Like Little Children

After dodging the early morning traffic in Puebla, we made it to the road heading towards Oaxaca.  Once on the road, the ride was uneventful all the way to Tehuacan where we were to meet Alejandro Romero at his personally-designed race track : )

We saw the snow covered Pico de Orizaba which rises to almost 18,000 ft and the Popocatepetl spewing smoke all in a perfect, clear morning.  It is always invigorating to be in nature surrounded by this kind of terrain.

We made it to the race track by around noon and spend a few hours playing like little children on Alejandro's amazing 2.2 km track.  Lots of tight turns, double apexes, decreasing radius turns, even a bump for Alejandro to do wheelies on - a great experience when doing all this on a fully loaded R1200GS Adventure with panniers on and all.  Andy even did it 2 up with Alicia - I sight to see.  Alicia also did a ride car ride with Alejandro, fully strapped, including a few skids.

Alejandro organized an amazing barbacoa feast for all of us at the club house overlooking the track - great food, amazing tortillas, great spicy pepitas, incredible cake, and, the best, real fresh pulque.

We left Tehuacan and headed for Oaxaca, another world heritage site.  After checking in at our amazing convent converted hotel, and putting the bikes in storage, we went out for dinner and to explore the city a bit.

Tomorrow we are going to the archeological site of Monte Alban to fly the drone for the first time.

Perfect Timing

The goal for half of the group today was to go pick up Pam, Alicia, Holly and Jodi at the Mexico City airport at around noon.  This little rendezvous was going to require a traverse of most of Mexico City from North to South - not a feat for the faint hearted and the uninitiated : )

The other half of the group, the singles group, took the north bypass to avoid Mexico City altogether, and headed straight to Puebla.

So, we left SLP after a good breakfast and headed to Mexico City in 40 degree weather - so weird for these parts to be this cold.  The drive was easy and the roads were relatively empty even as we approached Mexico City.

Once at the edge of the city, we decided to take the gamble and go for the direct route through the heart of the city hoping that traffic would be benign, and ... to our surprise it was! Things were dense, but moving, the whole way to the airport and we managed to arrive on time!  The girls were walking out of the terminal as we were parking our motorcycles -- spooky timing!

Hugs and kisses ensued, gear and helmets were put on, intercoms were activated and off we were to Puebla.

After a beautiful ride in the mountains with great twisties, we arrived at Puebla de Zaragoza (de official name for Puebla).  Our hotel is an old convent that has been completely redone.  Great location in the middle of everything.

Had a great group lunch in the famous El Mural de los Poblanos restaurant for a great indoctrination to the region's cuisine - mole, pipian, adobo, mole verde, etc.  We spent the afternoon visiting this amazing UNESCO World Heritage Site - the cathedral, the central park and the surrounding streets.  Great to see the town at its best on Sunday afternoon.

Seeing life in Mexico in towns like this is always food for the soul.  It is good to be reminded of good things in life like strong families, meaningful social bonds, and the ability to just have fun outside.

Tomorrow we head to Tehuacan to visit Alejandro Romero's race track and for a typical Mexican lunch with tacos de barbacoa ... and then on to Oaxaca - another UNESCO Work Heritage Site!

Machaca, Tortas, and Crazy Weather

We left early from Nuevo Laredo heading to San Luis Potosi for the night.  Started at 40 degrees, went up to 60, and, surprisingly, back down to 38 by the time we arrived in SLP.  Not your usual Mexican weather.  The wind at the end was rough.

Here are some of the highlights from today:

• David ran out of gas in Monterrey one-mile from the gas station : )
• We had the obligatory "Machaca con Huevo" at Garcia's in Monterrey, our usual first stop when coming to Mexico
• I managed to convince a group of 8 Federales that were having breakfast at the table next to ours to give me a "Policia Federal de Mexico" patch for my jacket
• We now have a "get out of jail free" card in case I need to pull the patch out and bail Andy or John out of trouble : )
• We stopped at the famous "Tortas Sevillanas" in Matehuala - had some amazing cuban tortas, cappuccinos, and cajeta cake on the patio in the sun!
• Arrived at the hotel in SLP at around 6pm in very very cold weather - it dropped fast!

The roads were nice, somewhat empty, and the riding was very nice.  It is always good to see things like el Cerro de la Silla in Monterrey and remember some college day adventures, and the high plains of Mexico south of Saltillo with big wild fields of unique tall cactuses going from the road all the way to the mountains, and the big steep mountains that separate the high plains of Mexico from the Texas plateau.  We also went from an altitude of 300 ft to 6,000 ft.

All in all a great day, with nice food, and great riding. Tomorrow our group is splitting into two to take different routes and converge in Puebla for the night.  My group is going to the airport in Mexico City to pick up Alicia, Jodi, Pam, and Holly, and the other group is going around Mexico City to explore a little.

It Is Cold!!!

Richard and I planned to get up early, load our motorcycles on the trailers, and go ... we did not count on temperatures in the 20's!  Our hands suffered a bit but we managed to load the bikes and hit the road by 8:45am.  Totally uneventful ride.  Here are some of the highlights:

• First stop, Starbucks to get something to warm up with
• Second stop, Buc-ee's in Temple to get some of their famous beef jerky - teriyaki, and something garlic - amazing! - and a nice BBQ turkey sandwich
• Bypassed Austin on highway 130 at 85 mph - the legal speed limit on this road - nice
• Reminisced about riding the Circuit of the Americas when we went by it
• Arrived in Laredo at 4pm, filled up with gas, and headed straight south across the bridge
• Quick stop at the bridge to get our tourist cards
• Arrived at the hotel in Nuevo Laredo at 4:45pm
• John, Jim, and Craig were already there - Andy, David and Bob arrived shortly after
• Unloaded motorcycles, checked-in, and unpacked
• Went to dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant in Nuevo Laredo - Tomatillos (see picture below)

Everything today worked like clockwork, no lines, fast service, and nice people everywhere.  Wheels up at 8am tomorrow morning.  San Luis Potosi here we come.

Preparation and Logistics

This is the largest group that has joined our annual motorcycle adventure to Mexico.  We have 8 motorcycles and 12 people.  We are trailering the motorcycles to Laredo (because it is way too boring to ride in a straight line on a freeway for 7 hours in cold weather : )

We leave the trucks and trailers there and we ride into Mexico for a 9 day adventure all the way down to Oaxaca.  Pam, Jodi, Alicia, and Holly are all flying to Mexico City to avoid the long haul from the border where we will pick them up at noon on Sunday and head to Puebla, our first colonial city stop.

Coordinating all the logistics up until this point has been interesting and different.  Having such a large group will present a different set of challenges but we are all excited about the trip.

Import permits, titles, insurance, hotels, routes, maps, loaded GPSs, tools, clothes, gadgets, and, for the first time, we are taking a drone to capture some cool scenes while riding.

Here is the intrepid team going to explore new areas of Mexico:

• Jim Stabler
• Richard Myers
• Bob Smith
• Craig Edland
• Rene and Pamela Larrave
• Andy and Alicia Scott
• John and Holly Hubbard
• David and Jodi Sacco
• ... and Alejandro Romero who will join us for the Puebla-Oaxaca sections