Guatemala to Alaska and Back

noted.

Yesterday Ken took me out to the eastern part of Oregon,mostly on small backroads known only by locals. For the first 65 miles we were joined by his friends Helen and Bert, who were off on a 4 day trip to some place I forgot. Anyway, when we stopped for coffee after a good hour of riding, Bert wanted to take something out of his panniers:That was when he realized that he had not put his packed bags in the panniers,he left them in the garage . That meant going back ,getting them and adding a 130 miles to his ride. Since he likes riding so much , maybe he did it on purpose just to get a few extra miles in






There we split up and Ken started changing the travel speed and he started enjoying his Multistrada . I had to forget my travel riding style in order to stay even in sight distance from him :eek1






He took me to a place , called the Painted Hills. It was not only pretty, but the scenery was also so totally different from everything I had seen in Oregon so far










Not everything that gets up, stays up






After lunch in this place, we went on to an other incredible twisted backroad with great views

















Once again I got to see places that I would have never found without the help of a local rider; getting to know locals who take the time to show me around , made this journey so special. MUCHAS GRACIAS !!!!!

So glad you stopped in Julio. We'll see you again someday down south we hope.

"Amber"!

If you are using Smugmug you can get an extension and upload directly from Iphoto at a reduced size!! I will send you links if you are using smugmug! Really easy!

Hi GuateRider :) welcome to the mac world :) I never never use iPhoto and I do not like it. For resizing, I am using picasa for mac. It is quite straight forward: you select the pictures you want to resize, you click export and then select dimensions you want, if you want a watermark or not and so on. Then one click and voila it will batch re-size them for you.

Oh and come on down South faster so that we could pass through Mexico together

Thx Mark; I'm using photobucket and by now I learned how to do it with iphoto . But I will check out Smugmug to see if it is easier that way

Hola Alex & Andreea, good to hear from you !!!
Where are you ? Sorry about going down south faster, but no can do . I'm having such a good time up here that nobody could convince me to go faster But you could slow down and so we will get a chance to ride together in Mexico

But let me know when you get closer to Guatemala so I can get you in touch with some good friends down there ; meeting locals makes such a huge difference

I will check out Picasa

Ride safe ,
Julio

Yesterday my host Ken took me to Bend and showed me the nicest spots of this town . Lots of parks and green area along the river














After walking around for quiet some time in town,we went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch . There my friend Ken got a lesson about the Latino way of life They had a lunch special, 2 tacos for 7.95 and a regular 3 tacos dish for 13.95 So I told the Mexican owner that I would like 3 tacos but that I didn't want to pay 6$ for the third taco . He understood my point, and I got my third taco for the same price as the other 2 .
All this happened in Spanish, and I really enjoyed the expression of surprise and ubelieve on Kens face, once I translated the whole story to him

Your pics of central/eastern Oregon are making me a little homesick....especially with all of the rain we are having up here (the entire town of Talketna was evacuated due to flooding) - too much rain! Some of Margie's and my best early memories together are from those areas you just toured...I think we even conceived a child on the trip we took to the painted hills...I know, too much information...keep enjoying the ride! I'm so glad that I can kep up with you through your posts. Thanks!

Mordor?

Julio,

It was great having you here! I enjoyed your company, your cooking, and your fresh ideas for my kitchen remodel. Be sure to let us know where direction your travels take you next.....

Ken

Freezing night out there, but what a place!!!!

Yeah, it can get cold down there!

Great to host you for dinner, Julio - please come visit anytime! Hope to see you down in your part of the world sooner rather than later. If you will be in Puebla, let me know - I'll put you in touch with my buddy there.

Hey Julio! You coming back through when RTWPaul is going to be around?? Or are you going to do just the west and center this time?

Dinner was delicious, thx ! Looking forward to see you down south !
I'll let you know when and if I get to Puebla

It was a privilege meeting you and enjoying your hospitality , thx .
About my plans...seems like I'm getting closer...crater lake did it

Who is PaulRTW and when will he be there?
I still don't know where we will go after California
Saludos

Post number #898 near bottom of page 60.

OK, he will be in Guatemala in one month...no way I will travel down south that far!!!
Just the wine tasting in Napa and Lodi and the trouts and Tacos Arabes en Puebla will take me a month

Enjoy!

Looking out of a window @ Dee Wright observatory towards Mt Washington, McKinzie pass, Oregon.