29-Nov-2009

Wow. Over 5000 miles on this trip today. It was a long and awesome day. But first of all, see the snorkel on that van. All those vans, trucks, buses, etc that haul people around Central America have them. I really hope we don't have to find out why.

We got up early, as normal on border crossing days, and got into Panama. This was an ordeal, about 4 hours. Nick and I have been trading off on who takes care of the paperwork and bs. This time it was Nick's turn, so I just hang out and watch the bikes. I actually think he is doing this today cause he wants me to deal with Colombia. We have been exchanging one money for another at the borders and really have lost track of what is worth how much or even what the money is called. Nick named them all Gazoobies, so we just exchange one countries gazoobies for anothers. It gets wierd when it takes 3000 gazoobies to buy a cup of coffee, but its all relative, right?

Anyway, we are in Panama. The roads get wider and better and I'm thinking, wow, this could be the best roads we've been on all trip. They are for a while, then they just go to hell, then they get good again, then wham, potholes everywhere. The pics are of the good parts. I'm too busy when we get to the bad parts to take pics. The scenery changes a bit, still in the mountains but not intensly. Just rolling and slightly winding roads. It is beautiful and we catch glimpses of the ocean as we travel along. I had no intention of getting this far but we actually made it to Panama City, mostly cause we couldn't find a hotel sooner. It got dark on us and we were just still going, kind of looking for a place to stay. Stopped at one place but decided to keep on going. We took a wrong turn close to Panama City, but I knew we were still going east and hadn't crossed the Panama Canal yet, but we were kind of lost. So we do what we do, continue to fly along through the dark in a strange country, lost. Brillant, eh? We are winding through the jungle and suddenly, really suddenly, we are on huge bridge. Looking south I can see ships and locks and we are on the Panama Canal. Very cool. I figure out later that we are at the Miraflores locks on the Canal. I cannot tell you the feeling this was to be over 500o miles on this journey and to be here in this amazing part of the world. I am overwhelmed. Anyway, we cruise down a road that parallels the canal for a while and find a hotel, Holiday Inn, of all things. Oh well, after the last few days, I think we are both ready for a little bit of a homogenized hotel.

We have a lot of planning to do now. We arenow through Central America, that is huge but is really only the jumping off place for the real journey. We have a drink to celebrate and talk about the trip and what is to come. We are going to do things a little differently than orginally planned but adaptation is a big part of what we must do to deal with a trip like this. No pics yet of the Canal, will try to do that tomorrow.

27-Nov-2009

After repairing the damage to the best of my ability with the quality tools I had (broken piece of 2x4, and bent rusty nail) we are on the road again. Just a short distance to Costa Rica, the right way this time. I think I am either getting used to, or numb to the border craziness. We got into Costa Rica in about an hour and a half, no probs. We are in the mountains again. Ya know, we have never really left the mountains, not even since Price, at least no more than you are out of the mountains by being in the Salt Lake Valley. I really did not expect that. We are both beat and don't make it very far. I pick this great hotel in a town called Esparza. It had large pets (cockroaches that would scare a medium size dog), a nice neighborhood (right next to a hall that had some kind of rockin' school party till about 3 am), simple to use shower (one handle, all cold), and an air conditioner that could almost get the room temp below 80. I think I'll let Nick pick the hotel next time.

28-Nov-2009 4793 Miles

Got up early, fear of death by cockroach mostly, and called into the radio show again. I think they are having fun with that. Of course the story they wanted to hear was the crashing bikes on a mud road in the middle of the night in the pouring rain. With potential dictators, contra-rebels, and jaguars(furry kind, not the shiny kind).

Another great day of riding. We go through San Jose and head for the Pacific again. It is 83 degrees when we get up, but we have some high mountains, rain, fog, mist to deal with today and it got a little cold. I'm sure I'm not gonna get any sympathy from the Utah contingency but my bike said it was 52 degrees. And in the pouring rain it felt pretty cold. So the temp went from 82 to 52 and back to the mid 80's by the time we got to the pacific ocean again. Lots of rain today. After we reached the coast I looked at the map and we had been up over 9000 feet elevation. That was a wild ride down. I got ahead of Nick and stopped to wait for him and 2 guys came out and started talking to me, they were Americans living in Costa Rica and had the little coffee shop there. So we stopped and visited with them for a while. Great guys, they sure could make the case for living in Costa Rica. I think the town was Pinuela, but I could be wrong. If you guys read this, you can correct me and post your website in the comments. I want to check out this pics, and maybe someone who reads this will stop by.

We carried on about another hour and a half to the border town called Cuidad Neily. We will hit Panama manana.

Have I talked about potholes. Well, I've never really seen a pothole till today. Appearing suddenly out of what seems like a perfectly good road are these holes that seem to go to infinity. I'm sure they have a bottom, but you'd need climbing gear to get there. I know you think I'm kidding but through one pothole over a bridge I could see the river below. These are wheel bending, throw you over the handlebars kind of potholes. Hitting them was not an option. So we didn't, but it took some work.

I wish I could have gotten some pics of the roads we were on today, but I figured that if I couldn't see them then the camera probably wouldn't pick them up either.

27-Nov-2009 4394 Miles

Do you think BMW will warranty this? I hope so. The other one is just as bad. I couldn't just crash on the same side of the bike I had to try out both sides. I bent them back into shape as best I could but they will never keep the water out again. I have the important stuff in a dry bag or sealed container, so it should be OK. We are on our way again in a moment. We are close to Costa Rica today and should be there soon. Hopefully, legally this time.

26-Nov-2009

Happy Thankgiving. Don't think I will get turkey today but hope you all have a great one. As we approach the Nicaraguan border, I can't help but feel a little anxious. I expect the border crossing to be bad. But the country itself has had such stife and trauma. We are swarmed by 20 or so people as we ride in to the crossing that want to 'help' us. They are jabbering away at 90 miles an hour. I finally just tell them to stop, wait, let us get our damn helmets off for crissakes. This crossing was a whirlwind, this desk, that window, this window, see that person, but it went fast. We were out of there in less than an hour and on our way. We start off in the mountains, about 6000', but the whole way is down. I was teasing Nick about being a cop magnet cause he got stopped when I just went through some of the checkpoints, but in Nicaragua we both got to pay our fees to the locals. These 2 countries have been expensive to get into and through.We get to the ocean, the Pacific this time, at a place called San Juan del Sur. We get to a little beach bar, they are playing Jimmy Buffet, the beer is cold, the sand is warm and the chica's are hot. I take my shoes off and stick my toes in the water, Ahhh, life is good. Soooooo, what do we do, we decide to leave and go a few miles down the road. WTF. 3 or 4 hours later, we are back at the same bar, soaking wet, broken motorcycles, hurting bodies, covered with mud. God we are dumb. In Mexico we learned that there are sometimes roads, new nice ones, that don't exist on a map. Today we learned that there are roads on the map, that look like they should be nice new ones, that don't exist in reality. So anyway, we went down this road that turned to dirt, no big deal, lots of dirt roads are hiways here. Well we keep going and going, then it starts raining and raining, the road gets steeper and steeper and rockier and rougher and muddier, etc. We decide that we could actually be in Costa Rica, illegally right now and decide to turn around. Well it had rained and rained behind us and parts of this road just turned to snot. The first time I hit the road, I was just fine and it was like someone had kicked the tires out from under me. I'm rolling down the road and the bike is 180 degrees from the way we were going. That happened 2 more times before we got to a rockier place in the road. The first time was the fastest but the bike still went around 180 degrees. Guess what, these tires don't work on snotty roads. Nick went down once and I was ready to trade him bikes straight across at that point. To add to the drama, it is pouring down rain, it took so long that it was black dark, and I'm remembering things like, isn't this where Oliver North was selling all those guns to the Contra rebels during the Iran-Contra scandal(I'm pretty sure they were living down this dirt road), Isn't this where Manuel Noriega was the dictator, don't they have jaguars in these woods. Any way, battered, beaten, bikes beat up, we make back to the bar where Jimmy Buffett is still playing and the beer is still cold, but too tired to care if the sand is still warm or the chica's are still hot. Costa Rica manana if we can get the bikes fixed.

Holy shit. I don't know where to start. 2 days since I've blogged and I feel like I will surely miss a lot of stuff. And the end of this Thanksgiving day was hell. Oh well, I'll get to that.

25-Nov-2009

Where were we. Oh yea, I must've been in Honduras. We got up early and headed northeast so we could go south again. More crazy mountain roads and beautiful scenery. This time the curve ball thrown at us was major road construction. They actually have road equipment it this country. This is not the sane, safe, albeit somewhat frustrating kind of road construction that we have in the US. This is free for all road construction. Pass any way you can, go around the barracades, just get back in the safe zone before you hit anyone or fall off a cliff cause the road already did. Kinda cool, and scary as hell sometimes. The motorcycles make this a lot easier. I think this kind of driving would be really frustrating in a car. To many trucks, too many hills, too much craziness. The bikes let us get out of trouble or around people fast. I really cannot adequately describe this type of driving. It truly is a free for all. I have had 3 cars coming at me on a 2 lane hiway. I have started to pass and had the guy in front of (actually beside of) me decide to pass, so now there's 3 vehicles side by side on a 2 lane road. And not the safe, sane kind of 2 lane roads like we have, ya know, with shoulders and stuff, maybe a flat place if you get off the shoulder. No. The edge of the road usually meets at least a 2 foot deep ditch (sometimes 20') or for fun they put concrete posts right at the edge of the road. I call them "leg removal devices". Oh, and the road construction. Ya know how we have all these fluffy things to hit, cones, barrels, water barriers, etc., they use things like boulders, 4' trenches, trees, trucks, anything they can find. Its cool. But Honduras is the first place we have actually had to stop for construction, first time the whole trip. The other countries just do everything by hand and pretty much let thier guys dodge traffic to fix potholes, etc. Anyway, Honduras was fun for all the above reasons. We spent the night in Danli, to get ready for an early border crossing in Nicaragua.

24-Nov-2009 3818 miles since Utah.

North to go South. West to go East.

Seems like we've done a lot of that lately. We are at about 15 degrees N latitude and can't seem to get lower than that despite having covered several hundred miles. Tomorrow we still have to go North for a while but should end up heading seriously south and east after that.

After all those easy border crossings we got a taste of serious bureaucratic paperwork, inefficiency and bullshit today. Getting into Honduras took some effort. And money. The thing I worry about is you leave one country, signed out, done, telling them you are not coming back and then you are in a no-man's land between countries till the other one lets you in. We were in this no-man's land for 4 and 1/2 hours today wondering if we would have to camp out in the duty free store's little 4x4 yard. I knew we were in trouble when we checked out of Guatemala and this no-man's land was about 7 miles long, with trucks parked on both sides the whole way waiting to get in. The path through these trucks was just barely big enough for one car with vehicles trying to go both ways. After a while we started counting trucks that were able to get through to Honduras. I think we got up to 3. Maybe 4. So, all in all, us getting through in 4 and 1/2 hours was pretty good. One guy that Nick talked to had been 3 days trying to get out of Guatemala and he hadn't even started the Honduras stuff yet. I don't know how anyone does business down here. I guess you have to know the right people to pay off.

Enough of that. I cannot say enough about how absolutely beautiful these countries are. Every time I think I've seen it all a whole new scene opens up before us. It took about 10 seconds to forget the bs we had just been through at the border once we were on the road in Honduras. We immediately started winding up and up and up into the mountains. This road was steeper than any we had been on and was a serious truck killer. 5 broken down vehicles, sometimes appearing right in the middle of the road around a curve. It is so steep that one truck lost its brakes and was piled up at the bottom of a long stretch. Must have just happened. So, every time I think the mountain roads here have given us all they've got we get a taste of something new. Today it was 20% grades to go along with the curves and potholes that you couldn't see until you were into the curve plus the occasional broken down truck parked in the middle of the road. Just enough good stuff to prove that your heart can be stopped and it will start itself again. Glad I got to learn that about myself. I keep worrying about that front tire but I'll get it replaced before I need to somehow. And anyway, I haven't used any rubber off the middle of it for about 2000 miles. Its all been off the sides. No better way to get the most out of a motorcycle tire.

Seriously though, this place is amazing. Every time I start getting a little anxiety about crossing into a new country, I only get it proven to me how unique and interesting they each are. In Honduras, and Guatemala, we are more than mildly interesting to these people but in a very benign way. They look, they smile, they wave. It is cool.

The pics are the town of Esquipulas on the Guatemalan side. The next one, Nick says should be titled, "see, he does have some patience" as we wait for bs to allow us into Honduras. My new Honduran buddies as we are finally allowed to enter Honduras and a beautiful valley as we are coming down from truck killer mountain. I tried to get a good picture of some of the crop "fields" but it didn't turn out very well. I don't know what they are growing on some of the 60 degree slopes, but we're talking some tough farmers. Hope its worth it.

We are at a town/almost city called Santa Rosa de Copan it is as pretty as its name. Nicks bike topped 40,000 miles yesterday and mine topped 13,000 at almost the same time. All systems are go.

23-Nov-2009 3675 Miles

Well. I have been purposely avoiding discussions about the weather cause I didn't want to jinx us. Well, up until today it has been amazing. Not even a little rain, just sunny and great. Today though it rained and rained, then drizzled, then cleared up for a minute and then it rained and rained some more. It cleared up for the last 2 hours of the day though and I really have no complaints. Nice to have good rain gear. I found out though that my tires are not the best in rain slicked roads. Felt the bike trying to go out from under me a time or two so I slowed down a little and all was well.

We crossed the border into Guatemala today and that was easy. We always worry about these border crossings but so far so good. This country is beautiful, so green, mountainous, lots of rivers and water. We had a great lunch in some place, no idea where. And the people are great too.

Had a very observant gas station attendant notice bubbles coming out of my rear tire today. Thank you for noticing. Stopped at a tire place and was on the road again in about 5 minutes. And all this time I've been worried about the front tire.

We are at a town called Zacapa, I think, not really sure yet. We should be about 1 hour from the Honduras border so we will cross into there in the morning.

The pics are Nick at the Guatemala border. The first "highway" we were on in Guatemala. I thought this was going to be a long day if all the highways were like this but it turned to blacktop in about 30 miles. A cool lake. And yours truly standing on the bike. No worries. Its stopped.

22-Nov-2009
Nick is back with oil filters so we got the oil changed on the bikes, gassed up and ready to go. I am ready for the road again. We are getting out of here early tomorrow to try to make an early border crossing to Guatemala. I am excited about a new country.

20-Nov-2009 Belize City, Belize

My first impression was disappointing to say the least. My only previous experience in Belize was 10 hours off of a cruise ship here, some scuba diving, a local restaurant and back on the ship. My impression then was that I wanted to come back. Riding in on the bikes was a different experience. I had pretty much decided that I would do the tourist things and enjoy what this place has to offer that way. But today I decided that wasn't the experience I really wanted and I didn't want to leave this place without a better experience. I had to go back to my overriding belief that most people, no matter the culture, are good people just trying to have a good life, whatever their perception of that is. So I put my initial impressions away, parked the bike in a safe place and walked through town for a while. I met a guy who called himself Prince Charles something or other. He was a native Belizian, decended from the Mayans. He considers himself the unofficial ambassador of all things cultural, historical, and anthropological in Belize. His story starts with the question about how Belize got its name. The answer took about 2 hours to get to and started in about 400 BC with a significant stop in 1615 AD and continued to the present. I'd like to share it here but I don't think I could do it justice. This guy was obviously educated, loved his country and knew a great deal about it. He quizzed me a bit after the story to make sure I got the important points and then appointed me a Junior Ambassador of Belize to the World. Very funny. I walked around town quite a bit after that and never felt threatened in any way. Maybe cause I dressed down to look like an American Expat bum instead of a high profile tourist. The people were friendly and I really did enjoy the day.

But anyway, this whole experience got me thinking that I really need to check my preconceptions at the door, or border, as it may, and just experience what each of these places has to offer. Caution is in order, of course, but there will be good to be found everywhere if I'm looking for it.

I've been doing some work today and gather stuff for the rest of our journey. One more positive thing about Belize. I have never seen so many tall, long-legged, beautiful black women in one place before in my life. Wow, were talking 5'8" to 6'3" gorgeous women. Sorry Newby, my camera is still broken. :)

18-Nov-2009 3283 miles

A few last words about Mexico. We finally did see some of the things I hadn't seen since I was in Mexico, like McDonalds, Walmart, etc. I wasn't looking, they just appeared in some of the coastal towns. This whole trip across Mexico has really changed my view of this country in a lot of ways. The people were mildy curious about us everwhere until we got really off the beaten track, but never in any kind of threatening way. There was no place through Mexico that I was worried about the bikes being messed with or our stuff getting stolen. Often we left our jackets and helmets on the bike while we ate or went into a store and never worried about them. Mostly these people seem content with their lives and truly interested in trying to help us or just share with us.

Belize was an instant change in those attitudes. The first place we stopped after crossing the border to get a drink, we changed our mind after looking over the situation. There were a lot of people looking at us and in a lot less benign way than we had been used to. We would have had to leave the bikes out of site to have had a pop and we just decided to get further down the road further from the border town. At a town called Orange Walk, we went in to have lunch and the lady told us not to leave our stuff on the bikes, bring it in. So things have really changed and we will have to be more careful. Mexico has certainly relaxed some of our diligence.

Belize is an english speaking country so it is nice to be able to communicate freely. Or so I thought. At Orange Walk we ate at a chinese lunch place, had a terrible time getting the lady to understand that we wanted "shrimp fried rice" till I said "shlimp flied lice, shlimp flied lice". That did it.

Once we got into Belize City we cancelled the hotel we had reserved and moved to a Best Western. It was a bad place in a bad part of town. I would have been worried about the bikes the whole time. They were going to let us put them in the lobby at night but I didn't want them out in the street there during the day. Oh well, different world, time to embrace this change. I am sure it will get worse before it gets better.

Well, if you've read the book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, or hell, even the title, which by the way, you just did, then we've been doing the Zen part just fine. (Whew, that was a long sentence. Did it make any sense?) I can really relate to that analyzing your own sanity/insanity as your rolling down the highway at 70 plus mph, its a good thing to do. But now we have to get to the motorcycle maintenance part. Tomorrow we are going on the hunt for some parts, tires, etc. Nick is going to bring oil filters back from New York when he comes so we will change oil right when he gets back. My front tire is gonna need to be replace within the next 2000 miles or so and I would like to have a new one now, since the roads will be getting harsher and harsher for a while.

We also have some body maintenance to do at this point. We have yet to round up the anti malaria meds we need to traverse some of these countries so we'll try to make that happen tomorrow as well. Oh, and a camera, I need a damn camera. One of the coolest things I did before I left, I thought(I was so proud of myself), was find a cooler that we could put stuff like cold water, food, beer, etc. in and have cold stuff all the time. The idea was good but the implentation sucks. The ice melts, soaks through the cooler and makes a mess of everthing else in that box. So, I'm also gonna look for a 12v coldplate and wire it into the bike while I'm here. Then I can be so proud of myself again :) Turns out that beer is everywhere, water is a little harder to find and it is nice to have cold water on the bike.

The main stuff I am doing while Nick is gone is to Scuba dive and get some work done. I really haven't thought about much else except covering the miles, my own sanity/insanity as described above, and basic needs like food/shelter etc. for a while. 4xld. I may not blog for a few days, we'll see, but will be back when we hit the road again.

17-Nov-2009 3120 Miles

Yep, you got it, we rode motorcylces again today. Its getting to be a habit. As we were getting going this morning, Nick said, I love this job. Yeah, it's pretty tough.

We left Escarcega this morning with the actual intention of not just riding today, but going to see some Mayan ruins along the way. We went to see the Calakmul ruins at the Reserva De La Biosphere Calakmul. It is kind of like a national park without any people, very remote. It is a nature reserve as well as the location of these ruins. Think Chichen Itza without any people there. My camera prob has not been taken care of yet so you'll have to go to www.mayanbeachgarden.com/Calakmul.html if you want to check it out. I climbed to the top of all but one of the largest temples in this place, it was truly amazing. I could see Guatemala from there. It is a pretty remote hike into that place after you drive the long distance to get there, we're talking jungle. I saw monkeys playing around in the trees, that was a new experience for me. Then there were these Howler monkeys, wow, they get going and it sounds like a bunch of Jaguars having a brawl. To listen to these things you would think they are 8 feet tall and weigh 400 pounds, but they're just a little monkey with a big mouth.

The road in and out of this place was seriously cool. About wide enough for 2 motorcycles to meet, very tight and winding, and under the jungle canopy most of the way. No sun, like racing through a tunnel.

The pics today, lets see, the top pic is a little side road through the jungle I wanted to take. I had to turn around after about 5 miles cause of trees fallen across the road.

These 2 pics are from a "restaurant" and the road in to it. Kind of felt like I had stepped into a scene from "Deliverance" when I got there. I kept a nervous ear out for Banjo's.

This is where I lost Nick again, I don't know what I'm gonna do with that boy. I left him behind after we left the Calakmul Ruins cause he needed to conserve gas to make it to the next gas station. I didn't, so I was full on enjoying this cool road. We talked about meeting at the restaurant close to the highway, well I was talking about this one, he was talking about one right by the highway. So, I stopped at the Deliverance camp to have a beer and waited for him for a while. Pretty soon I figured he had missed it, so I headed back to the highway. The guard guys there said he had gotten on the highway and headed east. I knew he had to get gas so I set off for the nearest gas station to the east, about 4o miles. Somehow I got there before he did, we must have missed each other by a half a block in the town before the gas station. Anyway, all is good. I think he was afraid he would have to come back looking for me, but he had to have gas to be able to do that.

After that stop we headed east again and got to Chetumal and got to see yet another ocean, Mar Caribe, the Carribean. Awesome. It seems strange that we were just on the Gulf Coast, Now the Carribean, and soon, after Belize, we will be on the Pacific Coast.

But for the more pressing issues. Tomorrow we will cross into another country, Belize. I have been there once but just off the cruise ship for a few hours. What little time I was there I loved it and have always wanted to go back, so I am glad I will have a few days there to enjoy it while Nick is gone. Maybe I can stowaway on a sailboat or something.

16-Nov-2009 2930 Miles

We are at a place called Escarcega today. It is in the middle of the Yucatan Peninsula. We are almost done with Mexico. Another great day in a chain of many. My camera fell dropped and broke the screen so I can't frame the pics. Snapped this one though. It got me thinking that someone should be driving. Someone suggested that I use the viewfinder to frame my pics like old school. That might be good if this camera had a viewfinder. I'll have to get a new one somewhere soon, in the meantime, you might have to deal with pics like this.

We traveled about 400 miles today. We are going to see some Mayan ruins tomorrow and then make our way to the border crossing in Belize. We may get there a day ahead of plan but that is OK. Wish us luck on that one.

So, does anyone know what has happened to all the VW bugs/beetles/etc. when they die? They are all here. Every one. They come here to be resurrected from the skeletal remains of those that cannot be resurrected.

15-Nov-2009

I'm losing everybody lately, first LC, then Nick. We got our signals crossed leaving Veracruz and he went one way and I the other. We met each other, probably twice, but never connected. We had kind of a plan, but not necessarily a good one. Anyway, I screwed around and found a bulb to replace the burnt out one in the bike and tried to call him and waited around a little bit more but didn't get hold of him, so I texted him a city and headed south. He called as I was about to get on the interstate. Turns out it was a good thing that we got separated, he tried to call me and realized his phone was still at the hotel. That's why it took so long to hear from him. So we picked a city about 150 mi to the south and headed there separately. I was there about a half hour before he showed up so it worked out well. We decided we needed a better strategy for when there is no cell service (very soon), so I think we have worked that out.

We are both tired and decide to bag it here for the day in Acayucan. Our new Veracruz friends kept us up too late partying. There was a hooker that tried to get our attention towards the end of the night and when her list of what she was going to do to me got to massage, she had my attention for about half a second, but no, not happening. But I really could use a back massage.

14-Nov-2009

We left Huejutla for another 150 miles of winding roads in the mountains. We found out that yellow roads on the map means, potholes, some gravel, and many, many more speed bumps. Still good fun but by the end we are both ready for some interstate. That kind of riding proves that the bikes are tougher than the riders. I did have a minor problem with the bike now. My low beam bulb is burnt out, I don't know how many people I pissed off for bright lighting them by the time we got to Veracruz, but I am sure it was more than a few. The yellow roads also mean that tourists don't really ever get there. We were more than mildly interesting to some of the people we encountered. In one town, Benito Juarez, we busted through a road that was closed for construction, didn't see the sign, and came into the town square. Those people looked at us like we had just stepped off the mother ship from Mars. I guess we better get use to that, the more third world and remote we get, the more likely that reaction, I guess. We stopped for lunch a little roadside place and had everyone in town coming by to look at us. One teenager could speak English, the rest were just entertained by our presence. When one giggly girl asked if Nick was my Dad, I figured out she was flirting with me. They all watched us get ready to go and waved goodbye. Very cool.

We got to the ocean, actually the Gulf of Mexico, this afternoon. That felt like a big milestone. I'm over 2400 miles into this trip now. It seems unreal to me that I have only been gone 1 week. We have seen so much and had such a great time riding the bikes in this country.

Veracruz is a big city on the coast and very old. It was a Spanish port in the 1500's. We are going to try to ride around some of this city tomorrow. We spent the rest of the evening, and into the morning, hanging out in the Central Square. There were a huge number of people there and they didn't really thin out till about 2AM. We met some locals that could speak english and had a good time visiting them. I don't think they ever really believed our story and what we were doing.

What I haven't seen since I have been in Mexico. Taco Time, Taco Bell, Walmart, McDonalds, Starbucks, airplanes, other touring motorcycles(not one), Mexican brown rice(is that an American thing?), sombrero's, white women, black women, police(anywhere,except the cities. Although I did have to pay one off in Papantla, poor fella, needed lunch). What I miss on the above list. Mostly the women, yeah, thats about it.

On a sad note. And on Friday the 13th. Lucky Charlie, still living up to his name, has gone missing. We suspect that he saw some cute senorita and jumped off the bike. He is probably living with some nice Mexican family and drinking Mexican beer and tequila. Anyway that's what we hope LC is up to. I'll keep his glue spot on the bike in his honor. Hasta luego, Charlie, vivar la vida loca.

I think the problem with viewing the previous pics is solved. And thanks all for the suggestions to fix my email. All is well now.

13-Nov-2009 2166 Miles

It is only our 4th day in Mexico. That seems hard to believe. I feel like we have seen so much already and come so far. We are in this pretty busy, not so little, town of Huejutla De Reyes. I never heard of it before today. It is a great place with nice people and a cool 500 year old spanish mission. I haven't gotten any pictures of it yet because it was dark when we got here.

And what a day it was. We only covered 250 miles or so today but it feels like a lot more. The entire road from San Luis Potosi to here was tight twisty mountain roads that were just fun. We stopped for a few breaks and were just grinning from ear to ear at every stop. I cannot think of a place in the US that you could have this much fun on a motorcyle. At one stop, Nick asked me how many tickets I thought we might have accumulated today. I can't say, but it would have been several. Somewhere along the way, the whole climate changed drastically, from slightly desert mountains to suddenly tropical. We were riding under the canopy sometimes, out in the open others, it was great. The last 60 miles or so got kinda tough because we were tired and there was a lot of gravel on the road which slowed down our progress. I think I talked about the speed bumps before, well now they don't bother to post warnings or speed limit signs, just speed bumps. I think I've hit enough of them at 70 now to know that some are worse than others, from little bumps to a launch ramp that would make Evel Knevel proud. Fortunately the bike is tough, tougher than the rider. I hurt tonight. We didn't make it to the coast tonight because we decided to stay inland for these mountain roads. We will be on the Gulf Coast tomorrow for sure. We rode through Green River, MX(Rio Verde). It's not quite the same as our Green River, about the same population though.

I can't say enough about this part of Mexico we are seeing. It is so far removed from news stories, border towns or resorts. I don't see these people as poor in any way that matters. They are happy and seem to be living a good life.

The pic of Nick is Nick's roadside capuccino bar. LC was good today. He just kicked back and enjoyed the ride.

I'm having problems sending email. I can recieve them OK. Any ideas?

Where to start. Its been 3 days and it feels like a lot has happened. All good though.





10-Nov-2009

Left Texas about 6:30 am this morning to a cold foggy morning. Made it about 20 miles before the heated gear had to come out of the bag. Hate to be spoiled, but hey, I am. It was a much nicer ride after that. About 100 miles to the border. We had no problems at the border, Ojinaga, about a half hour and we were on our way. We made the correct turn out of Ojinaga but it wasn't long before I was thinking we were going the wrong way. Didn't really care though, we just kept going. After we finally came to a cross roads we figured out that we were on a road that wasn't on the map. Between poor road signs and poor maps this could get interesting. We probably went a couple of hours out of our way but really didn't care very much. The highways are good, some tollways, some federal highways. We are trying to be cheap and stay off the tollways, the other roads are more fun anyway but they are full of big trucks and very narrow. Our driving style is not quite as relaxed as it is in the states. This takes our full on attention. There are no shoulders and big droppoffs, so trucks passing each other leaves no where to go. It's just part of the challenge though and we adapt quickly. We make it about 400 miles to Cuidad(City) Jimenez. It is a very nice city, clean, safe, friendly. It is very far removed from what you would expect of Mexico if you've ever only visited the border towns or resort places. They were just friendly people going about their daily lives trying to get by. We were of mild interest but not much more than that. Let's see, what haven't I seen since we've been in Mexico. Other motocycles, airplanes, english speaking people, Walmart, or McDonalds. I could stand a Starbucks but haven't seen one of those either. The hotel is very accomodating. They let us put our bikes in the lobby, very cool.

11-Nov-2009 1803 Miles

We leave Jimenez City for points South and East. We made a lot of southing but much easting is to be done to get to SA. We cover another 400 miles today. It is very cool watching the scenary change. It is mountainous still and will be for a while, but the air is getting more humid and the plant life greener. We go up and down and roll through long wide valleys. The roads are getting to be just good fun. It appears that the speed limits are just recommendations as no one cares. When you come to towns though there are speed bumps at the beginning and ends. This is wierd cause you can be doing 70 on what is a 4 lane divided hiway and then have to slow quickly for speed bumps.

LC was complaining today cause there were no indians to fight. He wanted to fight a Mexican but I told him that he was way outnumbered and besides they were being very nice. (Except for one surly gas station attendant) I had to point out to him that with one arm and no hands, his fighting days were about over. He should be a lover not a fighter. Then he started complaining about how he missed some woman back home. After he whined about that for the forth time I told him he could go beat up the surly gas station attendant. That shut him up for a while. At least I have someone to talk to while going down the road.

The picture of the women is our Carnita Chicas. Just a roadside stop to have a coke and carnita. Nick is a little paranoid of the local food. Not me, I figure I am going to enjoy it till it makes me sick. So far so good. LC was in a better mood after visiting with the Carnita Chicas.

We stay at this town called Ojo Caliente, which is about 50 miles east of Zacatecas. We are frozen and stop at this little place. The best technique so far is to stop for a beer or dinner and get some local info before getting a room. This works mostly but tonight we should have got a room to give us a recommend for a bar. Nick blames me for my fine choices in establishments. This bar is about an 8x9 room. 4 old guys(yes, even older than me Megan) are playing dominoes in the corner. My spanish is all pro at order beer, after that it is downhill. Asked about a bano(bathroom) and he points to the corner of the room to what looks like a built in planter box. I decided I could wait. But we did communicate enough to get directions to a hotel. 18 bucks. Oh, yeah, the pic is me in high stress mode. I couldn't decide whether to have just coffee or a cappa.

12-Nov-2009

Whew, caught up. We take it easy today. It is cold in the morning, 38 degrees, the bikes are wet from the dew. We put on the heated gear and head out a little around 8. We don't go very far today. Just to the next fairly large town of San Luis Potosi. It is a University town and very busy. The driving is just nuts, traffic comes from everywhere all at once and goes everywhere all at once. Lanes?, we don' need no stinkin' lanes, Stop signs?, we don' need no stinkin' stop signs, Turn signal?, we don' need none a dat either. We stop here and do some work, relax and enjoy a beautiful 70 plus degree day. Tomorrow we will be getting close to if not to the east(gulf) coast of Mexico. Looking forward to seeing the ocean.

9-Nov-2009
Run for the Border Manana. No stopping at Taco Bell.

9-Nov-2009

I haven't exactly been traveling alone till now. I have my riding partner, One-armed Charlie. The Moab gang knows about Charlie. At that Moab Soiree before I left, some toy cowboys and indians came out and went into battle on top of a cake. I have no idea what brought this on, philosophical or religious differences, probably just the rum and wine. Anyway, it was decided by all involved that One-armed Charlie had to come with me. Well, Charlie rode in my pocket from Moab to El Paso, TX. I don't know what he was doing in there but he lost his other hand and gun. So now he is One-armed No-hands Charlie, I think I am just going to call him Lucky Charlie (LC for short). So, anyway, I fixed him up so he would have a better view. I don't know if LC is like my Saint Christopher, since I'm not Catholic, but it was a good thing he lost his gun. He got pretty mad when people were cutting in front of me through El Paso.
Got up and made some decisions today. We are rushing to get a few details done and head through Mexico tomorrow. Nick has to go to New York on the 21st and I want to be in Belize by then, so I can do some scuba diving while he is gone. 1800 miles or so to there so it shouldn't be too bad.

8-Nov-2009 1004 miles down

Made it to Alpine, TX today and hooked up with my Partner in Crime. It was great to see him again and he says hi to all the Redtail Gang. Met him and his friend at a little pizza/beer place in Marfa, TX. We rode the 30 miles or so to Alpine together after dark. His friend, Maribeth, has a BMW GS650 and they have been riding together for a few days. We are staying at her flower shop in Alpine. The bikes are in the middle of the store and my cot and sleeping bag are in the middle of the bikes. There were some fuzzy bunnies on the floor next to me so I had a snuggle partner.

This part of Texas is surprising to me. It is high desert mountain country. The mountains go up to over 9000 feet. I was expecting a different Texas, but I like it. The road I came in on was a little winding thing about wide enough for 2 bikes to meet. It was great.

8-Nov-2009

It is funny what you remember when you see something you haven't seen in a long time. I rode by a town called Carrizzozo, NM and remembered that I had been there before. It was shortly after I first got my pilots license. My first really big trip. I landed at Carrizzozo shortly after dark and was going to spend the night. Dark airport, no one around, no phone, no phone numbers. So I walked into town and found a little motel and checked in. About an hour later, someone knocked on my door. He wanted to know when I was leaving. I didn't think I had been in this town long enough to piss anyone off yet. Turns out that on Sunday's(the next day) they have drag races at the airstrip and he wanted me gone by 7 am. I complied and didn't interfere with the town event.

The Beginning

05-Nov-2009

My colleages had a little going away party for me in Price, UT this evening. Great fun. They are excited, a little concerned and glad to get rid of me for a while all at the same time. Thank you all, I could not possibly do this without all of you.

06-Nov-2009

Packed up and leaving Price at about 11 am. Said goodbye to Angie and Jen, they cried, I left. Thanks girls, that's so sweet. This doesn't really feel like the start of the trip yet as I have meetings and biz to take care of in Green River and Moab on the way. Some of my Moab friends and colleages put together a little party for me this evening in Moab. Thanks Shirley for hosting that. Great fun and crazy people. They assured me that they would continue to have parties "for me" while I was gone. I couldn't ask for more, Thanks. Said goodbye to Iris and Shirley, they cried too, I left. Thanks girls, so sweet.

07-Nov-2009

Spent the night at Kelly's house and got up early. Called in to the KSL Outdoors show for my 2 minutes of fame and hauled ass. This feels like the real deal. The stresses of the last few weeks melt away in the first few miles. It is an awesome feeling to depart on an adventure like this. Up until now this whole thing has been too large to comprehend. Now it is down to living mile by mile and enjoying the ride. I leave Moab on a beautiful, 60 degree fall morning, watching the red cliffs light up as the sun comes up from behind the LaSal mountains. As the miles roll by the landscape changes from the red rocks of Moab, to the Blue Mountains of Monticello, to the high farmland on the way to Cortez, to the deserts and lava fields of New Mexico. The bike rolled over to 10,000 miles as the last of a spectacular orange sunset faded away. I am in Las Cruces, NM tonight after covering about 600 miles. Should be an easy 250 miles to hook up with Lucas in Alpine, TX tomorrow. Trip miles 703.