I'm doing OK, but I was beginning to think that my laptop had died. It appears, however, that I've simply gotten bum wireless connections at the last three motels that I have stayed at. One has to laugh. I'm sending this out to friends and a few discussion groups that I either am on or moderate, so if you get the message repeatedly, or if some parts don't apply to y'all, I apologize.
I'm meandering a bit through Mexico at the moment, and working on my own "Tampico Trauma" it would appear. To track down ol' John go here: http://www.star-traxx.com/TripReport.asp?TripID=597865010 To see the photos try here: http://www.fototime.com/inv/310309400F90334
Left home in Northern Florida on Tuesday AM with a pal who is on the way to meet up with another guy in Mazatlan, and they are heading to South America. Tom and I rode hard (something around 1,200 miles) to get to the Texas/Mexico border in two days. After getting Tom through the paperwork at the border we were going to meander towards Tampico and back up towards Monterrey, but the first day was a bit of a killer (strong cross winds and tough, slower roads than expected) so we have changed our plans a bit. Tom's going on towards Mazatlan (and a crossing of the lower Sierra Madres in the winter, which should be fun) while I think that I'll explore the Gulf Coast a bit for the next few days. The weather is pleasantly warm with a little chill as the sun sets. My face is getting sunburned. So for those of you in colder climates (and it was fairly cool when I left northern Florida) eat your hearts out ;)
ol' John spent last night in Ciudad Victoria, which seems to be mostly a town on the way to other towns. Pretty good sized place however; I was watching the television news and was surprised at how professional the production was and that it was a local production to boot, when I would have thought that they would have been getting their news from a "big city" like Monterrey instead. Ironically, I was approached by a camera crew while taking some photos; they wanted to interview me but I excused myself after using up my only two words of Spanish ("norte Flo-ree-da") and moved on.
Today's ride from Victoria to a small town 30 miles south of Tampico (I must have a chat with Best Western; this was supposed to be in the suburbs of Tampico and it ain't!) was great fun, but it took me up a couple of small mountain ranges that I didn't expect and through several towns that are pretty much the equivalent of frontier towns in a day and age when the big truck has replaced the covered wagon. Certainly entertaining, but once again much more time consuming and tiring than traveling on the Interstates. Still, this is the way to see the country and meet the locals. Who, I might add, are almost universally friendly and helpful to this crazy old gringo who is obviously seriously lost. I wouldn't say that there are a lot of Norte Americanos down here, but there are a fair number that seem to winter around Tampico. And if someone is a lousy driver I hate to say it, but almost inevitably they have had Texas plates.
The roads that were marked on my maps as being four lane have almost all turned out to be like Texas farm roads -- a two lane road with a wide shoulder. However, here in Mexico, everyone drives on the shoulder! Bearing in mind that there is a fair amount of traffic, and you are sharing with a really wide variety of vehicles from bigger trucks than we have in the States to wheezing old cars and pickups and the occasional goat that has wandered onto the roadway, things are going surprisingly well. On the other hand it takes some getting used to to see a tractor trailer pull across the center line and into YOUR lane, all the time knowing that you need to move over to the shoulder. And did I mention guard rails? Armco needs to export some railing material here ;) So the riding is "sporty," let's put it that way.
I have also done a fair amount of two-lane no-shoulder no-guard rail mountain roads which are entertaining. This reminds me of being a kid in Kentucky when we would go to visit the relatives who lived in the hollar. The only catch is that those were country roads, these are major truck routes that I'm sharing with Kenworths and buses. (In fairness, Mexico has quite a few freeway quality roads. It's just that none of the freeways run down here). So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Updates to the photos will be sent out periodically, and I'll keep my bike club and HumourList pholks updated, assuming that I can find another network connection.
Y'all have a happy New Year! I think that mine is going to be celebrated in Tampico ;) ~~~~~~~
PirateJohn
www.PirateJohn.com
