10-10-05 Miles City to Mexico

Rich and left in the morning after a slow start. it must have been around ten or so. It was sort of chilly to start with but it finally got warmed up by the time we got to Wyoming. Rich sort of surprised me when he called it a day in Douglas when i stopped at a parts house to get a nut for my rearview mirror that fell off. He picked a little park right by the highway bridge over the river. it was a nice place with grass and a good bathroom with shower. but i thought five oclock was rather early since we still had an hour and a half until sundown. it was a very noisy camp with the worst part the sadistic train driver who had the meanest horn i have ever heard. he did n[t want anybody to sleep that is for sure.
The next day was spent finding a way around Denver. we went way over to the east and headed down highway 71 down below
Fort Morgan. i was all in favor of going down the freeway through Denver but Rich didn't want to go through that mess. i really dont blame him for not wanting to go that way, but we were being pushed by a big ass kicking storm. i pushed as hard as i could and we ended up riding almost until sundown and found a nice little lake where we spent the night.
I was having some sort of a problem with my shifter on the bike and it would not shift down with out lots of screwing around. i worried all night about it and took off early in teh morning to go to the next town where I could find a paved; ;spot to work on it and really take a good look. it turned out to be just the linkage for the toe lever that needed some oil.when Rich finally showed up we; stopped at a little gas station and had a little talk. he was unhappy going so fast and not taking the time to look at the cool stuff. i was unhappy screwing around with the little towns and not making a run for it in front of the storm. i had been listing to the NPR radio and they predicted 6 inches of snow and 35 degrees. we decided there to split up and i took off and made as fast as possible run for the south on the freeway.
i had a good ride other than about two miles of hail that i went through. there were no overpasses anywhere so i rode through it. at one point it was about 3/4" stuff. that big windscreen sure protected me. i got hit a couple of times on the hand adn that hurt like hell. i sure liked New Mexico. they had at least two visitors centers that had internet service for those on the road to check email. I stopped at one in Raton and checked mine and shot off a few short replies. i was still trying to keep ahead of the main storm so flogged it on down to Elephant Butte where i spent the night in the lake campground. it was really nice as they had little cement protection places where i set my tent in adn it kept it from blowing away. it did blow like hell half the night but it was calm and beautiful in the morning.
I had a good ride all the way down through NM and then into Texas. i went through on the freeway and just kept to the center lanes and toughed it through on 10. I finally turned off 20 and made it to Presidio that is the crossing point that is closest to where i want to go which is Creel, MX where the horizonsunlimeted meeting is being held.
i pulled in to town and had a quick meal at a subway place and talked with some Mennonites or something that; were in there. i asked directions to a camp but never did find it. i did find a guy at a gas station that offered to split a room. he is coming from Alabama and he seems really nice. he claimed not to snore either but i'll let you know about that later. his name is Ted and he is a retired rocket engineer. i took a shower and got out this little computer and as you can tell i am having quite a time with it. it is getting late now. ted and i will try to go through the border tomorrow together which will be nice. i; need to hit the post office and get rid of some of the cold weather clothes i have been wearing on the way down.i looked at the tv and the weather station says highs in the low 70's; adn low in the mid 40's. i hope i dont need any more cold weather stuff the rest of the way.
10-11-05

It started out fairly early in the morning after a night i found hard to sleep. i turned on the tv with the sound off and ted caught me watching some weird shopping channel at one am and then caught me watching some discovery channel on the Rosetta stone and how Egyptian hieroglyphics are all tie3d into multiplication tables or some such. iwas only getting light entertainment on it because it was getting pretty deep as they went along. i will have to report that ted doesn’t snore bad at all. it was a warm night and i was afraid to trun of the air conditioning as i didnt want to freeze that poor old Alabama boys nuts off. i find out tonight that he thought it was sweltering hot last night too. humm, lack of communication for sure. ted and i met dale in the moring and he asked if he could ride allong with us to creel. sure thing but i had to hit the post office and mail my warm weather clothes and maps back. i was trying to figure out how to go about it and asked the lady in the office where i could find a box. she picked out a small one and i told her it was too small. she said give me your stuff i can packit in it. dang of she wasn't right. what apacking momma. it turns out she is the postmaster and a hiker and packer. she can pack, i loved her!!!!
we hit the Mex insurance guy and i got a years worth of insurance for a hundred forty bucks. next was the border for our visa and car registration stuff. i was really glad to have dale along as he interpreted for me and finally got it all done. it turns out that he is married to a Mexican gal which is i guess how he learned it so well. he lives in Houston tx. he is trying to get him and his wife into canada as the us will not give her us citizenship cause she came across when she was a girl illegally.
we finally got out of the border at ten and made some serious tracks into MEx. the road from presidio was fantastic for starters and i will have to say that the roads here are wonderful. sometimes a touch rough but i only saw onepot hole, which I hit of course!! the roads herer are much better than bajaforsure. i found out that the little guy in the gps unit doesnt have the foggiest idea where he is in Mx. he showed roads that were five miles or more from where we were and made roads that shouldn’t 't be there. it was fun and with the paper maps and dead reckoning as well as a very few highway signs, we made it. Chihuahua was a total mess to get through but we finally made it after making only a few wild loops.
the last seventy miles were headed up in the hills and someone said that creel is at eight thousand feet. by the time we got up here it was about fifteen minutes before sundown. we couldn't find any thing in creel but i finally saw another part of town across the tracks and when we went over there, there were all kinds of bikes parked. i parked next to a Ktm and went in a restaurant nad found about ten guys already ordering food. we ordered too adn they are a great bunch. it seems like everyone is staying i small hotels and when dale walked in late he said he found a nice hotel for 15 buck. ted and i went over with him after supper adn here i sit in my room with two big beds with the3 bike parked right outside my open window. There is a iron gate that is locked all night so it looks like it will be a safe place to have the bike. i have some important stuff in the rooom with me as well as this little puter pluged into the only electric outlet on the room. There is a small tv but i cant watch with having the computer plugged in. the battery in this little thing aint much so i plug it in if i need to use it. i hope i get a chance to post this tomorrow with spelling errors and all.
10-12-05It has been good to just hang loose today and talk bikes and travel with the guys. I hope to hook up with a few headed south tomorrow or maybe even this evening. I found a little internet store so I am going to try to send this as a blog as I cant hook up the computer and do webpage. No photos yet as I was just riding and didn’t take the time to take photos.