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Off we go, one more time

It’s that time again, folks!  For the 4th time Clayton & I head for Mexico for 10 days on our Harley’s.  Follow along with the fun and adventures at this little website www.miltonotto.typepad.com

While on the road I can only access my Yahoo email account, that’s Miltonotto2003@yahoo.com

So all emails should be directed there while we’re on the road.

Let the adventure begin

Thur, Mar 8, 2007  416 miles, Austin to Hotel Rancho Viejo (Ejido Amplicacion, Km 202)

Regardless of all my self assurances that this time would be different and I wouldn’t be late.  Despite all the self delusions that I was ready to go Wednesday night.  Despite really wanting to get an early start and leave Wednesday night, I still wasn’t ready to leave until 11am Thursday.  "Not a problem," sez Clayton, we're on vacation.  Thank you Clayton and so we are.  So we actually headed out at just about our usual hour of departure, noonish.  Yuck.  But it was a beautiful spring day for riding. Partly cloudy, jet contrails criss-crossing blue skies, pleasant temp turns chilly with wind and especially when the sun ducks behind a cloud. Hwy 183 south to Luling (pumping oil), Hwy 80 south to Kenedy (cattle), Hwy 72 to Three Rivers (Valero Refinery), and finally 183 south to McAllen/Hildalgo (flat South Texas coastal plain).

 

Lunch in Nixon is Mexican, complete with ordering in Spanish.  Folks, it might not look any different in your little corner of the world, but if you get out into rural Texas you can't help but notice how everything is changing to Mexican.  This is not the Texas I grew up in.  You hear the Spanish language in stores, on the street.  The majority of the money and land is still in the hands of the white, but the Mexican nation is here, for better or worse.  Seguin, Luling, all of south Texas, taken over without a shot by Hispanics.  Bless their souls.  Quien sabe adonde vamos.  Anyway, I digress.

 

After lunch in Nixon we do some serious putt, 3 1/2 hours in the saddle without stopping.  South of Falfurrias my main tank is depleted and I have to switch to reserve.  I get Clayton's attention, point to my tank and then make the slit-your-throat gesture with my finger to my neck.  He nodds.  I finally run completely out of gas only to coast into the first gas station we've seen in 23 miles.  I'm cracking up.  Ah, let the adventure begin.  The US Border Patrol is wearing combat boots, fatigues and probably body armor. "Is the border a combat zone now," Clayton asks?  The guy just gives us a big grin.  A smile, yes, but this is serious biz, folks.  McAllen-Hidalgo at sunset.  Change money to pesos.  Last chance phone calls to business back home.

 

Across the crick

Border formalities.  I’m filled with a mixture of fatigue and trepidation.  No matter that I’ve done this 500 times before, entering foreign territory in the dark always increases my anxiety level a tad.  Watch your money, watch your stuff, get all your stamps, be suspicious of good Samaritans. A Mexican traveler is wowed that we are on our bikes and headed for Puerto Vallarta. "You will have a wonderful time."  Then Mexico, Reynosa, as always, totally totally confusing, we're headed south to Ciudad Victoria and Ciudad Valles but you must follow signs to Matamoros, which is counter intuitive.  You are given the choices of Monterrey or Matamoros and Matamoros is the right answer, as backward as it seems.  Outside of town you are finally signed to Ciudad Victoria, San Fernando, Hwy 97. At 26 kilometers is the final immigration check.  We pass a long line of trucks, move up to the front to the lights, more officials in uniforms, keep your eyes straight ahead, don’t make any eye contact, keep the bike moving, no whistles, no shouts, no firecrackers, did Clayton make it? We are officially in the interior.

 

It reminds me of the time I went skydiving.  All that anxiety as the plane climbs to 10,000 feet, and then that door, oh, the horror of the door, and next thing you know you dont have to worry about the door any more, and you are in free fall.  In the interior we are in free fall.  Enjoy the ride.  Let the adventure begin.

 

90 miles in the dark hwy, 10pm we stop for food at a highwayside grill joint, la cuenta (the bill) is scribbled on a napkin. Its 11pm now and figure we are 90 miles from Ciudad Victoria.  We stay at the same joint we stayed in last year. Despite all my best intentions.  Its just a little too familiar. 

 

Otto gem

Trips are 40% planning, 10% doing, and 50% bragging.

1st days ride

Are we having fun yet?

Saturday, March 10, 2007, Rioverde, SLP

Bad news.  Clayton took a spill yesterday and broke his arm and won’t be able to ride home.  I plan on putting him on a Continental jet to Austin tomorrow, Sunday so he can see an ortho man there as soon as possible. It was a fairly serious break, he was in surgery last night but he is OK and in relatively good spirits.  That’s the good news.  He’s OK, just pretty banged up. 

 

Friday March 9, 2007  380 miles, Hotel Rancho Viejo to Rioverde, SLP

It was getting late in the day, we were cold and the sun was going down and we were miles away from where we wanted to be.  It had been a great day but for the last 45 minutes I'd been frustrated at by a rough road thru uninteresting country.  I was leading, a speed bump appeared, (Mexico is notorious for these speed bumps) and too late I thot "going too fast", braked hard & got over it but Clayton is right on my butt and became airborne when he hit the bump, clipping my tail end as he launched his UltraGlide. Amazingly I didn’t fall, the crash broke out my tail light and gave me a good push, I didn't know what had happened, thought a car had hit me.  Why was I accelerating with my brakes on?  I looked back to the see a sight I dreaded, Clayton on his ass sliding on the asphalt with the big bike on its side doing a slow spin behind him. He popped right up and I rushed to give him a big hug, thankful that he was alright. “I broke my hand,” he said matter of factly.  I didn’t ask ‘are you sure?’ I just said OK. Ayuda, I yelled out to the gaulking bystanders.  The men rushed to help lift the bike. A taxi appeared and took Clayton to a private clinic in Rioverde, some 40 minutes away. He went right in for Xrays, an orthopedic doc showed up and before long Clayton was in surgery.  He spent the night in the hospital.

Day 2 (1st full day in Mexico)

 

About Clayton’s injury

The shock of hitting a speed bump with hands on the handlebars drove the thumb of his left hand back into his forearm, squishing and shattering the head of the radius bone (the bigger, longer one in the forearm), driving it back onto itself, making the whole radius shorter in length, braking the 3rd metacarpal of the thumb (the part that sits on the handlebar) into three pieces in the process.  The surgery involved pulling-streching everything back into shape then putting a pin (with an airgun?) thru the 3rd metacarples of the hand to keep things in traction.  He's in a cast from bicep to fingers.  After the accident Clayton's hand was numb and now its not, so that's good.   I saw the post-op X-rays and to my untrained eye they looked pretty amazingly good.  Clayton is in relatively good spirits, for the circumstances. Unbelievably I was able to get Selby Carter MD, my Austin bone man, on the phone (he was in Colorado). 

 

I still haven't figuered out the bike situation yet, but a wrecker service here was asking $1000 to haul it to Reynosa.  Well that sucks.  Clayton is pretty pessimistic about saving the bike, but it don't look that bad to me.  Guess that's one of the differences in our personalities.  The bike works, I think.  At least I drove it to a place to park it for the night.  It's a big bike.

Moving on

Yesterday morning, Saturday, March 10, I got Clayton out of the clinic.  That took several hours. The final post-op Xray looked pretty amazingly good to my untrained eye. I couldn't even see the fractures in the thumb's metacarpals. The doc brought a text book to explain what he had done. From the hospital we moved Clayton to the Hotel Maria Dolores, did some phone work, then went into downtown to walk around, found a great just-good-eats restaurant downstairs in a basement. The owner was very attentive and friendly, been in the biz 40 yrs, the "daily special" was awesome. Got a quote from a wrecker service to haul the Harley to Reynosa, $1000. At the market Clayton bought a duffel bag for all his stuff.  Oh yeah, and we saw a local teenager on a bicycle get hit by a car on the main street in front of the clinic.  A look of shock and awe frozen on his face.  A couple of ambulances came and I guess he was alright, but could've broken a leg.

Today, Sunday, March 11, took Clayton to airport in San Luis Potosi, 60 miles away.  $70 taxi ride, the 60 miles took 1hr 45min each way.  Awesome road thru up into the mountains, SLP sits on the central plateau, higher than Rioverde.  A group of Mexican motocyclists passed us coming from SLP.  We had a farewell breakfast with the cabby and a great Restaurant Tokyo. 

At left is Clayton on his way to the airport, with our taxista, Moses.

I got back on my bike today, that was pretty weird. I was so afraid of another accident.  Still looking at my part in all this.

Clayton's bike.  Revisited the scene of the accident, in the tiny community of Lobos, and checked out Clayton's bike. What a beast. I think I shoulda rode it before now just to see what he had to deal with in handling such a monster. Of course Clayton's a big guy.  The bike is definitely in good safe hands. The camposinos that have it, Luis and brother Martin, are as honest as the day is long, they had it wrapped up in plastic and tied down with ropes when I arrived. 2 brothers a wife, and a daughter, I think, they run a little roadside pop-stand and Luis, the head of the family took me into the chapel next door. He wanted me to take a picture of the virgin Mary there, and a photo of himself outside the chapel. I guess he is the caretaker. We manouvered the UntraGlide onto their covered front porch so it is covered and very difficult to steal.  It will now take much more effort to remove, we built a ramp out of rocks to get it up there, and then removed the ramp.

It has a couple of worrisome damages. The front tire appeared to have a slit down one sidewall, I think only one, didn't look very deep was caused by the fender getting pinched against the tire, or maybe my fender.  I didn't notice it until after I did a test ride down the road, sure wouldn't want the front tire to blow out if someone was driving it back.

Speed Bumps.  I wish I could say that speed bump was unmarked, but that would be untrue.  It was well marked and I just didn't see it until too late.  We have dealt with those speed bumps before, like all the time.  This happened on our first real day in Mexico, at the end of the day.  We were definitely tired.  Pooh.  Even after the accident, when riding from the clinic to the hotel I hit a couple without seeing them. 

Guy here in Rioverde town has a Ranger (?) pick-up truck offered to take the bike to Reyonosa for $580. He might go down on the price, maybe not. He is in the moving cargo biz but the bed of the pickup is only 7.2 feet long with the tailgate up/closed and we don't have tiedowns. I had tiedowns in my bags for the shake down trips to Houston and took them out before this trip cause I thot my bike was mechanically sound and wouldn't break down.

Will try the moto mechanics tomorrow. Thinking of riding around a bit before heading back, even counted up the miles to the Pacific. What!? Actually counted the miles before heading out?

The Lone Wolf

Monday, Mar 12, 2007  Rioverde to Jalpan, 74 miles

Well I moved 74 miles down the road. WooHoo. I'm in Jalpan, that's pronounced (HAL-pn) I discovered.  see map.  Think I'll shoot for the Pacific tomorrow, take the superhwy from Queretero to nearly Guadalara. I'll see how I feel in the morning. Got to get to Queretero first.

It was a nice day finally, clear sky, not the usual cold overcast we have been having, but I didn´t get off til noon. Humm. Got my tail light lens replaced at the local motorcycle shop.  Most all of the men it seems have been to the States working, and most know at least some English.  Now when people ask me where I'm headed I say "el Pacifico" and that really gets 'em.  Course it remains to be seen if I actually make it.  One guy talking to me practicing his English said, "well, I gotta run."  Gave me a smile.  That's pretty good English.

Took extra special careful precautions riding today, noticing all the speed bump warnings, they have a pattern that seems so natural today.

Conca was the highlight of the day. I'd been riding extra careful and the clear blue sky that the day started with was turning to a white hot haze,  ruining the scenery. Took a wrong turn and ended up in some way back farming community where I learned to pronounce Jalpan (HAL-pn), refrained from taking the questionable dirt road shortcut back to the hwy.  Conca is known for its church.  I found the church and a good restaurant across from it where a matronly woman took care of me, her only customer, with a perfect typical Mexican plate lunch: thin beef steak that was extra tender and tasty, rice, beans, never ending stack of hand made corn tortillas, fresh salad and lime. Deelicious.  The church was cool too, lots of painted stucco.  Conca looks like a great place to spend more time, very laid back.  Cobblestone streets. 

Great road from Conca to Jalpa, followed Rio Seco creek for a while, trees full of dark reddish brown epithites.  Conca to Jalpan, 25 miles, 45 minutes.

Arrived in Jalpan at 5:15. I know the next strech is up into the mountains with lots of curves and I didn´t want to do that in the waning light, plus it had begun to rain, so I stopped early and just wandered around town in the light afternoon shower, checking out the hotels, lets see, $85 or $30. Hummm. The $30 one has big tv, bed and shower.  What else do I need?  What would Clayton do? 

Anyway wandering around I saw a dentist standing out in front of his office and so I went up and introduced myself, turns out he lives in Rioverde where he has another clinic, and is going to Dallas April 1 or 7. I asked him if he wanted to haul a big Harley Davidson with him when he goes, Ha, but in any case I could ride back to Rioverde with him and then ride Clayton's bike home. Anyway, good to know another person in Rioverde since it looks like I'll be returning there soon.

At the more economical Hotel Maria del Carmen.  Well the towels are chinchy and the American movies on TV are outlandish.  Where do these movies come from??

Still kickin

Tuesday, Mar 13, 2007  262 miles, Jalpan to La Piedad. 

Everything ok here. Hit the autopista (superhwy) yesterday afternoon, Tuesday. Dodged a couple of rain storms and then got caught in one after dark. Cold, wet, couldn't see shit, wind still blowing dust in my face despite the rain.  Lightening doing loops in the sky.  I tucked in behind a little truck and let him run interference for me.  Pulled into the 1st Auto Hotel I came across which was outside of the town of La Piedad. They had room service (delicious and cheap) and so I just stayed there, no internet.

Wednesday, Mar 14, 2007  185 miles, La Piedad to Ciudad Guzman (aka Zapotlan). 

Cold this am.  I can see my breath.  Early start, 7:55 am, just in time for Piedad traffic.  Nevermind. I split lanes and move to the front of the line.  Confusing signs:  Guadalajara Cuota, Guadalajara Via Corta, Via Pesado.  A motorcyclist helps me out.  20 min to get out of town and then I'm on my own.  Across Mexico's hearland.  Broad plain filled with cultivation, fat volcano shaped mountains ring the horizon.  Crystal clear blue sky.  Chrisp air.  Puerto Vallarta is 8 hrs away says the motorcyclist. 

Drat.  Flat tire!  Flat tire on the Cuota (toll road). Exclusive access to the toll road means that there are no businesses along the hwy, no garages, or tire repair shops like there are on other roads.  I shot up the front tire with CO2 cartriges to re-inflate it and get a few miles more down the stupid toll road before it deflated again.  I pushed the bike for a while, that was no good, rode on the rim for a while, bummed compressed air from truck drivers, finally limped into a Pemex gas station.  No tire man there either, in back of the station I dismantled the front wheel myself and got a ride into La Barca, just east of Guadalajara.  Ate up half the day with tire business.  New tube.  Back on the road.  Turned out the leak was from an old patch on my tube, whoa, wonder when that patch was placed.  Copper Canyon 1999?  I didn't even know I had a tube. 

Logistics are crazy, don't know what's next, headed for Colima unless I change my mind and hang around Lake Chapala.

La Costa!

Well Ya-hoo.  The Hornet & I made it to the Pacific!  Unbelievable. 

Wednesday, Mar 14, 2007  La Piedad to Ciudad Guzman.  185 miles.

After the flat, I rode southwest from the eastern corner of Lake Chapala, passed thru Sahauyo, near Zamora, headed diagonally roughly towards Colima.  Lots of traffic around Chapala, from La Barca, thru Sahauyo to Jilquilpan.  Then the traffic lets up and it's 2 lane blacktop.  Terrain becomes more hilly west of Jilquilpan.  Cross back into Jalisco state.  Stop often to take pictures, learning how to use my SLR digital camera.  Clayton teased me with "that's too much camera for you, buddy" back in San Luis Potosi which just made me more determined.  So this is turning into a photography trip in his absence.  But the roads here in Jalisco are elevated with no sholders, and it is hard to find a place to pull off.  And then I discover Mazamitla, amid cool pine forests and there are bunches of cabanas for rent.  San Jose de Garcia is a nice looking town with nice homes, regionally important, old fasioned market, Mazamitla nearby.  Can't stop for food, got to make use of the daylight.  Gorgeous day.  Got a glimpse of Fuego volcano in the distance, puffing ash.  Really a great motorcycle road thru the pines, winding down the hills.  Tanazula at dark.  Its a sugar cane town with the sugar mill cranking right next to a cathedral just off the hwy, somehow I can't find the centro and I finally give up finding lodging here and head out onto dangerous dark hwy filled with big trucks and everything else.  A stalk of sugar cane blows off a passing truck and wacks me on the shins.  Lordy.  Out in the dark, the crush of insane drivers is too much and I finally just pull off the road, into a cane field, and wait.  The sky is filled with stars, and its a silent beautiful night. 

Ciudad Guzman (aka Zapotlàn), another lovely surprise.  Nice midsized town, this reminds me of the Mexico of my youth.  Huge plaza, surrounded by arcades.  Check into the Grand Hotel Zapotlàn, a real classic.  Nice room, comfortable hotel, late dinner at Restaurant Balcon, with a 2nd story balcony view of the expansive plaza.  Two churches on the plaza, and numerous groups of people dressed up like Aztec Indians doing dance rehearsals around the plaza.  I get back to my room at midnight. 

Thursday, Mar 15, 2007  182 miles, Ciudad Guzman to Barra de Navidad

Late start.  Breakfast at 9 at Restaurant Balcon.  Funny, Zapotlàn doesn't look as pretty in the daytime as it did last night.  Interesting.  And I can tell it gets really hot here.  The sky looks a little hazy, yesterday was such a treat.

Went to the bank today.  It's been a long time since I visited a bank in Mexico.  It's modern, efficient, and polite.  Down to my last $30 in pesos.  Usually Clayton and I come back with pesos to spare, guess I'm staying in less places that take cards.  The teller at the bank asks if I want to buy a $10 phone card which will allow me to talk to the states for 45 min.  Damn, did I get took in Rioverde, I was forking over $40 and $60 a pop for phone calls. 

Leave Zapotlàn at noon.  Really a late start and its pretty hot outside.  I take the libre road, as in the non-toll road, and wind away into the hills and landscape, with two volcanos  dominating.  One of them puffs ash occasionally.  Back roads thru more cane country, I land at Comala outside of Colima.  Comala is a small place with a Central American feel.  Great cathedral and the conalade is one big out door restaurant with competing mariachi bands.  What?  I must have stumbled onto a part of the gringo trail.  Is this a tour bus stop?  Raucous music, one group has 2 trumpets, 3 violins, and 4 guitars.  Vendors selling DVD's, Hammocks, "real" Mexican panchos (looked like they were made in the China).  I smell the coast.  The place serves botanas or enchilads, quesadillas, and chalupas with the limonade.  Groups of mariachis hang out in the park, waiting their turn, practicing.  Reminds me of our lunch in Urapan last year.  The gringos look so clean and fresh.  But wait, actually at least 3 of the tables near me are full of local ranch owners.  Its a great find and a welcome reprise from the blazing sun.  Volcanoes in the background.  Feels ok. 

Its 4 lanes from Colima to Tecoman, and then cuota (toll) road to Mazanillo.  On the cuota I have the road to myself.  This is definitely UltraGlide territory.  The Pacific!!  My God, we made it.  The Hornet & I rode all the way to the Pacific.  Now I need to get back.  This is like a mountaineering expedition where the getting back is part of the deal. 

Funky Barra de Navidad, I get an overpriced room with a balcony looking at the ocean.  I so don't care about the cost at this point.  Town is full of gringos.  We don't talk to each other. 

 

One more day in paradise

Sayulito
Now this is my kind of place. Internet by seaside, with breakfast served monitor-side.

Fri Mar 16, 2007  183 miles, Barra to Sayulito
Last night I slept with my boots on to the sound of crashing waves 50 yards from my balcony. I had been leary of the pealing paint outside the Hotel Barra de Navidad, leary of the $85 price tag, BUT I must admitt, the ocean view, the vista del mar, is priceless. I planned to leave early in the morning. That did not happen. The spell of the beach is overpowering, irresistable. Sit and watch the waves, the sand, the bay, horizon, surfers to the left, there goes a sail boat, Melaque along the coast to the right. OK, I get it now. Just chill. Be like Fonsey.

In front of the Hotel Barra de Navidad, looking towards the town of Malaque.

 

Allyson from Oregon serves me breakfast, she's been here since December.

Anna Maria from France, driving a VW van with Colorado plates, selling orange peel nit-nack boxes.

Mac drove down from Denver, works for a map company (intermap.com) making maps, flies in a airplane handling the computer radar readings, no experience needed, one month on one month off, goes to New Guinea next month. Now that's a job!

Late start, its 3pm by the time I'm gassed up, oil in the motor, oil in the primary case. It takes 3 hrs 20 min to go 138 miles to Boca Tomatlan, jumping off point for the village of Yelapa, my prime destination. In a fit of rationality I choose not to tag along with a couple other Gringos for a boat ride to Yelapa 20 min away by panga motor boat. I hate it when I have to be rational. So this is as close as I'll get to meeting Isabel in Yelapa. Until December, that is.  The locals inform me that there is indeed a road to Yelapa, and they claim all kinds of cars go on it, a dirt road, 1-2 hr trip. Mucho transito they assure me.  That will have to wait til another day.

Banderas Bay (Boca Tomatlan to Punto Mita, with Puerto Vallarta in the middle) is definitely spectacular. Awesome sunset. The band of crimson on the horizon keeps getting darker and richer in color. Above, pale yellow turning to celeste then to rich blue. Evening star Venus blazes fantastically in the blue. It doesn't get any better than this.

I circumvent Pueto Vallarta via the Libremento.  It's Friday night, big traffic, the Libremento avenue is an 8-lane Goliath. There's a Chili's, and Starbucks. Just great.

Sayulito by 9pm. What a hang-out! Like some fairy tale land, Disney inspired, the streets are filled with pedestrian traffic, LAID-BACK surfers and hanger-ons. The young and the beautiful.  There are no right angles or straight lines in this tiny community.  I meet Josh and Ian of NotTheMotorcycleDiaries.com.

They are just coming from a visit with Glen Heggstad, The Striking Viking of the Two Wheels Thru Terror book, who now lives in Mazatlan, permanently.  see StrikingViking.net

Unbelievably I have difficulty finding lodging. Maybe my mistake was to ask for hotels, maybe shouldda asked for cuarto, room. Finally found several places but no one answered the door. What would Clayton do? Settled for another no-name hotel.  I've done worse.

info on Sayulito

Sayulito, Saturday morning, March 17.  Internet by the beach, breakfast served monitor-side, pelicans diving into the bay out the window. Gorgeous day.  Big push today. Gotta go, gotta go.

Clayton update (from a friend)
Dr. Walters yesterday--one hell of a guy-- Clayton really liked him. On the scale of badness- Clayton hit the top with his fractures. He is scheduled for surgery at 12:00 on Thursday. It will be a 4-5 hour procedure. He will be putting in a t-shaped metal plate with prongs like features in the wrist and a metal plate with screws in the thumb. The risk factors are pretty small, infection from the pins that were put in, nerve injury, or fracture collapse, but those are unpredicable until down the road. He can't give the 100% guarantee that all mobility will be reclaimed in his hand either, but he is going to start a 3 month PT program next week. So, if he does what he is told--and I plan to see that he does--he should be in good shape.

Friday Mar 16
Clayton did have a surgery yesterday, only to find out that one of the pins was infected. They removed the pins-recast his arm-not past elbow this time- and put him on antibiotics. He is rescheduled for next Thursday for the whole procedure again, barring anything funky in the test results for the infection culture (at first glance, just small grade). Not the news we expected to have, but one more bump in the road (pun intended)!

The Long Putt Home

Saturday Mar 17, 2007  321 miles, Sayulito to Lagos de Morena

Late start again.  Got involved with the internet, breakfast, beach scene, then ran into Josh Rowan again and spent time yacking with him, nothing else seemed more important at the time, what could be more important than talking to a guy headed for Ushuaia, Terra del Fuego? 

Noon start.  I worry and fuss with the oil in my bottom-end primary case, its leaking badly.  The 1st 2 1/2 hrs I only made 60 miles, twisty two-lane road thru mountains with heavy weekend traffic.  Especially headed the other way, to the coast.  Reduced to 25mph many times.  Very hot.  Finally the Tepic-Guadalajara autopista and its just like the Interstates back home, even better, fresh asphalt, no traffic, its a smooth slide to Guadalajara, then around and out the other side.  30 minutes to get across to the other side of a city of 2 million plus.  Not bad.  And then head towards San Luis Potosi on more cuotas.  In all I pay $46 in tolls today.  Nice hotel in Lagos de Morena, State's standards nice.  Rosenda, the security guy has lived in Ventura county for 25 yrs.  I guess we are Americanizing Mexico as much as they are influencing us.  Its becoming a real blend of cultures, I think.

All day putt today, Sunday.

Home in one piece

Sunday March 18, 2007  850 miles, Lagos de Morena to Austin

Made it home.  19 hours in the saddle, flying solo, what a way to go.  I'm still vibrating.  Left Lagos at 8am.  Friendly motorcycle cop in khaki uniform draws me a map around town.  (Is this town really that big that I need to go around it?)  Total toll charges for the day = $52. 

• Lagos to San Luis Potosi Bypass = 110 miles, 2 1/2 - 3 hours. 
• San Luis Potosi Bypass to Nvo Laredo = 358 miles, about 9 hours. 
• 1 1/2 hours at the border, mostly waiting in line. 
• Laredo to Austin = 250 miles, about 5 hours.  I could barely keep my eyes open on the last few miles.   

Total trip miles = 2,960 miles. 

Thanks all for following along.  Until next time. 

The Final Chapter (?)

April 20, 2007  Run to fetch Clayton's bike

It is 700 miles from doorstep to doorstep, Austin to Ciudad Valles Hotel.  Clayton and I are driving my 1996 Chevy Blazer (156k miles) and towing Walter's trailer.  We left Austin about 9am and arrived at Cd Valles Hotel at 1am.  That's about 16 hours on the road with 1 hour mas o menos at the border.  We get lots of comments about the "nice trailer".  Border formalities were pretty seamless but it still took me 1hr 10 min to process papers and get right with Mexico.  I switched the trailer's license plates and used my trailer registration papers for Walter's trailer, as it is prohibited to import someone else's vehicle into Mexico, permission granted or not.  Anyway there was no problem with the license switch and paper feint.  The trip is pretty uneventful so far, except that I forgot to bring any Mexican maps and was relying on my pornographic memory until the pressure was too great and I finally broke down and purchased something at a convience store gas station.  Anything unusual last night?  Well we saw a car towing another car.  No, wait.  We saw a car towing two other cars last night.  That was pretty unusual.

Recovery

April 21, 2007

Six weeks later, we return to Los Lobos to recover the Ultra.  After loading up the beast we drove on to Rioverde and then down to Jalpan where I looked up Jim Conrad, whom I'd "met" on the web.  Then dinner in Xilitla, a midnight cruise past Edward James' Las Posas, compliments of Clayton, and finally a real late night return to Cd. Valles Hotel where of course there was a quincenera going on until about 4. 

Me and Jim Conrad