SOCO BAJA TRIP

[Bashed]

Hello all,

This will be my interpatation of the events that occured during this past week.
Feel free to interject @ anytime.

I guess it all started when Oldkneedragger mentioned that he had taken a solo
trip into Mexico and couldn't belive how much fun he had.He also mentioned
that the roads were fantastic.Me, being the ever skeptic, indulged him more into
the subject.His eyes showed me a true enthusist's gleam as he recounted the
journey he took.From fantastic curvy roads to breathtaking veiws and culture.
Now this is the information age, and I watch the news and Discovery Channel
and this seemed to contradict what Oldkneedragger was saying.Over on ADV there
is/was talk of kidnappings and theft, not really my kind of thing.I mean just all
the shit about drug runners and Cartels was enough to keep me safe at home.

But as the meetings continued and the maps were looked at this was looking to be
a very interesting affair.So we poured over maps and read information and before
long we had nailed down a schedule, route and plan. The group consisted of
Oldkneedragger FJR 1300
Zetaetatheta Moto Guzzi Norge
Dave Ducati ST3
Billsmith7 Honda F4I
Yamacati Bob Ducati ST4S
SRXY Bob's wife Co Pilot Ducati ST4S
Myself Bashed ZX636R

Now part of the plan was to
catch a ferry to cross the Sea of Cortez, ie the Gulf of California.This was to be set
in stone, as the ferry waits for no one, not even a group of sportbike riders.So we
prepaid the fare and put the group on the reservations.Now two members, Dave and
Zetaetatheta were going to do the route Oldkneedragger had did previously,
going by way of Matsezlan.They did not have to worry about making the boat, as
we did.More on that later though as I am getting ahead of myself.

So at this point all we had to do was prep the bikes and gear and wait.
And wait....
And wait....
You get the point, it seemed like a long time.

The day before we left Zetaetatheta and I went over to Dave's house to load his bike onto
the trailer.The wind was blowing and the temps were in the mid teens.Ice was all
over and the neighbors were looking at us like we were mad.Now Dave has this bike
that he bought just for this trip, a Ducati ST3.It was salvaged and had some issues
but none the less just about the right kind of bike for putting some mileage down and
keeping some sportiness for the fun stuff.It seemed that Dave had the whole bike torn
apart just the night before resolving some of its issues.Nothing like waiting till the last
minute Dave. Zetaetatheta was riding his fairly new Moto Guzzi Norge, in all its Italian red
splender.I was on my wifes bike, a ZX636.The lender that holds my 1000RR note refused
to let me take it out of country, even though I would put full Mexican Insurance on it.Wankers!

As I found out later it was to my advantage later down the road, more on that later.
So we loaded the bikes and stored them on the trailer in my nice heated garage.
That was the last time for a week they would be at rest.

The next day we all assembled at the Western Omlette and had our breakfast and said
our goodbys.We were trailering the bike down to Alamogordo to prevent riding in the sub
zero weather that was here in the Springs.I know, you dont't have to say it, not really hardcore
riders and all.But I really don't think many hardcore riders would have done it as it was
only 7 degrees.We had a nice uneventful commute down to southern New Mexico.
Why do they call it New Mexico, as it is niether New or Mexico.Oh well, just
some thoughts as I tried to keep myself occupied in the car.
Anticipation is like gravity,
it can be your friend or enemy.Oldkneedraggers mom cooked up some homemade dinner
that night.Ham and sweet potatoes, handmade biscuits, truly a feast for our motley crew.
A couple people headed to Wally World to pick up some hand and feet warmers for the
cold ride that awaited us the following morning.I don't think any of us slept very good that night.
To be continued......................

[Sully]

... Where is the popcorn when you need it ?? ... continue.. please...

[636chick]

Girl I'm afraid that's all he had in him. Back in bed. After I dope him up on Nyquil I'm sure the story will continue.

[Bashed]

Day 2

This is the first day of actual riding.A realativly easy 350 miles of 4 and 2 lane
back roads from Alamogordo to the border town of Douglas Az.We start late to
allow the temps to get above freezing and load the bikes around 9:00.Everyone
seems excited to get going and I am no exception.The last time I really rode was
3 weeks earlier on the 636 up to south park to check the fuel comsumption of the
little 600.

I have fitted it with a custom aluminum fuel cell Dallas and I built.It locks
into the exsisting rear seat mechinism so that I can easily remove it.The double
wing is for no paticular reason other than for people to ask questions. The Pemex
fuel stations in Baja are spaced apart more than the range of the stock tank. It
would serve its pupose later in our journey, a nessicary evil.

Before we left the meeting point the first of many malfunctions appeared.Bills F4
would not start. The battery was dead. As we pushed started the Honda I wondered
what other problems would we encounter.It seems he had installed a aux power device
and it was shorting out and draining the battery.Then Dave's clutch would not engage
due to the grip moving up the handle bars from the Canyon Dancer during transport.
Easy fix there and we are on the move and gassing up.

Out on the road finally, with a quick stop at the White Sands Missle Range for a pic.
Over the mountian and down into Las Cruces.Zetaetatheta's Guzzi was blowing smoke
out the exhaust so we stopped at the Honda dealer to see what was the problem.
It seems that he had changed the oil right before the trip and overfilled the engine.
So we drained some of the oil to the proper level so the motor would not injest it into
the intake and burn it.From behind it looked like his motor was giving up as it was
puffing like a crack whore. Amazingly it didn't foul a plug.I must say for a stock exhaust
it sure sounds good when he pours on the throttle, and quite quick up to 110 or so.

We left Las Cruces behind and headed on some two laners westbound for Douglas, Az.
These are the roads I prefer as there seem to be less traffic and law enforcment.Long
sweeping turns and rolling hills.Before long we were pulling into Deming for lunch and fuel.
But wait, what do I smell but the sweetness of coolant. As I pull up to the group I say to
Oldkneedragger that I smelled coolant the last time we stopped and that he might have a leak.
As he looks down at his bike then over to mine as the 636 starts puking coolant onto the
front tire.Oops, guess it was me all the time. Well my worst fears came to me as I found
the leak in the front of the radiator from a probable stone.After asking at the tire shop and
finding out that the radiator shop in town was closed till Monday Oldkneedragger found the
motorcycle shop in town was willing to let me use thier facilities to try and repair the hole.
I rode it over there and after try to braze it I was about to give in when the mechanic said
he had some 5 minute two part epoxy.As I tend to shy away from the "quick fix" type
but was desperate I decided to give it a try.15 minutes later and a quart of coolant I was back in business.
A huge thanks to the boys at DEMING CYCLE.

As that potentially debilitating breakdown had chewed up over an hour we made quick
work of the back roads over to Douglas.On our way there we skirted with the border with
Mexico. It was interesting to see all or the Border Patrol units out. We must have passed
at least a dozen trucks and four or five mobil lookouts along the way. I bet they don't get
to see often six sportbikes wizzing by thier positions often. I wonder if they were tracking us.

We made Douglas right at sunset and found our hotel for the night.
We unpacked our bikes and headed over the border to secure our vehicle permits so we
could just saddle up the next morning and ride. To go more than 20 miles into Mexico we
needed to purchase a permit to allow travel past the "border towns". This permit has to be
turned in as we leave so they can ensure you and the vehicle left the country.If you have never
been to a border town you should at least once just for the experiance.We left half the group
with the bikes while the other half went into the tourist office to get our permits. I think anything
not chained up to a telephone pole gets stolen as we attracted quite the unsavory crowd almost
immediatly. People lurking in the shadows waiting for the chance to pounce. Deffinantly a place not for the timid.
I think some people make a living out of panhandling, which is really quite sad.
We moved back across the border, grabbed a bite to eat and hit the sack. I fell asleep wondering what awaited us the following morning.
To be continued.......

[rforsythe]

Nice, can't wait to read the rest. I've been keeping up on the ADV postings and some of the insanity around Baja. Do you think your experience was a little different because you weren't there during the race itself? Anyway, keep it coming!

[mtnairlover]

I thought it was kinda cool that I saw this...http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386423/ at MotoHaus on Thursday as you guys were getting back. It wasn't just a race vid either, as the producer introduced the audience to some of the individual racers and the people who make up the crowd as the race winds down into Baja. The audience got a chance to see how some of the people live along that route.

Oh and love the reading so far...can't wait to read more.

[*GSXR~SNAIL*]

Fun post to read so far Bashed. Looking forward to the rest.

[COSMille]

Great story Bash, keep it comming. Sounds like a great adventure.

[Bashed]

Nice, can't wait to read the rest. I've been keeping up on the ADV postings and some of the insanity around Baja. Do you think your experience was a little different because you weren't there during the race itself? Anyway, keep it coming!

I think most of the problems are between Tiajuana and Ensenada.
We puposly avoided that area just for those reasons.
From what I had researched the most problems were thefts of high profile
trucks and RV's, toyhaulers and such.Bandito's out to make a quick buck.
We encountered no problems, quite the reverse, the people were more interested in the bikes as I dont think they had really ever saw them before in person.We also looked pretty ragged going up the Baja and I doubt many would have tangled with our motley crew.

Later Bash

[Bashed]

Life is more fufilling when expectations are exceeded

Day 3 Insursion into Mexico

The day broke cold and crisp, just above freezing as the crew readied
the bikes and gear for our first day into Mexico. After a quick beakfast
and gas we headed to the port of entry, eagar to get the real trip underway.

Passing thru the border town of Agua Preita we passed the residents waking
up to start thier day.The streets were half covered in dirt dragged onto it from
the sidestreets.Dust rose from the bikes as we made quick work negotiating
the potholes, dogs, and cars filtering thru the town.

Now I must stop to explain something that seemed to carry thru the rest of our
adventure. Oldkneedragger had warned us about topes. Those of you who have
traveled south of our border surely know what I am talking about.Those who don't
I will explain. These are quite possibly the single reason people need to by shocks
in Mexico. They are giant speedbumps, and I am not exaggerating. These bumps,
usually at the entrance, center, and exit of every little town, and ocassionaly before
curves, will ruin your wheels, forks, exhaust, and balls in short order. Diligence is
prudent, and as Yamacati Bob quikly figured out a great launch point for a Ducati.
He, after smashing the front header pipe almost flat from said topes, would get
his front wheel up onto the bump, and then just nail it, resulting in the whole bike leaving
the ground and his wife leaving the seat. Thank god for the back rest, eh SRXY?

The road out of town was a two lane, no shoulder road. This type of roads will
pretty much make up the majority of the roads we will travel on. The road ran
straight south out of town and into a wide valley, ocassionally bending slightly
left or right for no apparent reason. The speed limit signs showed 60 km, about
35mph.We were doing 80mph and quite comfortable, when not 5 minutes out of town
a truck with red and blue lights was closing down on our group fast. As I was the
last in the group running sweep I immediatly slowed to about 50 and I started to lose
the group because they didn't see the truck. It followed me for maybe a mile, swung out
and passed and I saw it was a military style dressed man in it. Slightly relieved
he didn't pull me over, but still worried he was after the group I paced him till he
caught and passed the group. Wew, he must of been after somebody else.
We cruised along getting into a rythem then as we approched, a shallow a creek
suddenly appeared crossing the road. No real warning, which I found quite odd.
Another shallow we came across was frozen and we had to pick a line in the
dirt and paddle our way over to cross safely. Ice in Mexico? Weird.

And before long we came to our first checkpoint.Lo and behold the truck that
had passed us was one of the men at the checkpoint, he must have been late
or something. All of our papers were checked and we were on our way, into the
heart of rural Mexico.

Now I must make another explanation.The speedlimit and stop signs seemed
to be merely suggestions, as only broken down vehicles did the limit and hardly
anybody came to a stop at a stopsign. In the little towns were encountered there
was almost always a local policeman at the center topes, you remember them right,
and nobody came to a stop at the sign even with him sitting right there.As laidback
and seemingly in no hurry the people were it was very ironic.

The wide valley began to started to transfer into rolling hills and before long it was
lefts and rights and ups and downs. Probably the most fun run that I had incountered
since the two day tour of Colorado this past fall. The terrian reminded me of the
hills south of San Francisco around Alices Restaurant. Blind corners, second and
third gear work that flowed and didn't stop for 50 miles. Getting into the rythem
I passed a couple people in the group and the others were into thier own dance
with the road about a mile further. I must say that there is nothing quite as satifiying
as being one with the road and running your pace, enjoying the sites and smells
as you encounter them. The road was clean and smooth, I couldn't of asked for any better.

Then rounding a paticularly tight right hander, looking thru
the turn what appeared in my eyes ran a chill down my spine. The grill of a Freightliner, in my
lane, hauling ass. I puckered up and shot the narrow gap hard on the gas.As if
that wasn't enough to wake me out of my self induced trance, he honked his horn,
as if to tell me how dare I occupy his road. Damn that was close, and to find out at
the first stop a couple others had the same experiance.

We made our way out of the magical mountians and down into the city of Hermosillo.
A busy little city with palm trees and medians.We stopped to gas up and get our
first taste of real Mexican food. Most of the places are little Ma and Pa shops that
I doubt have any kind of health inspections. But all the places we ate at seemed
clean and taken care of upon close inspection.The people were very friendly and
helpful even with my broken Gringlish. As I knew more spanish than the others
in the group the looked to me as the translator. I explained to then I only knew
enough to get us thrown into jail but that didn't deter then, daring group they were.

After lunch we headed out of town on a four lane highway and picked up the pace,
as five of us had to make the ferry that evening. Zetaetatheta dropped off the pace
of well over 100 and we lost sight of him. He wanted to savor the place and he didn't
need to make the ferry as he and Dave were going on down to Matezlan and then over
to Durango. We stopped at a Pemex for fuel and Dave and waved us by about 10 miles
earier I guessed to wait for Zetaetatheta. We fueled up and waited for a bit and before
long Zetaetatheta showed up. We asked had he seen Dave and he said no. So I flew back
about 10 miles or so to find him to no avail. I came back to the Pemex station and reported
my results.

Lesson # 1, make sure everybody is on the same schedule and communicate the route clearly.
I cannot stress this enough. We lost Dave in the middle of Mexico. We did not communicate
we were stopping and he did not communicate he was waiting. It seems he waited for a
bit then cruised right past us at the fuel station and went in the wrong direction.
As we could not spend more time looking for him and still make the ferry on time, we abandonded
him. I really felt terrible for him as we rocketed down the road to Los Mochis. I knew he was
competent and be Ok but it wasn't cool. Come to find out once he realized he was on the
wrong road he righted himself, and adapted his plan to suceed. I envy him as he said afterwards
he had time to stop at the towns and savor the atmosphere.

As it was we had to break one of the unspoken rules of riding in Mexico and rode in the dark.
Why do you ask, because I have never in my life seen so many dead animals on or just off
the roadway. There are no fences to keep them off or it so the get hit, not fun on a bike as I
have personally hit a deer and don't wish that experiance on anyone. They are everywhere,
and sometimes throughout the trip it seemed like a slalom course to avoid them.

We rolled into Los Mochis and by the grace of god made the cost and the ferry in time.
Riding thru Los Mochis was like LA during rush hour, splitting lanes and trying hard
not to get mowed over. A few fingers flew in both directions just getting thru town, from
us and the locals. I don't think they quite knew what to think of us, and I was to tired to explain.

The officals at the ferry had our reservations but did not have confirmation of payment.
This caused a delay of over an hour and a half until a real translator explained the
situation and Oldkneedragger paid for our fare again out of his own pocket. He would resolve the
payment situation with his bank after the trip, props to Oldkneedragger.So the accomedations
on the ship were cramped but welcome after 10 hours and over 600 miles on the day.
I fell asleep on the boat mentally and phically drained slowly rocking back and forth
wondering what awaited us on the Baja tomorrow.

To be continued..........

[Clovis]

damn, so far it's one heck of a story and adventure. I can't wait for the next install ment of the days of our li..mexican adventure =P

[MORSE]

I am captivated. no joke. this is a great story. makes me wish I was there all the more.

Scotty

[Bashed]

Day 4
Baja California Sur
We awoke on the ferry to a intercom voice telling us to prepare to disembark in spanish,
or at least that is what I could dedcipher, my brain still buzzing from the ride the day before.
I could see out our porthole land to the west and assumed we would be docking shortly.

As we got dressed I noticed that the air was warmer, and a little moist.Sultry, some might say.
We docked in the port of La Paz and made our way down to where we had left our bikes.Now the night before
we were told they had tiedowns which they didn't so Oldkneedragger and I had used some
rope they had provided to secure our bikes to the deck. Thankfully they were just as we had
left then in a upright postion. Chaos was ensusing as people were eager to get out of the ferry
with thier cars and the semi trucks were whistling back and forth on and off the ship.We cut
off the ship carefully and made our way to the back of a line to get out of the shipyard.It seems
the military had a checkpoint at the gate and was searching everybodies cars for drugs and
illegal things. One of the soldiers waved us to the front of the line much to the displeasure of
the others already in line. He must of been a motorcycle guy.Ha, Ha. We had our luggage
searched and made our way into La Paz for breakfast. As fast as those soldiers were searching
we would still be in line if we had not been moved up.Thanks unknown motocycle enthusist.

The city of La Paz seemed a little commercial by the bay and as we ventured into the "real"
city it looked more like the others we had pasted through on the way down the mainland.
Not really alot of actoin going on at 7 in the morning, I think the Mexican people like to sleep in.
We headed south as I had expressed a interest in getting a picture at the sign of The Tropic
of Cancer. We made quick work of the 45 kms and found ourselves in the town of Todos Santos.
If there was ever a place I would like to spend some time, like retire, this is the place. Forget
Cabo and Matezlan, this little town has a peace and laidback atmosphere I could really get used to.
We did not find a sign for the Tropic of Cancer but by the gps we had gotten there. Somebody had must of already stolen it.We then turned around
and headed back north, me wanting to spend some time in the little town exploring the sites.We made
our way back into La Paz and skirted the town and made our way into the Baja proper.
Man there
is really nothing here except catus and dirt.We made our way up to the town of Ciudad Insurgentes,
refueled at the Pemex and started to make our way out of town.Now just before we town a pickup
had decided to run with us at just over 100 mph for a while. We were getting used to this behavior
as it seems the locals have to prove thier machismo or something. We let this guy rabbit for us for
about 10 miles or so and then we turned right to go back across the Baja east to Loreto.As we
turned east I stopped to wait for Billsmith7 as he was not with the group. About 2-3 minutes went by
and he finally came up and gestured he had a problem. It seems his clutch lever bolt and nut had
worked loose and he had just happened to catch the bolt as it was jettisioning out of the perch.
It was the high speed running that had loosened the nut and he went to pull in the clutch to downshift
and couldn't, not a good feeling.Fricking Honda's breaking down in the middle of nowhere.
As I had prepared for just such a breakdown, we installed another nut and were back on our way
in less than 5 minutes.
We made our way back across the baja and into the town of Loreto.Some of the best roads sofar presented themselves to us along the way. See picture. Oldkneedragger
and Billsmith7 were ahead of Yamacati Bob and I and they for some reason went all the way thru
town and stopped on the other side. Yamacati Bob, his wife, and I were wore out from the previous days ride
and stopped at the main drag into the town.hte sun was low and we had all agreed not to ride at night
no matter what. We waited for 10 minutes or so for the other two and just figured they had went into
the town. So we went into town all the way to the end at the ocean. No site of them so we stopped
to discuss what to do. This other guy named Mike on a Bandit 1200 stopped and we chatted for a bit
and he refered us to a motel named El Dorado, as well as a few others. I split up with Yamacati Bob
and went back out to the highway to look for the other two as he and his wife scouted the motels.
We would meet back at the main drag into town at Mike's Bar.A famous place on the ADV forums.
I quickly found the other two as Loreto is not a very big place, they had backtracked into town and
were waiting at the main drag and the highway intersection. We all went into Loreto, decided on the
El Dorado to stay, checked in, cleaned up and went to get some dinner. As it was New Years Eve
the town was bustling with activity the local policeman surely had his hands full. I fell asleep listening
to the sounds of a town celebrating a new year.
To be continued ......

[*GSXR~SNAIL*]

Great stuff Bashed...really enjoying the story of your trip. Thanks again.

[dallas]

You should have gotten a pic with someone on the Honda scooter!!!

[Nick_Ninja]

Mikes Bar ---- good place. Great documentary

[Dave]

I guess it all started when Oldkneedragger mentioned that he had taken a solo trip into Mexico and couldn't belive how much fun he had.He also mentioned that the roads were fantastic......

How I ended up on this ride…
I learned of Oldkneedragger’s enthusiasm for a Mexico trip from reading the thread in the SoCo forum, and since sportbikes and travel are what I like to do, this trip was very enticing. I’ve wanted for some time to explore Mexico, even considering the dangers, and doing it on 2 wheels added even more excitement to the idea. This crew was serious, energized, and committed to this trip, and some of them are long time riding friends, so I realized I had to find a way to go on this ride as well.

Now Dave has this bike that he bought just for this trip, a Ducati ST3.It was salvaged ..........

A bit more detail…
As if someone above was setting me up for this trip, I noticed a good sport touring bike choice for sale in the local CO Springs newspaper about the time the SoCo crew was asking for riders to commit to this trip. So I purchased it, a damaged Ducati ST3, about a month before we would depart, and went to work on preparing it. It really didn’t need much work and I had been thinking about a sport touring bike anyway.

I removed all the plastics, fairing stay, instrument panel, and mufflers so I could check all bolts, hoses, wires, cables, and make some minor repairs. Between the limited Holiday hours that motorcycle businesses operate with, and my busy work schedule, it wasn’t until the day before we loaded the bike on the trailer for this trip, that I received the parts to finish the reassembly of the exhaust system and fairing. I had only ridden the bike for about an hour prior to this trip, but did have a Ducati mechanic service the engine, and he gave me the green light to go forth and prosper, and to tour Mexico. The Ducati ran strong and reliably, and hopefully I can travel on it again soon!

[Dave]

Day 3 Insursion into Mexico...
The wide valley began to started to transfer into rolling hills and before long it was lefts and rights and ups and downs. Probably the most fun run that I had incountered since the two day tour of Colorado this past fall. The terrian reminded me of the hills south of San Francisco around Alices Restaurant. Blind corners, second and third gear work that flowed and didn't stop for 50 miles..........

Part way through this fantastic section of rural mountain roadway, we stopped along the side of the road to shed our cold weather gear as the temperatures had warmed considerably this far into Mexico. Temperatures had improved from near freezing up into the mid 60’s very quickly! And up to this point the group had passed a few cages in these wonderful twisties; some may have even been aggressive passes, possibly even made in no passing zones… I think some US drivers observing our behavior would have been upset with sportbikes passing by at this controlled but quick pace.
As we chatted and grinned along the side of the road with our bikes parked, a few of those cages we had just overtaken passed by us. What was very cool was that they were waving and even excitedly cheering for us as they passed by. I believe they were thrilled to observe sportbikes, which are somewhat rare in Mexico, performing enthusiastically on these challenging roads. We waved back and as we were having a great time.

[Bashed]

Allright Dave, It looked like I was going to have to go solomente on this one.Keep it up.
Bash

[OldKneeDragger]

Actually you are doing a great job Bash... I don't want to interrupt a good thing...

besides, I want to see how it ends

[Sortarican]

Great post so far Bash-O-Matic.
(Post more pics all ya'll.)

Tales of the Donkey Show coming up in the next installment?

[Bashed]

Day 5

Central Baja California

I awoke to the sounds of a vehicle in the alley by the motel reving thier engine mercifully for approximently 5 minutes or so. The sufer dudes in the motel accually went out to encourage the individual some more. It is good to see that in other countries things are the same as the USA. Probably just still having a good time from New Years and it carried through to the early morning. A police vehicle burst his siren and the wakeup call ceased.

Since I was fully awake by this time I decided to just get ready for the days travels. The rest of the crew had the same idea and before long we were headed out of town as the sun came up. Not long out of town we came acroos a military checkpoint. Now these kids are maybe 18-20 years old, look like they had been up all night and carry automatic weapons. The soldier I talked to said he was freezing and did not know where Colorado was. Poor bastards.

We made our way up the east coast of Baja. This section of road reminded me of the PCH, narrow cliff hugging turns and twists, with some elevation changes thrown in for good measure. There was one cove we came into that, after rounding the corner and the road opening up into the flats of the beach, I could not resist clicking down two gears and letting the residents hear what 13,000 rpm and a race pipe sounded like echoing off the cliff walls. In and out and up and down, it was like a rollercoaster ride with everchanging scenery. I was laughing so hard in my helmet I could barely see my eyes were watering.

Before long we rolled into the town of Santa Rosalia and gassed up. Looking for some breakfast was fruitless as the town appeared still asleep. We rolled out hungry but happy to cut back across the pennesula as we were not even half way up yet. Rocking across the desert and rolling hills there is a quiet peace about the place, buzzards hovering for a meal, spiders scampering across the road, and lots, I mean lots of road kill. There was a bloated cow upsidedown against the gaurdrail, hooves sticking straight up. To many dogs to even count, assorted animals not even reconizable smashed into oblivion into the pavment. This is why we do not ride at night in Baja. The risk is to great.

Billsmith7 ran out of gas at the 120 mile mark, and I stopped with him to refuel out of his fuel jugs. He had packed two 2 gallon fuel jugs to support himself along the way. Just over the hill from where we stopped Oldkneedragger aquired a flat in the rear tire of the ol' FJR. He limped into Guerrero Negro and we put a plug in it.I know what you might say, but there is not a sportbike tire to be found in this town. Also my technique installing plugs has never failed me if they are in the tread. It lasted all the way back to Alomogordo, thank god. We found some air at a tire shop and we were good to go.We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and I installed a Bashedbike decal on the window of the place.

Futher up the road we stopped at a I guess you could call it a truck stop. These are dotted along the highway and advertize some brand of beer, weather it be Tecate, Corona, or whatever. The truckers would stop at thier favorite place and get a bite to eat, usally consisting of some tortillas and baens and beef/dog, and a beer. Quite unusual to see drinking and motoring as the established custom. I had a Monster Energy drink and was good to go for the next leg. We passed through a weather front up on the desert, and I think I would rather be rained on than ride in wind. we were all leaning into it and pass a cut in the road and get righted just to get blown sideways coming out. It sucked! After about a 50 or 60 miles of that the winds fially died down and we were greeted by some great twisties coming into the town of El Rosario. There was what appeared to be a patch in the whole lane in a little valley just outside of town and I saw it and before I knew it my balls were in my stomach. That was a hole and it just sucked me in spat me out. I am lucky it did not do ant damage to the bike because as hard as I hit I could of easily broke a rim. Coming thru town a jeep had left the road and hit a large wall, the ambulance was unloading him at the clinic as I rode by. I really don't think I would want to be treated in one of thier clinics. Not very appealing to me from what I saw. Better than dying though I suppose.

The sun was waning and we had clocked over 600 mile for the day. Not bad for a siteseeing tour. I got hung up at a military checkpoint just outside of town. They waved the others through and held me for some reason. One of the soldiers had this wand thingy and kept walking back and forth by me and the bike. I really think they were just fucking with me as after about 4-5 minutes they let me go . Wankers! The rest of the group was long gone so I just rode up the road, admiring the veiw as the road skirted the beach in several places. The sun was setting and it was a great sunset. The others had waited up at the next town so we picked out a motel and got ourselves something to eat at the roadside taco stand. The place was hopping with customers so it had to be good, right? It was by far the best food on the entire trip. The cost for 3 taco's and a coke, 2.80.
you can't beat that. There was a import truck with loadspeakers on the top of the cab just blarring out the salsa music, semitrucks hauling ass though town, the people milling about, very entertaining. A good day on the Baja.
To be continued.......

[Yamacati Bob]

You should have gotten a pic with someone on the Honda scooter!!!

Actually they were little motorcycles with clutchless three speeds and foot pegs along the lines of Bash's little bike...
We saw lots of motorcycles and cars there that I wish were available in the US...but, alas, they are too small....

[Yamacati Bob]

Bash...the good news is that you don't have to worry about alzhimers, your recollection of the trip is 1st rate!!!