March 28, Saturday We decided to press on towards the coast, even though the Hotel Iturbide was a nice little place. A careful extraction from the lobby’s slippery tile floor and over the curb into the street and away we rode again. The rest of the ride out of the mountains was again a twisty-lover’s paradise, and then on to the coastal plains, interrupted occasionally by lines of small hills. We made a stop for motorcycle oil in Linares, found a Honda shop so it was pretty easy. Half a liter refill for Bear, and on the way again to the [View Full Entry]

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March 27, Friday After carefully rolling the bike back through the hotel office and out on to the street, we took off to the first “touristy” thing we’ve done, La Iglesias de Madero. This is a chapel perched high atop a rock overlooking the entire valley of Paras de la Fuente. As we pulled into the parking lot, we were accosted by 3 boys trying to sell us small models of the church on the rock. Somebody in our party is a soft touch - we bought one for 10 pesos - with no bargaining - and then I gave the [View Full Entry]

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March 25, Wednesday This was a non-travel day for us. We slept a bit later than normal, had a "deseyuna continental" at the semi-attached restaurant, consisting of a huge plate of cut up mango, watermelon, and cantaloupe, plus toast and coffee. This would have cost us minimum $6.99 in the US of A. We’ve found that the food is very inexpensive as compared to US prices. Coffee is almost always 10 pesos, which at the present time is 70 cents. Our standard currency exchange factoring consists of 1. multiply pesos times 7 for USD - actually US cents, but it’s not [View Full Entry]

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March 23, Monday Packed up and picked up the new bike key at the dealer. Local riders all say this particular dealer overprices everything, many will not even step foot in the doors, they ride up to Austin instead. Sad for the dealer and the club. We stopped in at the Mexican Consulate in San Antonio, but they did not issue the appropriate paperwork there, so we continued on towards the border. Spent the night in Uvalde, TX... at the Quality Inn, which used to be a Holiday Inn according to Sheila, my GPS. Speaking of Sheila, I spent several hours [View Full Entry]

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March 18, Wednesday Got the bike packed up and we took our leave from Steve and Helen about 11:30. We rode into San Antonio in search of the Cycle Gear store. We both purchased mesh jackets, as the temps are climbing quickly, then hit the post office and mailed home our heavy weight jackets along with some more clothes and a blanket. We are gradually paring down to bare minimums, which really is no hardship. We are finding that we need much less then we originally thought, something that probably would be good to learn even if we weren't on a [View Full Entry]

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March 16, Monday We began our packing, but I wanted to get the registration out from under the rider's seat. The rear seat came off fine with my secret cable system, but the front seat would not budge. Argh. I eventually had to unload the side boxes, remove them from the bike, and then continue to remove the luggage rack/frame and the rear underseat shelf until I could get into the area where the seat mechanism sits. I popped the appropriate levers, and finally discovered that a cable from the intercom to the FRS or CB radio - which I don't [View Full Entry]

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March 13, Friday Another Friday the 13th. This one was cold and rainy. We decided to continue on to Austin in spite of the rain and cold because the hotel was much cheaper there. By the time we'd hit Brenham though, we were both ready to find a warm and dry room. Stopped at the Knights Inn, which the GPS said was a Day's Inn, but who cares. $10 cheaper than Austin, and the added benefit of being right where we were. Checked in. Got some groceries at the store, had supper in room, dried out gloves. No pics from today, [View Full Entry]

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March 11, Wednesday We spent much of the day wandering around the French Quarter, looking into the many shops, and having coffee while listening to live jazz on the sidewalk. We went back to the Hotel St. Pierre for the afternoon, relaxing in the courtyard, reading and catching up on email. Weather was gorgeous again today. Supper at a little corner restaurant, combo of Shrimp Creole, Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice and Jambalaya. Yummy stuff - very tasty, and not simply overheated spices. March 12, Thursday Packed up all the goods on Bear, each time it seems we are a little [View Full Entry]

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March 10, Tuesday Up with a lot of moisture on the tent and bike cover. We must have had a very heavy dew, or fog rolling through, as I had to dry off both sides of the tent fly. Both of us had a great night's sleep, finally a bit of warmth through the night. We packed up and headed west - passing through the rest of lower Mississippi, along the gulf through Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis. The devastation from Hurricane Katrina is still very evident along this road, lots of reconstruction, lots of places closed, or just demolished. [View Full Entry]

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March 9, Monday A late sleep-in and up, packed, and on the road by 12:30. Deb mailed another package home to B.C. and we took gorgeous beach roads until Pensacola, then back to the beach roads again. We rode the ferry from Fort Morgan AL over to Dauphin Island, then a long bridge to the mainland. We crossed into Mississippi and stopped to check the price for a night at Super 8. $69 ! I said nuts to that.. I ain't paying that much for a cheap hotel in Pascagoula MS... so we road on another 6 miles to Shepard State [View Full Entry]

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