RTW 2008-2015

The Great State of Texas Lynn, my wife, and I are both retired. We have decided that we would commence this rtw project in phases. She is a retired nurse. I retired from the Army, combination of active duty and national guard, and the Colorado District Court bench. We are two up on a 1000cc V Strom.

What a dayHI. We went across the border at McAllen. With the help of the police, I got to the right spot. By the time I saw Temporary Entry Permit station - I was by it. The border entry paperwork went well. Within an hour, we were on our way. We got there early (730 am).

Took 40 (D) to Monterrey and then around to Saltillo. Cost was around $40.00 US.

The Town on a Hill We left Saltillo at about 9 am. Almost beat the traffic. Found Hwy 54 (libre), and took it all the way to Zacatecas. The road was paved. However, the speed limit, at most, allowed 80 kph (50 mph), and we are in the desert.

Maybe we should have taken a airplane. One more word on Zacatecas. Friday and Saturday everyone parties until 4 or 5 am.
We arrived in Guanajuato, MX. Very beautiful colonial city. Primarly, we stayed on Hwy 45 (D).

Very colorful and active community. Chess anyone.

Running In The Jungle Arrived at Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico. Drove highway 180 to 186 to 199 MX. Cuotas ran about $50.00. It was hot and humid. Most cuota roads have some construction going on them. However, at times, you can do 110 kph (70mph)-but don't get use to it. Otherwise, the speeds are 45-50 mph or slower. Of course, no one abides by them. On the other hand, the federalas are out in force stopping people. So, I abided by them, unless I had someone running interference.

Love Potion #9 The trip from Puebla to Catemaca lasted 8 hours, even on the cuotas. We did use 150 (L) for awhile. The total distance was a mere 270 miles. We were stopped by the military and were directed to submit to an inspection. Initially, we were waived through, however, I guess the Sgt. in Charge needed some entertainment. After trying to get off, he waived us on and wished us a nice day.

Mountain High HI: We are in San Cristobal. It is Sunday. We took the long route. We got mixed reports about safety, for a single bike, on 199 MX. 199 MX is suppose to be a well maintained paved road. Not knowing what to do, we came back to Villahermosa and went south on 195. I would have rather taken 199 MX and probably should have.

MadhouseHI: We are in Acapulco (Apr 23,2008).

On the way from San Cristobal, we stayed in Bahias de Huatulco. We are using 190 MX and 200 MX. Huatulco is a very nice tourist resort. Nice room, quiet, and great pool-$70.00. It was an unintended stop. We intended to do 400 miles. That turned out to be unreasonable. It was a very curvey road from San Cristobal. After 325 miles, we quit.

HI: The last word on Acapulco is that it is noisy and crowded. We had a great hotel room, until night fell. Then the club across the street opened. The noise was so bad they had to move us. Ear plugs were useless. It went on until 4am. There is no comparison that one can make to the noise that was coming from the club. It literally shook the 22 story hotel.
The traffic, bumper to bumper, in the morning coming into Acapulco was 9 miles long on a two way street. They acknowledged that their streets are not up to par.

HI: We are on our 2nd day in Puerto Vallarta. We have an ocean front hotel room. Nice sea breeze.
Lots of good places to eat. We are going to a festival tonight. It is a dance program representing the different styles of Mexican music and dancing from around the country.
Tomorrow we are off to Matzalan.

HI. We just arrived in Matzalan. We rode the last of the free road (200 MX). We are now on 15D-MX. It was really nice to drive along at 65 mph for 200 miles. No topes and no villages every 3-5 kilometers. It was OK while it lasted, however, we wanted to make some time.
Matzalan is nice. We will be driving the ocean front road tomorrow. We have another ocean front hotel room in historic Matazalan.

HI:
We were without internet resources for several days.
On April 29, 2008, We left Matzalan for Los Mochis. Los Mochis is a large town and we did not do any sight seeing. We continued on 200 MX and 15 MX. Using more cuotas and making better time.
From Los Mochis to the US border the towns change in character. They are not like the interior of Mexico. We stayed at the Santa Anita Hotel. It was a very nice hotel. It also has services to Copper Canyon by rail.

October, 2008.
We have been back for 5 months. As anyone would feel, we were excited to return home. We enjoyed the shake down trip, and it was a needed learning experience. I have been around the world but not on a motorcycle. It makes a big difference. Cultural differences weren't the biggest challenge. My biggest concern was mechanical and electronic independence confidence.

Hi everyone. It was a quiet ride in 90 degree weather. We arrived in Mineral Wells, Texas, in time for church. We attended Our Lady of Lourdes. It was nice and cool, and they had Elvis, as background music, singing "There Will be Peace in the Valley."
The majestic and haunting Baker Hotel, built in 1929, controls the Mineral Wells skyline. Mineral Wells is west of Fort Worth, Texas.

We arrived in Corpus Christi today-September 28, 2009. On Sunday, we stayed in San Antonio. The ride to San Antonio was uneventful, 98 degrees, and very windy. On the way to San Antonio, we drove thru Johnson City, which is the home of LBJ.
From San Antonio we went to Corpus Christi. It was hot, humid and windy. We will be here for two days. We are on the beach resting. As you can see most of the people have left, However, a couple of birds kept us company. Tomorrow we will do alittle touring.

It is our last night in Corpus Christi. Had a nice fish dinner. We will head out at 830am tomorrow for Brownsville. We will be staying at the American Value Inn. Today, we visited the USS Lexington.

HI Everyone: Remember there will be times we can't commulnicate because of the small towns we are staying in. We crossed the border without any difficulty. It took about one hour and we were the only ones there.

It was very hot at 830 am (80s). I am carrying so much that I get confused as to what is legimate and what is fake (dummy wallet). Not paying sufficient attention, I gave the immigration officer my dummy credit card. When it was rejected, he acted as if that happened all the time. Within an hour, we were off.

Well it is time to catch up. Our access to the internet has been hit and miss. Remember we may not be able to update the blog as frequently as we want. However, family we will get one of you a message as frequently as we can. If we do that, update the others by email. On October 3rd, We were in Tampico. It is a large city on the Gulf of Mexico, about 350,000 people. We went to church. They were having a special mass celebrating a 15th birthday. Dad had money. She had a lock on looks. Her boyfriend had a 2009 427 Camaro. I got to have one.

We left Catamaco Lake, home for witch doctors, this morning for Villahermosa, a 200 mile ride. Larry, here we are having fun.

We linked up with Graham and Sue from England in Chetamul, MX. On October 12, 2009, we crossed into Belize. The crossing took about 1 hour. Everything was pretty straight forward. We arrive in Belize City, using the Northern Highway, about noon. The fun started. We decided to stay on a small island called Caye Caulker. Since you cannot take motorized vehicles, we had to find parking. We drove into the terminal with the bikes and then to the dock. The entry was at a 45 degree angle as was the exit to the dock. The length of the exit ramp was 2 l/2 feet before going into the ocean.

It is October 15, 2009, and we are in Coban, Guatemala. After leaving Belize, we went to the Guatemalan border and processed out. No big problems. We went to Tikal, Guatemala. It is a National Park of Mayan ruins. Tikal was the main political, social, military, and economic center for the Mayan civilizations during the classical period ( 700 AD).

Well, we have been in Antigua, Guatemala for a week. Sue and Graham have been taking Spanish classes while Lynn and I have been touring. Antigua was originally the Capital of Guatemala. Guatemala, prior to its independence from Spain in the 1800s, included southern Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
I couldn’t wait to see my first death cap. As you can see the live wires, it is exciting when you take a shower.

We left Antigua for Lake Atitlan, and some very nice people. Great breakfast, medical attention, and even made me a rice bag to heat my sore hip. After the shot wore off from the Obama health care plan, I was in real big pain for 3 days. Actually, I was in such pain we gave thoughts of returning home.

Well Marie, the Reiki healer, did an excellent job. However, the pain continued but at a significantly reduced rate. Therefore, I went to a hard working private doctor . She was supervising a bunch of US nurses working in the surrounding needy villages. So, I met her, in the dark, at her small office in a back alley. After an examination, she gave me a shot to reduce inflammation that was affecting nerves in my leg. The inflammation created nerve blockage. The shot was wicked. Before giving me the shot, she asked me if I wanted it in the arm or butt.

We have not had access to any WIFI for a while. We left Lake Attitlan and headed to El Salvador.

Traffic Guatemala style.

El Goat meets Zuki-El Burro.

Well we left Granada, NIC, for the beach at San Juan Del Sur, NIC, about 60 miles. It was a great ride. We are in a jungle lodge called Adventura Lodge.

Rosita is a pest. Watch out Sue, she bites.

Holy molly, skimming tree tops, and crocks and buzzards looking for dinner-IT’S COSTA RICA. We crossed the border into Costa Rica from Nicaragua without incident.

We ultimately made our way to La Fortuna near Arenal Volcano.
Arenal Valcano is majestic and still very active.

The Ridge of Death. We didn’t realize that CA-1 runs through the 4th ranked deadliest road in the world.

JIM WE ARE HERE!!!
Crossed into Panama. It rained all day. Remember that cow. Well, it was like there was a herd of them. We were advised that after we passed thru the Ridge of Death they had a landslide from the rain.
We drove all the way to Panama City in the rain. Graham got stopped by the police. He was doing 90 kmh in a 40 kmh school zone (55mph in a 25mph). I couldn’t believe the officer let him go. What a story teller he is. Luckily, I was behind far enough that the officer didn’t get me.

Well, we left Panama for Colombia. The bikes flew, like us, over the Darien Gap. Although Panama is connected to Columbia there isn’t a safe viable road connecting the two. This is known as the Darien Gap. Essentially, it is not safe territory.
Here are the bikes setting in the rain.

Here are a few interesting facts about Bogota the capital of Colombia. It was founded in 1538 by Spanish Conquistores. The average temperature is 55 degrees at an altitude of 8500 feet. This is no nonsense law enforcement in Bogota.

We went back to Church San Francisco to photograph the golden altar. However, mass was being said. Here is the side altar. The main altar is 3 times this size.

It has been an amazing and memorable journey. No, there are no issues of any kind. After 8 countries, 8000 miles, 16 borders, rain storms, heat, cold mountain passes, tough driving conditions, and wielding a 1200 pound loaded motorcycle, it's time to come home and rest. We want to have as much enjoyment going through South America as we did in Mexico and Central America. Therefore, we will finish South America a different time This activity requires 100% attention at all times under all types of unforgiving conditions. Zuki has enough battle scares.

We Left Perry, FL for Pensacola, FL. It rained to beat the band.

Well we are on our way to Dusseldorf, Germany. Lynn insisted on taking a picture of the aircraft taking off. I am sure we will connect up soon.

We left the safety of Stefan’s for the big journey. As I approached the turning point on my GPS, I saw a blur and then another. Holy Moley, those are cars on the famed autobahn. I was doing 75 mph and, at times, I felt like I was standing still. As one young man told me, he generally does around 105 mph. I just hid among the trucks. We arrived at Ansbach. It has a small military installation where I immediately received police attention. All I did was purchase gas on the base. Gas on the outside runs between $8 to $9.00 a gallon. On base it is only $4.00 a gallon.

Lynn check the map. We must be at Acapulco Bay, Fort Morgan!!!

No, it's near our hotel outside of Vienna. We drove 300 miles in rain and cold, and this is the first thing we saw.

Our first stop in Vienna was Saint Stephan’s Cathedral. The stone pulpit is from the 16th century. The front of the cathedral had measuring devices used to measure bread and cloth. The coloring you see in the photo was a natural production of the stained glass windows.

We walked Berlin for 8 solid hours. We visited the Fassbender and Rausch chocolate stored. They claim to be the largest chocolate store. They have been in business for 150 years. The Titanic, Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate are chocolate. They average 3 to 4 feet wide and 3 feet high.

We left Berlin for a small country town called Halsenbach. It was very quiet rural community.

We used it as a base to go to Boppard and Saint Goar. These are two popular towns on the Rhine. The first picture is the main square in Boppard. The second photo is a wall that was discovered while excavating for a new structure. The square looking items are tombs that are dated to 700 AD.

We made our way through Baden-Baden, Germany, on the way to Strasbourg, France.

Baden-Baden is a famous bath house resort.

We made it to Ripley for the Horizons Unlimited meeting. It is a meeting dedicated to world motorcycle travelers. Many of them have sold everything and just live out of their bikes as they circle the globe. They had a number of interesting classes. 90 percent of them were camping out in the rain. I chose to battled a queen bed and a 36 inch flat screen TV.

Bad internet service. We are currently in Fatima, Portugal. We arrived in Bergerac, France. It is the home of Cyrano de Bergerac. A fictional character. It was the dividing line between France and England during the 100 Years War. The dividing line was the River Dordogne.

This picture is not of Spain. We ran into it while walking up to the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. There was a display of forests throughout the world. This is of New Caledonia. My birthplace. Are you ready to go Renee?

We took a day off to tour Rota. It sets on the ocean and is a joint naval station with the Spanish and Americans. Rota was given as a gift, by the father of the bride, to his daughter when she married Ponce de Leon.

This one is for you, Stuart. We met a group of Italians, Austrians, and Swiss heading back home on the ferry from Barcelona, Spain.

Well, I haven’t been making timely entries. We left Italy and drove to Innsbruck, Austria, in the rain. It was cold but the Dolomites were beautiful.

This visit deserves a separate entry. We moved on to Normandy. This was a very sobering experience. A time to remember the sacrifices of many young Americans on June 6, 1944. The cemetery is immaculate, as it should be. There are over 9000 buried from Operation Overlord. There are over 1500 that could not be found that are also buried here.

We decided to stay in a chateau for the night. It was very nice and quiet. We used it as a base to visit Montendre, France.

Well, it is time to catch up. We have traveled through France and we are in Italy.
Our last stop was Carcassonne, France. It is a restored medieval city from the 12th century.

What can you say about Rome. It was a power for over 1000 years. From some small mountains and a swamp, it conquered and established an empire that surrounded the Mediterranean. Before entering the Forum, the conquered got to see the place that they may have to perform to their death - The Coliseum.

I didn't know what to expect at Assisi. As we approached Mt. Subasio in the Umbria region, you could see the walled town of Assisi.

It sets on the side of the mountains. The huge fort at the top saw several major bloody battles.

We made it to Venice. We are staying in a villa. We have been to Venice before, however, for Renee this was her first time.

We made the traditional trip through Saint Marks.