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.
