Made it home after 5 months and 23,300 miles of riding. Flew out of Buenos Aires with very mixed emotions. Glad to be getting back home and sad that an excellent adventure was coming to an end!OK, made it back home again and I am already into the old routines. It
feels good!!!

We were able to take some tours of the very nice snowcapped mountains
and the many glaciers around El Calafete.

As I said, I was also able to go trout fishing and had a little success.

Even though this area is very touristy I enjoyed the visit very much.

We left El Calafete on Jan 1st and headed northeast. The first part of the road was 120 miles of gravel. We never saw ONE car but we did see this....

A couple of 400 miles days and a couple of 500 mile days and we were in Buenos Aires. A very BIG town compared to what were used to. We found Dakar Motos with only a few wrong turns and enjoyed a couple of days visiting with all the other motorcycle travelers that had also found their way to the place.

I was able to get a city tour of BsAs that went to many different sections of the city. One of the coolest sections was the Caminito section where the Tango was
born. I even managed to get in a few steps with one of the many dancers
that "hang out" in the area! :=)

My flight out was on Jan 8th and it was with very mixed emotions that I headed out to the airport. Glad to be going home (I REALLY missed Julia), and sad that a very great adventure was coming to a close. I did have a LOT of time on the plane to do some planning for the next one though. I think a circumnavigation
(or at least as much as can be done) of Australia would probably also be
a great adventure. Stay tuned!! ;=}

Many people have asked me why I decided to do this kind of ride. I tell them that I wanted to see some more of the world, visit some of those places that I had only read about, and meet people from other cultures. I tell them that because that is what I think they want to hear. The REAL reason for the trip as "BRAGGIN RIGHTS" :=) I figure when I am sitting around the rest home with all the other old curmudgeons, I can start to talk about "back in ought 6 when I rode my motorcycle from Prudhoe Bay to the tip of South America" it will be pretty hard for most of them to top that! :=) There are some more pictures starting here RickMcD.smugmug.com/gallery/1920143/40/122370364
(yes, there are a lot of me at the End of the World. I was trying to get a good one that I can frame for my cubby hole at the rest home) :=)

In case you were curious, I rode 23,300 miles from my home up to Alaska,
down to Ushuaia and then back up to Buenos Aires in about 5 months time
(btw, I am standing up while I type this).

Thanks for tagging along. I hope we get to take some more adventures together!!
Rick