onderroad

Top Ten Things About Being home

1. I have this thing called a car, it is entirely enclosed, it has 4 wheels, I don't have to balance it, and I can close the windows when I get too much wind. Plus it has air conditioning, and a radio, and I don't need to wear a jacket, gloves, and a helmet when I drive it.

2. I have more than 1 pair of jeans, 4 pairs of underwear, 4 pairs of socks. I can choose from dozens of shirts to wear, not the same 4 I have been wearing for 3 months. I have multiple pairs of shoes to choose from, and I don't have to pack and unpack my clothes every night.

3. I don't have to fear losing my a) key, b) passport, c) wallet

4. Everyone here seems to speak English, at least I can mostly understand it

5. I have my own bed, big, soft, and the same place every night. When I wake up in the morning, I know where I am.

6. Stereo, CD's, DVD's,  Internet access and cable TV, guaranteed! An entertainment mecca.

7. I don't have to lug around the stuff that I have been lugging around for 4 months, I can put it away.

8. I can actually cook at my house, i don't have to go out to eat for every meal, for coffee or for a drink. I have a device that keeps things cold, called a refrigerator.

9. When I talk to my friends via email, I can actually go out in the evening with them if I want

10. and lastly, I can start planning my next trip knowing I successfully completed the previous one.

Day 54 Council Bluffs, IA to MINNEAPOLIS, MN HOME

DATE: Monday May 24 2005
RETURN TRIP DAY: 54
ROUTE: Council Bluffs, IA to Minneapolis, MN
DAY: 374 Miles
TRIP: 7682 Miles (from Panama City

I'm home!!!!

Whew. A couple of big driving days, 300, 525, 694, and 374 mile days. the 694 day is the high for the trip, and surprisingly, my butt did not get too sore. I rode bicycling pants under my jeans and stretched frequently and stopped every 90-150 miles.

I'm glad I stretched out yesterday a bit, that made today seem like a relatively short 374 mile ride through Iowa and Minnesota. It is just beginning to be spring here, while there's a lot of green, the farm fields are still mostly dirt. It's nice to see the puffy blue clouds, smell lilac bushes, and feel some cool air.

My home is a sweet site to see. I haven't slept in my own bed since mid-November, and I look forward to it tonight.

Stay tuned over the next week or so as i de-brief my trip on this web log.

Day 53 Glenwood Springs, CO to Council Bluffs, IA

DATE: Sunday, May 23 2005
RETURN TRIP DAY: 53
ROUTE: Glenwood Springs, CO to Council Bluffs, IA
DAY: 694 Miles
TRIP: 7308 Miles (from Panama City)

Stunning drive east from Glenwood Springs through the Colorado River Canyon, then tempering to just 'really beautiful for the rest of the drive to Denver. The road climbs through two snow covered passes, the first at 10.600 feet at Vail Pass and the second, at 11,600 near Loveland Pass. There is still snow up at these levels and the temperature drops to the chilly mid 50's.

Once you hit Denver, you look back and see the white capped mountains, and forward and see the flat plain stretching ahead of you for as far as you can see. A beautiful day for driving, a bit windy, with the wind increasing throughout the afternoon, in the open plains of Colorado, I had to be careful when passing trucks, the trucks would block the wind and create a vacume, the wind would buffet the windshield dramatically, and then whoosh, when past the truck the wind would blow in full, I needed to anticipate this and lean the bike over stiffly into the wind to prepare for the suction.

Kept going into the nice warm evening of the unseasonably warm day, passed Lincoln, Nebraska, and Omaha, and stopped about 9:00pm just past Omaha across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Day 52 Kanab, UT to Glenwood Springs, CO

DATE: Saturday, May 22 2005
RETURN TRIP DAY: 52
ROUTE: Kanab, UT to Glenwood Springs, CO
DAY: 525 Miles
TRIP: 6920 Miles (from Panama City)

Drive through the beautiful Zion National Park, stunning rock formations and vistas and an incredible canyon, one of the best drives I have ever seen.

Figured out I had 1800 miles to go if I went the back road, so I decided to get on the interstate and high tail it for home. Headed north from Cedar City in south west Utah,and then east to Colorado. A beautiful drive through the landscape of Utah. Stopped for the night in Glenwood Springs, just 40 miles from Aspen, Colorado. Glenwood is beautiful, nestled in a valley with the Colorado River, mountains on all sides. Unseasonably warm Saturday evening, lots of people on the street enjoying the beautiful day.

Day 51 Flagstaff, AZ to Kanab, UT

DATE: Friday, May 20 2005
RETURN TRIP DAY: 51
ROUTE: Flagstaff, AZ to Kanab, UT
DAY: 300 Miles
TRIP: 6395 Miles (from Panama City)

Drove to the Grand Canyon, it certainly is grand, kind of in get-home mode, but stopped for awhile and checked out the fantastic vistas. Headed north around the Canyon and stopped at the Little Colorado River Gorge, where the river has cut a dramatic 800 feet deep ravine into the flat surrounding countryside. Beautiful red cliffs for over a hundred miles.Stopped just across the border in Kanab, UT, although I had to drive 3 miloes back into Arizona to find a bar that had on the Suns - Mavericks game, which the Suns won to win the semi-final series 4 games to 2.

Day 50 Payson, AZ to Flagstaff, AZ

DATE: Thursday, May 19 2005
RETURN TRIP DAY: 50
ROUTE: Payson, AZ to Flagstaff, AZ
DAY: 120 Miles
TRIP: 6095 Miles (from Panama City)

Beautiful drive from Payson through the cool air in the mountains covered with green pine. The road drops to the valley and the temperature rose from about 75 to almost 100 degrees fahrenheit. Coming into Sedona, the famous red rock cliffs and mountains surround the city. The city is upscale and has restrictions so that all the development blends in with the environment. There is not really a downtown, just a long strip along the highway.

The drive out of Sedona along Oak Creek Canyon was very beautiful. The canyon was cool, fragrant with the smell of pine and other vegetation, with mountains on both sides, driving it was a highlight of the day.

I arrived in Flagstaff and found a hotel and walked into town. It is a college town, so lots of bars and restaurants and shops, in a nice compact little downtown. Outside of town, you can see snow capped mountains. There was a band playing in the square, and lots of healthy looking people in sandals riding bikes. Flagstaff has a good vibe.

Day 49 Tucson, AZ to Payson, AZ

DATE: Wednesday, May 18 2005
RETURN TRIP DAY: 49
ROUTE: Tucson, Arizona to Payson, Arizona
DAY: 191 Miles
TRIP: 5975 Miles (from Panama City)

I packed up the stuff I wouldn't need and headed to the UPS Store to ship it home. I filled two boxes, 48 pounds and 35 pounds. The cost to ship these two boxes ground was $80. I figured that I would save about $110 in fuel on the way home by shipping the boxes. I had collected a lot of stuff along the way, particularly in Guatemala: rugs, wall hangings, a hand made bedspread, plus lots of stuff that I found out I didn't need along the way. It feels great to get rid of all that stuff.

Found the Iron Horse BMW Dealer in Tucson and had my oil changed. While there, they found that my rear disc brake pads were almost gone - close to metal rubbing on metal, just in the nick of time.

I decided to take the long way around from Tucson to Sedona and Flagstaff, bypassing the big city sprawl of Phoenix. I headed into the mountains through the towns of Mammoth, north to Globe, an old mining town, around Theodore Roosevelt Lake, just east of Phoenix, and north to Payson, where I decided to stop for the night. The ride was varied, areas of seguro cactus, sweeping vistas, and desert. Payson is at about 5000 feet elevation, and the area is very green.

Nearing Roosevelt Lake, I was passing through an area with road construction, at the bottom of a hill, there was a police officer who waved me over. "Where is the medical emergency?" he asked me as he walked up to the bike. "You were going 52 in a construction zone, the speed limit is 25, didn't you see the signs? Show me you license, registration, and proof of insurance." I pulled my bike forward off the road. It was on an incline, and as I stopped, I couldn't hold the bike upright and it fell over. The police officer helped me lift the bike upright, and then he said that I had suffered enough punishment already, he would only give me a warning. That's the first time I was ever grateful that my bike fell over (just a few scratches on the mirror and the side bag).

Day 48 Los Mochis, Sinaloa, MEXICO to Tucson, Arizona, USA

DATE: Tuesday, May 17 2005
RETURN TRIP DAY: 48
ROUTE: Los Mochis, Sinaloa, MEXICO to Tucson, Arizona, USA
DAY: 550 Miles
TRIP: 5784 Miles (from Panama City)

Back in the USA!

Today, we left Los Mochis at about 7:30am, and headed towards the MEXICO/US border at Nogales. When we left Los Mochis, it was foggy and dripping with humidity, but as the sun rose and as we got farther from the ocean, the fog cleared. We stopped in Ciudad Obregon for breakfast and tried to get ahold of our friend Chana, who lives here, but were not able to contact him. We also headed into Guaymos, where Fernando had to stop and sign some papers, and then continued north into Sonora state and through the capital, Hermosillo, a large modern city.

We stopped outside of Nogales and I had some Tortoise Soup, at the prompting of Fernando, I enjoyed it until I found out it was an endangered species. Last night, Fernando also ordered a taco for me which turned out was made from the lining of the udder of a cow. Friends!

At Nogales, Fernando showed me a hotel he owns, his money changing business and his office. I bid adieu to Fernando, and Alfredo and I bypassed the long line of cars and moved to the front and after a few questions from the customs officer, passed into the USA!

It felt good to be back home, dollars instead of pesos, gallons and miles instead of litres and kilometers, and ENGLISH. It's funny to me how much I took my language and ability to communicate for granted. Now I was able to communicate not only my basic needs, but the subteltys of humor, or my feelings, of future and past tenses. It was a relief to be back in the states, and it felt like I was finishing my adventure.

I drove the 1 hour to Tuscon and found a nice hotel with internet access, watched cable TV, ordered a Dominoes pizza, read US newspapers and watched basketball on TV - all a real treat.

Day 47 La Paz, Baja Sur to Los Mochis, Sinaloa

DATE: Monday, May 16 2005
RETURN TRIP DAY: 47
ROUTE: La Paz, Baja Sur to Los Mochis, Sinaloa
DAY: 28 Miles
TRIP: 5234 Miles (from Panama City)

This time, we made sure we made the ferry, arriving several hours early.

It was beautiful leaving the Baja, the turquoise water, the nice sea breeze. You could see pelicans, flying fish, a beautiful long sunset over the water, a nice sea breeze, the gently rocking of the ship, The California Star. We met some Canadiens who were doing a loop from San Diego to Baja and back on their Harleys.

Arriving in Topolobampo, I started my engine and the engine raced. i could not get the bike to idle properly. I played around with it for a while, but eventually decided to drive to Los Mochis where we would take a closer look at it. Every stop sign, I would need to turn off the bike so the engine would not race at the interesection, and then start it again when the light changed.

At the hotel in Los Mochis, Alfredo helped me with the bike and we found that during the ferry voyage, I had tied ropes around the handlebars, which had caused the throttle linkage to come loose. After playing with it awhile, we got the throttle to work correctly, quite a relief for me.

Day 46 San Jose del Cabo to La Paz, Baja Sur

DATE: Sunday, May 15 2005
RETURN TRIP DAY: 46
ROUTE: San Jose del Cabo to La Paz, Baja Sur
DAY: 63 Miles
TRIP: 5206 Miles (from Panama City)

We got off to a late start (as usual) and had to make it to La Paz to catch the once a day ferry which left at 3:00pm. The ride was about 163 miles and we left at about noon, so if you do the math, anyway you calculate it, it's a close call.

Leaving town, we got separated, and lost about 20 minutes when half the group went one direction and half the other direction. We then stopped for quick seafood tacos, gas and hit the road about 12:30pm.

We drove back to La Paz on the east side on a beautiful road which goes by the airport and then skirts the ocean at Buena Vista before heading inland through a beautiful canyon and over the mountains to La Paz. It was a hot day day, mid 90's and you could feel a little relief from the heat as the road neared the ocean and you could feel the cooler, humid ocean breeze.

We arrived at the ferry at 2:45pm, and although the ferry was still there, were told we could not board. We sent our best man, Tito, up to try some persuasion with the officials, but to no avail. It turns out we were 5 minutes late and they had finalized all the paperwork for the trip, so we would have to stay in La Paz another day.

I suggested we find a hotel in La Paz and check in and sit by the pool. I found a nice hotel in my Lonely Planet guide. We decided to go have a bite to eat and a beer and decide in a little while.

It's been interesting to me, travelling with my Mexican friends. It's not clear to me what the plan is, or how decisions are made. I just kind of go along with the flow. I will be asked what I want to do, but I mostly go along with the flow. I think it's a cultural difference, but also, I am not in on all the conversations, with my limited Spanish. We will go somewhere, wait a while, I will ask what's going on, I hear a little bit of the story. Finally, a decision is made and we proceed.

Eventually, we did indeed go to the hotel and checked in, and had a birthday dinner for Fernando at a restaurant on the water.