3-7-05

It was a good night camping at the river. There were a few trucks in the morning hitting the ‘Jake’ as there is a tight curve or ‘Curva Pelagrosa’ just the other side of the bridge. Some of these guys can play a tune with their Jake brakes and when they are coming into a truck stop they like to show off. All good clean LOUD fun. Guy stuff you know.

I didn’t get too far down the road when I found a good place to stop where there was one of the nice rock walls that I could get to.

This one happened to be at a corner where there was a corral or holding pen which is why there is a wire on top. This is the only place where I have seen a wire on top. You can see the fence going on in the distance for miles. These fences go straight up hills and nothing seems to stop them. These fences were not to protect planted fields, but ownership of grazing ground I surmise. This fence was about five feet high and I would guess the base of three feet.

As I was going along I spied this train. I think it is the one that goes from Chihuahua down to the Copper Canyon which is a favorite tourist destination point. There are five canyons all larger than the Grand Canyon and they all come together there. I think the train was originally built to move the copper ore. I was too far away to see if there were any passengers aboard there were four passenger cars and a boxcar in the rear. This is supposed to be a great ride. There are motorcycle tours of the area too as well as just hopping on your bike and heading on in and finding your own way.

I saw this guys metal work along side the highway and had to stop and see.  I have seen people stopped along the road with a fire going and one of these things over it. Some times the Mexicans just use three rocks and put a piece of steel or bottom of a 55 gallon drum on them and cook their meals. This is one thing I really like about the Mexicans, they don’t build the rock fire ring like it seems everybody in the US makes for a fire. Three black rocks and some ashes. 
It turns out that this guy spent 25 years in the US in the Tucson area and just came back last year. he sold his house up there for one hundred thousand and came down here and bought this place, built a big shop and he said he built his dad a shop too. These cookers are made out of an old disk with the holes in them welded shut and legs and handles attached. Oh, he also adds a rim of about two inches so it is easier to cook in he says. You put a little oil in the pan and slip in your potatoes or fish or ??? and away you go. He also makes them on a stand which he says is much better as well as he puts a gas burner under them so it is quick  and easy.

On some of them he adds a little shelf to the side. Another thing he is making is a neat little stove from two tire rims.

There is a little cutout at the bottom for ashes removal as well as acts as a draft. There is a plate on the bottom and a nice square plate on the top for cooking. I forgot to ask what he was getting for these but by using the rims it cuts down on steel costs. I just read last night that steel has gone up in price 70% in the last 8 months on the world market. I see lots of scrap metal on trucks so I would imagine the price of scrap is up as well. You don’t see any of the Mexican cockroaches (dead cars) along the road over here on the main land. I suppose if the price gets high enough they will disappear over in Baja too.

I went through a big orchard area and I had to stop and take a photo of this guy applying manure, how organic and old fashioned, J. The interesting thing that I had to stop and see was the shade cloth covering that they have devised over the trees. The cloth is bunched up and tied with baler twine now but I guess they untie it and stretch it out to cover the crop. I don’t know if it is to protect from birds, or protect from too much sun, or ??? Any way you look at it, it is labor intensive. You can see that they have the old smudge pots set out as well. These trees had not started to bud out yet but they were getting ready. Just down the road I saw some metal tubes that I think were going to be places that they built fires in for frost protection. On some orchards they had fire wood stacked at the ends and I guess they were just going to build fires and keep them going all night if frost threatened.

I had to stop and repack my load as I made a major departure from my strict rule that I would not buy anything to pack back from Mexico. The first thing I bought was a wood fired water heater. A friend in Nevada had one years ago and it worked great. You build a little fire in it when you wanted to take a shower or do laundry. At that time they came from Mexico and that last I heard they stopped importing them. I hope I don’t get stopped at the border and have to give it up or maybe pay a import duty? It wasn’t long after that that I saw my first Antique shop in Mexico. I had to see what they would have. There was lots of cool stuff like big brass beds and old furniture. I found a really thrashed brass bugle and took it to the desk and asked how much. The kid walked out the door and soon returned with two more only these two were in better shape by a mile. I ended up buying the best one but now wish I had bought the old beat up one too as it was just too funny to hold. It had been through some rough times.

The way I figure it, Joe and Tucker have been after me to do something at the Friday night music activities in Miles. With this horn I should be able to liven up the Fandango Hot Club with some Mexican bugle music. They ought to get a blast out of that, or just blow their minds. Then there is Karen who plays the flute, maybe we can form a fife and  bugle team. Humm, lets see, Terry Hanson with his harmonica and Congo drum…………………. 

I bought another item that I cant tell about right now,  but it was somewhat bulky and I was out of room inside Lil Red so I did some major repacking along the side of the road.

My load of precious fire wood that has some major miles on it, finally discarded and  waiting for a lucky finder.
I now have quite a load on the outside of Lil Red. Strapped to the back is my bicycle and on top is the water heater, box of hermit crab homes, extra water, my little chair, emergency gas, and poles for my sun shade. Everyone stops and stares as I go merrily by, they have never seen a little car packed like that I guess. I think I fit in quite well with the trucks as we go inching up  and  down the grades. This is really mountain country. The roads climb up and down and every so often I come to a little pueblo or village. There is very little traffic and the amazing thing is that they wave here just like back home. This is the first time I have been in an area in Mexico where people wave as they go by. There are ranchers, some farmers and logger/sawmill folks that live up here. The road as I suspected would be pure joy on a motorcycle with just enough dangerous pot holes to make it interesting. It is getting cold up here and I might  have to turn on the heater in Lil Red. The lever on the dash is just for looks and I need to get down on my knees and find out how to turn it back on. I got it turned off when I was in the jungle as it was burning my foot off. I cant tell where I am but somewhere between Cyauhtemoc and Hermosillo.
In the little town where I bought the water heater, I saw on a window of a restaurant that they had a special of three hambergases and two papas for 45 pesos. I haven’t had a hamburger in a long time and papas are potatoes which I like, so I went in a ordered the special. The burgers turned out to be rather thin but I think that is good  because they got cooked well done all the way through. The papas were French fries. I ate one and a half burgers for lunch and now I have eaten the rest for supper. They were good hamburgers as I am in cow country and it was local beef I am sure.

I  am  in mostly pine but I see an oak tree that has been cut down and limbed out here at my camp. I saw a sign that said aeropurto which is an airport and  pulled up the hill to see if it would be a good camp. It doesn’t look like it gets too much traffic so I have  made my camp on the edge of the runway.

If you are ever flying around Mexico and the map says that there is an airport someplace, you might want to pack a few extra gallons of gas just in case it turns out that it hasn’t been landed on it ten or twenty years. if you were having trouble I would imagine that this one would look  mighty fine even with the brush in the middle and the small washouts across the strip.

3-8-05

It got cold last night for sure. I was deep in the down bag by morning and when I got up there was frost on lil Red. The road went up and down, up and down, but always gaining some elevation until I think this was about the top. I am not sure how this photo will show it, but the mountain ranges extend one after the other as far as you can see. You can see the highway across the first valley here as a line across the mountain to the right. Building this  road must have been quite a project. There are very few people living out here and those I have seen are subsistence farmer/ranchers. Before this road came through I bet these people never got out of the mountains. As it was it took me a day and a half to get across them in the car on a highway. 

This photo is a stitched one of three photos so it shows a bigger view here than you might expect. It was absolutely one of the best roads as far as scenic and lack of traffic. There were even little spots that you could pull off which are rare on most other roads I have been on down here. Most everyone waved as they went by. It must have something to do with the more rugged demanding climate and terrain that makes people friendly. it seems like everyplace that is easy living the people can be real assholes, but when it is cold, windy and your life is in danger from the weather, people seem to be ‘better’.

There were lots of little sawmills along the way. This makes so much more sense than having on of those huge lumber companies running the operation for a hundred miles around. This way lots of  people get to be in business and it spreads the wealth around. It wouldn’t surprise me if some big lumber company hasn’t bought up the timber rights and is just waiting for the right time to ‘harvest’ this area. There is a lot of timber around here.

This is another small industry that has sprung up from the logging operations. It is a small charcoal production plant. I’m not exactly sure how the operation worked but I think they put wood in pits and covered the pit with iron sheets and dirt. They get the wood burning and then restrict oxygen. This drives off the volatile gases and leaves the pure charcoal. The bags are filled with their charcoal. As I was passing through little settlements I saw smoke but just figured that they were burning waste. I don’t think anything goes to waste down here if at all possible. The people live in much more substantial houses up here too. I saw several nice log homes but board and adobe were the primary building materials.

The road is as I suspected, it is a primo motorcycle road. it has enough twisty turns, death defying drop offs and life threatening pot holes and rock slides to make any ride an adventure. I wouldn’t want to ride this road with anyone who is in a hurry. Lil Red, I would say, averaged around twenty to twenty five miles an hour. The steep parts are second gear mostly but a few first gear stretches and the down hill is second gear at five thousand r’s and still lots of brake usage. I actually passed a truck on this road. Well, he let me pass on a downhill short straight stretch. He passed me later when I found a nice shady spot and had my lunch and a nap.
I was amazed to see two different crews out patching pot holes. they have a dump truck with cold mix in it and two guys in the back shoveling into the holes. one guy on the ground to scrape the missed mix into the hole and one guy with a flag who is supposed to be looking for traffic. They don’t put out warning signs, you just come around the corner and there they are. When the Mexicans put out a warning sign, I have learned to jump on the brakes and cautiously advance because there is something terrible ahead.

I made it into Hermosilla just before sundown. I got gas and a snack at the mini-supra there.

It is the first time I have seen these, although I have seen the signs for them. they are called Coyotas and they are something like a biscuit but with a layer of what  I think is ground raisins. The package says with my little translator that it is wheat flour, lard and vegetable oil? and iodized salt. No mention of the filling. There were five in the pack and  I have two left. These are a nice little snack and will have to do for my supper as I don’t want to go into that big town. they have it set up so I skirted the town and I just paid my ‘couta’ to get on the express way to Nogales. I may bail out at the last minute and head for Douglas crossing as I bet the Nogales one is big and very busy. Oh I see they call it Agua Prieta on the Mexican side.

I was reading the Mogambo letter from last week and came across this….
He goes to on talk about a guy named Larry Bates, who was a bank president for eleven years, a member of the Tennessee House of representatives, chaired the Committee on Banking and Commerce, a former professor of economics, and the author of the best-selling book, "The New Economic Disorder." Mr. Schlessel quotes Mr. Bates as saying, "I can tell you right now that there is going to be a crash of unprecedented proportions- a crash like we have never seen before in this country. The greatest shock of this decade is that more people are about to lose more money than at any time before in history, but the second greatest shock will be the incredible amount of money a relatively small group of people will make at the same time. You see, in periods of economic upheaval, in periods of economic crisis, wealth is not destroyed-it is merely transferred."

Another from the Magambo…
- SAFEUS sent me some timely quotes that seem eerily prescient. Both of them were by James Madison, former President, "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." The other one was "The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."

While President Madison was not referring to the Patriot Act and the war-mongering neocons who have taken over the US government, specifically, if he were alive today he WOULD be referring to the Patriot Act and the war-mongering neocons who have taken over the US government.

 I was listening to the Voice of America last night and they happened to mention that 45% of the credit card  owners paid minimum, less than minimum or nothing on their card balance last month.

That's all the doom and gloom for now. 

I have made camp at a large service station again just outside of Hermosillo. This time i found a nice quiet spot behind it in a little used area. There are a couple of dogs hanging around looking for anything to eat. One is a puppy that has an old tennis shoe she is really proud of and takes it everywhere she goes. She  wont let me even get near it or  her.