The next weekend we got a late start into our riding time because we had to work on our bikes and vehicles and fix each of their little problems before we could leave. So we drove to Ocotillo Wells instead (only an hour and a half from our house) in our Suburban to do a night-day ride and put in some miles. After about 4 hours of sleep, we left home at 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning and drove out with some neighbors who wanted to tag along. We played for about 3 hours with the neighbors during the night and then rode into the rest of the day on our own. Our neighbors were amazed at how much gear we put on for our rides and wanted badly to keep up with us, but they just couldn't. I was pleased to discover how much I had improved already since the beginning of the year. After the neighbors left to avoid the oncoming heat of dawn, I met Mike Cafro who was fine tuning his quad for the Best in the Desert Vegas to Reno race and he was nice enough to spend time with me to give me advice. I wrote down everything he told me right after our conversations in my "racing journal" so I wouldn't forget anything he said and referred back to my notes frequently. He was very supportive even though he started his conversation with me by saying "There has to be something wrong with you if you think you are doing the 1000 solo." I reflected long and hard about this statement from an experienced pro quad racer who has done these races many times before. He told me stories of getting hit by trucks and being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no chase support. But the only thing I could come up with is that I am a risk-taker by nature and it's the way I live my life. For some reason, his stories did not scare me and only made me more motivated to do what I am doing.