Day 2
brought even more rain.
The alarm went off at 0600.
Steve was already up gathering his gear and depositing it in a central
location in the den. My bike was packed, so all I had to do
was gather up what little gear I did bring in and find a vacant spot
for it on the bike. Steve was kind enough to make me an egg
sandwich. After I washed it down with a glass of milk, we took
out the trash, donned the rain gear, and took off in the Monday
morning San Antonio rush hour traffic in the pouring rain at 0640.
The first stop was for fuel... so was the second...
Prof managing a smile as the rain continued to come down.
It pretty much rained until we got to Uvalde, then it started to
clear up. By Del Rio the rain had completely stopped, and the
roads were dry.
My first drop of the ride was at a gas station in
Del Rio. After filling the tank up with fuel, I went to put the
bike on
the center stand to lube the chain. As I was lifting the
overloaded bike, my foot slipped out from underneath me on the slick
mixture of oil, transmission fluid and water, and the
bike started to fall towards me. Instinctively I shoved the
bike away, but I shoved too hard... BAM! Right into the gas
pump. Nice!
Once Steve and I righted it, I saw I had
broken the mirror clamp bolt. Having broken many of these in
the past, I was smart enough to have a spare. A few turns of
the wrench and I was back in business.
We stopped at the Pecos
river for the obligatory Pecos River photos and then pressed on to
lunch in Sanderson, TX for more fuel and lunch...
Lunch
was the home of the 1 LB burger at a picnic table in the warm
sunshine...
After lunch we continued west on 90. The rains left several
rainbows behind, and the skies were filled with butterflies.
While pretty, they sure did make a mess of my face shield.
We also
spied a couple of camels roaming in a pasture near Marfa, TX.
They were kinda snobby, but we got a couple of pictures before they
turned and walked away...
We
arrived in Presidio, TX late in the afternoon and crossed the border
into Mexico to get our paperwork done in Ojinaga. When we
pulled up, we saw a Dakar. Turns out he was at the Horizons
Unlimited event the previous week and was on his way home.
Steve and I began the paperwork process, and ran into an issue with
Steve's passport. Apparently the last time he was in Mexico,
he got a visa for 180 days, but he never had it stamped when he
left. Several minutes later and a $40 "fine", we were off to
the line to process the motorcycles into the country. Not much
to it and we were free to roam into Mexico.
While standing in
line, Hal and Jon rolled through the border back into the US to get
something to eat. Steve and I were right behind them after we
checked into our hotel in Ojinaga...
Our $14 per night room in Ojinaga.
Dinner in Presidio.
Some little kids we met at the hotel.
After filling our
bellies, we headed back to the room. We had a slight plumbing
leak, and while the guy behind the desk made a go at fixing it, in
reality I think he made it worse. We settled for putting a
trash can under it for the evening... until...
0330 I got up to
"tinkle" (as my daughter would say). The floor in the
bathroom was soaking wet. The water was leaking so badly that
the trash can had long ago filled up with water and was emptying on
the floor. I dumped the water from the trash can and wiped up
the floor before returning to bed, but as I lay there I had an idea.
I popped up out of bed and went to work on an empty water bottle
with my pocket knife...
The
toilet was very close to the shower, so I propped the cut-up bottle
on top of the trash can which I placed on its side and let the leak
drip into the bottle and drain into the shower. Wet-floor
problem solved.
Mileage = 599.
