In a brief flashback, Duke explains that the magazine sent him $300 for trip expenses, but he and his attorney have already spent much more than that on drugs, the convertible, and a high-quality tape recorder. Duke and his attorney then proceed to Las Vegas alone. However, they quickly frighten him with their erratic behavior and he leaps out of the convertible. On the way to Vegas, the two men pick up a young hitchhiker. The men have amassed a huge stockpile of drugs in the trunk of their rental car, including ether, amyls, cocaine, pills, LSD, and marijuana. He has brought his attorney (and friend) along for the weekend. Duke explains that he is a journalist who has been contracted by a magazine to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race in Las Vegas. Both he and his passenger (who is also his attorney) have taken a large amount of drugs and are just starting to feel the effects. The narrator, Raoul Duke, is driving a bright red convertible. The novel begins somewhere near Barstow, one hundred miles southwest of Las Vegas.