AARP Gone Wild ~ Baja Style 2013

Nice to have all of you along.

Barry is an amazing man for sure. He gets annoyed when I gush over him but I'm going to sneak some gushing in here becase he is a fantastic man. I met him close to 15 years go and at the time I was waiting for him to get old so I could keep up with him. It's not happening and I still can't keep up with him and I'm getting older.

One of the many impressive things he has done was at 68 he took his bicycle by train to Olympia, WA (I think that's where he got off the train) and rode it down the coast to just N. of Los Angeles. Basically going the legnth of the United States by bicycle and just cutting out the super congested areas of Seattle and LA.

My hope for everyone is to still be able to do the things that Barry does at 77 because he can run circle around men half his age. Oh yeah, I keep waiting for him to lose some of his mental sharpness too so I can get one over on him once in a while but that isn't happening either. :huh

Hi Rob, nice to see you hanging out with me here.

It was either during breakfast or our fuel stop when we all looked at each other and realized all the young riders had bowed out of the ride and all that was left was the AARP crowd. The "Leave ‘em for Dead Tour ~ Baja Style" was changed to "AARP Gone Wild ~ Baja Style". Much more fitting.

Our first Pemex fill up and ADV parking at it’s finest. While all of us, other than Lee, have owned and ridden Harleys we apparently didn’t learn the Harley way of parking in an organized fashion.


Let’s go shopping.


Bruce bought a bottle of tequila then was getting fresh with Becky and she’s giving him the thumbs up.

(Truth is; with her helmet on she couldn’t see what he was doing and had no idea )

As you can see we weren’t in a big hurry about anything. We were having fun at a relaxing pace and enjoying lots of laughs.

We were moving again and headed South out of town through the residential area.


Pretty fence and gate.


I don’t know what the sign says. Maybe The Juanes Place?


Cool


Maybe a motorcycle mechanic, welder, or both.




Don’t know why we stopped here but I’m sure it was something important. Where'’s Bruce and Barry? Probably not stopping for whatever that important thing was.


Here kitty, kitty.


Be nice to the critters and don’t leave your trash in their home.


We’re headed into Parque Nacional Constitucion and Luguna Hanson.






Time to check tire pressure and let a little air out if need be.




Cheers
Bruce


Becky


Lee


Barry


And me


We weren’t getting very far very fast but we were achieving our goal.


The ladies needed to visit the Mexican Rest Area so the men rode on ahead.

Hey Bruce, wait for Barry he’s not on his bike yet


…..ah never mind I’m sure he won'’t have any problem catching up.


Gotta tell you digging a cat hole out here in the sand is one heck of a lot easier than in the Pacific Northwest’s Forests.

Watch where you squat.


Rest area visited and we were ready to go.


Let’s see how long it is before we meet up with the guys again.


I wasn’t seeing Lee and Becky in my rear view mirror for a while so I decided I better stop and wait. I don’t ride fast so they must have stopped for something, maybe a cool picture I missed or something.


I like the way the road is lined with trees and foliage. The roads in the NW are often lined with trees and foliage but when that happens in the NW you don’t see much other than that green stuff. Here the road is lined but you get to see all the other things too. I like the variety.

OK here comes Becky and Lee. I think it was a luggage check or malfunction. All was good.


There are some cool rocky mountains out there.


It was a little wash boardy but all in all not bad.


We found Barry stopped. He hadn’t seen Bruce in a while and was concerned about where he was. I’d spotted him out of the corner of my eye a ways back. He’d stopped at a Mexican Rest Area. Here he comes.


All of us were back together again and Barry is mis-behaving. :huh Lee, always keep an eye out for what Barry and Bruce are up to when you are taking pictures. If given a chance Bruce will do an ADV salute and Barry, well Barry is just a tad mischievous – always.


Looks like there is luxury camping and services out here.


And even fuel. We didn’t go check it out but it might be worthwhile.


This one is better. Bruce is using all his fingers in his wave and even Barry is behaving himself.


Lets ride


Nice, this road was interesting.


Then around this corner


The road dipped down into a gully then climbed back out……..

Sure wouldn’t want to leave Bruce hanging on that cliff so I’ll finish the gully story.

All was going well then I saw a steep hill but it was paved and the only pavement we had seen since we left La Rumorosa. I knew I needed to give it a little more throttle to climb the hill and as I started to speed up I saw Bruce and Barry walk up to the crest of the hill. My first reaction was thinking something was up there and they didn’t want us to come up so I started to stop and put my feet down. Just then they made it clear they wanted us to come up. I gave the bike some gas to climb the hill but I was in deep sand and instead of going straight up the hill the bike went out of control and rapidly to the right and into a rock.

Becky went on up the hill with no problem meanwhile Bruce and Barry came flying down the hill to help me. For two old farts those men sure move rapidly when they think someone is in trouble. Lee, got her bike parked and rapidly came over to check on me. Yes, I was OK - - - scared, embarrassed, frustrated but OK.

Here’'s Barry, Bruce and Lee pulling my bike out of the ditch. I was behind that rock still trying to get myself out of there.


Barry took my bike and told me to walk up the hill and away went my bike with him on it and up the hill with no problem. I guess I was still a bit dazed since I didn’t get a picture of him riding the Superbug up the hill.

Becky got pictures of Lee going up the hill. Lee didn'’t have any problems with the sandy spot.


Or with climbing the hill.


At the top of the hill


I think Barry was explaining all the ways I messed up.


My screw up gave others a chance to look around and check out the cool rocks.


I think this says no littering.


And near that sign an empty bottle of vitamins and an unopened condom. I guess the vitamins didn'’t work.


After we were up the hill Barry realized he hadn'’t gotten any pictures of my bike and the rock so he wanted me to go back down and pose with the rock. OK fine…..

Barry’s lens seems to have a bit of dust on it.

It all looks innocent enough I shouldn’t have had a problem.


There’s half of the Superbug’s reflector up on the rock. I took it with me, I didn'’t want to litter.


The Superbug’s front fender sure has taken a beating and there were other new scratches on the bike as well.


With that little adventure done we were riding again.






A nice ranch out there.


This was a lot prettier than it came out in the picture. Apparently my camera lens was a little dusty too. That tree was bright gold and glimmered in the sunshine.




A corner of Laguna Hanson. It was getting late and we didn't have time to go explore.


Resort area




Just as I thought things were going well.






Lee got going ahead of me and Becky was behind me. I was having a hard time getting going in the sand and was duck walking when we saw Lee face down in the sand not moving. I motioned Becky to go on around me. Becky got to her and ask if she was OK she then lifted her head and was moving and Becky was lifting the bike off her. I snapped a quick picture but then when I asked if she was OK and she said she didn'’t know picture time was over.


Once the bike was up and so was Lee she confirmed she was OK. Barry and Bruce were ahead of us and had no idea of what was going on. She had moved over to the side to let a vehicle pass and when she tried to move back over the bike decided to take a nap instead.

The section of sand wasn'’t very long and we were back to fun riding.


And the views were quite nice.




We would be back on pavement soon.


The highway could be seen off in the distance if you looked real hard as you rode through here.


I don'’t know about the rest of the group but I was ready for a break and the highway was a welcome sight. I didn'’t get a picture and neither did anyone else but just before the highway there was a short section of deep silt. I didn'’t take any chances and duck walked it. I didn'’t want to hit the ground again.

Break time.


There sure is a variety of things to look at.


We were headed for Valle De La Trinidad.


I think we are dropping into Heroes De La Independencia here.


We managed to get to Valle De La Trinidad just about the time it was getting dark. Barry asked at the Pemex Station where we could find a motel and discovered there was one right around the corner. We got checked in and Bruce, Barry, Lee and I walked down the street for dinner. Becky wanted to stay in her room and fix her own dinner.

Dinner time


They aren'’t able to sell alcohol in the resturant but they said we could go across the street, buy beer and bring it in. So that’'s what was done and Barry turned in to a two fisted drinker…… I never thought I would see that day. Those are either tiny bottles or he has big hands.


Dinner was great but the coffee not so much. If there is a jar of Nescafe on the table don't order coffee. I made that mistake a few times.


There was a man at the restaurant that was very nice and helpful. He was translating so we could communicate with the cook/waiter.

A bracket on Lee'’s side rack had broken and a welder for the next day would be very helpful. Lee and Barry were talking to the man and asked him if there was a welder in town. He gave them directions then said he would be at the restaurant in the morning and he would be happy to go to the welder with them to translate. He specified he didn’t want any money for this he wanted to do this for a friend. Very, very nice.

We walked back to the motel and it was time for a surprise for Barry. It was his birthday and that morning he was trying to get us to wish him a happy birthday with a "happy birthday to you" sing alone. We chuckled at him and basically ignored his birthday. He was spoiling our plan with bringing it up, we had other plans for him.

Barry, Lee, Bruce and I were in the guy's room after dinner. I needed to leave to go get Becky and his surprises. I told them I was going to go get my map. Before I left Spokane I bought a box of Zingers for Barry'’s birthday "cake" and they had been hanging out in my tail bag. At the Spokane Airport Becky bought a t-shirt that was perfect for Barry and now it was time for his birthday party. It was his 77th birthday so I turned three zingers into a 77 and put candles in them. I didn't have a plate but the box of Zingers worked great for a cake plate.



Incredibly bad pictures but it’s the best I have. Barry was surprised when he was presented with his birthday cake and we sang happy birthday to him.


The writing on his new t-shirt said: "To save time let’s just assume I'’m never wrong". Oh yes, so Barry.


I really wish I would have gotten better pictures of the birthday fun but since I didn'’t I'’ll just have to keep it in my memory.

Lee hanging out enjoying the entertainment.


I’ll be back tomorrow and start day 3.

That it is.

I would like to spend a little time out at Laguna Hanson. Those rocks are really cool and there a are a few geocaches out there that need to be found. Thinking back on it we should have stopped there and camped for the night so we could explore some of it but we didn't even think about it.

You're right on-the trail birthdays are the best, I can't think of a better way to celebrate.

Yes, we do have a lot of stuff. Touring on small bikes is it's own challenge and packing light didn't happen for any of us. I don't know about the rest of the group but I used everything I took with me. After I got home I re-evaluated what I told to see if there was anything I could have left behind and I was glad I had it all.

For me the only way to pack lighter would be not to take camping gear but I like having it even if staying in motels because there is a lot of security knowing if the bike breaks down or I can't get to town I have what I need to be able to camp comfortably.

No problems with anyone.

Thanks for popping in.