Twisted Edge Adventures

Boosterplug Smooths it...

2010-06-17T18:59:00.000-07:00

I just want to share my experience coping with and finally smoothing a rough running engine in my 2007 R1200GSA…

I bought the bike new, it now has 30K+ miles on it. From day one this has simply been a rough running R1200 (love the bike regardless!). I have owned two other straight GS’s and my keeper bike naturally has to be the one with the rough at idle engine and especially at low speed and low rpm – difficult to ride and shift smoothly when slow. Again, I’ve ridden several other bikes with the same engine and know what smooth feels like, my bike has never been it.

I’ve tried everything, multiple tunes, valve adjustments, computer tweaking at the dealer… it’s just always been rough and I basically conceded to some sort of a balance problem. Then I started reading about Boosterplug (Boosterplug.com), and other makes of similar products, that adjust the temperature of the intake air downward in order to fool the bike into believing that the OAT is cooler than it actually is. This tricks the fuel controller into producing a richer mixture.

I was hesitant to try it, and then I really took a good look down into my exhaust and could see that there was absolutely no black residue at all, it was obviously burning very hot. This is where I should jump in and tell you that I am a now retired professional pilot and in the piston days spent many hours out of sheer boredom (and occasional necessity) playing with and adjusting mixture. In the reciprocating engine airplane world the accepted practice is to lean to peak EGT (Exhaust Gas Tempurature – approximately peak RPM), and then RICHEN slightly off peak. There are some guys who will LEAN off peak slightly believing that they get better fuel burn and a cleaner engine, but they are in the minority and almost no credible source teaches that (these are also horizontally opposed engines).

At any rate, after reading a couple threads on ADV (ADV Forum - Boosterplug, ADV Forum 2), and especially reading Jen’s remarks at the end of the second link, I decided to take a chance and try it. The plug arrived in very timely fashion considering it came from overseas with no problem, and when I took it out could tell it was very well made and heavy duty. I took off the bike’s left side cover, unplugged the OAT sensor coming from the airbox, plugged in the Boosterplug, plugged the airbox feed into the receptacle, and laid the new OAT sensor alongside the rear side of the tank. Total install was less than 5 minutes, only needed a couple of ties to make it real pretty.

I had read that it sometimes takes 3 engine cycles before the bike’s computer begins to process the inputs properly, but I noticed the difference on the first start and ride. First of all, the engine turns over once and is running, not 2 seconds later, it fires right now! Then idle is stable and MUCH smoother. Slow speed riding has no surges and shifting is way smoother. The bike still accelerates the same, and on high rpm decelerations does not pop and spit near as much as it used to. Overall the bike instantly felt as if I had installed a new engine.

But I hadn’t run it in any warm weather until this weekend. Saturday I rode my wife over to Yakima (87 degrees) via Chinook Pass (50 degrees). Our destination was Los Hernandez Authentic Tamales… a hole in the wall with the BEST tamales I have ever had, the pork as well as asparagus & pepperjack cheese were delicious and worth the ride:

She had no idea I had installed it, and as we were eating Connie remarked that “the bike seems way smoother!” That said it all – and I have spent hundreds tuning and primping never getting measurable improvement.

I checked mileage and it was the same 40 mpg exactly that I always get. The bottom line is I think the bike was running way too lean and this has radically changed its character to the better – well worth it, and it came after I had given up hope for smoothness.

Reading around this seems to be very common with this vintage engine, and not just the 1200. If you are having some of the same symptoms (like engine surging just above idle in low gears), you might want to look into it. I’m sure the dealer may have a problem with it warranty wise and I’m sure the South Sound guys can chime in on that. All I can say is that I don’t often endorse products and I get nothing for reporting on this other than the pleasure of hopefully helping out someone with the same frustration. Install was simply plug and play.

Cheers,

Nate

A Video From Houston

2010-03-04T19:44:00.000-08:00

I'm back hanging at SheepShaggers while we count down the days to head back into Mexico.

As is typical, we don't know where we're going, so I'm not going to try to predict, here. But in the meantime, for anyone who's curious about riding in and around Houston, here's another video I put together with me following Sheepshagger around. I hope you enjoy.

I'll be back on this RR when we hit Mexico in a few days, so if you are still interested, don't kill your subscription yet!

DayRideWithSheepShagger3 from Arno Jones on Vimeo.

Heading Back - The Ride Through Guatemala and Mexico

2010-02-19T04:30:00.000-08:00

Forces have conspired together to force me to act like a responsible adult. In particular there's one government entity that hasn't been pleased with my travels, plus, I've simply underestimated what the cost of a trip to South America would be. So, with a heavy heart, I turned the Spec Ops bike northward to Texas.

The road through and out of the jungle in northern Guatemala. I'm heading east toward the town of Naranja, where there's a brand new border crossing into Mexico. It's shown only on the 2010 Roji Guia maps.

This is kind of common in this region - that the jungle has been cleared in order to raise cattle. Of course this is sparking a lot of controversy and there are a lot of people who say raising cattle here will fail, too.

[[IMG]]http://drrags.smugmug.com/Other/HomeThruMexico/P1010334/791708929_o9ut4-L.jpg[/[IMG]]

[[IMG]]http://drrags.smugmug.com/Other/HomeThruMexico/P1010335/791709327_Kagv9-L.jpg[/[IMG]]

At the Mexico side of the Guatemalan and Mexican border. Brand new. They got angry at me for taking pictures

Past the border heading to Villahermosa:

I took the cuota caraterra all the way to Texas and managed to get from Guatemala to the Texas border in only two days. That probably cost me over $200US to do though.

Rising out of the foggy, wet jungle into the central highlands of central Mexico, heading for Mexico City:

This climb when on for a long time. It is an excellent, high-speed, twisty road.

This is the brand new Mexico City bypass. Once again, a great road found only on the 2010 version of the Roji Guia map (the 2009 version does show this road being constructed though). For the first time though, I broke out my electric jacket. It was cold the whole way to Texas. Anyway, you can pick it up at KM 195 just before Texmelucan and follow the signs to Queretaro.

I hit Quero two hours past dark, searching for a hotel. The hotels on the cuota are expensive! I kept searching, not knowing where I'm at. I'm tired and cold. Finally I find a motel that turns out to be an auto-hotel. $260p/night and they are great rooms. I swear, that's the only way to travel. Super clean, room service, a garage, big tv, etc. Did I mention relatively cheap?

Just before you get to Monterey, I took Hwy 31 to Linares. I did it to avoid paying any more toll, and that turned out to be fortunate. The scenary was unexpected and astonishing. Highly recommended. I didn't get all the pictures of this area I should have.

I made it to the Los Indios border in time, but I couldn't find my visitors pass. It turned out to be in my traveling pouch all along, but I just didn't see it. I checked myself out of Mexico no problem, but by the time I got done with this, the border had closed and I couldn't check my bike out. So... I took a room at the hotel at the border for the night. Quite possibly the most miserable room I've ever stayed in.

Well... that's all folks. I'm in Houston and this trip is over. From here I'll look for work, and if I have my way, I'll pick up where I left off next year.

BTW, thank you VERY much to all the folks that clicked the ads on my blog. It was worth over $200 and very much appreciated.

Last of the Photos from Tikal

2010-02-19T03:26:00.000-08:00

Most of the pyramids have you climb these kind of stairs instead of the treacherous stone steps. The stone steps are narrow and steep. If you fall, you fall all the way to the bottom. This is better.

Yes, there are still more pyramids...

The view from the top of the pyramid:

This is about a 90 degree panorama:

There's no mistaking that you're in the jungle...

It was a long climb...

Another tiny pyramid

And finally, some creepy bugs doing the nasty. For scale, they are about 4 inches long.

Thus endeth the photo-journey through Tikal. I hope you enjoyed them.

Pyramids on Tikal

2010-02-19T03:24:00.000-08:00

And then... something gigantus in the distance

No, it's only a little shrimpy pyramid, only twice as tall as I am

Since you're deep in the jungle, you don't really appreciate just how large this place is. I started to realize this when we came upon the courtyard. Here, we're in the center of things.

Imagine being King and looking down on all the peons below, wondering who's head you're going to lop off.

The structures that we've seen so far are actually built upon older ruins. At one time archeologist's were dicking around and the floor caved in under them. Instead of getting in trouble for grab-assing, they were honored for discovering new stuff. Here's a big face in the wall. Probably some important (and ugly) guy. I'll bet it scared the crap out of the grab-assers.

Another pre-ruin ruin.

More Photos Inside Tikal

2010-02-19T03:22:00.000-08:00

Some unrestored blocks. To the left is a still as-of-yet unrecovered pyramid.

The gang in front of a hut covering some more blocks.

Another secret to be discovered one of these days. There are still many still-covered mounds, but it will take many more years to see what's all there.

And then...

I'm glad I brought my tripod

An apartment complex. The walls are thick enough to where I think the neighbors could play their stereo pretty loud and not bother anyone.

Inside Tikal - the Start of the Tour

2010-02-19T03:20:00.000-08:00

I went in with some other people and hired a guide. My part was Q100 ~ $12.00US.

The tour starts off a little slow, but picks up the pace...

First, pics of signs

A gum tree. At one time all the chewing gum came from these trees, but now it's all artificial.

This is a spiritual tree. The branches support the heavens. The roots, which I forgot to take a picture of, look rather similar. And they represent supporting the earth.

I brightened up this shot so you could see the branches.

I like monkeys

Some blocks. I forget what they're all about. Sorry.

Debajo:

Encima:

Some kind of ceremonial gathering place. When all of this was described to me, I thought "yeah, I can remember all of this..."

A lot of these blocks were pushed over. During the reconstruction they were cemented back together. Here you can see a relief of a chief dude.

Creepy looking turkeys:

And shiny, too!

A toucan.

Getting into Tikal

2010-02-19T03:12:00.000-08:00

First off, this pic is a good depiction of how I felt on that leg of the journey. A little self-indulgent, but wtf

Into the jungle I go:

With lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Drive/ride all the way into the park itself:

Ah yes, the dental work

2010-02-11T05:13:00.000-08:00

First, a picture of my classroom where I spent about two months That's my maestro, Byron.

The receptionist who always had a smile for me:

My Dentist - always busy. He probably works 14 hours a day.

The A Team

That's a mouthful of new crowns!

My Dentists parking spot

Yup, so far I'm happy with my new teeth. It took a little bit to get used to but it's all good now.

Mas Fotos

2010-02-11T05:11:00.000-08:00

Casa de Don David. Probably the place to stay. I stayed at a nice hotel, but it was a horse hotel (lots of horses). I forgot that where there's horses, there's lots of flys.

There's the lake out there, but it's washed out in this pic.

Ahhh... mi moto...

Main road, but you still need to cross this river on the ferry.

I got this sticker...

From these folks

More Pics of the Tikal Area

2010-02-11T05:09:00.000-08:00

But I have to wait until I get better upload speeds before I can upload the pics of the ruins themselves.

The view in front of my hotel:

The Road to Coban/Tikal

2010-02-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

Bandwidth is limited today - let's see what I can get away with.

This is the road to Coban. The road just... ended.

This is the detour:

And some random pics of the area:

Moonrise over Xela

2010-01-31T19:48:00.001-08:00

I don't know which one I like best so I'm just gonna put them both up

Ok, You Guys Asked for it!

2010-01-31T19:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, you guys asked for it...

So... for the last few days I've had a low-grade fever and slight nausea. No diarrhea or anything else. It was starting to take the life out of me, so I described it to my teacher in case he recognized the symptoms. He didn't, but he told the dueña. She gave me some tea that she said would help. It seemed to, but the next day (today) I felt like crap and had yet another fever.

So, back at school I tell the dueña again and she gives me a little cup and tells me to poop in the cup and take it to the sanitarium for analysis. Ha ha, when was the last time you had to poop in a cup?

So I sashay on down to the local sanatorium with a cup full of poop. This is not in my vocabulary yet. To say that I was unsure of what exactly I was doing is an understatement. Well, the sanitarium girl took my cup of poop like it was an everyday occurance, and I guess it is for her, and charged me Q15 (what, $1.05?) for the analysis.

Well, I guess either the thing I had ran its course, or the tea worked, because the analysis came back negative and I felt better afterwards Another mini-adventure...

(no, I didn't take any other pictures, this will have to do, ok? )

Just Some Random Pics of People

2010-01-31T19:27:00.000-08:00

Here are just some pics I've taken.

I whipped out my camera as this guy was just waking up.

It's a lot of motorcycle for either a 125 or a 250:

I'm not the only one taking pics...

La Policia - still riding 250's

Just a couple of pics

2010-01-22T14:27:00.000-08:00

I took today. I remembered my camera

This is actually quite common - guys passed out on the sidewalk. It gets below freezing here at night and I wonder why these guys don't die of hypothermia

My X-Ray tech:

That's it! Nothing new, still going to school and going to the dentist.

The Dentist

2010-01-12T09:47:00.000-08:00

Today was Day 1 of my grueling month-long dental procedure. So far, so good. I am happy and confident with my dentist so far.

It's the white building on the right:

The reception area. I was here first thing this morning, so there is no crush of people.

I always ask to take a picture, and most of the time the folks say yes, but when the camera comes out, everyone scatters. Here they are, caught in the act of running away. I was too quick for them today

The one and only chair:

Ok, when was the last time you saw a dental patient in a ride report?

lol, yes, that's me. Xela is at about 8,000 feet and the temps range from 0 to 20C, but nothing has heat. That bigass wool chumpa is permantly attached to me.

Main Road from Xela to Guatemala City

2010-01-12T09:34:00.000-08:00

This is just a sample of the road system that will take you through Guatemala. It's most excellent, but you still have to remain ever vigilant.
The altitude on this sample ranges from 8,000 to 10,000 feet.

You asked for it, so I hope you enjoy!

GuatemalanRoadsSample from Arno Jones on Vimeo.

Riding Down the Hill to San Pedro Video

2010-01-10T20:50:00.001-08:00

Here's a sample of the road to San Pedro.

SanPedroRoads from Arno Jones on Vimeo.

Wiring in San Pedro

2010-01-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you need to run a wire or a cable into your establishment?

Why, just make a hole where you need it!

Some random pics of the crossroad that's called San Pedro.

A Laid Back Weekend in San Pedro

2010-01-09T14:58:00.000-08:00

Crashmaster and I boogied over to San Pedro today. San Pedro is on the other side of Lago Atitlán from Panajachel. It is way more laid back than Panajachel. There are a lot of hippies here and the things that go with them Very mellow.

The view going down the mountain side to San Pedro:

Entering town:

Of course, riding a bike down a treacherous, twisty road is a lot of work and can tire you out easily

Dental Recuperation

2010-01-09T14:55:00.000-08:00

Originally Posted by Blakebird

Spend every afternoon recuperating from your day in the dental chair with cocktails overlooking Lake Atitlan and post pictures.

You mean like this?

Of Dentists and Fly Fishing

2010-01-09T06:39:00.000-08:00

Snafu? Do tell.

FYI - all the ads that came up this morning are dental offices here in Atlanta. Now, if you would write about hiring a flyfishing guide, I could click on some ads for good guides down there.

Google is pretty smart ya know. Are you sure you don't need to go to the dentist?

Ok, so you're interested in Fly Fishing. Let's give it a shot. I'll post this in the blog and lets see what kind of ads pop up for flyfishing and guides.

Experience the Country You Are In

2010-01-07T18:07:00.000-08:00

I've been in Guatemala for about a month now, and I'm starting to understand the culture. There's no better way to experience it than living it.

Well, I'm experiencing a new aspect of it now. Today I got to experience finding a dentist, or more specifically, an orthodontist. Then I got to experience checking in, and listening for my name in a crowded waiting room reminiscent of some 50's movie; all the while hoping that I checked in properly and that my name will be called. Then, I got to experience describing my symptoms to the dentist. Then, I got to experience trekking across town to find the x-ray place to get x-rays.

Things that we take for granted in our home country are a new mini-adventure when you're a weirdo from another planet. But, in spite of towering over the 5 foot tall populace, the people here are super-friendly and go out of their way to help me, all the while, all of us always laughing at my rotten Spanish and Tarzan sentence structure.

So... I signed up to have some major dental work done. Something that would cost me $25,000 in the US (actual quotes) is going to cost me $2,500 here. It will take about a month to knock it all out, so, it looks like I'm going to be here another month at least. Yeah, it will cut my trip short, but this is something I've wanted/needed to do for years and I think the trade-off is worth it. I'm kind of excited about it. (who the hell could be excited about seeing the dentist?)

Don't lose hope dear readers. I'm sure something exciting will happen in the next month to keep your eyes glued to this ride report. I'll at least remember to bring my camera and take some pics of the dentists office

Not Much Going on Today

2010-01-06T20:13:00.001-08:00

Not much going on today. I rode down to Esquintla to meet Daniel. This is Lake Atitán (5,000 ft) from a point at about 9,000 feet or so. It was cold and cloudy up this high.

A Nice Sunset Over Panajachel

2010-01-06T20:11:00.000-08:00

A very nice sunset over the lake tonight. Volcano, lake, sunset, warm weather, el drinko. What more could someone ask for?

I am OK

2009-12-26T19:46:00.000-08:00

Nope, nothing but torn up gear and a booboo on my knee.

And yes, people pointed and laughed at me. I distinctly heard one guy say "boots and shorts, something" while laughing. Something was probably "dork". Us trend setters never get a break.

2009-12-26T19:43:00.000-08:00

Wild at Heart crashbars. I have tested them and they get an A+

Yanked that subframe bolt clean out. I didn't think that was possible. One of the bystanders found the bolt in the road.

Caribou cases take a beating but stay intact (the leaves are from me parking too close to a bush).

The luggage rack.

Footpeg still works

I can't repeat it enough, I HATE the kickstand and centerstand on the F800GS. Both have caused me many problems over the time I've had this bike with its lack of clearance.

Crash Test Dummies Unite!

2009-12-26T19:40:00.000-08:00

Crash Test Dummy from Arno Jones on Vimeo.

More to come, but I ain't wasting daylight hours taking the bike apart.

Thoughts

2009-12-21T15:23:00.000-08:00

After a lifetime of hustling to work, appointments, meals, etc, it's hard to shake off the efficiency and time-management stuff that so many of us are accustomed to. When I first left the US for south of the border, it was combat mode to get somewhere. Where? I don't know, but I felt I had to be moving. I had/have no place to go and I can take as long as I need to get there. It sounds easy, but our culture is ingrained in us and hard to shake off. A lot harder than you might think. When I first planned this trip there was no way I ever considered staying in one place more than three days. I had a goal of Tierra del Fuego. My paradigm has shifted now though. For example, if I end up staying in Guatemala until my money runs out and make it no further than here, well... so be it. I won't feel like I cheated myself or anything.

When I was planning my trip south, I had many friends, who'd never been out of the country, warn me, "man, those Mexicans will kill you! Are you sure you want to go?" In Mexico I met people who told me that the Guatemalans will cut my throat just as soon as look at me, and probably right away at the border, too! Indeed, I was apprehensive about it because part of me listened. And even locally, people will tell you "those people in the next villiage are a hateful bunch and will probably kill you." It's never worked out like any of that so far. I've had nothing but positive experiences in Mexico and nothing but positive experiences in Guatemala. If anything, the Guatemalans are even more kind, generous and hospitible. So far I have not had a situation where I felt uneasy or even unsafe. Thats not to say there aren't areas where I wouldn't want to be in, that's for sure, but it's like any other city. Tucson is a safe city for example, but if I want to get myself in trouble or even killed, I could get it done in a short drive from my old house. I reckon that applies to any city in the world. All it takes is a little common sense.

So yeah, settling into a city or town for a bit is pretty cool and you definitely feel like you can explore more. Today for example, I was smoking a cigarette outside the school and I saw two women stirring and pouring some kind of liquid between two pots. If I were just blowing through a city or something I may not have taken any time to investigate. Today however, I walked up the them and asked (in my Tarzan Spanish) "Hey, what are you guys doing and what is that?" I learned that it's some kind of drink that consists of pulverized corn, a little milk, some water and some other stuff. Sugar is optional. They offered me a cup after explaining it, and when I asked how much, everybody is telling at me that it's nothing, it's on them, don't worry, etc. You have to laugh. Awesome. I asked if I could take a picture and all of them said of course, but you'll notice the two Mayan's turned their back

But yeah, great, hospitible, friendly, gentle, etc. Actually, one of my favorite pasttimes when I go walking down the street is to see someone who looks especially serious, and as I get close I go "buenos dios!" and watch their face light up as they return the greeting.

Oh, and finally, how I find a spot? Well, it's hit or miss in the beginning. What I did was go straight to El Centro and just rent the first hotel I see. It gets me off the crowded streets and allows me to relax and orient myself. I spend that afternoon walking around looking for hotels. I go in and ask:

Do you have hot water?
Do you have internet?
Do you have a secure place to park my bike?

After that they will offer to show you the rooms. If I like it I say I'll be back the next day. I got lucky here in Xela though because this casa was recommended by athensugadawg. It was in an area I wouldn't have explored. It's super nice here and super cheap.

It's awesome here.

Random Pictures of the Day

2009-12-20T08:54:00.000-08:00

It rained hard all night last night and now it is an overcast Sunday.

I decided to take a walk to the town center just to see what's going on and to maybe buy a spatula. It turned out that not much was open today. The city was fairly deserted and quiet.

Even the indigenous get cold and wet.

What?! The little girl is cheating!

Even the birds are chillin' today

I bought one of those hippie bags.

Everyone's got a tarp up this morning.

I wish these were the bikes stateside cops rode

Faces at the Market

2009-12-18T14:44:00.000-08:00

Our escape chickenbus. Everything goes. Usually this happens at speed. This guy was lucky we weren't moving.

I didn't have as good a seat for the ride back. We were in snarled traffic for well over an hour. Everybody beeping their airhorns and making no progress. I couldn't figure out why it was taking so long to get out of this little city, especially compared to how long it took to come in. After an hour I realized that we had circled the city first to pick up the maximum number of passengers. It was misery, but at least I had a seat

Bugs Bunny - I'm a long way from Albuquerque!

Yes, Still at the Market at San Francisco de Alto

2009-12-18T14:42:00.000-08:00

You name it, it was for sale here.

Yes, this is my Spanish teacher - Nacho Libre!

Lunch time

Cooked on the spot on wood fired stoves. As is typical for the region, there are no chimney's or exhaust of any kind. You do not need to smoke in Guatemala to get a lung full of smoke, no matter where you go.

This time taken with a flash for a better sense of the amount of smoke going on here.

More sardine-packedness:

Next up, the faces.

Still at the Market at San Francisco de Alto

2009-12-18T14:40:00.000-08:00

Believe me, this is not even a tenth of the market. It is massive and chaotic.

Dorkus Malorkus

There's always that one guy... Everybody questioned why I took the pic.

Coming up, the livestock part of the market.

At the Market at San Francisco de Alto

2009-12-18T14:37:00.000-08:00

I have never been in such a press of people. The aisles are obviously packed and going is slow, but that doesn't stop the woman with bananas on her head behind you from pushing, shoving, and poking you in the back trying to get through. I learned quickly to be like a brick wall.

We stopped off in the church at the top of the hill.

Inside the church courtyard. This was the first chance I had to breath. Q10 entry fee ($1.20).

Doorway to the tiniest, tightest spiral staircase I've ever been on.

On the roof of the church. I guess only us rich touristas could afford the entry fee

Coming up, more market pics.

A Day of Chaos at the Market

2009-12-18T13:39:00.000-08:00

My Spanish class's activity for today was to go out to San Francisco de Alto to the huge market they have out there. I figured the market would be interesting, but I was most interested in going out there on the Chickenbus. "You don't say 'pollobus'?" Nope, you actually say "Chickenbus". Awesome.

Walking to the chickenbus:

Getting on the chickenbus

Out driver kind of seemed like he was recovering from a night of crack or something. He was kind of spastic and jerky. Our bus had a fine sound system and our driver made sure that we could hear every note that was played.

Mi profesor:

This is only a small sign of the chaos to come:

WATCH OUT COWS, THIS IS A CHICKENBUS!

Yes, out driver decided he didn't want to wait in traffic, so he went up the oncoming traffic lane and forced his way back in at the end.

Next stop, at the market.

Walking Around Town Tonight

2009-12-12T20:36:00.001-08:00

The main square is a madhouse with people jammed in all over the place, listening to the bands, seeing the vendors, getting into the church, etc.

One of the things I've tried and failed to get a picture of, are that the parents dress their little kids up and put them into a religious scene and take their picture. It's really very cute, but every time I snap a pic I get some mean looks, so I try to be surreptitious about it, but it ruins the shot. I'll try again tomorrow

2009-12-12T16:30:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the kind words on the video. I have hours and hours and hours and when I go through it I think "nobody's going to like any of this crap" so I try to pick some kind of theme. Eh, I dunno

I payd 4 2 weeks of skool , but I'm listening to some of the students here who just blow me away and they've been here for only 4, 5 and 6 weeks. So, I'll do my two and the probably another two and probably at the same place. But the place is pretty amazing. A girl from Germany, a guy from France, an Asian, the US, etc, and we're all trying to communicate with the only real common language; español, with random words from out native tongue thrown in. In having a conversation with the German girl for example, it's common for all three languages to be used in each and every sentence. It's a crackup. Yeah, I'm liking this place

I hear you on not speaking español with the cops. I won't forget how to butcher the language, for sure.

Cool, thanks for the offer, Gringacho

The view from the top of the school building, looking across to the center of town:

The student body and faculty

Señor Dorkus Malorkus himself

This is pretty much where my bike will live for the next two weeks. No need to ride, here.

another pic of the campus

Here, I'm standing in front of the school, looking back across town. The Esso station is a landmark.

And this is the actual school from the street.

This is a picture, for those that haven't been keeping up.

First thing in the morning, looking across town.

Just a short video of stuff

2009-12-12T16:24:00.000-08:00

in the road. Maybe the music will save the video again

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Things that get in the way from Arno Jones on Vimeo.

Xela, Guatemala

2009-12-12T16:21:00.000-08:00

I'm now in Xela, Guatemala looking for a Spanish School. I'll hunker down here for a little while, so there won't be much more added to this RR for a bit. Patience, my minions

I'm at the Hotel America. It's right off the main square. I got it because it had secure parking, but otherwise I don't care for it. I walked by a much nicer place later called Hotel Real Virginia. I'll try to give the coords when I get to the GPS. Sweet rooms, secure parking, internet, hot water. Q125/night. 11 Avinida 8-11 Zona 1. Quetzaltenango.

Xela is actually a pretty cool place. I see the occasional gringo, but that is it. There are hardly any vendors and otherwise seems like a larger, more modern version of Antigua. I think I like it here so far.

It looks like I'm going to CBA Spanish Language School, 12 Avenida 8-21, Zona 1. I was fairly impressed with the tour of the place.

That's all I can think of for now. I know, not very exciting.

Just a few more people I've met

2009-12-12T16:20:00.000-08:00

Cutie Carmen, who taught me some Spanish

and David from Moto Cafe:

My dodgy street amigos

Oh, did I forget the Isreali girl from the other night?

No idea what kind of bike this is. There are all kinds of cool smaller bikes around here. 99% of which I've never seen in the United States.

Nuestros Amigos

2009-12-12T16:16:00.000-08:00

Whats up!!!! Arno nice meeting you last night !!! was great what a coincidence !!! well we ride OK Antigua to the city is great night road in this time of the year we ride it twice a week late at night Antigua is a great place to go (only 45KM from the city ) and grab a bite and have a beer , well nice that we find you there let me know if Kevin and Jeff want me to take them to Honduras on Friday you can come along I will take you guys back roads all paved and nice views and great ride let me know if you guys are on so we can arranged !!!!! regards !!!!!

What's happening, Guateadventure!

It was great meeting and talking with you guys last night. Too bad the cops ran us all off and you had to go back. We could have talked all night

Pics Stolen from Kevin's Camera

2009-12-12T16:15:00.000-08:00

More News from Panajachel

2009-12-12T16:13:00.002-08:00

Got up this morning, dressed and ready to head out to Antigua when we heard that Frito Bandito's body was still in the square, so I headed on up to take a look. I was too late as they were already cleaning up. If you look closely you can still see the glass on the ground and garbage from where they tried to break into the police headquarters. I got separated from the rest of the guys though and missed taking my own pics of the burned out cars though. Those will eventually show up on Mototrex's RR though.

I'm in Antigua now and surprisingly, nobody here has heard of what went on down there.

For those that can read Spanish:

Tried to sneak a photo but in the end just simply asked. They had no problem with it

Same here:

Police headquarters. See the broken out windows?

BTW, something similar has happened last week in San Marcos. Someone shot a bus driver and they burned 4 people to death.

Shot of the Day

2009-12-12T16:13:00.001-08:00

Atitán lLake Tour

2009-12-12T16:09:00.000-08:00

We were going to head to Antigue today, but one of us had the drizzlin' shits from eating a super-hot chili last night, so we decided to hang around a bit.

Here are some pics:

Looking north. Even though the map only shows a few towns around the lake, it's actually populated most of the way around.

Some ADV walking

A model of the lake:

The 25 cent piece is modeled from the people from here.

¡Breaking News from Panajachel!

2009-12-06T20:31:00.000-08:00

We spent the day on a lake tour and while we were gone, the townspeople burned one man alive and tried to burn 3 more. We tried to get up there but the people around us told us to stay here because the military are up there throwing CS bombs in an attempt to disperse the crowd.

Apparently there were 4 people who were attempting to extort local businesses for monthly payout in exchance for letting them live. Typical Mafia-style extortion. The problem is, the indigious people here don't put up with that crap and take matters into their own hands.

The criminals were caught and the people poured gasoline on one person, the leader, and set him on fire. After he was finished being a Frito Bandito, they turned to the other three. At this time the police came in to disperse the crowd and get the last three. The rumour going around at this moment is that the police and especially the police chief are in on it (the locals label the police here as corrupt). Because of that the Army is coming in to take control.

Sadly, the only photographic evidence I have is the picture of the helicopter

Random Pics from Last Night

2009-12-06T20:25:00.001-08:00

We went to a disco last night

Mototrex gettin' down!

Pretty cheap to live in this wonderful place.

Some folks just can't handle it

Where I've called home for the last two days

2009-12-06T20:22:00.000-08:00

The proprietress' son. He's going to go on to do great things someday.

Out proprietress. A real sweetheart and speaks good english too!

Some More Random Pics

2009-12-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

Family dinner time on the rooftop. Cool.

I think these guys said they were from Costa Rica. I forgot Just when I thought my Spanish was starting to jam, I could barely understand a word these guys were saying. Guatemalans seem to speak very clearly and slow enough to understand easily.

Ok, this pic was 10 Quetzles, but as Jeff was snapping this pic, Kevin tried to sneak one in himself. As you can see, he was busted. She got her 10 Quetzles from him, too

Everyone here knows how to carry a load on their head. I got this shot off a little too late. Most that I saw were carrying goods, this was the only one I saw carrying fruit.

Mo Pics from Lake Atitlan

2009-12-06T20:18:00.002-08:00

What a way to end the day and start the night

Getting to the Guatemala Border

2009-12-06T20:18:00.001-08:00

Kevin and I were sitting around this morning talking about the border and how confusing it could have been.

For anyone coming down this way, my advice is to follow the traffic. What happens is that the road splits into a one-way and the road to the right turns to dirt and gets awful crowded as you head into the dense market area. You think you are going down the wrong road but you're not. Then, the road makes a sharp left, turns back to a block road and goes up a steep hill. You'll inch your way up. One of the vendors threw some water on the street to keep down the dust. When I hit it and had to stop because of the stop-and-go traffic, I started sliding back. I stopped just short of running Kevin over. A bit of a panic there. At the top of the steep hill traffic turns right again and you're at the border.

Hope this helps someone in the future.

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

2009-12-06T20:16:00.000-08:00

Picture fest.

Mexico/Guatemala border looking back towards Mexico:

Looking towards Guatemala:

The awesome scenary just past the border. There was a lot of this, and canyons so deep that we lost GPS and SPOT signals:

I dunno man, you figure it out

Sad to see so much trash:

We finished the day in Huehuetenango. Tomorrow more pics. Right now, I'm sleepy.

A Day in the Life in a Small City

2009-12-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

Great, great music to be had at La Revolucion. This place is usually packed, both with locals and the international set. Australian, Chinese, Japanese, European, and North American.

Here are a few pics from the street where I live:

No jackhammers, just sledgehammers, picks and shovels.

Lots of indigenous people here selling their wares.

It's hard to imagine how short these folks are. They're about the same height as the people sitting.

Three bikes, cozy in a row

My Pants Smell Like Ass

2009-12-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

I told this story tonight to mototrex, crashmaster and kevin and realized I didn't tell it here.

There was part of the ride where it was raining, Portland-style, and I was behind a tractor-trailer laboring up a winding hill in the jungle. I stayed far enough away to not get sprayed by the trailer tires, but at some point he slowed down abruptly, probably dropping into a lower gear. Next thing I know I'm right up his ass and the trailer tires are kicking up the road spray. Except, right at this point was an exit road from some ranch or something and the road had cow poo all over it. Now I do. Note to self, when you have cow poo mist on your face shield, don't try to wipe it off, you'll only make it worse.

Anyway, everytime after that that I came to a stop, I could smell the cow poo on my suit (of course it stopped raining right after that and didn't wash it off).

2009-11-29T18:30:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, I almost forgot!

My new fuel gauge that was just replaced on recall now has a mind of its own. I'm back to judging my fuel level by the odometer. I knew I should have kept the old, working one. Hey, it did 14,000 miles trouble free This one only made it what, 1,400 miles?

One of my radiator hoses is leaking. I have fluid all over the side of the bike. Good thing I'm cooling my jets for awhile. Time for some maintenance.

And, at the entrace to the hotel where I'm at now, I overshot the pulloff on the really busy main road, so I backed it in, but I dropped the back wheel into a hole and dropped the bike. I could not lift it back up, but a passerby helped me lift it. I almost dropped again immediately since the wheel was still partway in the hole. What a mess. Now my newly repaired gammy leg is aching.

Random Thoughts

2009-11-29T18:19:00.000-08:00

Those that ride solo know how your brain works with wandering thoughts and stuff. Sometimes you just need the solitude for something to come together.

The thought that came together for me today was that Mexicans don't waste anything. In the states we throw food in the trash, we buy things we don't need, or worse, don't use. We leave the lights on and the water running - things like that.

But it goes beyond that, too. I was following a pickup truck full of people in the back, going around a curve. There were probably 15 people or so jammed in there so the truck was top-heavy. As I watch the truck go around the curve, I noticed daylight between the inside front wheel and the road. WTF? Here, a Mexican driver was using all the traction. If the road is paved, he will use all of the road. There's no shoulder to stop and park. The shoulder is for driving on! They use all of the power the engine can give them, they use all the brakes available. And of course they try to use all the space in the pickup bed. They use all of the watts the sound system can produce. I can iterate more, and I did as I was thinking this today, but I won't list them all here, of course. It made me respect the Mexicans more.

Ok, I'm done thinking for the day.

Villahermosa to San Cristobál de las Casas, Awesome!

2009-11-29T18:15:00.000-08:00

I thought today was going to be a short, uneventful ride to San Cristobál, but it turned out to be way cool.

I'm a few kilometers outside of Villahermosa, just minding my own business, when I saw a bunch of bike headlights in my rearview mirror. I had my chinbar up, smoking a cigarette going about 60 mph when these guys blew past me like I was tied to a tree. Wow! These are the first big bikes I saw since I've been back to Mexico, number one, number two, these guys were hauling! I spit out my smoke, dropped the chinbar and attempted to catch up. FAT CHANCE! With my speedo showing 110 mph with me laying on the tankbag they were still turning into tiny dots on the horizon. Bummer, I lost them. Oh well, I guess I'll get some gas. Got gas and five minutes later there they were on the side of the road. There were:

990 KTM Adventure

690 KTM SuperDuke

2 or 3 R1's I believe

A Repsol Honda

I pull over grinning and yelling holy guacamole, you guys are fast! Introductions are made and we stand around for just a bit until it's time to take off. They invite me along for the ride. Fortunately, the pilot of the 990 had his wife with him so he took it easy. If it weren't for that I would have never been able to keep up. Apparently they all come here to this area on Sundays to ride the twisties - and twisties there were. These guys have balls of steel, that's all I can say. Whoosh, they were gone, knees on the deck and everything.

We stop off at a restaurant way out in the country and have a delicious meal. One guy speaks almost perfect English and he was a big help. Another guy spoke a little English and he was trying to teach me Spanish. I was trying to work it, but was making me sweat. He was a tough teacher!

As usual, I can't remember names, so if they read this, I hope they email me so I can add names to this report Anyway, it must be a biker hangout as I saw a large cruiser and about 4 more BMW's.

Anyway, lunch was great, and with typical Mexican hospitality, the English-speaking rider bought my lunch. Thanks again dude!

After that it was a race to a place called Siempre Verde and it was here where I reluctantly bid farewell as I knew I needed to be in San Cristobál by dark. They drew me a map showing me a shortcut with many curves. I missed the turnoff by about 5 miles or so, so I backtracked until I found it. It was awesome! Really tight 1st and 2nd gear turns. The traffic was relatively light, but the road conditions varied, so I had to stay on my toes. It was a great ride into town. This road was not on the map

A Short Video

2009-11-29T16:23:00.000-08:00

The cow truck and semi was a lot closer than it looks.

You have to see the customs agent and the reactions of those around him.

Interesting passing the Federales at high speed

Untitled from Arno Jones on Vimeo.

Villahermosa

2009-11-28T20:06:00.000-08:00

Man, I am tired today. I had it in my head to go to the beach, find a nice hotel and lay up for a few days (inspired by Crashmasters pics ). Well, I found an oil refinery, a shipyard, a swamp, and a bunch of topes In the end I admitted defeat and headed back down to Villahermosa. The sun was setting and I had a death wish. The highlight was passing a pickup truck full of Federales at 120 mph (as fast as my poor little 800 will go).

I made it to Villahermosa just about dark time. I figured I would splurge on a nice room with some nice internet. Heh, wrongo again! $950 for the room but there's no wireless. They have internet alright, but it's 10baseT. Who carries a network cable with them anymore? Well, the desk had one for sale for the low low price of only $150p. Screw it, it is easier to steal internet from the neighboring establishment.

Hey, it's a nice place though! (60 second exposure)

This is what a $29 toll gets you:

Hey, I actually found a place to pull over for a pic today; two places, actually!

The bad thing about combat-mode is that I only eat once a day (note the bigass cup of coffee).

My SUPER room, where I am not at, typing this.

Tampico to Veracruz

2009-11-28T20:04:00.000-08:00

Well, Actually, I'm in Alvarado as I write this.

I have to say, the Gulf side of Mexico is not that exciting. These are just thoughts that have been running through my head as I rode down.

The road to Tampico and beyond is straight and flat and really just an extension of Texas, but with a lot of dirt and dust. I never once felt compelled to stop and do any exploring. This continued to Tuxpan. All of a sudden things got really green and jungley. But it was hard to enjoy the change of scenery because this road is packed. Apparently it's a main artery and it is like the road from town to the coast on 4th of July weekend. About the time traffic starts to pick up speed, it's time for another pueblo with their stupid topes. You can always tell when a town comes because there's about 1/4 of a mile of traffic that is essentially at a stop while everyone goes 1/1000th of a mile per hour over the topes. This is usually where I pass some cars and trucks, but it's hard because there's the same amount of traffic going the other way. You cannot make time in Mexico like you can in the United States. I'm guessing 300 - 350 a day is about it. At least now with the sun setting at 6:00 pm. 350 miles is all I can knock out in 10 hours.

Anyways, things did look up where the road hits the coast just south of Gutierrez Zamora. Apparently this is an area that caters to tourists. The roads are nicely paved and the buildings are clean. A big contrast to the previous 500 miles.

I'd like to know how some folks can find hotels in El Centro! I tried that in Veracruz today. The traffic was so dense, and there is no place to park. You just get swept along. Next thing you know, you have left the area and are on your way to the next town. That's how I ended up in Alvarado today. I'm giving up on cities for now and will go back to the hotels in the small towns. BTW, I'm in an Auto Hotel/Hotel de Paso tonight. Pretty interesting :-)

I wish I had some pics to show, but another characteristic of Mexican roads are that there are no places to pull off, and if there's a shoulder, it's meant to be driven on.

Another thing, you'd better have it in you to be an aggresive rider or these people will absolutely run you over. They will get in your lane, they'll edge you out, they'll pass in your lane and move in front of you with only inches to spare. Twice today I was in a long line of traffic, practically tailgating the car in front of me when the person behind me though it was necessary that *he* be the one tailgating that car and squeezed me out. Phuckers. Driving in Mexico is absolute chaos and anarchy - much worse than Baja or central Mexico. It's no wonder you are fatigued at the end of the day. You have to watch the road condition, you have to watch the traffic behind as closely as the traffic in front, you have to watch for animals, you have to watch for busses and taxis pulling out right in front of you. Even the pedestrians run around like ant on a sugar trail.

The Road to Tampico

2009-11-28T20:02:00.000-08:00

Another day of not much to report. It was a long, cold, windy ride to Tampico. When I got here I was pretty tired to so I pulled into a hole in the wall and just kicked back.

To say this hotel is interesting is an understatement. At first I thought I picked a room next to the tracks because it sounded like a freight train rolling by. I went to check it out and it's a concert grade sound system cranking at least 1,000,000 watts on the sidewalk, hawking a taco stand. There's even a strobe light. I should be forgiven for thinking it was a disco. To make matters worse, it's setting off the car alarm in the car next to my bike about every 5 minutes. To put it in perspective, I'm watching The Simpsons (en español) with the TV turned all the way up and I cannot hear it. Wow, I wonder how long this is going to last.

Taco stand on a side street. Got a pic between the strobe flashes.

Some random pics:

Yes, Charley Manson is a wrestler now

A couple shots of downtown Tampico:

Brand new Walmart.

On the Road Again!

2009-11-25T19:26:00.000-08:00

I am at the Gran Hotel in Valle Hermosa, just south of Brownsville, Texas. Yay!

Not much to report today, it was just a long, straight slog to the border crossing at Los Indios, Tx.

It was the first time that the guards checked every bag I had. They didn't do a very good job really, but I had to open them all, including the bag that's booby-trapped, meaning, when you open it, all the crap inside explodes outwards The GI felt a little bad about that and thanked me for my cooperation afterwards.

All that Spanish I learned still isn't enough. I'm Lord of the Apes when it comes time to speaking, but we all laugh about it. Well, everybody except the folks at the customs

I took video of the crossing and the town and everything. When I downloaded from the camera to the computer, all the clips were corrupt. The vid camera is my most unreliable piece of equipment.

The Ride Back to Texas

2009-10-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, after spending the night at the tienda, I was not enthusiastic about the ride out of there. I knew I had at least two more grueling hours of loose rock, tight switchbacks, and, muddy track from the heavy monsoon from the night before.

This ain't no Starbucks GS

As it turned out, the monsoons were a blessing. For the first few hours there was no dust thrown up and Nate and I could ride together, and, no dust from any oncoming vehicles. And we only had about 5 or 6 puddles to cross. I have video of this, but I forgot to clean the lens, plus, much of the footage was shot into the sun. I'll put something together anyway. No pictures though, really, as they were in the camera that got stolen out of Nate's tankbag at Nogales.

So anyway, we finally start coming down off the mountain. The roads got better and straighter and I started going to the trouble to upshift. Up until now I'd look at a straight stretch and calculate whether it was worth the pain of trying to upshift with the broken leg. Usually what I'd do is wind out first gear and pull in the clutch and coast the rest of the way. Anyway as we got close to Choix I discovered upshifting with my heel and it was all good after that. Choix was a relief because we hit blacktop and the way was now much faster.

The drawback of the ride from Choix to Los Mochis was the stifling heat and humidity. My temp display showed a max of 104.1F. I thought I was going to die.

When we got to Los Mochis we decided we'd splurge on a 1st-class hotel. We struggled our way through Los Mochis and hit the 4-lane road to the coast. SURPRISE! The coast was a seaport and not a resort place like we thought. 22 miles one-way for nothing. There was a hillside covered in houses that looked promising, but when we got there we found everything covered in graffiti, more than I've ever seen, and surly looking people everywhere. We book out of there barely putting a foot down. So on our way back to Los Mochis, we turned west for the airport. There are always hotels near the airport, right? Haha, NO!

We finally (re)arrive in Los Mochis looking for any hotel. We are knackered and dehydrated. Nate sees a Best Western a few blocks away and we circle around the one-way roads until we finally zero in on it.

Well, let me say that for $1,600p a night the room was not worth it. It was on the top floor with the window facing the southern sky. It took hours for the A/C to have any effect.

We go downstairs to the fancy restaurant and order what looks like good food, but it was the blandest, worstest food on the entire trip. Nate even got sick from it.

The next morning we eventually gear up and head outside. 8:30 am and we're already dying from the oppresive heat and humidity and can't wait to get rolling. North we go.

One of the hardest things for me was breaking the leg/ankle - not physically, but mentally. Was it really broken? Even if it was, couldn't I carry on to Panama City and have it looked after? What about going back to Creel? And on and on and on. Not only did I have my trip to consider, but I felt, and still feel, guilty about the other half of the team; Nate. After a lot of endless discussion I decided to head for Houston where SheepShagger would put me up, while Nate called it a day and headed for home via Nogales/Tucson. That sucked as I had hoped he'd carry on anyway.

So, we head north on Hwy 15 from Los Mochis to Ciudad Obregon, where I turned east on a super-twisty road hwy 12 at Esperanza, just to the north of Ciudad Obregon while Nate continued on to Hermosillo and beyond.

The road from Esperanza to Hornos to Rosario to San Nicolas was every bit as grueling as the dirt road the day before. Being asphalt only added a false sense of security. The roads were narrow with random potholes thrown in. 1st gear switchbacks that can't be enjoyed because you're waiting for a tractor-trailer to come around in your lane. If that wasn't enough, the switchbacks were so tight that the trailers chewed up the asphalt anyway into chunks. Add the random rockslide and you can see that it wasn't possible to blithely go skipping about the countryside.

The Pillars

To add to my trepidation, I was also running out of gas every fifty miles. The bike would just die, instantly, usually in a hairpin curve with no shoulder. I was not happy. 50 miles, wtf? As I'm riding and filling with gas every 45 minutes (and sweating finding a Pemex) I wondering what is wrong with the fuel delivery. I go through everything in my head and come up with nada. So I have an idea; I fill up at the next Pemex and go down the road a few miles and stop and pull over. I look at the bike and sure enough, there's a hose that is dripping gas. Oh, now what!? Well, it's the hose to the charcoal cannister that I snipped in half. The hose had fallen from where I perched it to hang down near the chain. Somehow with the gas sloshing it would create a syphon. There's where half my gas went, Yay!

I make it to a hole-in-the-wall Yapachic as the sun is setting and I buy gas from a lady at a house. Cuattro liter, por favor! Then I go to a small place advertising hotel/restaurant and ask for a room. "No hay!" What do you mean you don't have any rooms? Well, she only had two rooms in the first place and the folks eating there beat me to it. She sent me down the road to the only other hotel - at the very far end of town.

This place looks like it's been deserted years ago. I gotta piss like hell by now so I beat on the door that says Recepcion. Nobody answers. Fuggit, I pee on the side of the building at the far end. I come back and pound on the window and a little kid answers. I tell him I need a room and he goes screaming for mama into the sunset. Finally a young girl shows up and just doesn't seem to want to rent me a room. Geez, wtf? I'm the only one here. I get a key for room 8. I hobble down there and the key just spins and spins and spins. I stagger back to the recepcion and pound on the door and pound on the window - no answer. I gimp my ass back to cuarto numero ocho and mess with the lock somemore. Eh? I found the magic number of turns and it opens.

First thing I gotta wash my hands. No water pressure. Great, so I wash my hand in the toilet tank (the reservior (you made me try to spell that!), not the bowl, ok? )

While I'm doing this a large truck pulls in with 4 of those giant tires. I have a smoke and go back to recepcion now that there's someone else there, and tell her I got no pressure. She says it will come on in a few minutes. I reply that the faucets been on for an hour. As I walk back towards the room I hear the girl say something to the trucker and they're both laughing - probably at me. I added them to my list of people to kill. But I figure the trucker will be alerted to the water and he'll get her to turn on the pressure!

Hey, I had nothing else to do.

After hours of this deserted hotel a bunch of tractor trailers pour in. It was amazing! I got to talking with a couple of the truckers and helpers and it was pretty cool. I told one guy about the water situation. 5 minutes later the water was flowing!

Those guys were outta there before sunup. I got up about the time the last one had left and I was ready for a shower. Guess what, the chick turned the water back off. $220p for the worst hotel ever

Anyway, I'm on the road minutes before sunup and I am freezing to death. My temp displays 44F. Once I get rolling though I won't stop to put on more layers. Besides, when the sun comes up it will warm the earth, right?

In the meantime, I've been texting Sheepshagger and he says he'll meet me in Presidio, TX and load the bike into the van for the rest of the way to Houston. I'm hauling ass to make the border before it closes at 6:00 pm. It took Nate and I hours to get through Chihuahua on the way down. I got lucky on the way back and paid attention to the detour sign on the way back. I got all the way through Chihuahua on the first try with no wrong turns!

From Chihuahua it was 90 - 100 mph where I could to make Ojinaga and the border on time.

I make it! 5:30 and I'm checked out of Mexico properly (not like the last time I left Mexico!)

About this time SheepShagger is at Del Rio, so I have a sub at Subway in Presidio and a gallon of some red drink, then hit the road for Marfa, Alpine, and ultimately Marathon.

This pic was taken at about 10 - 12x telephoto. That car is a Highway Patrol car. I'm glad I stopped, because I was haulin'. Thanks to this pic all I did was smile and wave as I passed by.

I make to Marathon, TX in what I estimate is about an hour before Sheepshagger will get there. I strip all the gear off the bike and settle in for a wait. A guy and his kids show up and he tells me he's from the area and that he gives tours, etc. As I'm sitting in my tires like a toilet ring, listening to him, I see Sheepshagger drive by, wtf!? Didn't he get my text telling him where I am? I lurch to the bike, fire it up and do a grand prix take-off after him, yelling at the strangers to "watch my shit for me, I'll be right back!"

I catch up, flashing my lights and shit, but Sheepshagger is not stopping. I finally pull up beside him and signal for him to turn around. He was out of cell range and didn't get my texts.

I always manage to get him to do my work for me

This is what a 400 lb BMW does to a dirtbike ramp

We dig around the area looking for a ramp substitute and I actually find a 6 or 7 foot piece of iron! We hook it up and load the bike. Right as the bike clears the makeshift ramp, it falls on my good foot. I don't know how much the ramp weighed, but I do know that it took both of us to lift. Now I'm hopping up and down like Daffy Duck and crying like a baby. It wasn't that bad though as it was balanced by the pain in my left leg

Well, we're done and off we go. SheepShagger and driven what, 10 or 12 hours to get to me, now it was time to turn right around and head back. We had a bunch of Redbulls and I talked my ass off. My driver was not going to sleep on this trip!

We make it to about 2 hours outside of Houston though and we're both beat. We pull into a truckstop and start to snooze. I guess those Redbulls don't like the redhead, because within five minutes I was off to the shitter. Ok, well, I'm awake now, dammit! Fuggit, I'll drive the last two hours.

We make it back in one piece. By the time we hit the house, I had maybe 10 minutes left in me. Whew!

Ben Taub ER. Anyone seen Idiocracy? This is straight out of the ER scene in that movie. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's a documentary held in the future. I got there at 9:30 am and got out of there at 6:30 pm.

That's all I got for now, folks!

And hey, I want to thank EVERYONE for their support throughout this whole trip, from everyone that clicked a link, to those that left comments, and especially Sheepshagger and Mrs. Shagger, at who's house I'm still at! I'm never leaving!

As far as the clicks went, I still don't have the final figure, as Nate is the guy who set it up and is in charge of it, but from what I can gather, you guys contributed about 4 tanks of gas or more for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. With no income whatsoever, every nickel is appreciated. Seriously. Thank you.

And the final note for now is: what am I going to do from here? Who knows. I'm the kind of guy that takes a fork in the road when I get there. The one thing I do know is that I don't think I can afford to go all the way to Tierra del Fuego though. Marking time still consumes money. But I figure I have a few more weeks to heal and then I'm off again, but most like only as far as Panama. We'll see.

Stay tuned, I'll be back on this thread soon!

The Road from Creel

2009-09-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

Nate's not as happy as he looks and neither am I

Nahrr, Nate's not happy here, either. We are both beat to shit when we find this hole in the wall with no hotel/motel, only a very small tienda:

Fer christsake, how can you be miserable with that kind of background?

Ok, so it seems that Nate lost his camera on his way home so I'm going to try to describe our quarters for the night.

We'd been riding since soon after sun-up on the trail from Creel to Choix. It was a few hours into the ride when I crashed and broke my ankle. That, of course ate up some time. The progress was slow going with endless switchbacks, loose rocks, blind turns, plus my paranoia that I would do something stupid and drop my bike on my hurt leg again.

As we come down off of this mountain...

we can see signs of civilization and we're all going "hurrah, hurrah, we're saved!"

But when we finally get there, there is n o t h i n g. I mean nada. While Nate scouts ahead for anything, this guy yells at me in English, right on! I ask him if there's an hotel, he says no. How about a tienda? Yes! right around the corner here! (A hidden dirt trail switchback. The tienda was literally 50 feet away, but down the hill out of sight). Good god, we're saved!

Nate has apparently lost his camera on the way home, so all of the pics from Creel on are gone, including the accident scene and all the pics he took of the tienda here, so I will try to describe it. Here is the only shot I have. The little girl is the daughter of the woman that's running the tienda.

Where I'm standing, taking the picture, is in front of the window where Nate and I bought a truckload of water and cokes. While we're standing there trying to re-hydrate (we were suffering heat exhaustion by now), I realized we had no place else to go. Nate was warned not to try to camp and Choix was too far, especially if the monsoons hit. I'm looking over at the covered patio thing where the girl is standing and I ask if we can rent the space. Now, the woman wasn't exactly surly, but it sure seemed as if she didn't want us there in the first place. Anyway, she says the equivilent of "welllll, I guess so." Cuanto questa? She doesn't know so I offer $100p and she accepts it. Hooray, we're saved I have an idea; I take the picture of the little girl and Nate takes a picture of the two boys. We're thinking/hoping that they belong to the woman. I break out my little photo printer, and just like the border crossing and all the hotels we stayed at, I print those two pics and give them to the woman. It turns out the boys belong to someone else, but the little girl is hers. You wanna talk about an attitude change! It was great. She was now on our side.

A little later a truck drives up with a bunch of "farm hands" and the driver bursts out of the cab and runs up to us yelling "Hey Amigos! How's it going!? You want some hash?" His hands are thickly stained from apparently cropping plants or processing or something. Wow, not what I expected. I think it's pretty cool, but Nate was a little uncomfortable. The guys load up on cervaza and stand around talking amongst themselves and with us for awhile and then take off.

We had the place to ourselves for a little while and the sun is starting to set when another pickup comes roaring up the drive and again, another guy comes running up to us. This one's a little different. He's got a bloody lip and is obviously phucked up. The first words out of his mouth is "Hey mudderfuckers, whatz happening?! You want some phucking dope? You like mexican poosy?! I blurt out "Dude, you know the real English! What the fuck's happening man!" "Man, I was just in an accident, look, I fucked up my lip and my head!" I start laughing my ass off and reply "Ha ha, me too! I crashed my bike and fucked up my leg!" We're laughing our asses off.

So we go back and forth with serious ghetto talk. He explains that he had a big operation in the states with dope and "poosy" and all kinds of stuff but he got busted and deported. When he talks with his friends listening in, he's cursing the US and his bad fortune but when he turns back to me he's all talking smack with his filthy english. I'm having the time of my life with this guy. He's certainly not the first guy I've talked with like this. Remember, the house I sold in Vancouver was a crack house - that's the kind of neighborhood I tend to live in. Anyway, Nate's a little worried but I assure him that if just checks his ego and let this guy rant and show off in front of his friends, everything should be ok. Our one hope was that after they left, they wouldn't come back in the middle of the night even more wasted and ready for a fight or something. They never did come back.

Later, a police pickup shows up and the mean-looking driver gets out of the drivers side and the two other cops with rifles get out of the passenger side. Those two cops stare us down while the driver loads up some sacks in the shape of bales. I have no idea what was going on (yes I do) and I stared off into any direction but theirs.

They finished whatever they were doing, and without ever having said a word to us, the booked. Now that, was uncomfortable!

The ex-surly woman invites us for dinner around the back of the house - frijoles and cheese. It had to have been one of the best meals of my life.

A little later on a final pair of pickups (I was surprised to learn that the spanish word for pickup is "peekup" ) shows up and the friendly amigos buy us beer. We sit around talking and having a good time while the monsoons start to roll in. They complained that they haven't had rain in 15 days and Nate tells them we'll get rain tonight because it's been following us the whole time. Sure as hell, the wind picks up fiercely and it just pours. The mexicans are happy and don't even get out of the rain. Nate and I move our gear further back in the patio because the wind is in the direction of the opening and just pouring in.

I happen to mention that mexicans don't know shit about drainage. It's now pitch black except when the brilliant lightning is flashing and we put our gear all the way back in the patio. Slowly the visitors go home for the night and all that's left is me, Nate, and Benny, the guy who flagged me down. Benny is a field hand there and he simply unrolls a straw mat, lays down and goes to sleep. Nate and I lay on a bed frame there but it's too uncomfortable for my leg so I lay out my thermorest and spend the night on the floor.

The next morning, sure as shit, our gear, including our helmets and gloves are sitting in three inches of water

Once again, I take a picture. This time of ex-surly Margarita, print it out and hand it to her. I think she appreciated it. She stood there and waved us goodbye.

Safely Back Home… Ugh!

2009-09-27T08:42:00.000-07:00

The good news is that we are both safely back in the states. After 3 days covering 800+ miles per day, I returned home but without my camera that was stolen from my tank bag while checking out of immigrations at the Nogales boarder. That’s a serious bummer as I had some fantastic pictures there that I hadn’t uploaded to my computer.

Arno is safely in Houston. He is in the emergency room as I write, finally having his leg properly attended. We’ll update everyone on his status once we know.

Appreciate everyone’s support, it is certainly a bummer of a way to end the trip, but we learn from each and every one of life’s adventures, this was certainly one.

Take care,

Nate

Down and out - AR NO bones left to break?

2009-09-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

Hey guys... because we were behind we decided to take the most direct route to Los Mochis and bypass the traditional Copper Canyon sightseeing. We were thinking it would get us to the coast and heading south.

We got about 40 or 50 miles beyond the pavement when Arno took a spill on a downhill switchback and got his left leg tangled up in his pannier. Yes, it's broken, just above his left ankle.

We had a GRUELING ride getting Arno out. We almost hired a truck, but he thoght after a couple hours of me running around to villages looking for a doc that he could make an attempt. I mentioned going back to Creel, but he wanted to press on (it would appear that the larger weight bearing bone is in tact as he can hobble around and get on/off his bike and is actually more comfortable on than off). But we were going so slow that we didn't make Choix like we thought and we got trapped by approaching thunderstorms and darkness. We were whipped, exhausted, and way overheated when we managed to get a villager's covered porch to sleep on and wait out the storm and night. Actually quite the experience, will post about it once I get time.

Anyway, it took us 3 more hours this morning of difficult riding to get to asphalt and we are now at the Best Western in Los Mochis, Arno is exhausted and fell asleep w/his clothes on.

His bike is still a problem (fuel pump sucking air when fuel low causing it to cut out), now getting his leg attended is a problem, he's conceeded defeat for the trip as his leg is definately broken.

We've decided to get back to the States, not sure how Arno's going to do it, his problem is that if he sees a doctor here he'll be put in a cast and won't be able to ride his bike out. So we're probably going to set off for Tucson tomorrow. The other option for him is to fly him home and ship his bike. Not sure which is more painful for him, lol. He is otherwise healthy and fine (other than cranky) but obviously needs to make sure the bone is properly set.

So, I'll let him update you about him. I'll post all the details and pics later - bottom line is that it looks like the trip isn't going to continue from here...

Thanks again for everyone's support...

Nate

2009-09-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

Parents, don't let your kids do drugs. Or let them play with video editing software

Don't do Speed from Arno Jones on Vimeo.

2009-09-21T14:26:00.001-07:00

While I'm running all over town trying to find splices...

Swillin' is chillin'

Couldn't have done it without you, Roger! Mil gracious!

2009-09-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

IT'S RUNNING, YAY!

For anyone else who suffers this malady on the side of the road, once the problem is identified the fix is easy.

Here's the failed piece - Fuel Pimp Controller (yes, even the pimps get pimped )

Well, it's too late to hit the road today, but we're going to motor on first thing in the morning. Let the trip continue!

2009-09-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

While I wait for the sun to come up so I can work on the bike, I thought I'd take some pics of where I'm at (La Posada del Creel).

The main lobby

The computer room

The kitchen, that we have the full run of

Can you see the laptop on the far table? That's where I'm sitting right now

My "garage". When it rains, there's about 3 inches of standing water here. After the humiliation I suffered at the hands of Nate posting my boot pic, I broke out the sandals. What a mistake!

This is one of those posters where you stick your head behind it. I am going to try to remember to stick my lobster-colored, gringo head in there and see if I can pass for a native

My work bench. No work happens when it rains though. We have to run for cover.

Yes, this is common throughout the Mexico that I've seen so far. You get used to seeing a wastebasket full of used shitpaper next to the bog

Nate will do a better job of describing this place, but anybody heading to Copper Canyon on the cheap will definitely want to stay here. It is a most awesome place and the staff (Roger) is a tremendous host.h

Conquistadors in search of gold...

2009-09-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

Al Stewart - Midas Shadow:

Quote:

You've got your ticket and your hotel keys

And your overnight bag at your feet

You're looking down on the tropical trees

While the Spanish maids pick up the sheets

Conquistador in search of gold

For all the jack-daw reasons

The Midas shadow that's so hard to please

Follows wherever you go.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained they said

So you played for the winner takes all

And tossed the dice high up and craned your head

To see how the numbers would fall

You stole the game so easily

Your luck ran with the seasons

But still the shadow that the night won't free just

Follows wherever you go.

Conquistadors in search of gold...

Arno does a great bug eyed Marty Feldman! Quite the Conquistador!

Yesterday was interesting trying to work with fuel and electrical systems while the rain came off and on in heavy sheets. It was sliding off the metal roofs and would fall in big globs down our backs while working.

Getting the ring off and on without a special tool is no challenge whatsoever for a hillbilly mechanic using a hillbilly wrench!

We got the pump working with power directly to it, put it back in the tank but could not get the bike to run. We took it back out and checked the "lifelong" fuel filter. Sometimes we could blow air through it and then it would stop up completely! We played around with it and attached it to the pump, powered it up and out shot a nasty black looking fuel! Bad gas for sure, and no screen to filter it out!

Here's a picture of the fuel filter:

Here's Arno during one of our typical "let's stop and think about this" moments...

The bad stuff purged from the filter, we tried it again and after "burping" the pump (with it directly wired) good clean fuel came rushing out! We closed it all up and wired it up properly, no start! Bummer...

Then we figured out that the controller could be blocking the signal to the pump, so we hooke up the diagnostic tool again - NO fault codes...

So, we took the controller out of the loop and hot wired the pump to run while trying to start the bike... Result - VROOOOM!

This is what a wet bike that's running, at night, with a happy Arno looks like:

With a lot of help from all of Arno's friends, we've determined that we can rewire the bike to bypass the fuel controller and that older versions of BMWs run that pump without any controller at all (it's function is to reduce the speed of the pump after start to 80%).

So, Arno just has a little wiring work to do and then we'll be under way again. We've considered leaving today, but with the rainy afternoons think we'll hang in Creel for tonight and launch out for Copper Canyon and Los Mochis on the western coast tomorrow. We will need to work on getting the pump and controller properly fixed down the road...

Thanks again for everyone's help!

Arno = MacGyver?

2009-09-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

So, MacGyver/Arno set the pump assembly down and took a picture. You can see the float on the right side. Note that there is no fuel screen attached to the bottom of the pump assembly, there is supposed to be one:

He pulled out just the small pump. We tested it by hooking up 12 volts directly to it, nothing whatsoever...

He then took the pump entirely apart. The motor was jammed as were the lines coming out of the pump:

He cleaned everything out and put it back together. Ran like a champ when we tested it, now we had to get the screen back on so that it would stay on. It was as loose as anything and would fall right off, so we got a stainless clamp and got it to fit the screen securely on the bottom - better than new.

That's the way the assembly should have looked.

Now, to put it into the bike and see if it'll start. We'll need to get fresh fuel of course... fingers are crossed.

New Hotel, Making Progress on the Pump...

2009-09-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to the Best Western Hotel Bar and had many cervezas while we worked on the internet with a good connection. The food there is good, but the hotel and all are a little more expensive than most.

Creel is somewhat of a tourist town and is more expensive than most of the other small towns. The big attraction, of course, is Copper Canyon, which we came here to explore, but are now working on getting our fuel pump problem solved. Most hotels run 800 to 900 pesos per night, or about $80. Since Arno broke down right in front of a hotel, we stayed there last night, but they had no internet. It was a 2 room, 3 bed place were they wanted 800 pesos. I talked them down to 650, and we split it 3 ways.

It had a fireplace only for heat, but was otherwise very comfortable:

Meet my little friend:

He's one of the first things we saw as he was sitting, quite contently, on the John!

Here's our heat for the night, very pleasant:

It was a pleasure meeting Clay, he's on his way to start up a custom boot internet business in Guatemala. Good luck, Clay! Keep us informed.

On the left are Clay's riding "boots," and on the right is his sterno can that he attempt to boil water in, but at high altitude it doesn't produce enough heat to boil water. Fortunately my Jetboil definately does:

Here's the view from the front of our place this morning:

Arno is happier now that we have somewhat of a plan and a handle on the problem:

After getting breakfast, we found the perfect place to stay and work on the bike. We packed up from the semi-expensive place and TOWED Arno's bike with my bike into town to our new hotel where we could work on it.

I had towed a motorcycle before and was surprised how easy it was. It takes very little force to get one rolling, much easier than towing a car with a car. Arno hadn't done it before so was apprehensive. I reminded him that he was to do all the breaking for both of us so we could keep tension on the tow line. It wasn't a pretty tow line as we worked some heavy motorcycle tie downs together, but it worked like a champ:

Arno actually got a video of the tow and will post it later.

We chose to stay at the La Posada De Cree hotel and hostel, located right down town. It is way less expensive, 240 pesos for a 4 person bunk room with shared bathrooms, or 350 pesos for a similar room with an attached bath. We were leaning for the personal room, but when we saw the bunk room and the bathrooms, we both jumped on the low cost as everything is VERY clean and very nice with a lot of rustic charm and wood. The bunk beds are great for storing gear.

The hotel is run by Roger, a very helpful and nice man who has lived all over the states and speaks very good English. He even shuttled Arno around town in his truck and was willing to take him to another distant town if need be. This hotel is just terrific and we basically have the run of the entire place to ourselves. Kitchen, refrigerator, courtyard, computers, good wireless, everything for about $10 per person per night! Heck, a person could stay here for a long time and be very comfortable.

After the tow, we cleared out the kitchen and pushed Arno's bike through it and out onto the patio:

Here's Roger's dog, Magnus, supervising Arno as he removes the fuel pump from his bike.

Thanks to everyone who offered help and technical advice, it was most helpful...

We unpacked the bikes and moved all out gear up to our room:

Within minutes of starting work on the bike, Arno had twisted the large ring off that holds the pump in the fuel tank and was holding the pump in his hand:

Here's a close up shot of the attached fuel gage rheostat that sends information to the fuel gauge. As the float moves up and down, you can see that it moves the rheostat on the quarter circle which changes the electrical resistance:

Here's the opening to the fuel tank where the pump assembly fits in. You can clearly see that he was not out of gas!

So, Arno placed the pump on the ground, took off the leads, and he and I hooked up a wire that Roger provided directly to the pump to test it. It did absolutely NOTHING - it was dead.

Then, later after looking at the microfiche, Arno noted that there is a fuel screen that is supposed to be on the bottom on the fuel pump intake. It wasn't there! So, he went fishing with his hand in his tank and found the screen sitting on the bottom of the tank!

Arno began taking the pump apart and we once inside found that the aperture would not spin at all, it was jammed. Once fully apart we could see that the motor was still in good shape, Arno cleaned it up, but the feed at the top of the motor was plugged with gunk! It must have come from the gas that Arno got from that lady out in the middle of no where, remember her?

So, with contaminated gas and with a screen that had fallen off the pump assembly to the bottom of the tank, little bits of sand and dirt made their way into the pump and clogged it up.

We are now trying to get some compressed air to clear the pump and are confident that if we can clear it we can get it to run again. If so, we'll replace the pump assembly later and run with it, but if we can't get it to work, we'll replace here once we get a new pump.

For now, Nate has a Tecate and is happy, Arno has Dos Equis and is happy, Roger is on his third Tecate and is very happy... Mangus is happy, too, as I was feeding him cookies while typing out this report! I hope my little Apollo isn't too jealous back at home...

Broken Down in Creel...

2009-09-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

The day began auspiciously. I started packing my bike, looked down and noticed that my seat heat was on! DOH! It's hot wired to the battery... I turned it off and tried to start the motor, but a quarter turn and click was all I got.

I wasn't using it yesterday afternoon, so I may have have bumped it on. The good news is that it gave Arno and I an opportunity to meet the hotel owner, Luis. He and his family run the hotel and are very, very gracious. They also were kind enough to give us a jump and spare Arno from having to disassemble his bike to get to his buried battery.

Luis gave Arno and I a neat keychain and Arno printed out this picture for them and they appreciated it immensely, I could tell. That little printer of Arno's is a powerful tool to connect with people. In a society where tips are not the norm, something like that is a great gesture:

We got underway and made Creel in very little time as it was only 30 kilometers away. At the end of town Arno pulled over, turned his bike off and restarted it only to have it die seconds later and no restart!

Hmmm... Fuel, Air, Spark. Could his fuel gauge be wrong? Arno takes out his little spare and pours it in. Notice anything unsafe about this? Hey, no OSHA in Mexico, when in Rome...

Not to worry, I was standing well back...

Nope, still doesn't start.

Out comes the computer for a diagnostic, good thing he carries that tool.

It tells him that there is a fault with the fuel pump circuit. The fault would not clear, so the next step is to disconnect the battery to see if that would clear it. Of course we inspected the fuel pump leads and they were dry despite yesterday's deluge.

While we were standing there Clay, from Austin, TX. pulls up on his little Yamaha enduro. He's headed to Guatemala to start up an internet business selling, of all things, custom boots! Perhaps he'll have a good customer in Arno?

Turns out that Clay is having problems with his bike too. Seems it's burning/ possibly leaking quite a bit of oil. We helped each other out and then we went to the local bar to get internet so that we could start figuring out what to do about Arno's bike. It turns out that it's probably a bad fuel pump, but getting it fixed is going to be a multi-day challenge, especially since it happened on a Saturday and most BMW dealers who have parts aren't open until Tuesday.

Want to know what the ultimate embarrassment for a BMW Adventure rider and master mechanic is? Having to ride on the BACK of Nate's bike!

Das Boot...

2009-09-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, so Arno and I are going to go out to dinner last night... we start walking out of the room and I notice that he has on shorts along with his Big 'ol black riding boots!

"Hey Arno, don't you have any shoes?!"

"Hell no. I didn't bring any, why would I need them, I like my boots."

"Well, maybe so that you don't look like a total and complete geek?!"

OMG, can you imagine going out to a bar or a nice restaurant with that?

A Rainy Day in Mexico

2009-09-18T23:42:00.000-07:00

Wet Riding in Mexico! from Arno Jones on Vimeo.

A Fun Day, Arno's back to his low stress state!

2009-09-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

The day started much better than yesterday... no six stage runs, no border crossings, and a good night's sleep. Today was a very adventurous day, exploring and not making any real forward progress. That's what we came to the Copper Canyon area to do and we did it, but torrential rains, hail, lightning, mud, and flooding made the last half of the day a little too exciting, but adventuresome, that's for sure. We cut short of Creel again and wound up getting a room in San Juanito.

Here's a map of the area, we were riding off pavement for a good portion and this map is not routable, but you can follow along the towns and steep terrain (we spent almost the entire day above 7,000 feet, and were as high as 8,900 feet.

View Larger Map

We began our day being greeted by the maintenance worker of the hotel in La Junta. Arno got his pic, but I got his puppy, Blackie...

We talked to another hotel tenant who was very nice and gave us a good idea of the things to see around Copper Canyon (Arno captured his pic too). With his advice in mind, we set off for Tonachic, a small Indian town considered to be the birth place of the Mexican Revolution that led to Mexico's independence. Mexico celebrates Independence day on September 16th, a very important date as it's been nearly 200 years for Mexico to be independent from Spain. We just missed the celebration by one day!

As we set off for Tonachic I tried to snap a photo of Arno in trail, but my camera delays the shot after I pull the shutter and it accidentally took a decent self-portrait while in motion...

It was a very pretty but uneventful ride to Tonachic, pleasurable with good temps and again less stress. Here's a shot of a short break with the bikes on the edge of a roadside lookout:

We stopped in Tonachic to have breakfast and a couple of locals recommended the Magale, there's Arno taking a break...

The inside was pretty quaint... no English spoken here, but they did produce a menu hand written in English which helped!

The coffee was hot water and instant, but the O.J. was delicious to start. We're finding that instant coffee is pretty typical in this region. Thank goodness for my Jetboil!

We both had Huervos breakfast burritos, here's a shot of Arno's plate... they were delicious by the way.

We both had O.J., coffee, and breakfast, total cost was about 140 pesos, or just a little over $10 U.S. for both. I'd say less than half the cost for the same in the States.

Here's a shot of our waitress and cook, you can see their Indian heritage...

Out front a couple of boys walked by and I grabbed a shot...

The restrooms (Banos) were way at the back of the hotel which didn't look like much but I peaked in a room and it was very nice with a lot of personality... a typical small town hotel, one that I probably would have preferred to the "Super 8" style we stayed at last night (but it had internet, which has so far been surprisingly easy to find).

When I returned from visiting the Banos, I found that Arno had befriended 3 young children - all the kids seemed happy. Andrea, the oldest, was raised in the U.S., but their parents moved back down to Mexico. She spoke perfect English, of course, and they were all dressed well and had good manners!

That reminds me to mention that EVERYONE has been VERY, VERY nice in Mexico. Everyone who sees our bikes waves at us as we go by. They come up to us and talk and help us with our Spanish. At no time have we ever felt unsafe or insecure. We have had people advise us to be in by dark, but again, the people have been fantastic.

We then rode some VERY fun and TWISTY roads to a small town called Basaseachi. That ride was the most fun of the trip so far and was stunning:

There are a lot of very nice old stone fences in the area, some in good repair and others that are crumbling. Here's a nice one...

Animals all over, Arno had to come to a near stop as these calves wouldn't move until he beeped his horn at them...

Basaseachi is home to the world's 11th tallest waterfall (cascadia), and the second tallest in Mexico http://www.coppercanyoninsider.com/basaseachi-falls.asp.

The area is surprisingly nice, reminds me of a high elevation northern California. Would be great for camping and hiking.

While Arno guarded the bikes I set off to photograph the waterfall. There was a beautiful stone path, the first sign said 900 meters to cascadia... hey, I can do 9 or 10 football field lengths, no problem.

You have to cross a suspension bridge to get across the canyon:

Here's the view looking the other way:

I passed several lizards along the way. There were signs warning of cougars:

900 meters in, instead of seeing the falls, you wind up at the edge of the top of the cliff where the falls go over the edge. Just prior to that is another bridge that crosses the gorge above the river.

Here are some pics of the water eroding the rocks taken from the bridge:

From this area, I did get some good pics of the surrounding cliffs which are huge and absolutely vertical:

Hmmm... that's nice, but no view of the falls. The path continues on the other side of the bridge, up a large hill. Here's the view looking back at the bridge and a little cabana:

After that hill, the good path ends and there's a rough and rocky path with a zillion switchbacks that works its way down the cliffs. I went further and further down thinking I'd get a view of the falls, but no. I gave up about 2/3rds of the way down as I realized the climb back up at 7,500 feet elevation and in my motorcycle gear wasn't going to be fun. It wasn't. Two switchbacks, rest, huff and puff, do it again. VERY steep. I later found out that you can actually swim in a big pool underneath the falls. I would have had I known.

The trek back was long, but I met a couple and walked about half way back with them while talking. He actually lives in LA and was just down visiting relatives.

When I finally made it back, I was hot and sweaty and found that Arno had made friends with a couple of bikers...

We departed and started heading on a short cut road back to Creel. Off to the right I saw a sign for the falls and went to investigate to see if I could get a view from the cliffs on the other side. I ran across a real ass and got a picture of the ass's ass :

Three miles later I only had to walk this short path to the cliff's edge:

Then I climbed up in this tower:

And was finally rewarded for my effort with this:

The weather on the back road to Creel started out nice, and it started out on pavement. Here's a view of a little dam that created a pretty little lake:

It was turning out to be a little farther than we thought and Arno took the opportunity to get a little gas from a home that had a hand painted gas for sale sign out front.

The pavement was already long gone, and a little further up the road it began to rain... and rain... and flood... and hail, and lightning...

We were above 8,800 feet at this point on a muddy road that was under construction along the cliffs in the pouring rain:

Every time we thought it was letting up a little, it only started again and got worse. Being on top of a high mountain on a wet motorcycle with lightning all around is part of the adventure we could have done without.

We finally made it to the little town of San Jauanito where it was a flash flood and we were being pelted with double pea sized hail just prior to town. It hit hard enough that it hurt through two layers of motorcycle jackets! The hail was beginning to make the now asphalt road slippery again so needless to say, I didn't pull out my camera to get any pics.

This was a tame time as we got near the town:

As we entered town I saw a covered drive through store so I pulled in for shelter, Arno followed:

We stood there and watched the streets literally flood:

We stayed under cover for probably 40 minutes and then it let up enough for us to try to find a hotel. We found one that had a covered entrance and looked secure, plus they had internet:

330 pesos a night, it actually is very nice for the $30 price:

Of course we had to lay our stuff out to dry:

All in all, a fun and exciting day. The forecast is looking pretty rainy, so we're not sure how we're going to play it yet. We may just look for an easterly route to get us working south, we'll figure it out in the morning.

Tomorrow we're hoping for blue skys, but know we better get started early if we hope to see them at all...

ELO - Mr.Blue Sky:

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2009-09-18T19:50:00.000-07:00

Nope, we didn't make it to Creel at all today, but we did have some weather and muddy roads.

Since Swill is so out-classing me with the photos, I'll just post the few I took and concentrate on the vids.

Here's a couple of guys that gravitated to us this morning as we were packing to leave. My brain hurt only a little so far, trying to hablo. I think Swill has their names

We stopped at an intersection in the boonies, trying to verify that we were going in the right direction. These guys were cool, and they told us where to go. Lot's of hand-waving and gestulating. The two guys on the right spoke damm near perfect english. Me gusta los mexicanos! Everyone seems so eager to help and are (almost) always super friendly.

Grand vistas abound. Looking on a map only, you might think the road to Creel is a boring desert wasteland. You'd be wrong. It was endless awesome scenary.

Ok, which one of you naughty ff's did this?

I know Swirly has a lot mo better pics from here, but here's mine.

While Swirly was off prancing about in the forest looking for a waterfall, I hung around the parking lot and talked a whole heap with this guy. It was about an hours worth of spanish on my part. It made my whole brain swell by the time it was over. It even hurt a little, too. Dammit, I wish I could remember his name. Anyway, he and his friend were from Chihuahua. Way cool guy.

I talked briefly with this guy. The other guy crossed paths with this guy about an hour earlier. Look closely at his bike

Burros are everywhere! There are definitely enough burros, cows, horses, trucks, people, rocks, etc everywhere and anywhere so you don't go haulin' ass anywhere you damm well please. Constant caution is the word here.

Oh, btw, the last half of the day consisted of thunderstorms, lots of rain, hail, lightning, wet gloves, etc. We only made it as far as San Juanito when we simply called it a day. Creel is still distant. Tomorrow? Who knows. You sure don't make time like you think you would down here.

Ok, that's all I got for now. Time to work on a vid or two.

Thanks y'all for tagging along!

The Last road to Mexico

2009-09-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

The last road to the border at Presidio, Texas.

The Road to Mexico from Arno Jones on Vimeo.

"Running" the Boarder is easy, just follow the yellow brick road...

2009-09-17T23:30:00.000-07:00

I get up at 6 AM, take a shower and spend all of 15 seconds with a dryer on my hair, only to be pillaged by Oscar on an early morning ADV post. Frankly, I don't know where he found the time... and I warned him that paybacks are a bitch and also not to hate me because I have hair and I'm beautiful!

So, Oscar, errr I mean Arno, FINALLY gets up and we head over to grab a bite to eat. He returns to the room not feeling too well and proceeds to spend the next half hour on the porcelain throne. That was round one.

Then came rounds two and three, and FINALLY at 10:30 (!!!) we are leaving the hotel, fully 4.5 hours after I got up.

Hey Oscar, how was round three?

We made it 2 blocks down the road and we stop at the store for round #4:

Here's Presidio on the way to the boarder crossing, FINALLY.

At the boarder crossing, Arno went in first and I watched the bikes. He comes out a couple minutes later saying that he forgot to get an exit stamp last year when he was in baja and they won't let him in! God, he needs a smoke! Oh, and round 5, we still haven't made it into Mexico and he already has Montezuma's revenge!

I, on the other hand, go into customs, process myself and my bike and am wham bam done, no problemos. Hmmm.

Back in Oscar goes and he is such a pest that they let him in just to get them out of their blow dried hair.

Now it's nearly 12:30 and we are, needless to say, way behind, but that's okay because we have many days to get to Panama City.

We head out of town and one of the first things I see reminds me of Arno, I don't know why a burrow would do that, do you?

A little farther down the road I spotted about a dozen ostriches!

Cows and horses alongside of the roads, animals are not controlled like we're used to thus reminding us to be careful 'cause it's a real zoo out there:

Also, there are a lot of dogs running around... This one is much more compliant and friendly than Oscar:

Riding across the high desert went like this; across the valley, up the hill, down the other side, across the valley, rinse, repeat:

Oscar and Felix on the Edge:

Oscar going over the Edge (paybacks are hell):

Much more beautiful scenery:

And some not so beautiful artwork:

Right after that canyon area we went down the hill and were stopped at an immigration checkpoint where an agent had us open our right panniers to show all the illegal substances we were carrying. Not but a couple miles down the road we ran into a Mexican Army checkpoint in the middle of nowhere, defending against who knows what:

My less than terrific Espanol brought out Cesar, the one on the left in the T-shirt. Cesar is a terrifically nice and good humored individual - seriously, and he can speak English very well. We got to talking about out journey and soon all were joining in. We asked if we could take pictures and they were all for it.

Arno did a great job by breaking out his portable printer and gave them a couple of hard copy pics.

And a demonstration of how long it took him to get out of the hotel and across the boarder this morning... it took thiiiiiissss loooong and I was THIIISSS STRESSED:

The town of Chihuahua was much larger than I expected. The streets and sidewalks were packed, the roads were under construction and it took some maneuvering and some time to get through the city:

A stop to get a drink and a snack:

Across the street... many of the street vendors look like this:

Hmmm... I wonder what inspired this gigantic statue?

As we were getting towards evening and closer to our stopover, we were at elevations well over 7,000 feet - our hotel tonight is 6,850 feet above sea level according to our gps. We passed what seemed like several miles of covered orchards. It was interesting how they had what had to be thousands of acres covered like this:

As the storms rolled in and darkness approached, here was our queue that we had found a good place to overnight:

The hotel we found is practically brand new, one of the nicest rooms of the trip and it obviously has internet service. It cost 500 pesos and they could not be talked down, even with Arno's charm... that's about $45 or so as the exchange rate is about 13 to 1 now.

And that is how you have the runs across the boarder and wind up smelling like petunias... or whatever the heck those flowers are somewhere over the rainbow, why oh, oh, why can't Oscar?

No, don't worry, I wouldn't play Judy Garland, but I would spin some Styx...

Styx Renegade:

1st Day in Mexico

2009-09-17T20:08:00.000-07:00

As you know, the day started miserably with the hairdryer alarm clock. After that it was time for breakfast and I tried to tell the waitress, who didn't speak English, that I wanted the omelette with a side order of french toast. What I got was the omelette meal, plus the french toast meal. Well, I ate them both. Too much food. And that led to a shit-attack that lasted a couple of hours. By 10:30 it was down to just the drizzlin' shits so we headed for the border.

First problem: I have two tires strapped to the back. The customs lady asked me if they were new. One side of my brain was processing that question, along with its repercussions, while the other side of my brain (the swollen half) turned my mouth on and made it say "yes". Ok, now they want me to pay customs on these new tires, but by then the logical part of the brain caught up to the mouth-connected brain and I all of a sudden didn't hablo anymore espanol. I eventually got out that yes, these are used tires and I think she got tired of me going "que?" all the time and let me go.

Nate and I park in the lot and I go in first. Right from the git-go there is a problem. Apparently I didn't check out of Baja last time I was there? WTF? With the aduana guy doing a lot of talking and me doing un poco entiendo, I wasn't understanding what was what. Finally I said "Tengo uno problemo, verdad?" (I have a problem, right?) and he said "si". So I walk out all frustrated while Nate goes in, trying to figure out a solution to this problem. I'm sure in the end it can all be worked out with money, but I ain't got none.

Anyways, I go back in and in my new, broken spanish I really try hard to understand the problem. After about 10 minutes of lo siento, no entiendo, (I'm sorry, I don't understand) the guy finally got frustrated with me and started stamping my passport. Awesome! Knock out the rest of the paperwork and we're off!

The highlight of the day for me was the military checkpoint. We got off the bikes, removed our helmets and started having a great conversation with the guys. One of the soldiers spoke pretty good English and he helped me out with my Spanish, too, plus, Nate could participate happily, too. I think we spent at least half an hour there. How cool is that? I broke out my dye-sub printer and printed out a couple of photos for the guys. Here's one:

I need to look on my video camera and see if I captured anything with the checkpoint. I'm not sure. The video takes so much more time to edit and process, let's see what I can find.

Anyway, here's some neato pics, all touristy looking. Me gusta.

This is inside:

This is the weather out my front door right now

The real trip finally begins...

2009-09-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

Arno made it in a little after dark. I snapped a shot as he came up the road to the hotel...

Arno's ready...

The bikes are ready...

We'll cross the border in the morning and hopefully be able to communicate again soon.

Day 3, Los Lunas, NM. To Marfa, TX – El Paso an Economic Boom Town?

2009-09-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

Finally, a short day! Only 440 miles from Los Lunas to Marfa, the route took me through El Paso where I had an invite to meet Tim F. for lunch to discuss the seeming disconnect from the robust economic activity he sees there versus the hell-in-a-handbasket he reads from bloggers like me!

First off, note that Google maps doesn't even list El Paso until you zoom way in, LOL, it prominently displays Juarez though:

View Larger Map

I traveled roughly 2,000 miles in 2.5 days. The bike’s computer says that I am averaging 73.4 miles per hour when the bike is running, that’s really a good pace, one that I expect will be cut about in half from here on out, but we’ll see.

I got up a little later than the morning prior and headed out south across the desert:

It was a beautiful morning, the type of morning that I love to be outdoors. The smell of the fresh cool air combined with the soft morning light to accentuate exactly why riding a motorcycle, and a good one, is the way to see the world.

I rode the entire 3.5 hours to El Paso non-stop, passing through the very pretty Truth or Consequences, NM area, past Las Cruces and began hitting the suburbs of El Paso fully 10 miles prior to the bustling downtown area.

Nearly 2,000 miles of riding and never a traffic jam until I near downtown El Paso. An accident blocked the freeway and I spent the best part of a half hour in stop-and-go traffic in the 95 degree heat. The not-so-pleasant part of seeing the world via motorcycle!

It's NOT the El Paso I remember from over 20 years ago, that's for sure. It looked much more like Seattle with overcrowded streets and crisscrossing highways in the sky!

I still arrived a few minutes early to meet up with Tim. I found his suggested taco restaurant no problem:

The CHIH’UA was clean and almost empty at 11 AM, Tim arrived about 5 minutes after me, the timing was excellent considering the length of time I traveled to get there.

Tim arrived and introduced his friend and co-worker, Ray - that's Tim on the right, Ray on the left.

They work right around the corner for a contracting company that is building small storage units on Ft. Bliss under GOVERNMENT contract. Tim was succinct in explaining that the economy around the area seemed robust and was disconnected from what he was learning about economics from the non-mainstream media sources, all of which he rattled off I would recommend as being right on the money. I think a lot of people see busy streets, a stock market that is currently zooming from its lows and they KNOW that something is not right in their gut.

This “disconnect” produces anxiety, particularly in forward thinking people who are aware of the debt and who see and feel that the cost of living the “American dream” is getting out of reach considering an average persons’ wages. As Ray said, “It seems out of whack that a decent car should cost $20,000!” A great observation, and just look at how many cars are on the road that cost $30,000 or even $40,000 or more! What do those people do to afford those?

Well, what they do is finance them for longer and longer periods of time with more and more gimmicks to “get the credit flowing.” A banker’s credit, of course, is your debt!

We discussed the average price of housing and how it’s still high compared to wages. As I pointed out, both are good examples of bubbles. Yes, the price of autos was and still is a bubble, one that is being fostered by our own government - cash for clunkers being the latest distortion, the bail out of Chrysler and GM being a huge, menacing misallocation. It was, and is, nothing but a central banker money laundering scheme that bypassed the bankruptcy laws and funneled money to the central bank debt holders BEFORE the other creditors could be paid as is dictated by the rule of law that currently exists. America is going to pay dearly for these moral hazard blunders in the future, you will NOT see capital (money) form to start up truly innovating companies that actually manufacture something in the United States as long as the rule of law is being subverted by corporate interests. Their money is buying them political favors, plain and simple. This is why I suggest that corporations and their money should be separated from State in the same manner that religion is separate.

But I digress… Tim went on to talk about how the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission consolidated military bases and that the local Ft. Bliss was a huge recipient of funds, on the order of several billion dollars. The base has been building up for the return of troops from Europe and the Middle East. Tim speculated that that money was fueling a boom that trickled into the local economy.

I’m certain that some of the activity in the area is a buildup towards Juarez/ El Paso sharing in a portion of the NAFTA Superhighway. Below is a YouTube link explaining the superhighway (YouTube videos are not embedding correctly for some reason):

LINK: CNN Story, NAFTA Superhighway…

Yes, the infrastructure is good around El Paso. Miles and miles of good fresh concrete highways with fast speed limits.

While I love the high speeds, I don’t love the fact that the REAL JOBS of American productivity are outsourced overseas. What you’re seeing is money (capital) that is being put to work elsewhere and NOT in the United States. That’s what happens when the rule of law is not followed and the central bankers press to build a world full of cheap labor, indebted nations, and indebted individuals all being pitted against one another while the central bank skims interest off all “credit” transactions and builds a ruinous shadow banking system that rewards them while selling off toxic securitized debt “assets” to your retirement funds!

Get it? If not, make sure that you spend some time reading up at my economic blog, www.EconomicEdge.blogspot.com.

So there sits Tim and Ray wondering what’s happening and what they should do for the future. Tim is aware, a kind of watchdog for his family. I noted that society is full of watchdogs, but they are more rare and that most are basically sheeple. He’s buying some gold, and most importantly he’s staying out of debt, THE KEY TO BEING FREE.

Our conversation is pleasantly interrupted by our meal, sliced pork taco plates

Mmmm, delicious! We all enthusiastically downed every last bite. Ray picked up the reasonably priced tab by the way, thank you Ray!

Tim and Ray went on to explain that they have been building storage units on Ft. Bliss for nearly 3 years, most remain empty and they are still building them. Tim has a little angst about the future, and I didn’t help to ease his angst when I compared building those units to digging one hole, then digging another while filling up the first!

I explained that government spending IS NOT REAL ECONOMIC ACTIVITY. In fact, government spending is NEGATIVE ECONOMIC ACTIVITY because every dollar that is spent must come from the PRIVATE REAL ECONOMY.

Our spending on our military industrial complex is simply out-of-control. We spend more on national defense than the rest of the world combined. That is the height of economic mass psychosis to believe that that is sustainable, it’s simply not. This type of corporate pandering has built debt levels that are so large THEY CANNOT MATHMATICALLY EVER BE REPAID! History shows that countries who get into that position do not fare well – “other events” tend to follow. We will not be an exception when the history books of the future are written.

I explained to Tim that at some point an event or an ADULT leader will force the government to reign in the spending. When that happens, how secure is Tim’s job building unused storage units?

Sorry, but those units are another example of a misallocation in resources, a huge problem for our economy. I would say that El Paso’s boom is a bubble, just like housing, just like autos. All bubbles burst, and it is painful when they do.

Ray was and still is a skeptic. But the stock market crash and “recession” got his attention that all is not what it seems on the mainstream media façade. He’s ready to roll with punches, though, has a positive outlook and I’m sure will be successful in whatever future economic activity exists. And while my economic outlook is long term negative for America, it doesn’t get me down and shouldn’t get you down either. Life is exciting and worth living fully. We live in fantastic, in fact revolutionary times. Change is hard, but change is coming for America, yes, Tim is right, you need to be prepared, the angst and the disconnects are speaking to you – you would be wise to listen.

It was a pleasant hour of conversation, I think we all learned something from it and that makes it a big positive. Tim and Ray had to return to work and I had to hit the road…

See, I didn’t leave them in tears! Nice guys, hard workers I’m sure.

I hit the road and it was basically 3 hours of hot desert, fast highways, and trucks – a lot of trucks. Below is a typical scene looking across oncoming traffic…

As I pulled into Marfa, I notice that the population sign said 2,121, (SAAALUUTE, for you former Hee Haw fans)! The one and only fast food place was a Dairy Queen, and after 7 hours in the 95 degree sun, I stopped and indulged in a chocolate dipped ice cream cone! Bless America, she may be “a little overweight” but she’s still great!

And Marfa is a town that's easy to like! It’s a throwback to an older, slower America. Very quaint and very quiet, Marfa was a railroad stop and had a boom around the 1930 timeframe (sound familiar? What was happening around then?) when they thought they had discovered oil here. Turns out they didn’t! But Marfa got some terrific and beautiful buildings as a result.

Since Arno was broken down and I had plenty of time, I took a slow tour around the town. Nice homes, clean and quiet. I did notice that there seemed to be a house for sale on just about every block or so, the number of homes for sale looked very high.

I couldn't help but be charmed by the buildings and the churches:

I did notice several art galleries as I rode around. Later I found out that Marfa has become somewhat of an “artsy” little town, and I could see why.

Right in the heart of the town is a big beautiful hotel called the Hotel Paisano. Of course I was looking for a place to stay and it looked interesting, old and distinguished, much different than the other 1950ish roadside hotel I saw. Right in front of the hotel I saw a guy on a BMW R1200RT! I pulled over and met George…

Super nice guy, we spent probably 45 minutes or so talking. He’s on his way to Big Bend to go camping which sounds like fun. I was tempted to tag alone, but needed to be in communication to meet up with Arno. Turns out that George is from Bellingham, Washington, not too far from where I grew up in Anacortes.

It was humorous because as we talked about what each is up to, George brought up the economy, and I was surprise to hear him zoom in on the central bankers and how corporate America was buying off America and her politicians! BRAVO, George gets it! George is now partaking in a little freedom, touring the country on his bike. He gets the concept of expensive houses and autos being debt anchors to life and thus was expressing the importance of FREEDOM. This is a huge concept, one that I give a ton of thought and attention to and have been thinking more about on the ride down. Thus, I’m going to do yet another article to articulate the relationship of FREEDOM AND SECURITY and how that relationship exists in every facet of your life. I’ll get to that later… Great to meet George, I wish we could have spent an evening talking over a few beers, but he headed south and I went into the Paisano to check it out:

What a gorgeous place! I could see someone like Hemmingway just hanging out in a place like this.

After casing the place, I approached the desk and met Stephanie, a cute, young, and articulate life long local. I asked about rooms and prices, I got the starter price range of $99 to $249 per night. I said that was a little rich for my blood and said that I think I’ll mosey on down the road, to which she responded, “wait… we want you to stay here.”

LOL, now we’re talking business! The place was charming as all get out, and that made it worth paying a little extra, but not bubble hotel prices, that’s for sure. We settled on $80 for a night, more than I’m planning for most of my overnights, but I was tired, the place is interesting, I now had an extended layover, and I could use the time to write with some good high speed wireless access. I asked where is the best place for my bike and Stephanie responded, “right out front.” That’s where I put it…

I viewed the plaque next to the entrance and it explained a lot about Marfa and the hotel:

I carried my bags inside and stopped to talk some more with the nice clerk, and to get some information about Marfa and the local economy from her. She said that, indeed, there were way more houses on the market than usual, but that prices were still near their peak due to the art crowd coming into town. She thought they were way expensive (for a normal wage earner - there's that angst). She said she thought the average little house went for about $250,000 and lamented that a vacant and dilapidated "shack" on a tiny lot was asking $60,000 and that it hadn't sold in years of trying.

"What economic activity is there in Marfa," I asked.

"Well, you have the art crowd and the Marfa lights, that's basically it."

"Oh, I read about the lights. Are they real?" I teased.

"Oh yeah, I’ve seen them."

I played along, "Well, what do you think causes them?"

To which her reply was very grounded, "it's probably static electricity or something..."

Here's a link to the phenomena: Marfa Lights...

She was pleasant and knew how to do business, I liked that and took my keys upstairs. The room is very small and mostly in original 1930 condition, or a replica of it at any rate. Not great by modern standards, the biggest negative was the tiny bathroom with fixtures that badly needed updating. Not something I would consider paying $250 a night for, that’s for sure! Leaky old faucets and clear out under the shower when someone flushes a toilet!

That is the nice part of the room, overall the room is a 4 or 5 on a ten point scale. The lobby, courtyard and restaurant are a solid 8 to 9, but the rooms are not acceptable for the money.

The lobby and hotel are built around a courtyard and it is grand and in very nice condition with original wood and tile work. After getting settled in, I went down to the courtyard for dinner. There were a few guests there, but only a few. The group at the table next to me were speaking German. The courtyard is very pleasant:

Having had those delicious tacos for lunch and having spent more than I planned on the room, I opted for an Angus burger. It was good, I’d give it a 7 or an 8 on the Nate burger scale! The fries were fresh cut and had just a little parmesan cheese sprinkled on them – those were a 9. The burger would have been a 9, except the bun to burger ratio was a little too much on the bread side…

Ten bucks, not as bad as some hotels, but still bubble burger pricing. Of course the Nate standard to which all burgers measure up against is my own “10,” my special bagel burger. That’s right, that’s the gold standard right there!

After a decent night’s sleep, I started typing out this report and then went down to the lobby to negotiate a room with two beds since Arno is finally underway. I met the hotel manager who was not nearly as easy to negotiate with as Stephanie. I tried my best to talk her into a good rate, she quoted me $135 for the night, went down to about $115 but that was it – simply too much for rooms like that and in effect I would be paying $55 more for just a second bed. I packed up and said adios.

I then drove down the road a few blocks to the only other hotel in town, the Thunderbird. Yes, it reminded me of the wine. Cheap and in poor taste. But inexpensive it was not as the desk clerk began at $149 for one night and I could talk her no lower than $135 plus tax (which is 13.4% - and I was reading in the paper how Marfa is running a deficit and is voting this week to increase property taxes by 7.9%!!! I said goodbye to Marfa as it had suddenly lost its charm.

This brings up a point about hotels in general. Their occupancy is way down (both hotels less than half full and turning away my best offers), but their costs are not going down, they are being milked by a bloated government.

I jumped on my bike and rode for 50 minutes to the American border town of Presidio, Texas. A lot closer to Mexico in every way. Mostly dirt and gravel streets, only the main streets are paved. The buildings are not nearly as nice, but the town itself is twice as populated as Marfa.

I found a room at “The Three Palms,” because, well… they have 3 palms in a group. Painted bright white and blue, it’s pretty hard to miss. The rooms are pretty standard, but much larger and with a much better and functioning bathroom. Cost is $59 per night. Marfa, in my opinion is a little too uppity price-wise for what they have to offer. There’s a bubble there too, and I just don’t believe in contributing when I see one. Just call me, Nate, the bubble buster!

Hopefully Arno will make it to Presidio today and we’ll finally get hooked up. I just talked to him and he’s about half way here from Houston. Below is a link of tomorrow’s route, it’s on Bing maps. I wish I could embed Google maps for you because that’s a very cool feature, but unfortunately, it doesn’t route over international borders. Bing maps have some very, very neat features too, like routing across borders, but you can’t embed – ah well, never perfection! If you want a very, very cool experience however, take the time to load the Bing 3D map function while you’re there. You can fly the entire route from any perspective. It’s a little tricky to use until you get used to it and you’ll need a pretty fast machine, but WOW! Did I mention that it’s cool?

LINK: Bing Maps

Note that the distance to Creel, Mexico is only 308 miles, but it’s over 8 hours! Yes, it’s going to take awhile, looking forward to it and to seeing the Copper Canyon region, our goal for the next few days.

Al Stewart – On the Border:

Wild West

2009-09-15T23:09:00.000-07:00

Wild West Honda, that is.

I hit the road for Marfa this morning but I ended up at Wild West Honda to get some work done on the bike if they could accomodate me. Surprisingly and happily they could. Since I needed to get the valves adjusted anyway, they told me I had to let the bike cool all the way down - 5 hours would do. No biggie at all as I was grateful they could see me on such short notice. I'm not used to that!

So, I spent most of the day wiling away the hours. I've already had a video camera failure - more on that later, that I tried to fix, but mostly I just sat around drinking coffee like the unemployed slob that I am.

Anyway, I can't say enough about how rockin' Wild West Honda is (yes, they work on BMW's and sell BMW's, too - I guess that makes them a BMW, also ). What a great bunch of folks. Every one that I talked to were cool as hell. They didn't mind me asking questions or taking pics. They didn't forbid me from entering the work area or restrict me to certain areas and I even had free access to the head where I drained to pot of coffee they provided. This has to be one of the best dealerships I've ever set foot in. If any of you guys (pictured below) read this, thanks again for your hospitality

Service Manager dude (remember, I can't remember names - not even one second after hearing it)

Parts dude whom I pestered a lot

Ok, not only can't I remember names, but apparently job titles either

The mechanic dude who fixed my ailing baby. Serious and professional

Bad wire. Bad BAD wire. You're going to bed without your supper. Apparently the last guy to work on this bike didn't properly place this wire.

Hey, where's my bikes clothes?

Well, some of it is here. Good god, what a pile of crap I'm dragging along

And now it's the end of the day and I'm back at SheepShagger's. Let's give it a go again tomorrow.

That was Yesterday...

2009-09-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

The following pictures were taken between Ogden, UT., and Los Lunas, NM on the 14th of September.

Mood Music...

Pink Floyd, Comfortably Numb:

I actually had a few pictures that turned out pretty well even though most were taken while the bike was in motion. Here's a link to my SmugMug South America photo gallery (http://martineasley.smugmug.com/Moto...35817666_jVGRX) where you can view the ones not deemed worthy of posting here. Keep in mind that I take even more and toss the really bad stuff!

Arno's bike was making a funny "clicking" noise so he stopped at the BMW dealer outside of Houston. Turned out to be a wire that was resting on the engine and had melted through the insulation. They also did a valve adjust since he was there. It knocked him out for a day, so it delays our rendezvous and trip into Mexico a day. So, I got a nice hotel room and the internet is excellent, so it gives me a chance to upload all these pics. Hope I get some good connections in SA, but I'm not holding my breath. So, I'm going to lounge in Marfa tomorrow waiting for Arno... I have a couple of economic pieces I want to write, so I'll get those up on the www.twistededge.blogspot.com site tomorrow - don't forget to Click for a "Klick!" Thanks to everyone who had and does, it's most helpful to both Arno and me... Mucho Gracias!

As I launched out of Ogden it was pitch black dark, so obviously no pics all the way through Salt Lake City. I rounded the corner well south of there onto hwy 6. It was gusty as all get out as the wind shot down the pass. At the throat of the pass was a great place for some windmills and the sun was just starting to come up...

As I started to climb the pass it got colder than I expected, so I stopped at this corner to put on another layer. The rock formations are beautiful because they are very stratified...

Too bad the sun wasn't up a little more to see the rock...

As I rounded another corner I saw this...

At first I thought it was a low cloud in the valley, but it turned out to be steam from a coal plant as there was a large coal mine there.

This shot was typical of the high plains area.

As I rode and rode the plains, I kept thinking of the Clint Eastwood movie, "High Plains Drifter."

Of course that was quite a bit farther north, a high plain nonetheless!

My bike had killed at least a trillion bugs! By the time I got to Marfa, TX. it was so filthy I had to spray it off at the local carwash - a real Felix moment I hear Arno saying already! Here's a view through the windshield, couldn't see much through the bug layer. That reminds me... do you know what the last thing to go through a bug's mind is right as they hit the windshield? LOL, that's an old one but I think of it every time I see a windshield like that! (I'm sure you know the punch line)

As I headed south I came upon more cliffs and more red soil:

As I approached the Moab area (very beautiful), I came upon the Arches National Park, so I decided to pull in and see if I could get some photos:

I got this just from the entrance where I was stopped:

There was a steady stream of campers, RV's, and autos going past the entrance, so I followed, Baaaa, in line all the way to the pay to enter spot - WARNING, economic rant to follow - so, the line is a mile long and when I get close enough to see the entry fee sign, it says, "$10 per vehicle PLUS $5 per person!"

Now, that may not sound like much, but it just flat out pisses me off to pay to enter a park I already own! Now, you may say, "Yes, but they need the money for maintenance."

To which I say, "BULL."

You and I now work through the month of June just to pay for all our taxes, some of which is supposed to be used to maintain our parks. So, what's happening is the old teenager ploy...

Ever have a teenager? It goes like this... they work and earn say $100 in a week. They use their money for fun stuff and come to you to pay for the stuff they "need," thinking you don't know the difference! Thus it's a pass-through of the money.

Our government takes in $2.5 TRILLION in tax money, gives it to the central bankers who sponsor their campaigns, and then they don't have enough money for parks... or for schools! Rant over, you are now returned to your regular programming...

Oh, I turned around and didn't go. Baaaa.

And that's okay, because I got to see a lot of good stuff otherwise and it was free to look at and I don't even think I own it...

Things like this phallic tower:

And the Wilson Arch which was FREE:

I had to pass through a line of thunderstorms:

It was looking perfect, just like using the wx radar in a plane to avoid the cells. I was cruising about 85 mph when all of the sudden in the middle of nowhere was a line of parked cars literally a mile long. I came to a stop right beside the reason why:

I sat there for a half hour while the lightning and rain got closer and closer. I put on my Klim jacket and it started to pour, fortunately only for a few minutes and it was gone.

It took a couple more hours to get to Los Lunas. It was a pretty ride, but started to get hot and I was putting that jacket off and on the rest of the afternoon and didn't take many more pictures.

But hey, that was yesterday, more coming from today...

Foreigner - That Was Yesterday:

Oh yeah, I'm taxing your bandwidth now!

Nate's Day #2...

2009-09-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

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Made it to the little town of Los Lunas, NM, about 20 minutes south of Albuquerque. It was about a 740 mile day, and I did it after about only 4 hours of sleep. Needless to say, I'm pretty tired and will try to get time tomorrow for some pics.

I did get pulled over by a nice Colorado State Trooper who just wanted to give me a remedial math lesson... I don't know, something about how 80 is not equal to 65. Obviously he didn't go to the same math school as the boys on Wall Street!

All I heard was, "blah, blah, blah..."

No, seriously, this guy was very nice, very professional, and I believe had good intentions - wish more were like him. Of course I am trying to do all the right things like taking off my helmet, keeping my hands on top of my tank bag, calling him "sir" a lot, while not pressing my nose up and calling him an oinker, asking him who pays his salary, etc.

I also make sure I pull out my airline pilot's license along with my driver's license, that way I can prove that I have a license to fly this thing!

Pics tomorrow, I'm not sure I got any that are worthy, but we'll see. I'm meeting a reader in El Paso, Tx. tomorrow for lunch and should make Marfa sometime in the afternoon... to meet up with gay disco scooter man!

-----------------------

(referring to the picture posted on ADV)

Hey Arno... nice look on the scooter! I'm guessing that was right after the Disco closed for the night? I don't know, ELITE scooter, that says, WAIT! I know, it says "GAY." It was the matching white shoes to go along with the white scooter that cinched it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blakebird

Nate....looks like Arno had some equipment issues and had to make a last minute change - but is looking forward to seeing you shortly.

F800GS Tech Tip #1

2009-09-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

I put Rox Risers on the F800, both to allow me to sit in the pocket of the seat, but to be able to stand up all the way, too.

You can re-route the clutch cable to behind the forks for the extra play there, and a trick for the brake line is to simply swap ends. The stock configuration is too short, especially going lock-to-lock, but by simply swapping ends you have plenty of room.

How I spent my time in Houston

2009-09-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks to SheepShagger for putting up with my nonsense these last couple of days!

He's such a sucker though. Look how I tricked him into doing a service on my bike (can you see why he's a hit with the ladies, though? )

But since he's retarded, I did the more complex stuff myself.

His reward for all of his hard work? I let it him ride it around the block. He took off too soon for me to get his helmet though.

But in reality, I can't bust him too hard. This pic was taken within 5 seconds of getting off the bike after a long, wet ride from Dallas. Yeah!

Cheers, Mate!

Nate's Day #1 - I'll Be Gone 800 miles Before the Day is Through...

2009-09-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

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Got up well before 4 AM and was out the door prior to 5:00... Arrived Ogden, Utah about 5:30 PM Pacific time, a very quick trip for a little over 800 miles.

Here's the bike in the barn just prior to departure...

And here's the party to see me off...

And here's the bike warming up, it's excited, can you tell?

Hey, if you don't love bikes, you've come to the wrong place!

I took off and went straight through Enumclaw on hwy 410. Within 30 minutes I was climbing through Mt. Rainier national park up the winding road to the summit in the dark. It was clear and cool, and I could make out the shadow of Mt. Rainier looming with it's very large precense over my right shoulder during the climb.

I reached the summit hoping to be there about sunrise, but I was way too early, all I got looking East is this view of the very beginning of the sunrise with a planet shining just above:

As I ascended the mountain, it actually got much warmer as I climbed into a temperature inversion. It was upper 40's at the base and over 60 at the summit! Then as I descended back down I hit a spot were it went from 61 down to 44 in less than a minute! Of course I had just unzipped my coat to start cooling down as I was dressed warm expecting a cold mountain. By the time I got to Yakima, the sun was actually coming up and I needed to stop just to get my pant and jacket liners out - and get another shot of java to fend off the caffeine headache gods!

Then the morning was punctuated with a lot of this...

Followed by some really bad attempts at photography from a platform moving 80+ mph!

About then is when I flipped the iPod onto Pinsleur Spanish lessons. Of course my neurons are so fried from trying to calculate exactly how leveraged JPMorgan is with their $82 TRILLION in derivatives, that it took me twice just to catch about 10% of lesson #1! Perdon Senior, habla English? Cerveza (with two fingers held high)! Yes, Arno's going to be ordering me the absolute worst thing on the menu!

Idaho went quick because the speed limit is 75!!! That means I was only going 85 to about 90 the entire time! I finally passed my first biker heading the same direction just prior to Boise. Harley, of course, tank top, no helmet doing 85! The shocking part is I didn't know a Harley could do 85! I passed him, of course, and the next one I passed I wanted sooo bad to get a picture, but I felt that would be a little too bold... SHE was about 270 pounds, had a bright purple tank top and no helmet (not required in Idaho) with BRIGHT purple HAIR flapping in the wind and she was riding a purple HOG, of course! I thought to myself, "Man, she would be perfect for Arno!" Then I realized she was missing one key ingredient... no tattoos (that I could see! Not that I'd want to).

Anyway, the trip went pretty good, the weather was nice, it warmed up to 90 degrees and stayed there until Utah. I had to stop for gas only twice... grabbed breakfast the first time, nearly ran the tank dry the second and stopped in Bliss, Idaho. Not much to be bliss about there... pretty much a highway intersection with a single gas station.

At the gas station was a young girl (early 20s) who reminded me of my daughter (looked like her colors and size). Wore purple and had a purple flower backpack and a purple Ninja 450 (what's with the girls and purple bikes?). I tried some conversation and got a look like I was some dirty old man, and she said she was headed to Portland. Smart girl, I watched as she got on the freeway headed east, away from Portland, LOL!

Just past Bliss, I stopped to view the Snake River where it carved out the "Devil's Washbowl."

As I started to get about 100 miles north of the Great Salt Lake, the winds picked up to I'd guess 35 to 45 mph, very strong and gusty! I was cruising along about 85 and I noticed that my fuel consumption was going through the proverbial roof! So, I decided to speed up and slow down a little to play with the gauge and when I went to speed up I noticed that the throttle was almost wide open! It was the combination of 5,000 foot + elevation plus all the headwind!

Then the thundershowers were forming all over and I was lucky to miss it all until one just before the north end of the Salt Lake.

So, seeing that I was about to get dumped upon, I pulled over and decided to try my new self-storing GoreTex Klim jacket. It is a very cool piece of equipment. You just take it off the bike (I store it on the side of my tankbag), pull the jacket out of its own pocket and put it on. Looks nice and is very light weight. Also knocks the wind down good.

It works great. I can put it away in about two minutes and don't even have to get off the bike to put it on or off.

That's about it, it'll be a lot more fun to report on Arno's antics!

Here's a shot of the rocks just north of Ogden with the sun shining on it as it begins to get low in the West... Obviously a shot taken while in motion.

And here's a shot looking the other way into the sun across what you can see of the Great Salt Lake:

All in all a pretty long and high speed day. As I was zooming along I realized that 800 miles is fully 3%+ of a 24,000 mile journey! Not bad for the first day, eh? Of course the rest won't be that easy, although I'm going to try to knock out another 800 or so tomorrow.

It's pouring here now with lightning and thunder, the bike is taking the brunt... oh well, tomorrow I'll be 800 more miles before the day is done!

This is Where I Am

2009-09-13T20:29:00.000-07:00

Awesome, thanks to SheepShagger, I now have a SPOT device!

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Packed and Ready...

2009-09-12T19:41:00.000-07:00

Have the bike completely packed... took it for a test spin to make sure it was balanced and to top off the tank. Man, is it ever top heavy and just plain old heavy! Not that bad, really, but noticeable and quite a bit heavier than is ideal for off road riding - ah well, it's all a balance, isn't it?

Sure, I could leave the camping gear behind as a lot of people suggest, but I look at it as insurance, and besides, I enjoy camping on occasion and I know Arno does too.

I purchased that XL RED Ortlieb bag for the trip as my yellow large just wasn't going to cut it. That bag weighs 45 lbs as it sits, but I do have some items like a few books that will come out as the trip progresses (to be exchanged for cheap trinkets from foreign lands that will make it to the next garage sale, no doubt)! The panniers have probably 20 lbs each, so overall I'd guess the weight of me and my gear at about 300 lbs. Throw in more than 9 gallons of fuel (60 lbs) and a little more than 500 lbs for the rest, and it's pushing close to 860 lbs total weight.

Oh yeah, that's a bright red bag, the pic looks a little pinkish, it's not - not that there's anything wrong with that if it were!

Here's the obligatory beginning of trip speedo shot, reading 23,619 to kick it off.

I took it tonight because it'll be dark as I leave before 5 AM tomorrow. I hope to make Ogden between 7 and 8 PM tomorrow, more than 820 miles. I wouldn't want to do that on the stock seat, but on the Day Long it'll be okay...

I'm going to try to catch the sunrise at Chinook Pass... I'll post it tomorrow evening if I have wireless.

Joe Cocker - With a Little Help From My Friends (Woodstock):

Arno at Work in his New Job…

2009-09-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

I was digging around my smugmug photo collection of a few short trips that Arno and I have taken together. I think youre going to find his photography is most excellent as he really gets into it

The work environment sure is tough!

I always like someone whos willing to get a little dirty and who really gets into their work!

Darth Vader machine Mad Max Stealth whatever you call the look, Arno and his bike has it!

Heres his prior off road machine, always on the edge, but not nearly so Darth

Yes, Arno is always hard at work bringing us his very finest work!

Yep, Oscar, uh I mean Arno cuts a mean profile... A real Chick magnet there!

You have to admit that his Darth Vader BMW 800GS fits Arno a lot better than his old toy. Somehow thats just not menacing enough for a photog guy covered in tattoos!

But his hard work and creativity pays off with some pretty neat perspectives

Im really looking forward to seeing what great photos we can get on this trip!

Emerson, Lake & Palmer From the Beginning:

Tires on, Bike's ready...

2009-09-11T17:24:00.000-07:00

Nice job on that Nuvi... Ahhh, remind me not to let you work on my bike! LOL

Getting close to time for me and I'm basically ready. Went up to Seattle today to get the TKCs pulled off the bike and put on my new Tourances. Met my daughter, Taylor, for breakfast, last time I'll see her until I get back!

Tires cost $257 total shipped, and I spent $75 for mount and balance at Valentine's in Ballard on Aurora Ave. That's $332 for the set versus the $450 plus sales tax at a dealer - glad I got them changed before I left!

The TKCs I took off the bike only had 2,500 miles on them and I'm not sure the rear would have made it a thousand miles... most likely would not have made Albuquerque, again am glad I changed them now versus later. And it's sooo nice having a smooth tire again! Yes, I like smooth when I'm on the road. I don't mind it rough off the road, but smooth, please, when on it.

Zumo meet Nuvi, Nuvi meet Arno's Weapon of Mass Destruction...

2009-09-11T17:20:00.000-07:00

Nate posting on behalf of Arno...

Scooter1942 had PM'd me to go out for a beer and I was looking forward to it.

My GPS was starting to get a little flakey earlier on so I printed out the directions just in case. Sure enough, the GPS bit it big time, randomly scrolling through different maps and indifferent to whatever spot on the screen you touched.

I tried to make it, but, between the thunderstorm, the water on my faceshield, the water on my glasses, the water on the mapcase, the ink running from the water that leaked in, I gave up and stopped by a Target store to buy a cheapo GPS just to get me to the bar. Well, dammit, you needed to charge it up first. I couldn't see asking Scooter1942 to wait any longer, so I called him up and cancelled. Scooter1942, sorry man, really.

But at least I got to talk to another kind and patient person at Target

I got the Garmin 205 for two reasons: it was the cheapest one, on sale to boot, and the screen size is physically the same as the Zumo. I had hopes of transplanting the Nuvi screen to the Zumo screen. They were physically the same but the connector was different. Bummer! Dusty, you didn't just see what I did to that new Nuvi

So what do you do with a non-functioning and non-turning-off Zumo? Make it a platform for the Nuvi. Hope it doesn't rain!

Next stop: Houston.

My Texas Video - Part 1

2009-09-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

Texas Winds from Arno Jones on Vimeo.

2009-09-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

You meet the coolest people on the road. I have yet to approach anybody, but at almost any stop, somebody with curiosity will approach me and ask some kind of question. It always puts a smile on my face and I know to get ready to settle in for awhile.

Here, Carl comes walking up to me, grinning, asking, "Do you think you have enough crap strapped to your bike!" Well all I can do is laugh back and make weak justifications. We're both yelling at each other because we're both half-deaf. He works in the oil industry, around compressors all day. He hands me his Texas-sized business card that's twice as big as a regular one. I should have known :lol3

Texas

2009-09-09T21:15:00.001-07:00

Texas should be called "Wind". Actually, it should be called Stupid Wind. And Stupid Wind would be short for "It doesn't matter which direction I'm heading, the wind will always be a head wind with lots of turbulence, or a side wind that will plaster your jacket to your body so air can't flow through it so you get even sweatier, or wind such that when you pass a tractor trailer you get blasted by the wind and you do your best impression of a motorcycle bobble-head and I shake my fist at the sky and and yell 'don't make it any hotter! Don't make it any windier! '"

And of course the wind is a hot wind, so in desperation you crack your visor for some extra ventilation, but all you do is simply cook your eyeballs to toast and you can't see while uttering words like "gahrrr, aaiiee, and grrrr...".

And speaking of seeing - what's with all the extra light down here? There would be plenty enough light to see by with only half this light! It's all these patches of blue sky that lets the light in, then the light bounces off the ground into the clouds, which in turn get sent back down into my burning eyeballs a second time. Too much light!

Texas is too big. I was on the same road for an entire day. That shouldn't be allowed. You should be forced to take some other road for awhile just to have a change-up. I didn't like looking at my GPS and reading "next turn in one zillion miles".

So there you have it:
Hot winds
Blue holes in the sky
Endless roads

And when I'm sitting around on a cold, wet night in Portland, dreaming of being anywhere else, one of the songs that comes to mind is Chris Rea's song - Texas. How does it go?
Warm winds blowin'
Heat and Blue Skies,
And a road that goes forever...

Yeah, and in mid fist shake I have to stop and laugh my ass off, realizing I got exactly what I asked for and, actually, I'm grateful for it.

A Short Video Clip

2009-09-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

Clips of the Ride From Vancouver to Utah from Arno Jones on Vimeo.

Day 3: Just Past Amarillo

2009-09-07T18:02:00.000-07:00

Not all that much has happened today. I started the day with LiteWait's great coffee and hit the road. I got onto Hwy 287 and I think I'm still on 287 8 hours later!

The heat and the cross and head winds were oppressing and it was wearing me down. I guess it showed because I hardly talked to anyone today.

I talked to a WWII vet today. He was selling peaches on the side of the road. I stupidly forgot to take a picture.

At this gas station I met an enthusiastic rider. He had stuff to do though; he is on his way to scatter his bro's ashes in Jackson Hole, WY.

Ride on, Brother.

Once again, I had my head up my ass. Eastern Colorado might as well be the Arizona desert if you don't pay attention to the mileage and the gas station locations. For reference, my tank holds 4.2 gallons.

Let's see what tomorrow brings. I still have about 300 miles to get to Dallas