Day One: El Paso, TX to Jimenez, Chi., MX [380 Miles.]
Wednesday the 8th:I got up about 5:30am, ate a bowl of cereal and went to gas up the bike. I noticed that my volt meter was only reading 10.5 volts, my heart was in my throat. After just replacing my stator only 2 months ago, I could not belive what I was seeing. I had just installed some running lights the day before and thought maybe I had run the battery down. I returned to the house and hooked up the charger and let it charge for about an hour. About 7am I started the bike and the volt meter was reading normal and indicating a proper charging rate up around 14.8 volts. I figured it was ok and started out again.
I got about 2 miles from the house and the voltage had dropped back down to 10.5 again. When I got to the turnoff on the freeway to Mexico, I took a right instead of a left and went to my friend Larry's house in Northeast El Paso. He was still in bed, but got up to help me.
We checked out the stator and it was OK. The voltage regulator also checked out OK. The problem was in the wiring harness where the starter solinoid is located. the wires were old and brittle. (Remember my gl1200 is 13 years old.) Larry had a connector and solinoid with a plug-in blade type fuse from a Honda Hurricane, so he cut out the connector from my bike and rewired it with the Hurricane connector. Problem fixed. Charging indication on the voltmeter was within specs.
I felt a lot better now. The $6.00 I had paid for the volt meter at PeP Boys paid for itself already and did the job it was ment to do by alerting me to a potential problem before it was too late and 1,000 miles south of the border.
Well, I was on my way again. I crossed the border at 12:30pm MST (1:30 CST) and begin my journey. In my haste I tok a wrong road in Juarez and got lost! I wandered around looking for the right road out of town for about an hour before I finaly found it. Boy, did I feel dumb. 2pm CST I was on the right road and on the way at last. Only 7 hours behind schedule.
At 6pm I stopped in Chihuahua and got something to eat at Burger King. Since I had ridden without a helmet in Chihuahua before over the last five years, I deceided to take it off until I got gas a the southern end of town. Well it seems that they had started enforcing the helmet law in Chihuahua and I got pulled over by a motor cop on a Virago. He was not going to let me off. $200.00 pesos later, I was on the road again. Be warned, wear your helmet in Chihuahua!
It was starting to get dark now and I still had 135 miles to get to Jimenez, where I was going to spent the night. I was glad I had installed the running lights as they made all the difference in the world for driving at night in Mexico. I highly recommend them. ($16.95 at Pep Boys).
I got into Jimenez about 9:30pm and got a room at the Las Pampas Motel, where I always stay. They were under new management and so had not gotten news keys made yet for all the rooms. I misunderstood my room number, I thought the desk clerk had said 36, so I had the bellboy open 36 for me and I settled down for a good nights sleep. Around 12:30 I heard someone banging on my door. I thought someone was trying to break in. I yelled at them and they stopped. I got dressed and opened the door to find a man with his luggage standing by the door. He excused himself and left to go back to the front desk. I went back to bed, but could not go to sleep for about an hour.
Day Two:Jimenez,Chi., MX to Aguascalientes, Ags., MX [470 Miles.]
Thursday the 9th: After a troubled nights sleep, I got an early start at about 6:30am. When I checked out, the desk clerk which had come on duty at midnight, told me I was supposed to have been in room 39 not 36. Since I had no key to the room and the bell boy had opened the door for me, he said it was not my fault, so he had given the other man room 39, and everything was OK.
The road outside Rio Grande that was under construction the previous month was just now being repaved. I got a lot of tar on the bike, but it was not too bad.
I made it to Aguascalientes about 2:00pm and stopped at McDonalds for something to eat. After eating, I deceided to find Enrique's house on my own. I knew the address and that he was on one of the main circle roads that completely circle the city. There are three roads that circle the city. An inner ring, a center ring and a third outer ring which is only partly completed. He is located on the southern part of the inner ring. I also knew that the main road north to south cuts right through the center of the city and crosses the 3 rings. I wanted to see if I could find the inner ring by going through the center of town.
I missed the inner ring on the south and instead found the center ring. I followed it until I came to a road that I knew and truned on it. I found the inner ring, but did not know where on the ring I was. I had a city map, so I pulled in to a vacant lot and studied the map. The only problem was the printing on the map was so small I could not read the street names. I knew that I was only one grid away from where I wanted to be, but I could not find the street that I was on anywhere on the map. I took a guess and headed in the direction that I could hit the inner ring again. Once I found the ring this time, I had no problem locating his house. As it turned out, I had already ridden by the house before while I was looking for it. All the house have metal slidding doors which cover the garages and entrances to the houses. Enrique's also covers his front door to his office when it is closed and you cannot see the address with the door closed. His office is closed from 2 until 4, so it was closed when I first went by. It was now just after 4 and it was open, so I found it OK. Only took about an hour and a half to find it. I'll do better the next time.
I finally got to meet Enrique's parents, they were on vacation the last time I was here. They do not speke English, and they wanted me to speak spanish the whole time I was there. I guess I did OK. His mother is a very good cook and fed me almost as soon as I got there even though I had just eaten at McDonalds just 2 hours before. We had stuffed bell peppers and refried beans with rice. It was delicious.
This was Thursday and the Moto Club metting night. It had rained earlier in the evening, but had stopped by the time we were ready to go to the meeting, so we rode the bikes instead of driving the car. During the meeting, It poured down and got everyone's bike soaked.
One of the items of discussion at the meeting, was who was going the rally in San Louis Potosi on Saturday. This is the reason I came in the first place. Only one person showed an interest in going to San Louis Potosi, everyone else was going to Guanajuato for the Cervantino Festival on Sunday, so I changed my plans to go to Guanajuato with everyone else. That meant an extra day in Aguascalientes.
The club had an invitation from the Governor of the state of Guanajuato to attend the Festival and also to get free passage on the toll road from Leon to Guanajuato on Sunday Morning.
When we left the meeting to return home, it was still raining a little, but the heavy stuff was over. We went back to the house and I checked my e-mail and then went to bed.
Day 3: Aguascalientes, Ags., MX
Friday the 10th:Since Enrique had patients all day until 2pm, there was not much for me to do all day, so I just slept in until about 1pm. It was Enrique's birthday and we had some cake.
At 2:00pm , we went to the Imax theater to see what time the next show was. It was not until 6:30, so we went and had lunch. Back at the office, I checked my e-mail and had a message from El Paso from John about a customer in New Mexico who had a problem. I then called John and gave him the phone number where I was and had him tell the customer to call me. The customer called me about 5:20pm and we were on the phone for about an hour, but got the problem solved. By this time we had missed the starting time for the show at the Imax theater, so we went for a drive around town in Enrique's car.
Later that night, we went over to the Auto Repair shop where Germann "Dinkey" works. There was a meeting in progress of a couple of the other motorcycle clubs in town. They were having a meeting to consolidate the two clubs and form a new one. They were also discussing who was going to go to San Louis Potosi and who was going to Guanajuato. The results were similar to the other club meeting the night before. Only about 4 people wanted to go to San Louis Potosi on Saturday and the rest were going to Guanajuato on Sunday.
After the meeting we all met at a restaurant about 4 blocks away. We had a couple of drinks and then went to visit one of Enrique's friends at an open-air bar. We stayed there talking until 4am and finaly went back to the house. During the day I had discovered that all four of the rivets holding the front fender on the bike had popped out. ( I have been driving on some pretty bad roads this year.) Dinkey had told me to bring the bike over to the Auto Repair shop about 1:30pm on Saturday so he could fix it.
Day 4: Aguascalientes, Ags., MX to Leon, Gto., MX [75 Miles.]
Saturday the 11th:Enrique was going to wait until around 5:00pm to go to Guanajuato, as he had some dentist friends from Leon coming today to use his office. They were also going to go to Guanajuato with us later. We went by the Auto Repair shop at 1:30pm, but Dinkey was not there. Enrique wanted to take his bike to a shop and have his rear tire balanced as it was not feeling right to him. I rode over to Wal-Mart and got a camera and looked at some sleeping bags on Friday. Enrique wanted to camp out at Guanajuato if we could not find the house of his friend there. Enrique and I went to a sporting goods store down town and got a sleeping bag for about 50 pesos less that the one at Wal-Mart. I had brought my tent just in case we did camp out, but I have not used it since the last time I camped out at Kerrville, Texas in 1976!
Since I did not get the rivets replaced in the front fender, I used some tie-wraps on it. One in each rivet hole and pulled tight held the fender just as good as the orginal rivets. They worked great. They will hold until I replace the front tire and can put the rivets back in.
It was close to 7pm before we were ready to go to Guanajuato, and the sky was looking pretty bad. I do not like riding at night, let alone at night in the rain. Maru and Octavio, the two dentest friends, were going to lead the way to Leon and we were to follow. About half way to Leon, the sky opened and it rained very hard. This was the edge of Hurricane Pauline, which had caused so much damage in the coastal region. My driving light blew out due to the heavy rain, which made it even harder to see. Even though we were on the four-lane divided road, the glare of the on-coming traffic lights made it almost impossible to see in the rain. We finally go to Leon and followed Maru to her home on one of the hillsides overlooking the city of aprox. 1.5 million.
We decided to stay the night at her home instead of trying to drive to Guanajuato in the dark and heavy rain. We changed clothes and put our wet clothes in the dryer and had a little tequela while we waited for them to get dry.
Day 5: Leon, Gto., MX to Guanajuato. Gto., MX
Sunday the 12th: We got up about 9:00am. It was still raining lightly as we proceeded to the Pemex station on our way out of Leon. It quit raining about 10 miles out of town and was clearing the closer we got to Guanajuato. Maru had opted not to go today, so it was just Enrique, Octavio and myself. We were supposed to meet the rest of the Moto Club at a park in the center of town for lunch before the parade.
We had a very good lunch.
After lunch, we went to another park overlooking the city.
After about an hour we then had a parade through town and then parked the bikes on a street that had been closed off to traffic.
We stopped at sidewalk cafe for some drinks.
Some of the crowd attending the Festival.
A sidewalk music break.
Some of the local police force. I surrender!
The entrance to one of the many tunnels that run all under the city.
The Theater Juarez.
Some more crowsed streets. The t-shirts read, "Designated Driver"
in spanish backwards and upside down.
It started raining again about 5pm so we put on our rain gear and headed back to Aguascalientes. We stopped at the toll booth at the edge of town to wait for the rest of the club members. They all showed up and we headed out. It now was about 7:30pm and raining very hard. It was very slow going and we could only ride about 45mph for most of the way back.
We stopped outside Leon to wait for everyone to catch up. One of the riders had run out of gas and one rider went back to take him some. After about 30 mins. we were off again.
Then another bike developed a problem with his tachometer, so we stopped again for a few mins. while they worked on it. We also stopped at each road side food stand at every toll booth to get hot coffee and make pit stops.
We made it back to Aguascalientes just before midnight. We were soaking wet. I had to put another blanket on the bed that night, as it had gotten very cold.
Day 6: Aguascalientes, Ags., MX to Rio Grande, Zta., MX
Monday the 13th: I got up about 10am, Enrique was already hard at work. I packed up the bike and prepared to leave. I had made plans to meet a friend (Phil) from El Paso at the McDonalds by Wal-Mart at 12:00. He had left El Paso on Friday and ridden to Eagle Pass, TX. He was to meet some people on Saturday and ride to Saltio and spent the night. On Sunday they were to ride to Zacatecas and spend the night.
On Monday they were to ride to Leon and spend the night before going to Guanajuato on Tuesday. We were going to meet and have lunch on Monday at a little restuarant that he liked in Aguascalients and then visit some friends before going on to Leon.
Enrique wanted to go with me to meet Phil, so I waited until he finished with his patient. We got to McDonalds at 11:55. Phil and his group were late and did not arrive until about 12:45. We had coffee and talked for a while and then went to the restuarant. The food was outstanding.
After lunch, we rode over to his friends office, it was right across the street from Enrique's.
About 3pm we parted company, Phil and his group went to his friends home, and Enrique rode with me to the edge of town where we said good-by.
I wanted to try to make it to Rio Grande before dark. It started raining about the time I got to Zacatecas and I stopped and put on my rain gear.
The rain set in for the rest of the day. It also was getting foggy and was difficult to ride. I had to be careful for the intersections that joined the main road. They were dirt (mud) roads and the cars coming onto the main road were leaving big patches of slippery mud as they turned onto the road.
I made it to Rio Grande just as It was getting dark at 7:30pm and got a room for $100.00 pesos. As soon as I got unpacked for the night, it quit raining.
Day 7: Rio Grande., MX to El Paso, TX
Tuesday the 14th: I got up about 8:30am, cleaned the mud off the bike, It was not raining any more, but it was overcast and looked like it could rain any second.
Like someone had put up a force field, as soon as I crossed into the state of Durango, the clouds were gone. There was not a cloud in the sky, but there was chill in the air. It stayed cool and cloudless all the way back to El Paso.
I was trying to get back before it got dark, and I almost made it. It got dark just as I entered Juarez, but with the lights of the city, it was not bad. I crossed the border at 7:30pm MST but picked the wrong lane to cross. US Customs pulled the entire lane over to holding area and I had to wait while they made about four passes with the drug-sniffing dogs before they let us pass. It seemed like forever, but was only about 20 mins.
I got home about 8:15pm. Home at last.
Ride Safe
El Gringo Loco