Mazatlán Trip Jan, 31st-Feb. 11th 1998

I

Day One: El Paso, TX to Chihuahua City, MX [235 Miles.]
Saturday: 07:30am MST - Met Kevin at Denny's for coffe, then proceeded to
Barnett's Harley Davidson to have his bike checked out. Went and got money converted then to Palms Insurance to get Mexico Insurance. Left El Paso and proceeded to Mexican Customs to get visa and vehicle permit for Kevin's bike. Time zone changes from Mountian to Central when crossing the border. Took about 30mins to process paperwork and finally on the road at 12:30am CST. It is aprox. 235 miles to Chihuahua City. Four lane divided highway all the way except when passing thru Villa Ahumada stoped here for lunch and gas. At the restuarant, we noticed that the electricity was off but did not think much about it. When we got to the Pemex station on the edge of town, just as we strarted getting gas, the electricity there went off, so we had to wait about 10 minuets before it came back on to finish filling up.

Clouds starting to look darker. About 25 miles out of Chihuahua City we stopped for a coke and pit stop. Another gas stop. Elected to stop for the night in town at the Casa Grande Hotel.

Day Two: Chihuahua City, MX to Durango, MX [445 Miles.]
Sunday: Arose about 8:30 am, it is cool, about 37 deg F. and misting rain. Ate breakfast at the Hotel and departed about 9:30 and gased up on the south end of town and on the road by 10 am. Lots of clouds in the sky, and not raining for now. Stopped at the toll booth out side of Delicias to get a burrito and coke from a little stand there. Stoped in Jimenez for gas and put on rain suits as it strarted to rain again. Very good four lane from here to Gomez Palacio completed in 1995, but parts of it are already showing some wear. Stopped for gas and coffee in at the Pemex station just before G.P. then on to Durango. This four lane was completed in 1993, very good road. It rained off and on, sometimes quite hard most of the day.

Stopped in Durango for gas and then started looking for the Hotel a friend from Durango told me about last May. We finally found it in the main section of town. The Hotel Gobernor is right across from the capital building. Across the street is the Cafe Tejas, which is owened by my friend Nico. After we checked in to the hotel, we went to the cafe to have dinner. Nico recomended the house special, which was a superb Rib-eye steak. When we left the restuarant and returned to the hotel, it was raining again.

Day Three:Durango, MX to Mazatlan[196 Miles.]
Monday: When we got up in the morning and went down to pack the bikes, we found they were covered in ice. We cleaned up the bikes
and took some time to eat breakfast at the hotel and let the weather warm up some before we left about 9:30. The road from Durango is two lane thru the mountains, but is my favorite road of the whole trip. It is about 175 miles from Durango to Concordia where you exit the mountians and have flat land to Mazatlán about 36 miles further on.

After you cross the state line you cross the "Devil's Backbone", which is some of the most beautiful scenery
of the whole trip.

To regress a little, on the ride out of Durango into the mountains, we ran into a section of road which was covered with ice. It was only about 20 yards long, but enough to prevent us from proceeding. We turned around and went back to a roadside cafe
we had passed about 10 miles back and had some hot coffee and waited for the ice to melt off the road. We waited until the sun had crossed over to the other side of the mountain before we started off again about 12:30. Kevin had used his CB to ask a truck driver about the road conditions earlier and found out the road was clear past that one spot that had stopped us, so we tried it again. The ice spot was still there. We went back down the mountain for about a half mile to a pulloff and parked the bikes.
We then walked back up to where the ice was and walked the road, We found that we could drive on the shoulder in the on-coming traffic side and get around the ice spot, which is what we did.
After we passed this one bad spot the road was clean except in the shadows where there was some runoff, but no ice. There were numerous small rockfalls around the switchbacks which demanded our full attention but added to the thrill of the ride.

As I feared, we got caught in the mountians by darkness about 50 miles from Concordia, it was not a good feeling, but since the last time I had installed running lights on my bike which helped a lot. Reached Concordia and gased up about 8:30pm MST. We crossed back into MST when entered Sinaloa. It is now a lot warmer than it has been all day and very welcome after the snow and cold of the mountains. we are here at last. Allow yourself about 6 hours for the 200 miles from Durango to Mazatlán due to 25-35mph speed thru the mountains. We stopped at the Two Sisters Bagel Co. and introduced Kevin to Susan (one of the sisters). Kevin then got a room at the Aztecas hotel and I went over to Jack's house, who was expecting me, to spend the night.

Day Four-Eight: Mazatlán
Tuesday-Monday: I let Kevin explore Mazatlan on his own while I just laid back and relaxed for the week. I took in a movie "Titanic" for $20.00 pesos ($2.50) one day, I can not remember which day. All the days seem to run together in Mazatlan.

Kevin chartered a boat and went fishing and caught about 3 tuna and almost had a sailfish. I went to lunch a few days with some of my friends. On Wednesday one of the Moto-Club members had a party at his house and Kevin and I attended and had a good time. Barbara and Elaine had just got in from Vancouver B.C. and were going to stay for about four months so they rode with us over to the party to see all thier friends in the club.
We all met every night at Harleys to have a few drinks and tell tall tails.
On Sunday Kevin took in a Bull Fight but I did not go. He said it was a very good show.

I had to leave on Tuesday to get back to work. Kevin deceided to stay for the rest of the week and go fishing again. This time he caught a record size sailfish among other fish. His camera had been giving him problems and none of the pictures he took on the trip came out. I would have liked to see that sailfish.

Kevin left the following Friday and rode to Durango and spent the night. On Saturday he rode all the way from Durango back to San Antonio arriving about 9:30 PM. When he writes up his version of the trip, I will post it here.

Day Nine: Mazatlán, MX to Benjamin Hill, MX [675 Miles. ]
Tuesday: Got up about 7:30 am and packed up the bike. Went down to the Two Sisters Bagel Co.(The Fish Taco Co.)
and had breakfast. While I was eating, Alberto and his Wife Gerry, came by and joined me.

On the road at last at 9:00 AM. Stopped outside Culican to gas up. Onward to Los Mochis, the gateway to the Copper Canyon by railroad. Got gas again then headed for Navajoa and got gas again.

About 39 miles from Santa Ana is the little town of Benjamin Hill, there is a very small motel and a Pemex station there. This is where I stopped for the night.

Day Ten: Benjamin Hill, MX to El Paso, TX [420 Miles.]
Sunday Got up and gassed up and back on the road about 8 am.