Day One---February 9th, 2004
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We start off with a border crossing at Presidio, Texas and do what I'll call--"The border crossing Boogie". Here's Kenny at one window---now its stamp, copy, move to another window---stamp, copy, move to another window--then--stamp stamp, doe, see, doe, swing you partner to the border crossing boogie---copy copy copy, go back a step or two--swing you partner and don't be blue!!--We only spent 20 minutes here and were on our way--nobody spoke English and a nice lady who pulled in helped us out greatly. I can't talk about them not speaking English--me and Kenny couldn't speak Spanish--oh this is going to be fun. . |
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Say What ?????? Which way do we go ? They don't teach this in drivers ed. We were heading south towards Jiminez avoiding going thru the busy city of Chihauhau. This proved to be a very scenic moutainous route and was recommended by my good friend John Simmons---proprieter of "Grassroots" BMW in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. I remembered his words "Don't try to ride all the way to Creel
or Botopilas---and for sure, don't ride in Mexico after dark" !!!! |
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Here is our first Military Police Checkpoint---this was after going thru a regular border checkpoint--about 25 miles into Mexico. "Me No Habla Espanol" But if they ask me to I'm sure I would have sputtered out something. Kenny alway enjoyed the armed checkpoints and would always ask to take their pictures. These guys were a hoot----and we had a little fun here as they scoped out our machines and we scoped out theirs. One guy didn't seem to want his picture took and hid behind a sign while the others laughed--guess he didn't want on "Big Dogs" webpage !! |
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| Across the street they had a little bivuoc set up--with a shelter and a military version hummer. They knew what my GPS was---I figured they had one in that hummer. |  |
| It was beautiful riding and the temperature was about 65 degrees----looks like some mountains on the horizon and we took a break here at this lake. Yeah---that 7 gallons of fuel in my KLR really looks good---Ken's got one of those pissy-assed little 5 gallon tanks on his DR and he seemed to think that one gallon of what I was carrying belonged to him if he needed it. What are friends for !! |  |
| Pemex--gas station---gasolina !!! Whatever you want to call--they are government owned gas stations and each pump has a guy there to pump your gas, clean you windshield and change your anti-freeze. I found you can pay in Pesos or American dinero---but no matter what, you will receive pesos as your change. Me and Kenny usually left them a little tip for their trouble. Most of our gas from now on would be bought out of a barrel or gas can by the litre---your in Mexico--litres and kilometers--learn it. |  |
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Me and Kenny didn't have any pesos--so we took a little side tour through the nice town of Carmaga and found a banco (bank) and exchanged some gringo dollars for pesos. Hah--we fooled them--I gave the lady a few dollar bills and she gave me back enough pesos to choke a big donkey---we were loaded. When we wheeled into town---I just asked anybody who would listen---"Banco"--and they would point me the way---right or sometimes wrong. |
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| We bullied our way thru the busy town of Hidalgo Parral and headed off further West hoping to find lodging in the town of Guachochic-----its getting late and I remembered the words of my friend "Don't ride in Mexico at night". Never. |  |
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We rode and rode and I realized we weren't going to make it to Guachochic. We entered the town of Balleza and I used the 3rd and last work of Spanish I knew------"Motel" ????? The only one in town had a room left and they motioned me to put our bikes in this beautiful inner courtyard where our bikes were secure. This picture was taken from the balcony of our 2nd floor room. 200 pesos ($20) for the night. "Ahhh--Mexico" |
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They had a in house restaurante'--hey I know 4 words now--this is easier than I thought. This man here is the owner and his wife fixed us a great Mexican dinner and we had a hoot pointing and grunting--a very simple conversation---he adios-ed us on the way out and I adios-ed him back ---and hey--now I know 4 Spanish words. What a repertoire. About $6 for the both of us---yes I l like it here. "Ahhh--Mexico" |
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Up in the room, I'm counting my big fat little peso stash--hope my wife doesn't find out I got all this. We unplugged the TV as me and Kenny don't allow TV's on our rides---don't know if it worked or not. The hot was on the right in the lavatory--on the left in the shower----except there was no hot water anyway--no toilet seat--no door knob--no heat (I'm not saying it didn't work--there wasn't any)--no air conditioning. We didn't need no stinking heat or toilet seat--we are adventure riders right ?--right !!! We can pee like men and not worry if it was up or down. I put my earplugs in for the night and prayed I'd fall asleep before Kenny would start snoring. |
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