Wondering in Mexico

On a nice sunny day I set off to ride to LA. I had changed the oil, oil filter and final drive oil. I had a few spare spokes, a set of brake pads and complete confidene in the bike. I was confident my tyres would make it to LA where I would get a new set. My first stop would be in Aguascalientes with my brother in law.
I stopped near San Miguel de Allende for a quesadilla and took some photos of the art work. I particularly liked the V-Twin BMW.
I had lunch at a Pollo Feliz which was not great bit ok.
My wife had flown to Aguascalientes to spend some time with her brother and family. She was suppossed to fly home on March 29th. She is still there because the flight was cancelled but hopefully will get a flight on Thursday.
I was blissfully unaware of what was comimg.

The next day I was up early. I wanted to get to Torreon. The weather was coolish which was good as I was riding through the desert.



The next day I made it to Torreon. I had looked at hotels buy hadn't reserved anything. Riding around in the heat I confirmed my dislike for Torreon as my wife and I had stayed there on our way back from Alaska in 2016. I decided to keep going. I found a little town not far from Torreon and got a room for 500 pesos with A/C and a comfortable bed. Corona Virus was starting to make more news in The States but there was plenty of toilet paper in this little town.

I was up early the next day as I wanted to get to Chihuahua. It was an uneventfull ride through more desert to Chihuahua City capital of Chihuahua, the biggest State in Mexico. I was keeping an eye on the final drive. It has a very slight weep. I replaced the pinion seal following a video made by a member on here. It reduced the weep a little. The coupling gear has a groove worn by the seal so will need repacing at some time in the future.

I made it to Chihuahua by 1pm and checked into a very pleasant hotel a couple of blocks from Downtown. There is a Tourist Tram the gives you a 2 hour trip around the city. I bought a ticket for the 3 o´clock tour. It was a cool tour with a visit to Pancho Villas house. He was quite a character and was married something like 25 times. It made me wonder how he had time to be in a revolution. They had the car he was ambushed and killed in. The guide said the 5 assassins fired between 150-200 rounds at him. I guess most of the shots either missed by miles or he and the occupants were riddled with bullets as there were very few bullet holes in the car.
The Corona Virus news was getting worse. Flights from Europr to The States were banned but flights from The UK were still allowed. I was getting worried about crossing the border.








This is my fancy boutique hotel room

I was becoming a news addict. The Corona Virus was taking hold of the world. I was worried about places being closed down, I remembered H1N1 in Mexico and the way everything had been shut down to control the spread of the disease. I thought it would be a difficult trip if we couldn't eat out or go to any attractions, Things had escalated very quickly. What would happen if we got there then couldn't get out. What if we got sick in a country with no social medicine even if we had travel insurance which I was going to buy once I got there. I
I had only been riding for 3 nights and things had changed radically. I had breakfast in the hotel with 2 Germans and 2 Mexicans. We were all worried.
I packed up and said I would be back that night if I had any problems at the border.
I was planning on crossing the border at El ¨Paso and the camping on BLM in Las Cruces.
It wasn´t to be. I was less than2 hours from the border when I stopped to get gas. I had a message from Steve it said, "Apparently Trump has now banned flights from the UK" and just like that it was all over. Steve has never been to the USA let alone ridden around for 2 months.
I sat on the window ledge of the Oxxo store and thought about my options. I wass pissed how could this happen, How could a virus ruin our trip. it was an easy decision to decide to turn round and ride home. I decided to go to Creel which is in the middle of Barrancas del Cobre (Copper Canyon). It is some of the most spectacular scenery in the World,
I punched Creel into my GPS and nothimg appeared. It took a bit of investigation on the net to find its full name is Estacion Creel.
I swore a lot to myself on the way there.





This was the turn around point. one of the signs in the backgroun is for USA vehicle insurance. I wasn´t going to need it.

Sad to hear about the trip cancellation , but with the recent house quarantine all over USA and only essential businesses open and many State and National parks closed , maybe it's better . This whole situation could really ruin the whole experience .
Ride on and keep them pictures and stories coming .
I also have Super Tenere and a trip to Mexico is in the works for next spring .

lukasteam said:

Sad to hear about the trip cancellation , but with the recent house quarantine all over USA and only essential businesses open and many State and National parks closed , maybe it's better . This whole situation could really ruin the whole experience .
Ride on and keep them pictures and stories coming .
I also have Super Tenere and a trip to Mexico is in the works for next spring .

Click to expand...

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Knowing what I know now I would never have left home. Both Steve and I feel lucky we never got to the State s. It would have been a terrible trip wit h lots of complications. When I came hone I thought we would be able to reprogramme the trip for July and August but realistically next year will work better.
If you make it to Mexico for next spring contact me and I can give you some tips.
The ride home was a great ride with amazing roads and people. I will post the rest of the story over the next couple of days.

So I turned around and followed the GPS to Creel. I had been there about 15 years before to a Horizons Unlimited meeting. At that time I had drunk the Cool Aid nd had a BMW R1100GS. I believed it was the greatest dual sport bike ever made. I was very very wrong. I know some people love them but mine, which I bought with a little over 28,000 kms on, was by far the most unreliable bike I have ever owned.
While on my way to Creel I went through Menonite farming country. I imagined these people lived working the land by horse or ox pulled ploughs and barely surving. I was surprised to find beautiful enormous modern houses with new pick up trucks and lots of ver big farming machinery. Very different from my image of the Menonites we see at strret corners selling cheese. I pulled into a gas station a a teenager pumped gas for me. He was a blondish fair skinned kid with blue eyes. His Spanish was not very good as he spoke some type of German. I asked if there was a good place to eat and he said the bus across the road had great food.


The hamburger and fries I had were really good. The young couple running the place were hard working Mexicans with 2 young children. The oldest girl was Victoria hence the name of the place. The explained a little bit about the Meninites and while I was there one of them vame in for a hamburger with his teenage daughter. Neither the father nor the girl spoke Spanish but they both spoke German and a little English. The girl running the place wants her children to learn German. They had some signs like the one in the photo in German. I hope this young couple does well as they deserve to.
I rode out of the small community and continued on my way to Creel with a new respect for the Menonite communities in the area.

I wanted to camp in Creel at Villa Mexicana where I had stayed years before. I had good memories from there. It was where I learnt you don't need to be a millionaire to take long trips by motorcycle. My plan for the next 2 nights was to meet some like minded bikers and hang out with them. It was a Sunday and Creel is the place to stay to explore the area.
I arrived at Villa Mexicana and paid my 200 pesos and put up my tent. It was going to be a cold night.

i noticed a couple of bikes when I rode in. While I was putting up my tent one of them came over and invited me to there get together, It turned out they were a pretty large group of bikers from Chihuahua. The group is called Motorad Chihuahua and most of them had BMWs but there was a smaterring of other bikes and even a guy with an S10. They had a barbcue going and lots of beer. It was a great night with thses well heeled bikers from Chihuahua. It was a fantastic way to get rid of some of my frastration over the cancelation if the trip. Arond eleven most of my new friends retired to their cabins and I went into my tent, fed and relaxed.
Most of them were leaving the next day but some of them were staying another night because it was a long weekend. The ones that were staying invited me to ride with them the next day. Things had worked out better than I imagined. The next day I got up and tried to make breakfast but no matter what I tried my stove kept going out. I gave up and had breakfast at the restaurant.

Garrydymond said:

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Knowing what I know now I would never have left home. Both Steve and I feel lucky we never got to the State s. It would have been a terrible trip wit h lots of complications. When I came hone I thought we would be able to reprogramme the trip for July and August but realistically next year will work better.
If you make it to Mexico for next spring contact me and I can give you some tips.
The ride home was a great ride with amazing roads and people. I will post the rest of the story over the next couple of days.

Click to expand...

Thank you brother , I'll give you a shout when I'm heading your way for some tips on the routes and places to stay .
You be safe now and please keep posting your great adventures that inspire us to ride places farther than we ever dreamed off ...

So after breakfast we went for a ride. There were 4 couples and it was a nice ride to the Eco Park which has a zip line which unfortunately was fully booked for the day. We rode down in the cable car and got some great views of the canyon. We went back to Creel and had pizza and beer. A nice day which i needed to recover from yesterday's news.

I had a good day with theses bikers from Chihuahua and had given out some of my stckers which weren't a lot of good to me now. We talked about bikes, trips, auxiliary lights, horns, tyres etc. It was a good day and i am very happy that I met them. It was much better than sulking alone in my tent. My second night camping was colder than the first but I put on a few more layers and was fine.
I had bought cheese, eggs and tortillas for breakfast which I was unsuccessful in cooking the day before. I decided to get regular gas from the gas station for my stove. It is a Primus stove which will burn almost anything. I had always used white gas. I threw away the white gas and was surprised to find the stove worked a treat again. I cooked a great omelette and a couple of wuesadillas. I was a happy camper.

I rode from Creel to Parral and it was an amazing ride. I had some cheese and tortillas left over so stopped on the way for a picnic as I was so happy my stove worked and was a little worried about eating in restaurants. The ride was full of winding mountain roads through pine forests. The aroma of pine was intoxicating. I arrived in Parral and found a hotel. It was a pretty nice little hotel with a collection of different tequilas. They told me I got a free drink of my choice. I told them I would get the drink later. I went for a walk around town. I wanted to get something to eat. Parral was a little town with a nice square. I walked around and finally had to ask for a place to eat. For those of you that have visited Mexico know this is very unusual as there are normally places to eat everywhere. I was sent to a pretty good taco place.
After dinner I strowled around a little and then went back to the hotel. I got my free tequila and started chatting with the barman. He mentioned that snother English guy had been there a few weeks ago on a bike with a sidecar. It turned out it was my mate Henry who has stayed with us 3 or 4 times in his trip South. Henry is not really going South but is going around in circles which frequently start and end at my house. His Harley Rig is currently at my house as he flew home just before I left on this trip. If all goes well with the world a the pandemic he will be back in July.

Parral is famous as being the place where Pancho Villa was ambushed and killed.

Garry
Nice to see your still going strong.
My boy and I met you at the campground near the Tail of The Dragon a couple years ago.
You gave us one of your stickers [Mexico to Alaska] and it's on my tool box. I was just looking at it yesterday.

Steve

eemsreno said:

Garry
Nice to see your still going strong.
My boy and I met you at the campground near the Tail of The Dragon a couple years ago.
You gave us one of your stickers [Mexico to Alaska] and it's on my tool box. I was just looking at it yesterday.

Steve

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Wow, that is amazing.
I started reading your Alaska RR on advrider. You hiys took those Super Teneres to some pretty remote places. If you ever come to Mexico oity I can give you a Garry and Steve Motorcycle adventure sticker.

Here's Henry. He is riding alone from Alaska to Ushuaia on his Harley rig. He could have done it on a more appropriate bike like a BMW GS but doesn't want to do it the easy way. His bike is now at my place tucked behind the tool chest and the rubbish can. He left Mexico the Sunday before I left on this adventure. At the time Corona Virus was news but not a big problem. Little did we know. Steve and my adventure didn't even start because of it anf Henry's reason to go to England to do some work and make some money has at least been delayed.

The next day I rode from Parral to Cuencame where I stayed at a cheap hotel with free breakfast. I then rode to Aguascalientes where I stayed for 8 days. My wife was still there so it was a good time but we basically stayed indoors. I then rode home to Mexico City. On my way to Aguascalientes i saw a sportbike stopped by the side of the road. In the photo you can just see his bike. I stopped and he ran up to me. He had run out of gas. He said he was going to push his bike the 2 of kms to the gas station. I remembered i had about a litre of gas in my gas bottle for my Primus stove. It felt good to save him from pushing his bike.
Whilst with my brother-in-law I changed my worn Metzeler rear for an Anakee 3. I was worried it was getting to low and didn't want to have problems on my way home. I also found out why my bike leaned so much when on the side stand. There was a bolt missing and the remaining one was bent. I was able to find one to replace my the bent one and all was good again.
I got home and went into self isolation and am still here.

Isolation continues. It looks like Mexico City will be in Self Isolstion until at least June 15. We can go out but it is recommend we stay at home. I occasionally go out to get shopping etc. One of the measures put in place during the pandemic has been you can not use your car one day a week and every other Saturday. All our vehicles are not allowed to be used on Mondays. Fortunately bikes are not included.
Last Monday my brother in law had to go to pick up his pay cheque. I took him on the bike and the battery died while waiting for him. We fiddled around for a bit but it was dead. I called a tow service and we crammed ourselves into the truck’s cab. So much for social distancing.
I ordered a new battery which arrived yesterday afternoon and just installed it.




The old battery read 10.59. The new one reads 14.4 with the engine running.
I bought the bike new in 2015. It is the first time I have to change the battery. People suggested I get a YTZ14S but they are not readily available in Mexico so I went with the stock 12S.
I will put it on the battery tender while I wait until we get the ok to go out again.
Steve and My trip to California is off until Spring next year. The airline returned the payment for the ticket and the hotel in LA also gave him his money back. The travel insurance refused to return his money but extended the policy until a June next year which should fit in with our plans.

Here’s a photo of the fancy Mexican Motorcycle Tow Truck.
H