We
got out of Seattle at about 2:00 pm. It is the Start of the Labor-Day escape
the big city mess. Tacoma, Portland, Albany was 10-20 mph Stop & Go riding
with lots of aggressive drivers swerving back and forth between lanes. Our goal
was to make good time down I-5, this just wasn’t happening around larger
cities. Interstate-5 is very boring riding but we are making good time on this
superslab. We needed to get to Gerlach, Nevada by tomorrow. It was sunny and
maintained a warm 80-90 degree day.
We
stopped in Medford and motelled it in one of the many Indian run motels.
Distance: 455 miles, Time: 8 hours, Average: 56.9
mph, Maximum: 80.5 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 1
Rode
in from Medford, OR to Gerlach, NV
We
took the highway 140 east out of Medford that winds through the Rogue River
National Forest and ends up on the west side of Upper Klamath Lake. It was a
nice morning and it wouldn’t be long before we would be crossing the Nevada
border. We stopped at a grocery store to buy as much water as we could load
onto our bikes. Recommended quantity is one gallon per day. We sliced through the northeast corner
of California and made quick time down to Gerlach. Before heading out into the
desert we had to stop at John & Rachel Bogard’s Planet-X Pottery to buy
some things to send back home. We had brought them down a greeting card we had
received a year before with a picture their Planet-X billboard just outside
Gerlach. They were not aware that their sign was being used in such a fashion.
As usual we got an earful of local insight to their feelings on the Burning Man
Festival.
We
rode into Gerlach (population about 250) and turned on to route 34 and then
onto the Black Rock Desert.
Welcome
to Black Rock City!
This
year the site was positioned about 10 miles northeast of Gerlach in the middle
of the Black Rock Desert between the Dry Mountain peak (6526’) and the Calico
Hills. Last years site was in a much more confined area of the Hualapai Flats.
We
rode onto the Black Rock Desert and into the entrance to the Burning Man
event. We were informed at the
entrance that we were not allowed to leave the site unless we wanted to pay a
$20 re-entrance fee. This sucked! It is really tough for anyone on a motorcycle
to haul several days of provisions out onto the desert. Worst of all is the
fact that we were forced to stay in the camp during the day and exploring the
hills around the Black Rock Desert was prohibitive. We had to find a community
to join on the desert floor. This is kind of what Burning Man is all about,
being part of the community. We were aware of the BMW camp and now we had to
find it because we were now dependent. As we rode into the surrounding ring
that encircles the desert city and we were greeted by Jim Rowley(MAP
Engineering) on a bicycle. He directed us to the BMW camp. This made the search
to find the camp so much easier. We found the BMW motorcycle camp. Eva’s bike
wouldn’t start after she shut it down in front of the camp site.
We
arrived at Black Rock City 2 hours before the big sand storm. The storm lasted
about 2 hours and we helped people hold down their shade structures during the
storm. After the wind came the rain and lightly rained into the night, it
turned the dry lake bed into a mudfest. It was weird. We walked around that
night collecting mud on the bottom of our shoes. It was like walking around
with five pound weights attached to each foot and round soles for shoes. We
jumped on the rolling Cocktail Lounge for a ride across the playa. Eva sat in
one of the sofas while I sat on the edge of the platform. It was not that good
of an idea because people had been jumping out of the mud onto the Cocktail
Lounge platform all night, right where I was sitting. I had my leathers on so
it didn’t bother me so much. The opera was supposedly starting at midnight but
was delayed due to the rain. We went back to our camp and slept for a couple
hours to have energy to go back at 2:00am to catch the rescheduled time. We
walked out there with Dave Rankine and sat at the edge of the staging area of
the opera. To our displeasure it was delayed another 2 hours. This thing may go
on at dawn! We decided to skip it and get some rest.
Distance: 288 miles, Time: 5:10 hours, Average: 55.5
mph, Maximum: 82.4 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 2
Entire
day spent at Burning Man
Bikes
stayed parked with Eva's bike on the Matt Parkhouse’s solar powered trickle
charger.
The
morning was spent cooking breakfast and scraping mud off the bottom of our
boots. I better get started checking the electrics on Eva’s bike before it gets
too hot to work.
Checked
the alternator rotor and the resistance between the pick-ups measured about 4
ohms. It was still good. Pulled the diode board next and all the diodes checked
out all right. Didn’t know what was dragging down the battery. Pulled the
battery out and shook it around thinking that there was some debris shorting
out some of the battery plates. Bob Shilling lent us his jumper cables to get
us to the next dealer. Just left
it on the chargers all day. I was frustrated enough to let the dealer figure
out why it is not holding a charge.
We
stayed that night for the burn.
We
walked back and forth across the playa like moths being attracted to different
bright lamps. Every time we saw something interesting light up in the distance
we would walk in that direction. We would usually get there by the time the
display was finished. We wandered into various playa discotheques to check out
the music and the crowd. There didn’t seem to be many live bands this year.
There may have been some in the outer rings of the city where we didn’t
venture. We followed the Nebulous Entity around for a while as it wondered the
playa thumping out a techno beat.
There
were two tesla coils set up on either end of the playa. The first one we
stopped at had a guy in a robot outfit slowly dancing around a 10 foot tall
coil allowing the arcs of electricity to ground out on his body. He would
occasionally grab some item and let the coil fry it to cinders.
There
was a very large coil on the other side of the playa, looked like 18-20 feet
tall. It was very impressive work of engineering. This machine emitted some
very impressive arcs.
The
man was about two-thirds the size from what it was last year. But it went up,
just the same, with an amazing display of fireworks and flame.
MotoJournal
Day# 3
Rode
from Gerlach to Cedar City, UT.
We
got started early out of Black Rock City, passed a big line of cars as we
headed south. Traffic was a little tedious leaving Gerlach headed south on
route 447. Nevada is such a nice state to tour with always changing terrain. We
spotted a pick-up truck hauling a trailer containing a BMW R100GS and a dirt
bike. I waved as we rode by. Looked like some old man who might be a little
pissed off at the Burning Man crowds.
It
was getting dark as we approached Cedar City. The darkness of the evening was
making a challenge for Eva to lead with the dead charging system on her bike.
There was not enough charge to light the headlight so I rode in front to light
the road up with my headlight. Surprising that the motor kept running at such a
low charge. I have been at this state a couple times on old R100s and the motor
just stops running at a certain level of battery charge.
Distance: 574 miles, Time: 9:11 hours, Average: 62.4
mph, Maximum: 90.2 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 4
Cedar
City, UT to St. Johns, AZ
We
rode out of Cedar City on a good road, Highway 14 through the Dixie National
Forest. The road climbed quickly out of Cedar City into the hills east of town.
It was nice to get into the mountain roads. We followed alternate hwy 89 that
runs on the north side of the Grand Canyon National Park. We stopped at some
interesting Indian rock dwellings near the Vermillion Cliffs before we crossed
the Colorado River. These dwellings, a small village, were built from huge red
sandstone boulders.
We
were panhandled twice on the Hopi Indian Reservation, once at the turnoff of
Highway 89 to Highway 160. The first time was when I had to stop and jump-start
Eva’s bike so I was not in a good mood at the time. The second time was in Tuba
City while we were filling up. We wanted to ride down Highway 264 out of Tuba
City but felt going back to Highway 89 would be more wise considering the
condition of Eva’s battery. We might be able to locate a BMW dealer in
Flagstaff. When we rolled into Flagstaff, the clouds opened up and rained hard.
It was about noon at that point so we stopped at a service station to try to
locate the BMW dealer. Unfortunately the dealer was closed for some reason. We
had the service station put Eva’s battery on the charger for a couple hours. In
the mean time we walked over to a restaurant and had lunch while the battery
charged.
It
was starting to get dark as we were getting close to the Apache National Forest
and we felt it would be better to camp at Lyman Lake State Park instead of
dodging deer. I managed to get the camp hosts to open up the camp store so I
could at least buy a couple beers to go with the evening dinner.
Distance: 466 miles, Time: 8:28 hours, Average: 55.1
mph, Maximum: 81.4 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 5
St.
Johns, AZ to Columbus, NM
Rode
down Arizona Hwy 191 out of St. Johns. What a great motorcycle road. You know
it is a good road when there is a sign that says no trucks over 40 feet
allowed. There were many tight corners with couple nice pulloffs to enjoy the
views.
Went
past the 3rd largest copper mine in the world at Morenci, AZ.
We
stopped in Deming, NM to get Eva's bike checked out. It turned out to be the
Voltage regulator. With an oil change and an $190 later we were on the road to
the Mexican Border.
Stopped
and camped at Pancho Villa State Park that night. The park is situated about a
half mile from the border of Mexico. As we set up our tent, a resident of the
campground stumbled out of his RV to greet us. He had obviously been drinking
for some time and was quite looped. I wish he would have offered us what ever
he was drinking. It had been a long day and I was ready for a strong drink to
relax me at that point. He excused himself after realizing that he was a bit
too drunk to talk to us.
The
daylight disappeared quickly and we had to find the showers in this poorly lit
campgrounds. I like the dark but it was hard to find the showers. After a nice
shower we retired for the night. There seemed to be a lot of activity into the
night along this road. The campground was within 50 feet of the road going into
Mexico.
Distance: 305 miles, Time: 6:05 hours, Average: 50
mph, Maximum: 80.9 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 6
Columbus,
NM to Ciudad Guerrero
We had breakfast at the little restaurant
located at next main intersection north of Pancho Villa State Park. It looked
like the only restaurant in town. We started to realize that everyone was no
longer speaking English and we had entered the gray zone that is close to the
border..
The next town was Palomas in Mexico. We
crossed into Mexico with little difficulty. Just as cross into Mexico on the
north side of Palomas there is a small white building on the right side of the
road. This little building is Immigration and is the first stop after entering
the country to get your tourist card. We turned right after getting past the
crossing and parked the bikes. Walked over to Immigration to get our card and
then back to the small house trailer building near were we parked the bikes.
The trailer house was where you get the vehicle permit. We made sure we had
enough copies of our passport/titles/drivers license to satisfy the permit people.
In a short time they were applying the holographic sticker to the fronts of our
bikes and we were now legal to venture all of mainland Mexico.
We stayed on the main route heading south. I
noticed every couple hundred meters there would be fresh peppers sitting in the
road. It was like bread crumb trail to some wonderful restaurant. We finally
caught up to the truck that was loaded to the brim with fresh hot peppers. As
we rode behind the truck we watched as every bump the truck hit it would
deposit a small offering of peppers to the road god.
Our first stop in Mexico was to visit the
ruins at Casas Grandes. This site had been inhabited from as early as 700 AD to
the late 13th century. The adobe maze of buildings are called Paquimé and are
spread out over an area of about 90 acres.
We
traveled south through the farming areas of the Mennonites (Campos Menonitas).
The countryside is very similar to the rural Midwest. in the states. Well
maintained road .
By
the time we arrived in Ciudad Guerrero we were feeling a bit fatigued from the
days activities and decided to find a place to stay. We ate at a nice
restaurant on the town square and asked them for hotel recommendations after
the meal. They pointed us up the street to the Las Cabañas Victoria. It was adjacent
to a loud side street but we were too tired to let it concern us. We bought a
small bottle of Tequila to enjoy and walked around town before retiring for the
night.
Distance: 308 miles, Time: 6:35 hours, Average: 46.8
mph, Maximum: 71.8 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 7
Ciudad
Guerrero to Creel.
We
got an early start and headed down the road to La Junta. We were going to pick
up highway 16 going west towards Basaseachic Falls National Park (Parque
Nacional Cascadas de Basaseachic.) In La Junta we stopped at the truck stop at
the turn-off to Hwy 16 for breakfast. The food was marginal but it looked like
it was the only place for miles. And it was.
The
road started to get fun here. It started winding up into the mountains with
wonderful views of the valley. I wanted to stop and take a photo but the
opportunity never happened. I was having too much fun to stop and take
pictures.
We
arrived at Basaseachic Falls Park and was surprised that there was nobody else
there. The place was vacant and it was strange to be at such that was not being
overrun with tourists.
We
took the dirt road (#330) that heads in the direction of San Juanito. This was
a wonderful dirt road that skirts the northern edge of Copper Canyon region. We
went over 2 or 3 nice mountian passes on #330. It seemed like a longer distance
than the numbers we plotted on the map. The road only got rough with heavy
washboard bumps when we started to get close to San Juanito. When we reached
the paved road it was just a short hop into Creel.
Distance: 177 miles, Time: 5:31 hours, Average: 32.0
mph, Maximum: 69.1 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 8
Creel
to Batopilas
2713
miles from Seattle.
In
the morning we rode out to Divisidaro to look into the Canyon from the north
rim. This place was quit the tourist trap. It had a separate little complex
just to sell trinkets to the tourists that come off the train. Nice road with
new pavement from Divisidaro to the turnoff. The hotel there looked like a very
nice place to stay if you could afford it.
Went
back to Creel and took the road to Batopilas turnoff. We prepared our camera to
take some nice photos of the upcoming view. As I changed film the camera
managed to eat the film. All the cool picture up to this point in the trip was
now lost! A good reliable camera is worth the extra money. You don’t realize
this fact until something like this happens.
Eva
looked at the first little uphill section at the turnoff with some anxiety. It
was a rutted uphill section that gave the impression that this is what the
entire route might be like. We
rode up the hill and it turned out that it looked worse than it actually was.
There was a “Y” in the road, left route staying level and the right going
downhill. There was no road sign indicating the correct direction to turn. We
steered left and stayed on the correct road to Batopilas. Lucky guess. Within a
couple miles we were at the rim of the canyon, looking down at the twisty dirt
road winding its way to the bottom of the canyon.
It
got very hot as we descended into the canyon. We met a couple vehicles coming
up the canyon. There is not much room when you meet these vehicles. Eva felt
more comfortable staying on the far left side of the road when these meetings
happened. I always stayed on the proper side of the road so the meeting driver
must have thought we were weirdos as he had to drive between us. It was getting
real hot as reached the bottom. We were close to running out of water when we
finally reached Batopilas. The town is squeezed between the river and the rock
wall of the canyon. It is a long town due to this feature. The old silver mine
sits on the other side of the river.
Stayed
at Hotel Mary in town.
We
immediately got our swimsuits on and went down to soak in the river. It was
really refreshing after the days ride in the hot weather.
Spent
a nice evening sipping Tequila in the hotel courtyard, very relaxing. It was
perfect.
Distance: 140 miles, Time: 5:56 hours, Average: 23.3
mph, Maximum: 64.2 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 9
Spent
the day in Batopilas
In
the morning we started off and walked up the dirt road about 4 miles to see the
“Lost Cathedral of SatevÓ” in San Igancio. We had been on the bikes for a while
and seemed like a good idea to use our legs to get around. The bikes were safely
inside the hotel courtyard so there was no worry. The “Lost Cathedral” had been
there for four centuries. The church was originally built by Jesuit
missionaries who dared to venture into this canyon.
We
had to knock on the door of one of the locals houses to get the key to the
church for a peek inside. There was a big group of children hanging out in
front of the church.
On
our way back we met an older local couple traveling with their burro, the man
was wearing a huge sombrero. He commented on how nice a hat I was wearing with
a snicker (it was Eva’s extra hats).
We
walked back to Batopilas and through town to the far end. Eva wanted to explore
the foot highway used by the Tarahumara Indians. We walked a couple miles and
the afternoon heat was getting to us. A soak in the river is what we needed at
that point. We spent a couple hours floating in the cool river. It felt really
good in that hot weather. When we got out we met an Indian who was transporting
eggs to the next community up river. We talked to him for a while. Picking out
a word or two to make sense of what he was saying to us. I hope he made sense
of some of the things we said.
That
evening I spend checking over the bikes making sure they were ready for the
next leg of the journey. I pulled the Acerbis fuel tank off my R80G/S to check
the oil level. This would cause some problems the next morning. We slept like
the night before, hot night and mosquitos, you figure it out.
MotoJournal
Day# 10
Started
off in the morning after extracting the bikes out of the hotel courtyard. We
suited up and headed out of town. My R80G/S was running really rough. I stopped
to look and see if something had been pulled out of adjustment when I had the
tank off. Everything looked fine. So I pulled the tank again to take another
look. It turned out that the throttle cable had been pulled out of the Y-split
[Chinese finger trap]. That was easily corrected once the cause was discovered.
Dirt
road from Batopilas to the junction with the paved road.
from
turnoff to Creel
Distance: 38.8 miles, Time: 2:43 hours, Average:
14.2 mph, Maximum: 29.7 mph
(Dirt
road from Batopilas with 2 rest stops)
Distance: 48 miles, Time: 1:32 hours, Average: 31.3
mph, Maximum: 58.6 mph
(Paved
road to Creel)
MotoJournal
Day# 11
Creel
to Ciudad Obregon
Coming
out of Creel we didn't realize how long of a day it was going to be. The
mileage out to the coast is not that great be there are thousands of tight
corners making the trip a very slow endeavor. Our first task was to take the
short cut over to the main road out to the coast. This is a dirt road about 60
miles long that goes over two mountain passes (hwy 23 from San Jaunito to
Cascada de Basaseachic). The view is quiet spectacular at the summit of the passes.
We went over two 9000 ft passes on that dirt road. The area north of the Copper
Canyon region is still pretty rough. The dirt road ends at the intersection
with the paved road to the coast. It is very close to the Falls park. We
stopped there on our way down to view the falls. There was a car stopped at the
turn off to the falls. Eva was well ahead of me by that point and when I passed
the car the occupants waved me down. They thought I was looking for the Falls.
At
the intersection to highway 16 there is the customary police check point. They
just waved us on today. The road slowly wound it's way high up into the
mountains. Lots and lots of corners with there always being a question of what
is on the other side. There is the ever present chance of cars/trucks crossing
the centerline and animals in the middle of the road waiting to be turned into
hamburger. We crossed into the state of Senora and immediately found out how
badly the state of Senora maintains their roads. The road degraded once we crossed
into Sonora. There were sections of broken pavement everywhere. Chiwowian roads
looked like race tracks compared to roads in Sanora. Once we crossed the final
ridge before dropping down to the coast the mountains opened up to a panoramic
view showing the ridges we have been riding along dropping down to the plains
below. You don't want to slide off the road anywhere because it is a long drop
down the steep valleys.
It
was getting to be late in the afternoon and we still had a lot of road to cover
until the main super highway that runs a straight line down the Gulf of
California coast. Every town along this route were extremely small. I am happy
we didn't need fuel at this point. We slowed at a couple medium sized villages
and contemplated an overnight stay. I don't know why we didn't stop off. Most
of the larger towns were a couple kilometers off the main road and the risk of
stopping and not finding a place to stay was too big due to the quickly falling
sun. We were travelling south until we reached the town of Rosario. There the
road made a tee and left was the town and right took you west. There was
another police check point here and they didn't seem too interested in
bothering us.
It
was starting to get dark and there was a cloud of grasshoppers/locus hovering
about 10 feet off the road surface. It must be a Darwinian effect on the bug
population. All the bugs flying lower than that level have been creamed by
trucks thus breeding out the low flying bugs in that region. The road kill
today was taranchulas, frogs, butterflys, grasshoppers. We made good time on this road because it was very straight and
quickly made it out to the Mexican super slab. Our objective was to make into
Ciudad Obregon and secure a room in a nice motel and get a good nights sleep to
have energy for the next days ferry ride. Little did we know that today was
Mexican Independance Day and the town would be filled with revelers celebrating
their independence from Spain. We stopped at a Best Western Motel near the
center of town. The night watchman immediately came out and struck up a
conversation about motorcycles. He was once up in the state of Washington
working and was able to hold a good conversation in English. He explained to us
what was going on in town and had a good look at our bikes. He promised to keep
a good eye on them over night. We checked in and stripped off our gear and went
off in search of a good seafood restaurant. Unfortunately the restaurant that
we had in mind was closing down early that night due to the Holiday. They were
nice enough to recommend another place which was not too for away. We had a
very nice dinner and strolled back to the motel. We were caught up in a stream
of people headed to the town square. We went along to find out what was going
on. There was a large plaza filled with people in the shadow of the towns
government building. It looks as if we just missed the big speech for the night
and people were just mingling around. There was a mariachi band playing but we
couldn't hear a thing over the noise of the crowd. The motel had a swimming
pool that was calling our names.
This
was a tough day.
Distance: 299 miles, Time: 8:43 hours, Average: 34.3
mph, Maximum: 66.9 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 12
Ciudad
Obregon to Topolobampo
After
starting out the morning with Eva chewing out the Motel Manager over the bill.
There was an excise tax added on to our bill that was never mentioned when we
signed in. It seemed pretty suspicious It was another $10 dollars and thought
it was worth making a fuss over. They quoted us a price that seemed reasonable
the night before but now with the added surcharge that made this place seem a
bit too expensive. I hate those hidden costs.
We
headed south on Hwy 15 towards Los Mochis. There was a slightly confusing checkpoint
stop when we passed from the state of Senora to Sinaloa. The officials there
were waiving us back and forth until they were happy with our situation and let
us continue on our way. We pulled off the highway at Los Mochis. We were
getting low on fuel and tried to find premium gasoline being that this was a
large town. We stopped off at a Pemex station and asked for premium. The gas
station attendant told us that they were out and we could clearly see that the
next isle over that a cage driver was pumping it into his car. The attendant
told us that there was a Pemex station down the road with premium fuel. We
never did see that station.
We
continued down the road to Topolobampo. The town of Los Mochis seemed to go on
forever. Lots of vendors were set up along the roadway to the seaport. It look
that at times there would be a huge line up to load onto the ferry. We rode
around town looking for a cash machine because we knew the ferry would be
expensive. After finding cash and necessary rehydration we ventured down to the
ferry landing which was situated around the bay on the north west side of town.
The ferry landing was not that well marked and we rode around asking about what
we would have to do to book passage. It ended up that we had to first go to the
weight station and fill out some paperwork. This was nice because the weigh
station was air conditioned. After the correct paperwork we then were allowed
to go and purchase our tickets. This boat turned out to be the night ferry.
After paying for our tickets we had some time to kill before we had to line up
for the boarding. We went back into town and found a nice place to get a late
afternoon lunch. It was a nice seafood place that overlooked the main drag in
town next to the waterfront. We sat and indulged in fresh prawns and bottles of
Pacifico beer. The nice view allowed us to watch the activity down on the
waterfront were our bike were parked. Many outboard motor skiffs zoomed back
and forth in the bay which their activity seemed to be solely directed towards
the collection of beer. They would pull into town and drop off a friend who
would walk down the street to a Deposito and pick up a load of beer and ice and
bring it back to the boat. And off the boat would go with happy fishermen and
their beer. We noticed people were slowly filling the restuarant. We had forgot
that today was still a Mexican holiday and people were still enjoying the
festivities. After getting our fill of prawns we headed down to the bikes and
started to get ready to head back to the port. There was an other hour before
we needed to be down there so we decided we required some ceviche for dessert.
We moved the bikes so we could still see them from the new restuarant and went
up to enjoy the ceviche. We watched as the fishermen were filling by the
resturant towards the Deposito. This looked like a good idea before we boarded
the ship. So we purchased a six pack with helio (ice) before riding back down
to the port.
We
got down to the ferry landing and started our wait. We didn't realize that
bikes are the last to be loaded so we had a long wait ahead of us. As we were
leaned up against a railing waiting and huge Chevy Suburban with blacked-out
windows pulled up and the driver yelled something out the window at us. It was
the police. A group of them rushed out of the Suburban and started questioning
us. Is this your bike? Do you like Drugs? What is in the bags? they asked us.
It was hard keeping a straight face while they asked silly questions. As the
last of the trucks where finally being loaded the dock workers waived us to the
loading dock. There was only four trucks left when the wind picked up. Because
this port is third deepest port in the world the Mexican government has not had
the funds to build a mooring for the forward end of the ferry. Thus when strong
wind occur the ferry must be sailed out to the middle of the bay until the
winds subside. We didn't know this when the ferry started pulling away from the
dock. We started our motors and were getting ready to make a jump before the
ship's Doctor intercepted us. He said that this happens often and the boat can
remain out in th emiddle of the bay for several hours until the wind dies down.
We
were to line up at 6:00 pm for a 10:00 pm departure.
Distance: 162 miles, Time: 3:25 hours, Average: 47.2
mph, Maximum: 71 .6 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 13
Topolobampo
to La Paz
A
Mexican over-night ferry is a real cultural experience. Being on motorcycles we
were the last ones on board. After getting the bikes lashed down we went to
look for our reserved seats in the salon. There were people already in our
Seats and people, lying prone, spread out over every square inch in the aisles.
It was obvious that paying extra for these seats was a waste of money. It was a
first come, first serve basis here when it came to a place to sit or lay down.
We showed the people in our seats our tickets and they did not seen to care. We
located the ships medic who we were earlier taking to at the boat landing. He
helped us find the ships steward. He located some different seats for us. I
walked around the boat as it headed out to sea. It was complete chaos on this
boat, people were spread out over every corner of this boat. I gave up looking
for a place to get some sleep and walked back topside. There I met Johnny Qwan
who was very talkative. He insisted on buying Eva and I a beer. I joined him
out on the ship railing and let Johnny try to teach me some new words.
Distance: 12 miles, Time: 0:15 hours, Average: 40 mph, Maximum: 59 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 14
Stayed
in La Paz today to enjoy a large Mexican town
MotoJournal
Day# 15
La
Paz to Jake's Place at Coyote Bay.
Distance: 292 miles, Time: 5:32 hours, Average: 52.6 mph, Maximum: 82.6 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 16
Went
nowhere & hung out at Jake's.
Sunday
was the morning that one of Jakes favorite resuarants in town was surving up
pork carnitas. Jake wanted to drive in to town to treat us to this specialty.
MotoJournal
Day# 17
Jake's
Place to Catavina
We
rode down to Bay of Los Angles.
We
took off from Jake's that morning. I was happy to start heading north. The
nights here were just too hot to get a good nights sleep. We quickly rode up to
Santa Rosilita to get some breakfast. We rode around town to see if the bakery
was open in the morning. This bakery is known for it's good French breads. We
really wanted to just buy some breakfast breads for later on the road but we
found out that they were closed. We stopped for breakfast at the restaurant
that we had dinner on Christmas night a couple years back.
As
we neared the summit of the pass going north out of San Ignacio we came upon a
scene no one like to see. A small car with Oregon plates had collided with a
large truck. The police had blocked the road and the injured were being hauled
away in the back of a small pick-up truck. It looked as if the truck had
crossed the centerline and caught the front of the car with the rear wheels of
the semi trailer. It didn't look too good and felt bad for the people involved
because their lives just became quite a bit more complicated. There was enough
room to get the bikes by the mess and the police just waved us through. Another
advantage of touring on motorcycles.
As
we rode towards Geirro Negro the temperature was noticeably cooler. This was a
relief after sweating for the last few days. We headed north through the
boulder and cactus fields (south of Catavina) and I noticed more graffiti on
the borders through this region. I did not notice this the last trip down here.
This place should be a national park and protected from people with spray
paint. It was getting late in the afternoon when we reached Catavina. Jake had
recommended a place that was frequented by Baja racers called Rancho Santa
Inés. We initially rode past the Inn and up to the airstrip and realized Rancho
Santa Inés was just the the Inn and not a town. We thought there would be more
to this place since it was on the map. We pulled in to the place and got an
entire bunk house to share between us. All for just $20. We put away our gear
and walked across the parking area to the kitchen. The place was covered with
stickers from various racing teams and suppliers. We finished off a burrito and
a couple beers and talked to a couple who had been traveling down to Cabo San
Lucas since the early 1960's before there was a highway. They owned a beach
shack down there and do the trip every year. They had two fully loaded pick-up
trucks.
A
much easier trip with the highway.
The
following day we would be back in the US. Across the flat, feature less planes
and all the small villages up the pacific coast side of Baja.
Distance: 419 miles, Time: 8:06 hours, Average: 51.8
mph, Maximum: 77.4 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 18
Catavina
to Bjorn Pave's Place in LA.
GPS
navigation is great! I had no idea where Bjorn lived but the GPS delivered use
to right in front of his house. I slowed down when the GPS indicated we were
within 100 feet and we started to look for numbers on the houses. The one that
we stopped in front of happened to be Bjorn and Sasha home. Bjorn came out of
the house and waved the minute we started looking around.
Distance: 508 miles, Time: 10:48 hours, Average: 47 mph, Maximum: 78.4 mph
MotoJournal
Day# 19
hung
around LA.
We
went down to where Maiya worked. It was a health food in Canoga Park store
called "Follow Your Heart". There was a restuarant in the store that
was highly recommended by Maiya. We had a good breakfast which happened to
include some very good coffee. We missed having good coffee after being in
Mexico for the last few days. I checked the GPS and noticed that there was a
BMW dealer within a couple miles of where we just had breakfast. We let the GPS
steer us towards the motorcycle shop. Found a place called West Valley Cycle
Sales at where the waypoint was positioned. It was a small shop with friendly
owners. I had to buy a tee shirt from them since we were in the area.
Next
stop was the Getty Museum. The Getty Museum has limited parking and you need
reservations. However, if you happen to ride in on a motorcycle, you do not
need reservations because there is plenty of motorcycle parking.
That
night Bjorn and Maiya dragged us out to an italian restuarant for dinner. It
was Karoke night at this place and some of the singers were very talented. It
seemed to be one of those places to be seen.
Distance: 35 + miles, Time: 1:13 + hours,
Average: 28.4 mph, Maximum:
69.0 mph
Note:
After leaving the Getty Museum the GPS III+ failed to initialize due to the
canyons along the backroads route we took leaving the place. I was not sure
what the exact mileage was for the day.
MotoJournal
Day# 20
LA
to San Francisco