capture the scene with my camera, and just sat and gazed in awe, trying to soak up the whole spectacle.



The huge scale of the place is hard to grasp, and signs point out the distances of some of the features that you can see. It is astounding that one of the closer buttes, which really does look close in comparison to the rest of the vast vista, is over two miles away. The far, south rim of the canyon, where I stood in November last year is ten miles away! Absolutely awesome!



Back at the North Rim, I went to the campground and used the showers and laundry there, before continuing north-west, crossing back into Utah again, and heading for Zion National Park.

More info on the Grand Canyon here:-
Grand Canyon National Park