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General Moto | Off-Topic Posts
TEXAS INVADES MEXICO aka Uncle Rogers Tour of Mexico
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[QUOTE="Tony Eeds, post: 1143834, member: 32023"] [b]Day One - Friday[/b] Blastoff! January 5, 2007 had arrived 8:30ish, we headed south towards and across the border. Along the way, we topped off our tanks at the Presidio 66 station as Villa Aldama, Chihuahua was a ways away. We stopped almost immediately and exchanged some bucks for pesos. 10.1:1 was not too bad, considering we could see the border, if we turned around. The official exchange rate of the Pemex stations was 9:1, so we were doing better than that. Since 10.1:1 is real close to 10:1 and my math skills are somewhat limited after a beer, I hung my hat on 10:1. I figuring all I needed to do was drop the final zero to decide the value of something. Close enough for horse shoes, hand grenades and atom bombs, and in this case, all my purchases in Mexico. Well Ojinaga was, is and likely, will always be, under construction, at least the road out to the toll road is, so we wondered about. Seeing your folks going left and right across your direction of travel became suggestive of our ability to travel together for the balance of the trip. We gradually broke up into a fast group and a slower group. I will not say slow, because we were still fast, but we were not ripping up the asphalt. I have seen many adventures ruined in the first rush to adventure in my many years in the wilderness, and was determined to keep the pace sane, as Creel was WAY over the horizon. At the intersection of the toll road and Chih 67, we encountered the first military checkpoint. We had passed through the Aduana Station just moments before, but the military was there for drugs, not tourists, so we were waved through. On Chih 67 [img]http://teeds.smugmug.com/photos/123161675-M.jpg[/img] Kicking it up a notch, we motored southward across the plains (mesa?) of northern Chihuahua. [img]http://teeds.smugmug.com/photos/123162047-M.jpg[/img] An aside ... For those of you following along on the map, the toll road roughly parallels the railroad tracks that loop-de-loops southward out of Ojinaga towards Chihuahua. Back to the story ... Tradition dictates that when you lose sight of the person behind you, you slow down. Tim slowed down and I slowed down as I was in front of him. With the leader trying to run 70, it is hard for the guys at the end of the whip to keep up. Gene was on a XT 600 and the jetting was a bit off, so 55 was about it, before it would cough and sputter. We stopped and gathered all the quail back up, only to discover that a couple of folks had been tied up in a turn/no turn scenario at the military checkpoint and only the friendly gesture by the guards got them on the right road ... [b]See Lesson Number One -[/b] That one had fallen apart all too quickly. Oh well, the fast group tore off again and the rest of us followed. We caught up (at least momentarily) at the toll booth ... 34 pesos please ... And in the middle of nowhere ... [img]http://teeds.smugmug.com/photos/123163438-M.jpg[/img] This is a test ... how many dollars, using my simplified math? If you said $3.40, go get a favorite beverage. We stopped for a baño break ... la cerca served this role. Outside of Villa Aldama, we all begin the process of going from main to reserve. My bike ran out at the worst possible time. A truck was behind me, there was a sharp drop off on the shoulder that disappeared into brambles so thick I would have been lost and the grade was up hill ... couple that with gloves too thick to flip the lever and I came to a halt. The guys behind me stopped, the truck honked and passed us like a getto cruiser through a toll booth, and I got the lever flipped ... the sounds of Willie Nelson wafted through my brain as I heard the XR fire back to life ... on the road again. Gene coasted to a stop in front of me. I gave him a Primus bottle full of fuel and he poured fuel in his gas tank, as he had already used his bottle. I laid my bike over with his help and we were off into town. The Pemex filled us up and we soon gathered about. As the first group was no where in sight, Roger asked if my GPS could get us through town. I said it could and we headed out on the by pass around Villa Aldama. An aside ... If you are concerned about gas and cannot go 130~140 miles on a tank, do not use the toll road or carry gas between Ojinaga and Villa Aldama. That would be the only time we needed to worry, but there is little to nothing out there. Also, the Pemex Station is in the heart of Villa Aldama, so follow “Business” Chih 16 into town. There is a new Pemex just past where the bypass and the old route come back together, but it is 5 pesos for the baños there. We just went in together. It was a two (dos) holer. Back to the story ... Where the bypass and the old route reconnected, we ran into the rest of the gang. Unfortunately, they fired up and took off just as we arrived. John dropped something (which turned out to be a Leatherman) and by the time I had picked it up and tucked it safely away, the fast group was over the horizon. Not to worry, we could get there in time. [img]http://teeds.smugmug.com/photos/123162420-M.jpg[/img] [img]http://teeds.smugmug.com/photos/123162420-M.jpg[/img] An aside ... Coming into Chihuahua, I was struck by the roadside architecture. Similar to many of the buildings in the arid southwest US, they harkened back to the 30's, 40's and 50's, when automobile travel was king. Did I mention that I am a historic preservation architect? I was chewing on this like a dog with a fresh cut of prime steak. Back to the story ... Gene and I were WAY behind. Try as we might, we could not get through the traffic. Even lane splitting would not work on this road, as the no man’s land where the stripes reside was 6~8 inches above the roadbed in many places, which is not conducive to passing when trucks are on both sides. I saw the left turn for the airport and vaguely remembered it in the instructions. The waving arms of one other adventurers made me feel a bit better about the decision as he awaited us on the far side of the turn. Unfortunately, he took off as the light turned green and we had two large trucks we could not get around because of the road width. The trucks lumbered along at maybe 20 MPH, so we simply fell farther behind. At least Gene’s jetting was not hindering our forward progress, only two vastly overloaded dump trucks. Finally getting around them, I spotted the guys again and the chase was on. I will be mercifully brief about the balance of the process of getting through Chihuahua as I would probably start cussing anyway. Just suffice it to say that Chihuahua finally spit us out on Chih 16 and we continued towards Creel. [/QUOTE]
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General Moto | Off-Topic Posts
TEXAS INVADES MEXICO aka Uncle Rogers Tour of Mexico
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