-No Return Ticket – Two People, Two Years, One Motorcycle

The Border with Haiti

Another military border outpost where they inform me I need to get a permit to be here. The person explains in detail where to go and whom to talk with to get this permit, always being very friendly, pleasant and helpful. Everything is good. He is surprised to hear about where my ride started today.



Further, down the trail there is an area of road covered in giant blue tarps. Haitians come here with huge sacks of potatoes they grow and sell them to someone who eventually comes up here with a truck. There is one military person here from the Dominican Republic, there are maybe a dozen Haitians hanging out in the shade with their potatoes.





They all seem to freak out a little when I ask in Spanish if it's OK to take a photo, but then the military person translated to them in Creole that the photo is just for fun, nothing official, they light up. After a couple shots, everyone enjoys looking at their images on the camera.



The trail continues to be rugged and steep. There is a young couple walking with a donkey loaded with firewood.



After saying hi I ask for a photo. The young girl is into it, trying to make a good pose, her tattered and torn t-shirt is no hindrance. After looking at the image I remark how beautiful she is. They are both beaming with friendliness while lookig at the image.









Stopping and chatting with people out on the trail is a huge pleasure and most times I cannot spoil the moment by whipping out my camera.



coming down







Civalzataion



Finally the bottom of the mountain and a hard packed road with a small village, This village is on my map so my location is known, and thats a good feeling after an all day ride.



The person at the first official building gladly takes my 50 pesos in exchange for a park permit.



He is also happy to get his photo taken.



I continue along the border until the start of the carretera internacional (international road). Again its a problem with my photocopy passport. Maybe this is an extra precaution because of the cholera outbreak, or just standard practice because this section of the trail runs into Haiti. No big deal, I did over 90 percent of the border, good enough, this was expected.



Doing a U-turn signals the end of this ride. My body is screaming from fatigue, my ass is raw but I am heading for home, triggering a new burst of adrenaline, and that feels good.







Today is Dia Independencia, Independence Day of the Dominican Republic, their independence from Haiti. Some villages have large celebrations and blocked off streets while others seem like ghost towns, probably because everyone is at the celebration village.








Roadblock after roadblock pop up with children asking for donations for some good cause. The girls have a ball having their photos taken and looking at the images. Once I handed the camera over so they could look, I thought the camera was going to be torn to shreds form the girls grabbing it from each other.









There are bands of roaming teenagers dressed in costumes wearing ghostly masks and cracking bullwhips. The masks have significance in the history of the celebration and in a way represent the conflict between the Dominican Republic and Haitian voodoo spirits.

Wow.
This is great.
Thank you.

- The Border with Haiti - conclusion



I screamed the motorcycle toward home and made it to the large Caribbean port city, Azuaa and a sleazy $11 hotel before dark.





The Dia Independencia celebration noise is blasting into my room. My body is toast and the only thing I want to do is drink a beer at the hotel and reminisce about the ride, and that works for me.



Today I'm heading home to Heidi starting on the shores of the Caribbean Sea and ending up on an Atlantic Ocean beach, cool.




Dominican Republic road-side coffee, strong and pre-packed with lots of cane sugar. Why does coffee always tasts better on the road?



Empanadas!





While eating an empanada I see this person doing a rear tire skidding halt. He quickly answers his cell phone and is just as quickly off again. Americanized ?





If you stay off the main highway in the Dominican Republic, you are guarantees a scenic ride



This is a view of where I camped several night ago.



My motorcycle developed a new noise, its coming from the rear wheel. I check out the noise, the rear tire is rubbing on the chain guard. This is weird. I adjusted the chain tension slides to straighten out the wheel but I'm afraid a wheel bearing is failing or maybe the mono-shock, Its still a full day's ride from home. I take it cool and slowly ride on.



Heidi and I tried this road a few weeks ago but we turned back, it was too brutal for riding two-up.







This ride is almost over. I do not think I am the same person. I try to make the ‘face’, the face that says ‘Oh freaking yeah! What a ride!’







Almost home to Heidi. I feel as giddy as this kid on the horse.


The Dominican Republic will forever feel like a dream.


Now that was fun! This is a do it again ride for sure, maybe combining it with a circumnavigation of the country, Oh Yeah!



- Tom and Heidi -


I hope you enjoyed riding along - The Border with Haiti -



Here is a map of my route, color coded by day

I have gotten no work done today thank you two very much!!



Keep it up!

Great freakin job Tom.....We are unworthy!

A great report from a good person. Not much more to add to that. Thanks for sharing.

Ditto!

Nothing more for me to say that others have not said. Thanks for continuing to take us along on your journey.

Again, thanks everyone for all the great words. This has been a super time and sharing it with ya all has been great!

I have been preparing for a little ride the last couple of weeks, and what a blast! And boy, the Sporty sure needed some TLC, a lot of TLC. But that is half the fun, working on your own machine, the machine that will get you there and back again. It won't be a super long ride, but long enough to qualify for Ride Reports! Oh freaking Yeah! I take off tomorrow AM.

Fantastic guys.....

Three months now.... where's the report, and better yet, pics???

Hey SABREMAN
I started a new thread for the ride you mentioned. Here is the link with all the pics --> Ride Report Even though the ride was short, it packed in a ton of adventure. Oh yeah!

It would be great to continue the No Return Ticket thread, but that ride is over. Thanks for checking it out though, anytime this thread comes up, I can’t stop myself from going back and checking it out, and relive parts of the ride, and dreaming of the next big ride. And that keeps life exciting.

Thank You!!!! You guys ARE THE BEST!!!!!

So what's the latest update? Still giving the sporty that serious TLC?

A two-smoke dirt bike, great pictures, great narration, zombies, non-TAT!

Love it!

Hola Sportster amigo, I dig your bike mod thread man, look forward to more photos. What a blast doing the motor, yeah!

And yes, the cavebike is still being treated well, thanks for asking I’ll share a few recent ride photos of what I’m talking about, just for the fun factor of course.


Preparing for the August ride I still had plenty of tread on both tires but I found these cool knobbies on-line last winter. Now I have to put them on, for this ride, I don’t know why. I think the Haiti border ride got to me, I don’t know how to behave on my Harley anymore, all I want to do is off-road.



When I ride solo I always bring camping gear, I can’t imagine doing it any other way. It’s a blast getting everything together.



The first night in South Dakota, just outside Carthage, a micro village I just happened upon by chance. I was looking for the town of Manchester where I had to turn south to this lake, but I never saw any town, nothing. I finally went south and found Cabaret Steakhouse & Lounge. This place is not to be missed if you are ever in the area. Oh, and I found out that Manchester was blown off the map, the whole town in a tornado a while back. Wow, and I found out a lot of other info in Carthage.


















On a road named Bia1, a fence pinned me in on both sides of deep mud, I had to turn it around. It’s like 20 miles back on this road before I’m somewhere north of Wounded Knee again. Crap, it was an adrenaline rush cranking the fully loaded Harley through all this to get here, now I gotta get out. Chilling out enjoying the surroundings I get to thinking that I am nuts.

I got a little too close to the soup---



This is the best crossing on the way back out. Riding solo this far out in crap like this is a triple kick in the pants, I feel all jacked up just thinking about it, and I love that.



There is unlimited free camping in South Dakota.









Saturday afternoon, last night of the rally and I am 20 miles north of Hill City near some ghost town on a mountain pass dirt road and the cavebike slowly sputters to a stop. There is no phone anywhere and no cell coverage, Oh Darn.



It ain’t the carburetor…

Cavebiker, that's really awesome! I am glad you found knobbies for it and enjoying your ride on the harley.

And thanks for posting your recently pic because that just reminded me when I saw your fuel tank.. how many gallons of fuel on it? 4? 5? And is the tank itself heavy or ? My sporty held 3.5 gallons of fuel and I could manage 150 miles out of it but the tank was so friggin heavy even if it is empty! Comparing it empty to KLR650's 5.9 gallon half full, it is about the same weight so it had to go! Also, when I rode KLR650 on Trans-America Trail last summer, I noticed that I was getting roughly 260-300 miles on the trail but a sad 240 miles highway so I realized that it would have not made any difference if I was riding a sportster or a KLR650.. the big difference will be riding it on the highway and not having to deal with overheating issues. I am stoked that I am just getting back to my sportster project now and expect to finish it by end of this year. I'll be in Colombia(SA) this November so that would explain why none of work will be done in Nov.

Are you and your other half planning a trip down in South America or ? It would be interested to know and I am planning Alaska-Argentina in 2015 with the possibility of doing TCAT (Trans-Canada Adv Trail) before Alaska. Maybe our path will cross one day?? Who know!? World is awful small place!

This is where I spent the night. Yesterday a woman hiking and a couple biking took down my tow service telephone number and said they would call, and I’m sure they did but Allstate is all automated until you don’t have exact addresses or cross streets and then it gets real difficult for some reason, they have to know everything, bla bla bla. I’m sure my helpers called but had to give it up.



After hiking down the mountain and the hitching a ride to Hill City I call my tow. Then 20 miles back up the steep canyon road to get the bike, then on to Rapid City Harley Davidson. The tow team was a load of fun and the driver said he drove down Bia1 once and busted some huge pin, “never again” he said.



Rapid City, the biggest Harley shop in the world I think, and this is the last day of the largest motorcycle rally in the world. There are tons of bike rolling through and hundreds of trucks and vendors pulling out. I get in the back of the line with ten other bikes.



Good time to dry out the tent


There she goes---



Oh Yeah, $120 bucks, can’t beat that and in and out in just a few hours, Unreal! I had a bad cam sensor, the ignition timing sensor. That stuff happens.

It’s still the last day of the rally and I’m only miles away. Oh Yeah, I am out of here!



I have to see some old friends. I hope Angie will still be at the Full Throttle.





I missed It! Well ya can’t make them all, but What a Freaking Ride!



I ride until last light then force myself to look hard for a camping spot. I love to ride this way, it’s a rush, I have to pull out all my senses and put them into high gear. The darker it gets the tougher it is.



This feels like the same spot I stumbled on last year, all good.





Shots in the morning light are my favorite.



I could look for some stale coffee at a gas station, or…





I like South Dakota more ever ride. I hope you enjoyed it to.

Cheers!

Hey WhicheverAnyWayCan,
The cavebike has a 4.3 gal tank and with the original engine I could get over 200 miles before reserve. the new motor gets 10% less millage so I'm now under 200. I got the tank off Ebay several years agi and it doesn't feel too heavy.

SA, Alaska, yes all planned someday so for sure hopefully we will meet up on the road.
Cheers,

Tom, good to see you got the bike fixed and back on the road. I had the cam sensor go bad on my Sportster too.