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Bakery Quest - 2016/17 Hacking the US with the kid and dogs


szurszewski

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Josh, Palo Duro Canyon SP is kind of on your way from Amarillo to Altus, OK. Haven't been there (yet) but heard it's pretty cool. Would be the right time of year too as it gets warm on the canyon floor in Summer.

 

http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/palo-duro-canyon/gallery/lighthouse-peak.jpg

 

That looks beautiful - at first I thought, we'll drive that way today! ...but in looking more at that info online, I think we'll save it for after we pick Laura up. I don't know, but I think we'll be heading back west to finish off SoCal (Jeremiah *really* wants to visit Jamie and Leslie in hopes of seeing Leslie's grand daughter Kaylee (sp?)...

 

In any case, thank you very much for the link - I'd never heard of that, and the pic you linked absolutely sold it.

 

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Edited by szurszewski
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The Grand Canyon

 

I decided right off that I wasn't going to take any pictures of the canyon, being that my iPhone is the closest thing we have to a good camera. Too bad as the air quality was exceptionally good and we could see everything beautifully. We spent a couple of days there and had a great time - good campsite (lucky as there were only a few left upon our arrival Saturday night - Sunday we could have had our pick of almost anything), great weather, and the one "Ranger" talk we went to was really fun. It was a critter talk and convinced Jeremiah, who already was bugging us to go down to the canyon floor, that not only did he really really really want to do that, he wanted to ride the mules. Fortunately for him, it convinced us as well, so we're already planning a return trip for his birthday maybe in two or three years to include a trip to the floor and probably a couple of days down there. This time, though, we had the dogs and they can't go and we didn't want to kennel them, nor are we -yet- in shape for such a hike.

 

Anyway, here are the few pics I did get while were there -

 

our little home

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mugging for the camera as usual

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the night Jeremiah finally convinced Laura to try out his hammock

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our campsite, as taken by Jeremiah on our last morning,

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and a shot I pretty much took just so I could post it on the "Sidecars, Let's See 'em" thread over on ADV

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About the only downside I can think of from our Canyon time was not getting to see these folks again:

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We met them in the parking lot of the last grocery store before you enter the National Park (tip: though run by the SAME COMPANY the grocery store IN the park is far better stocked and significantly less expensive {example: same dehydrated noodle bowl outside = $1.99; inside = $1.19 - most other stuff was about the same percentage lower}). They have been living - all of them - in their RV for two years traveling, stopping to work, traveling, etc. Actually, that's not true - only six of them have been in the RV for two years; the guy in the stroller (the only boy!) has less than a year on the road :) Anyway, we had a great time talking in the parking lot - especially the kids - and planned to meet up later. Unfortuantely, as you can imagine with seven folks, there was always something else going on with them and it never happened. We have enough trouble getting the three of us on track together - can't imagine.

 

And that was The Canyon.

 

 

 

 

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Après-Canyon

 

Once you've seen the Grand Canyon, is there really anything else worth seeing? Probably not, but we're determined to look anyway, and the next thing at which Jeremiah wanted to look was Four Corners. I don't know what about it caught his attention, but as soon as he figured out there was some place you could be in four states at one time, he was down to go.

 

Now, I don't want anyone here to feel slighted, but my ADV thread on this trip is more up to date/live than this one (as a result, they don't get as many pictures or snappy descriptions, but they do get more or a chance to tell me what we should and shouldn't do). No one said ANYTHING nice about Four Corners. And I get it, really, but the kid wanted to go and there was no real reason not to (I mean, it's even cheap really at $5 a head...plus they only charged us for two anyway). As said though, there's really nothing to do there but take goofy pictures (though there is something to be said for watching others pose for those pics - and since there was hardly anyone around that day, and since we sat to watch for a time, we got to be photographers for several other folks and their goofy poses). Right. What was I saying? Oh yeah, nothing to do there but take good photos, so here are ours:

 

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and this one is a video, but I don't know how to embed that playable here, so you gotta click (and you also gotta not tell Laura because this probably falls into the she'll punch me if she finds this on the internet category - also, let me know if you want to hear 22 year old Laura singing "Rubber Ducky" - pretty sure I still have that on a minidisc somewhere...)

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Since you can only sit around and watch folks do the weird things you just did for so long, after Four Corners we had a lot of the day left. Maria, who I met in the parking lot the night before and who had come from Europe specifically to see Mesa Verde, insisted that we go there too, and since I promised her we would, and since it's my mom's "favorite place on Earth" (note: there are SEVERAL places on that list - I'm not sure my mom understands superlatives), we went. Now, the park is open but the tours are all done. Good news is we had the place mostly to ourselves; bad news is this is the closest we got to any of the cliff dwellings

 

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...and I didn't even get that close because, you know, the thing about hills is you don't have to walk up them if you don't walk down them in the first place.

 

It was really beautiful there though, and I'm very glad we went, and by the time we were done I was also pretty darn hungry. Then we went and checked out a surprisingly expansive park across the highway from our hotel. And then I was REALLY hungry, and since we hadn't done much to celebrate the official closing of our house the day before, we went out for a budget-free dinner at El Burro Pancho. I don't remember what the dish I had was called, but it was basically a large plate of pan fried steak strips, peppers and onions, garnished with a ton of cheese and BACON. I don't know how I've never had this before, but it was great. And of course it comes with tortillas because a fork would be way to slow of a delivery system. I also had a really large margarita. I think Jeremiah and Laura had food too, but it's hard to make out in the background being basically obscured by my dinner and all.

 

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After a couple of days in/around Cortez, we still had some time before Laura's scheduled DEN departure. We had received an offer to stay with an ADV inmate in Denver, but there was one stop I wanted to make along the way-

 

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We were checking out the shop and seeing what we could buy to keep Louise and Larry in the lifestyle to which they've become accustomed when this happened, literally outside the door

 

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Jeremiah may have missed out on trick or treating this year, but between the fat sack of candy from the very sweet girl at the Indian restaurant in Cortez on Halloween and what he picked up at the parade in Salida (plus a few pieces - they were wrapped, come on! - he found on the street there the next day), he had a better than average haul anyway.

 

If you haven't seen this view, you need to.

 

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This shot of Culprit is already here, but I like it so here it comes again, in actual correct time sequence

 

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Jeremiah absolutely could not resist this candle

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and this photo is here for me and not you because I think it's adorable and you are probably like, hey man - we need more shots of motorcycles parked in front of stuff, or maybe like a thirty minute video of a what it looks like to ride down a road. Sorry.

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We finished off our 16 hours in Salida as all 16 hour periods should be celebrated - with very good pastries

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and that's how we're going to finish off this post as well.

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Oh man - we're almost caught up! (It helps that we spent most of the last week doing nothing really all that interesting so there aren't many pictures...)

 

From Denver to Rushmore, and Back!

 

 

As you may recall from my ramblings, at one point in time we planned to start in July, hit the Un in Red Lodge and then just keep going east until we ran out of east or it started to get too cold for our liking. At that time, we were all looking forward to seeing Rushmore - new to all of us - in the early part of the trip. Well, when we actually left on a cool and grey day in October (and especially the SECOND time we left, also on a cool and rainy October day), we decided it was probably not in our best staying warm and cozy interest to head east and instead started south (well, a little east for the first couple of days - but anyway). Jump ahead about four weeks and we find ourselves in Cortez, CO on Halloween. That gives us five days to get to Denver, and since Larry and Louise are off doing some work related sounding thing to the east we've sort of got some unexpected free time. Being the silly person I am, I say - hey, it wouldn't be much fun to do a 1500 mile round trip on the rig in that time (for me, mainly, since I know I'd end up driving ALL of it), but what if we ride up to Denver, park some place, and then rent a van? We could drive up through the night to South Dakota, check out what's to check out, sleep in the thing and then spend a day coming back south... and so we did.

 

Key to this plan was having somewhere to stash the rig in the way-more-sprawling-than-either-Laura-or-I-recalled-from-the-time-we-lived-near-there-sixteen-or-so-years-ago Denver metro area. We considered parking at the airport, or a nearby motel where we'd stay a night upon our return, but I hit up a couple of tent-space folks on ADV (both very friendly but out of town at the time) and put up a general request in the regional forum there. We got two offers of parking and "tent" space, and the first was from these fine folks:

 

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That's Glenn/Dirt1st and Linda - I'll let you figure out which is which - and the pic is actually from when Jeremiah and the dogs and I headed out from their place because it was too dark for a pic when we arrived. ...and there are better pics of them, but I like taking pictures of people taking pictures, so you get to see this one.

 

I called Glenn on the way up from Salida to let them know when we'd arrive; he said, that's fine - we'll see you then and we'll have dinner ready. What? Really? Well I don't even know that we had a choice, but we certainly didn't try to turn down dinner. Laura's a vegetarian, and was very happy to find both lentils and some grilled veggies (there was stuff for those of us who appreciate our top-of-the-food-chain position as well :/ ).

 

On our way to Glenn and Linda's - well, not really on our way as we drove into Denver, went right by their exit on the freeway, and then went ALL THE WAY across the metro area to the airport - we picked up this beauty

 

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photo by Jeremiah

 

We opted for the cheapest rental van we could find, figuring it might be a little beat up but that would be fine. What we ended up with was a van that was a little beat up but fine (both bumper covers were askew, there were a few other really oddly placed dents, a nice cigarette burn on the driver's seat, and the inside of the windshield was FILTHY). No problem there for us, BUT by the time we added Laura as a second driver (1/2 the cost again per day of the original rate) we were close to what we would have paid from a major brand, many of which include a spouse for free, and on the trip I realized (by reading the contract) we didn't have any roadside assistance through the rental co. In the future, we'd probably just go through a major brand and likely end up paying about the same (two-day rental was right about $100 all-in) and get a cleaner vehicle. But, who cares? It was dark most of the time we were driving it anyway, and the heater worked great :)

 

Jeremiah at the wheel

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Laura taking a nap in the back

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Hey - I just remembered one other deciding factor on the choice of rental companies: this one didn't care if we had the dogs in the car... too bad I don't have a pic of that as they had a very comfortable den set up in the back. Instead, here's a picture of us eating breakfast in the van while parked in a parking garage.

 

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And then there was this mountain, and people were like, that's beautiful and sacred to the native people of this area - we should blow the thing up and make it look like us because we're pretty. For many years, until there's like a really big earthquake or some terrorists or something, people can come and see it and take sort of blurry pictures of it with them in the foreground because they think they are pretty too.

 

(Seriously, I think Rushmore is cool, but I'm also an ass and tend to look at the negative side of almost everything.)

 

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We all had a great time at Rushmore - there were no crowds, the weather was crystal clear and even pretty warm by the time we left around mid-day, and we met a great Ranger at the first information office as you come in. She hooked Jeremiah up with some goodies as well as another Junior Ranger packet to complete for another Junior Ranger badge. If you haven't seen these, and have kids or grand kids you take to National Parks, you should check them out. They have activities for different age levels and they are at worst far better than the average elementary school worksheet in use - in my experience - these days. Here is Jeremiah working on his draw what the monument looks like to you activity

 

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As luck had it, we found the same Ranger in the other visitor center, and Jeremiah got to both use her to complete his last activity (ask a Ranger what they do) and have her swear him in.

 

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Can you tell he takes this seriously?

 

 

 

After Rushmore we headed south and saw Crazy Horse as well, but apparently took no pictures. I'll leave it to google to show that to you. It was getting late by then, so we took a quick detour through Wind Caves NP, where we saw lots of critters but no people, stopped for a pizza and then drove until we needed to sleep.

 

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Taken by Jeremiah out the window of a moving car using the full digital zoom on his point and shoot - pretty good I think

 

 

Morning found us in Cheyenne, WY where we had a nutritious breakfast of very good doughnuts - which we would have seen again immediately if either Laura or I tried this:

 

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After spending a TON of money at Sierra Trading Post (realized while there I was wearing a thermal shirt I'd ordered from them, for $5, when I lived in Sitka, 20 years ago!) we drove Jeremiah by our old place in Longmont, CO, then stopped somewhere I'd never been but always wanted to go

 

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I have carried one of two Spyderco knives just about every day since I received one for high school graduation - and I've lost several others over the years. Laura and I had talked a few days before about Jeremiah being ready for his first real knife, and he'd also interestingly asked me, something he'd not done before, while we were at STP if he could have a knife, so we thought this would be a good chance for him to get a good knife. This guy, also named Josh so how could he not be cool (don't answer that), was a great help in picking one out

 

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Now that Jeremiah had a knife, he was clearly a man and ready to be set free to live life on his own. He lit out directly for the Coors brewery in Golden.

 

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Linda made us a great vegetarian dinner (and that's not something I usually say) when we got back to Denver, Glenn was kind enough to both drive to the airport to collect me after I dropped off the rental AND drive Laura to the airport the next morning

 

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and that was about the end of that part of our adventure. Just after Laura took off from DEN, Jeremiah and I set out from Denver (well, we set out THREE times because Glenn kept finding things we'd forgotten) and made our way back toward Salida.

 

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With Laura off to drive a Uhaul of her mom's goods from Portland to Oklahoma, Jeremiah and I headed down off, first stop Salida, to do manly things, like...

 

play in the park

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catch up on school work

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harras the dogs

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catch up the trip tracking

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sit by the fire drinking cocoa-gattos and watching cartoons

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check the pond for fish

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lots of sleeping

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staring contest with the locals in Salida

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a little light cleaning

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good old skating,

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and contemplating the next destination.

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Headed toward Altus, we made it as far as Amarillo the first day -

 

gas stop rest break

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1st Sonic stop - lunch

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2nd Sonic stop - milkshakes

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and a room for the night in Amarillo.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Please forgive me, it's been about 16 day since my last update. ;)

 

A big chunk of the last 16 days was spent with friend in Altus, OK. We stayed with some folks Laura's mom had been in the Air Force with years ago - Jeremiah and arrived a day or so ahead of Laura and her mom (and a Uhaul full of her mom's stuff), and we immediately whisked off to dinner

 

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The pups were made to feel right at home as well,

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Laura and her mom, Pat, arrived just in time for Jeremiah's birthday. We celebrated his eighth with minigolf

 

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a hibachi dinner (if you're suprised that such a thing was possible in Altus, well, so were we),

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and a whole bunch of presents.

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The next day Laura, who had driven the big truck towing a little car, all the way from Portland, got to drive it a few more miles

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and then we got to stuff all the stuff into this stuff hole.

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With that, being the primary reason for heading to Altus, accomplished we turned to tourist pursuits. First up, The Witchita Mountains something something. Jeremiah took a lot of pictures of cows,

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Laura took a LOT of pictures of prarie dogs,

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and I took a fairly large number of pictures of Laura taking pictures.

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But what else is there to do in and around Altus, you ask? Well, we did a few other things - we went to see Trolls, which was actually pretty cute, and we played on some swings

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and we went bowling

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and we went roller skating

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and we ate doughnuts from the new doughnut place, Donuts and Fried Rice

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And all the while it was getting slightly colder...and colder...and we really had to be going south

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We had a LOT of stuff to pack - all our old stuff plus the birthday presents (one of which was a full sized pillow - really grandma? sigh...)

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Fortunately I got some help packing from this guy. I'm sure he was excited to go since he'd been kicked out of the house so the dogs could stay inside...

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We had one last meal at Western Sizzlin' (seriously - I am not making this up)

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and that was that.

 

 

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New Mexico

not really new, not really Mexico <--stolen from an inmate's sig

 

 

Just after arriving in Altus, or maybe just before, we got an invitation to spend Thanksgiving with my dad and stepmother in Santa Fe; they were getting a couple of condo/time share units there with some friends and thought they'd have space for us. As it turns out they didn't have space and pets were not allowed in their rentals, but they were nice enough to rent us another place just down the street :dance:

 

It was a bit below freezing our last morning in Altus, but heading east we were in the 80s by mid-afternoon, and mostly what we saw was lots of cotton.

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We made it to Clovis NM that day just early enough to do some sunset photography through the bathroom window (or maybe that was a sunrise the next morning...)

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have a quick dinner and catch a movie. (Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them - very enjoyable!)

 

The next day was a very different story weather wise. Cold. Windy. Rainy. We stopped for gas in Vaughn, NM and encountered our first lineup for fuel.

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Laura not being a fan of waiting in the freezing winds retreated across the street while I waited it out. Jeremiah, who was perfectly snug in the sidecar, being a fan of cocoa, went with her.

 

When I finally reached the pump, which turned out to have an only semi-functional POS, I found some kind soul had left me a snack

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I eventually caught up with Laura and Jeremiah at Penny's Diner

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just in time to finish up their cinnamon roll. Yum.

 

We rolled into Santa Fe around 3:30 and got to play a fun game of figuring out which pharmacy would work with our insurance provider. To make it really fun, while we were walking around town doing that, it started to pour. My folks were nice enough to take us out to dinner while we dried off

 

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and when we came out, we found the rain had turned into something a little more fun

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This not being their first Thanksgiving in Santa Fe, there were many suggestions of things to do (and photos of said things), and Jeremiah picked Bandelier National Monument. Since we'd enjoyed Mesa Verde but were too late in the season to climb into any cliff dwellings, we didn't try to talk him out it.

 

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It was fairly chilly but the parking lot, and overflow parking lot as well, was pretty much full when we arrived. I don't know where they put all the folks in the summer! With that in mind, we were pleased to find only a moderate number of other folks out walking the trails down the cayone toward the dwellings. We got to climb up ladders

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we got to climb down ladders (can you tell which way we're going?)

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we got stare majestically from cliff dwellings

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and generally have a great time and take lots of pictures (and take our jackets on and off about a hundred times as the temp difference between shade and sun in the canyon was +/- 15 to 20 degrees)

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Jeremiah finished up another Junior Ranger packet just before the visitor center closed up, and in addition to a very cool patch type badge, he also got an invitation to assist in lowering the flag for the day.

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By the time we got back on the rig and pointed it south to Santa Fe the temp in the canyon was about 45, and it descended slowly most of the way home...I think Laura's hands, without the benefit of heated grips (I did offer to let her drive) were a bit chilled by the time we reached Santa Fe, but it was nothing a large sangria couldn't fix.

 

 

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My seven Y/O is sorta fascinated with your story. I showed her your post & pics early on and yesterday out of the blue she asked, I wonder where the family is with the trailer, today? Actually took me a minute (to put it together) what she was talking about. Brain Getting Old. :old::grin:

 

Keep up the adventure! :thumbsup:

 

Pat

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The processes that go on in their brains are pretty amazing and certainly have a way of making our brains feel old/outmoded sometimes. (But then the darn kid can't find a pair of socks that's sitting on the bed six inches in front of him....)

 

We are in Phoenix to visit a Hannigan dealer (American Bike and Trike, actually in Gilbert) to find out how many different bits of the sidecar suspension i actually managed to break. Laura and the boy are still fast asleep but I'm about to head over to the shop.

 

I'll tell Jeremiah he has a follower and maybe get him to write up some thoughts here himself. In any case, thanks for letting me know the audience isn't just old dudes ;-)

 

Rest assured we will continue the tale!

josh

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New Mexico continues

 

 

When we got back from Taos we could only find one of the pups. Can you find the other one?

 

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I *think* she sort of scoots herself into places like this while she's sleeping, because the only way she fits is on her side (I had to lift up the bed to let her get back out!). Old dogs are funny.

 

With only a few exceptions, Laura and I have put on a big Thanksgiving for friends (when we lived in AK) and family (when we lived in Portland) each year, so it was a bit odd to be celebrating the holiday in a condo (well, two condos, and we did make full use of both tiny kitchens). Laura and my dad did most of the cooking,

 

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but Jeremiah pitched in on the crescent rolls (bread from a tube: another new culinary experience for the boy)

 

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My stepmother made a good case for visiting White Sands National Monument, and we made that our next destination. On the way I finally got around to fixing one of the Russ-made fender brackets that had given up the ghost some days before (maybe on the way to Oklahoma?)

 

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possibly when the fender hit the fairing

 

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Not having any fancy bits of plastic or aluminum to fashion a replacement, I opted for the low-cost bulk solution

 

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It seems to be holding up ok so far :) which is good because we sure found some good holes in the road at White Sands.

 

I'd heard of the Monument, as well as the adjacent missile range, but didn't know much about it. It's big, it's white and it's sandy.

 

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Look closely and you'll see the pups - on leash, as required (no one said the leash had to be connected to a human...) over on the left, and lots of blowing gypsum sand toward the horizon. We'd considered camping there, but with the wind we opted to skip that experience (I'm sorry we won't see the stars there, but mesh tent walls and blowing sand ... no thanks). Jeremiah did convince us to go back to the visitor center and buy some sleds.

 

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A very nice young lady popped out of a truck, ran over and offered to take our picture at one point - who were we to refuse?

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We sledded, made lunch, huddled from the wind in a convenient shelter, walked the dunes and sledded some more until the sun was just about to set.

 

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Laura took over the controls for part of the ride toward Las Cruces,

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and the next morning I made this little sculpture...

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...with the sand Laura poured out of her pants. Seriously.

 

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New Mexico to Arizona

 

With the White Sands behind us (eh hem...) we headed south toward El Paso so we could follow the border west toward Arizona. Jeremiah picked a few flowers to send to my mom before we left Las Cruces though.

 

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On the way east there was a LOT of wind, and somewhere in all of that the camber control for the sidecar stopped working - fortunately the wind was all from the north, so we didn't really need it...most of the time. In addition to the wind there were also a couple of motel rooms,

 

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a very strange night where Laura selected McDonald's for dinner (the only other choices were a restaurant with a grilled cheese being the only vegetarian choice and Denny's), which Jeremiah had never seen in his life (despite having lived on the same block as a McDonalds in Portland {it literally backed up against our next door neighbor's yard (our yard backed up to a business originally called Pink Kitty's and later renamed Pussy Cat's)} Laura hadn't eaten in one since maybe 2003),

 

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and a great meeting with this guy in Tuscon (Laura: So, who are we meeting again? Josh: I think his name is Neil. And how do you know him? I don't - some person on ADV that I've never met sent him a message and said we should meet him and he invited us to lunch. And we're going to like a restaurant or a house or what? Don't know - he just texted me an address and said to pick up some Squirt on the way.

 

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And we showed up, and his name was Neil, and he volunteers for a charity that basically puts out water for migrants so they don't die, which is officially the absolutely best charity work I can imagine, and lunch was fantastic, and he used to work for Al Jesse, and he spoiled the crap out of the dogs.

 

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We had amassed an entire list of stuff to do in and around Tuscon thanks to our thread and another random sort of sidecar thread on ADV, but I was anxious to find out what was up with the camber control on the sidecar, and I didn't feel up to taking it apart in a motel parking lot, and there just happened to be a Hannigan dealer (pretty new-ish, it turns out) up in SE Phoenix, and it was already Wednesday afternoon, so after lunch we headed north.

 

We got into Gilbert just in time to swing by the shop and say hi as they were literally locking the place up for the day (that's a lie - they were actually already locked up and getting into their cars in the parking lot), but we made plans to be back first thing in the morning.

 

Culinarily speaking, Jeremiah is pretty adventurous; though there are many things he doesn't like, he is usually willing to try a little bit of everything, which is very cool. While on this trip, though, we have realized that he is very much a Portland kid. That is to say, given the choice of Korean, Ethiopian or Cambodian for dinner, he will often have a tough time deciding which one he wants, but until we got to the Bay Area he had no idea what a Denny's was. At least he'd seen them, but do you know what he'd never seen? One of these:

 

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Good news: he liked it. A lot. :)

 

The next morning I basically got the run of the shop at American Bike and Trike and I can't say enough about how accommodating they were. Their sidecar specialist wasn't in because of some family health issue, so the owner offered me shop space, tools and another of their guys to help me tear apart the rig as necessary. I'm not certain we're 100% fixed, but with some wiring corrections (to some of my wiring and some of the factory wiring on the linear actuator) and a new battery for the bike, we seem to have things mostly working again. I should have take a zillion pictures of the shop and all the cool 3+ wheel rides in there, but I didn't. I did get this beauty though - for $25k it could be in your garage by the weekend!

 

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With that accomplished, we headed all the way from the SE corner to the NW corner of the valley to stay with a good family friend. She had a new puppy and he was eager to check out the traveling pup house. (We'd probably have adjusted the dimensions slightly if we still had a beast this size.)

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We didn't do a whole lot of exciting adventure travel type stuff in Phoenix, but we did do some serious relaxing.

 

Jeremiah decided to go swimming on the coolest day we were in town (this is *almost* as far as he made it into the water),

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we went for a desert hike on the hottest day we were in town,

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we managed to meet up with one of Laura's college friends she hadn't seen in twenty years, who happens to now have three kids around Jeremiah's age (can you see how hard he's fighting the urge to talk while it's someone eles's turn?),

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and our dogs, who are not notoriously good with "new" dog friends, actually managed to play nicely with Rocky (and didn't eat either of the cats, though Eddy did bark at one of them sort of half-assedly a few times).

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Assuming the bike starts tomorrow morning and nothing else goes drastically wrong (and nothing particularly interesting comes up before then), we'll be rolling out in the morning, so Laura and I each did something we really love with our last day.

 

She slept in,

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and Jeremiah and I rebuilt a set of rather oddly twisted (built with green lumber from a much less arid place) garage shelves in such a way that they no longer appear to be on the verge of crushing anyone foolish enough to come near. (I mean, that's what Jeremiah and I did after I finished artfully arranging Laura's hair for that photo, took the dogs for a walk, poked around on the internet, took a shower, work Jeremiah up....)

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Next stop, Joshua Tree National Park, and then on through the rest of SoCal. Hopefully Ted Porter will finally get the shocks I ordered back in October (well, he won't - he's actually at the factory in the Netherlands until the 13th or so) - supposedly they are coming in from Europe this weekend or so - and maybe we can get those installed and see if we're brave enough to try a little of Mexico.

 

If you've got any SoCal must-dos or whatever, please let us know!

josh

 

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You can camp in our backyard if you make it to San Diego.

 

Thanks for the offer - we just may take you up on it!

 

We are in Palm Springs tonight and going to see some old friends in El Cajon tomorrow. They are in the middle of building or maybe rebuilding a house, so I don't know what the guest accommodation situation is ;)

 

In any case we will be in or around the area for awhile as we just had a bunch of mail and some bike parts sent this way, and they probably won't be here until maybe early next week.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Great stuff!!

 

Thanks, and thanks again for lodging us. Do you and Mrs. still spend any time at Whipville south? I don't think we'll be back to CO on this trip, but it would be nice to actually hang out with both of you, and based on my admittedly rudimentary map reading skills, it looks like we may have to go through Texas on our way east.

 

Also, how's the "new" GS?

 

 

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Howdy Sport Tourers! We spent a week in El Cajon and didn't have much in the way of internet, and we were kind of busy, so I'm way behind with all this stuff. This is the first time I've done this, so I hope no one feels slighted, but I'm going to upload here basically the same thing that's going on ADV. I do have one thing to add though, as some of you might recognize the faces in this first pic.

 

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We came back to California primarily becasue Jeremiah wanted to (because we hadn't had time to do all of CA pre-OK), and there were pretty much only two reasons he wanted to go to SoCal; Joshua Tree National Park and, probably more so but hard to say for sure, to see a young lady he met this summer in Red Lodge. As it turns out, it was a pretty hectic week for their family, but we did find one afternoon to squeeze in a visit with the "classic" board members and their grand daughter :) :) :)

 

 

 

Here's what I said on ADV:

 

We rolled in to El Cajon thinking we'd be there a couple days at most, but we ended up staying a week and did so much I don't really know where to start. I guess I should start with Kathy. Here she is with her husband Dennis; I could pretend, for story order purposes that this was taken when we arrived, but it was actually taken just before we left to head north.

 

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When I met Kathy she and Dennis were living in Redmond, where Kathy grew up and where they met and got married (the same year I was born - I like to give her a hard time about that; to be fair, at the time she was pretty young - eleven years younger than my mom at the time, actually), and she was teaching driver education there. Eventually we both ended up teaching traffic safety courses for the same university and I like to think we're pretty good friends. That's pretty easy with Kathy though - she's one of those people that's always up and full of energy and just so sweet you want to smack her, but you know she'd smack you back, and she'd be crushed, so you don't do it :)

 

They moved to El Cajon about a year ago to be closer to their kids and grand kids, and it turns out her kids, whom I'd never met, are just about as nice (though maybe not quite so bubbly). So, I guess this is where I put in the snapshot of stuff we did in while were there, so here you go.

 

First, here's our awesome, quintessential SoCal hills parking spot (very convenient to our lodging for the week, which was that toy hauler in the background of the first shot)

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After our greeting by the dogs,

 

aside: there are two dogs that live at the house full time, and two more that come by about every day - here's Kathy with all of them,

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and a bonus shot of Jeremiah with Sativa - she's a darn big dog.

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Kathy set right about to entertaining us - she took Laura and Jeremiah for a ride in the RZR,

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then she taught Jeremiah how to drive the RZR,

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and then when her grandson Antonio got home from school, he took Jeremiah for another ride.

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Antonio managed to talk me into giving him several rides between school and his grandparents' in the sidecar, as well as a tour through El Cajon; now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure he's the first person other than Laura and Jeremiah to ride in the car on this trip.

 

Dennis took us hiking in the hills behind the house,

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and took us and the dogs for a ride in a really big Dodge (can you see Eddy?).

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In addition to wanting to visit our friends, we'd also arranged to have some bike parts and our first packet of mail shipped to their address. Here's nearly two months worth of our mail:

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Not much, right? And about half went directly into the recycle. I'd been looking forward to getting the registration for the trailer, but instead there was a letter from DMV saying I'd underpaid for the fees for the trailer and needed to send in more money. I'm not sure how that happened since we went into the DMV and they told us how much it was. I try to say good things about them, but stuff like this explains why people were so excited to pay us $40 to take a driving test at our school vs going to the DMV where the test is only $9. Sigh. Anybody know if we need to have registration for the trailer to take it into Mexico? Anyway - let's talk more about how cool Kathy and her family are.

 

Kathy took us to the San Diego Zoo and showed Jeremiah all the coolest stuff (and snuck him in as her grandson saving us, on his admission alone, just about our total usual daily budget),

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dug out a full set of gear for Jeremiah so they could do some Taekwondo sparring,

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and, well - tell you what: first person who can tell me what's going on in this picture get's an ADV sticker of their choice on us:

ok - separate deal for BMWST - I've send you a BMWST sticker if you figure it out first; I've got one with us and everything!

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To feel like we weren't freeloading too much, we tried to be useful - mostlly though we just played with the dogs. Tyson in particular loves to go for rides and was eager to check out the trailer,

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and VERY eager to ride in the hack (in fact, every time it moved he tried to jump in).

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He's a natural, clearly, but think of all the drool....

 

In addition to putting together dinner one night, Laura also made pretzels as a special treat

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On the eve of our departure, in addition to trying to talk us into staying several more days, Kathy insisted Laura and I go out to dinner and movie. We had a great dinner of lamb and lentils and just a little bit of bread

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saw a decent move (Arrival) and came back to find Jeremiah in the guest room doing his usual best bed hogging

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We also found that the entire thing had been a gambit to get us out of the house so Kathy and Jeremiah could make us Christmas presents - I'm very curious to see what they are, but we've still got a week to wait....

 

 

and here's what I'll finish with here:

We're in Wildomar staying with a very generous ADV inmate. We got our new shocks in the mail in El Cajon but our friends are currently without a garage as they converted the old one to an apartment and haven't build the new mega-shop yet, so we took up an offer to use some space here. Unfortunately we were shipped an incorrect front shock, and didn't figure that out until Friday afternoon. Now we're waiting to see what the Dutch manufacturer can do...oh, and there seems to be a bit of fiberglass and metal repair needed on the sidecar (it does have a new shock now, which is when I figured out it needed the other things), and we should probably pick up a new tire. So, for those and a couple of other reasons, we're clearly not getting down to Manzanillo area for Christmas and will likely be pretty darn close to where we are.

 

What the heck do you all do for Christmas in SoCal? It will be fun to find out. :)

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Ok - I'm a bit behind again. I'll get pics up at some point but not today as I have fun news!

 

After Wildomar we surprised Jeremiah (I assure you this was entirely Laura's idea) with a Christmas Day trip to Legoland, then headed east again toward Phoenix via the Salton Sea and Joshua Tree National Park. We've been in Phoenix for several days - dinked around with the bike, went for a good ride one day, hung out with friends and caught up with our mail...and did a lot of hemming and hawing about whether it was a good idea to go about 1300 miles or so into Mexico to visit, and take Jeremiah out of the US for the first time.

 

Well, barring anything really terrible happening, tomorrow we leave for Mexico! (Well, we leave Phoenix for Nogales where we plan to spend the night before crossing the border early Friday morning.)

 

Basic plan is to follow MX 15 south near the coast, switching to MX 200 in or around Puerta Vallarta to get to Barra de Navidad where our friend lives. Hoping to hang out there for a week give or take and then head back up north and east. To lighten up and increase ground clearance for topes, we mailed all our camping gear, some maintenance items and a bunch of books to Whipville south, and if all goes well we'll meet up with said stuff in a few weeks - maybe we'll even get to see the Whips this time.

 

If anyone has any suggestions for folks who've never been to Mexico before (ok, we got engaged in Mazatlan and have walked across the border to shop/eat from Texas a couple of times, but that doesn't really count) and don't speak ANY Spanish, we'd love to hear them.

 

Happy New Year!

josh

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We will be back at Whipville south around Jan 23rd.

 

Look forward to see y'all.

 

Larry

 

Fantastic! We are planning for three weeks, so exiting Mexico by the 26th or something like that (or we need to extend our insurance), and since we sent you all our camping stuff it shouldn't take us too long to get from Mexico to San Antonio. Looking forward to seeing you both again (and meeting the dogs - there are bunches of them, right?)!

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What's going on here?

 

How to escape when a stranger tries to drag you off?

 

Bud - I'm at a loss unless maybe you're referring to this pic from our ADV thread

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I guess I need to do an update here so you older fellers don't get confused. Or maybe so I don't get confused :)

 

Which is to say, if that's not it, then about what are you asking?

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Ok - here we go! While it has been a few weeks or so, we haven't really moved that much - we went from El Cajon just a little north to Wildomar where we put on our new shocks

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and found out that one, even with some grinding,

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just didn't fit.

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Dang it. But the other two did (rear and car) and that was great. We also patched up a few other things...

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wondered at Hannigan's engineering (they swear it's supposed to look like that, but I'm still not so sure)

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saw some movie thing...

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fixed some more stuff

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maybe just played around a little bit

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and then went over to the beach for Christmas eve.

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and spent Christmas day ...

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somewhere they maybe put too much detail into their work

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at least two of us seem to be having a good time :)

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After that we headed back east and just had to stop by Joshua Tree again

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(we also went to the Salton Sea, but I have no way to share the smell with you, and I'm assuming you don't want ot see pictures of lots of dead tilapia)

 

and then we got to spend some more time with our friends in Arizona - Eddy was glad to find the tree still up

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I was glad to find a new, correct shock waiting for us

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I was also glad to find a mostly local ebay seller with an exhaust. I'm pretty sure our cat was coming apart as we developed a nasty rattle.

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Jeremiah and I picked up a few more bits from the local BMW parts shop

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somebody finally got to go swimming (though I think he was just trying to reach a ball while playing fetch with the dogs)

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On New Year's Eve we went on a great ride to Bartlett Lake, which is exactly not what I think of as being near Phoenix and was fantastically beautiful freshly washed by the recent rains

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...which I would have more pictures of if I could operate my Sena cam better...

 

and then we decided to go to Mexico after all. Someone suggested we remove the center/sidestand to increase clearance for topes, and that turned out to be a great idea. I don't think we've scraped my new fancy skidplate yet, but we would have slammed the stands down numerous times by now (two days in).

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We also finished out new tires for the rear and trailer (note: I couldn't even get that trailer tire on with zip ties, and I didn't even try the rear)

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And so then there is Mexico. We are on the way to Barra de Navidad, and have been enjoying the local advertising

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and really enjoying the people.

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We are in Los Mochis this morning and planning to be in Mazatlan tonight and tomorrow night as well.

 

Happy New Year!

josh

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What's going on here?

 

How to escape when a stranger tries to drag you off?

 

Bud - I'm at a loss unless maybe you're referring to this pic from our ADV thread

31343419624_b1ac601174_n.jpg

 

I guess I need to do an update here so you older fellers don't get confused. Or maybe so I don't get confused :)

 

Which is to say, if that's not it, then about what are you asking?

 

A picture is worth a thousand words...........

 

 

 

 

31674615515_4d1c85897a_z.jpg

 

 

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...and yet still no one has posted a guess at what's going on.

 

Just as well I suppose as I think our "extra" BMWST stickers got sent back "home" to storage when we did a mini purge before heading into Mexico. If the internet perks up today, and we laze around the house, I'll get this updated :)

 

 

edit: or maybe not - apparently we're going "boating"...

Edited by szurszewski
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...and yet still no one has posted a guess at what's going on.

 

Just as well I suppose as I think our "extra" BMWST stickers got sent back "home" to storage when we did a mini purge before heading into Mexico. If the internet perks up today, and we laze around the house, I'll get this updated :)

 

 

edit: or maybe not - apparently we're going "boating"...

 

 

Hey now! Jan 8th post

 

What's going on here?

 

How to escape when a stranger tries to drag you off?

Link to comment
...and yet still no one has posted a guess at what's going on.

 

Just as well I suppose as I think our "extra" BMWST stickers got sent back "home" to storage when we did a mini purge before heading into Mexico. If the internet perks up today, and we laze around the house, I'll get this updated :)

 

 

edit: or maybe not - apparently we're going "boating"...

 

 

Hey now! Jan 8th post

 

What's going on here?

 

How to escape when a stranger tries to drag you off?

 

OH! That's what you meant! Makes so much more sense now - sorry!

 

Also, no. :)

 

 

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NIce trip, great memories.

 

For "what's going on?"

Post Tae kwan Do spar, checking shoulder for damage?

 

Best wishes for a safe and happy journey.

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NIce trip, great memories.

 

For "what's going on?"

Post Tae kwan Do spar, checking shoulder for damage?

 

Best wishes for a safe and happy journey.

 

Also a good guess, but no - I'm pretty sure I have never seen her spar when packing :)

 

Thanks - we're currently lazing in Barra de Navidad, Jalisco at a friend's house. Well, I'm lazing - Jeremiah started running a pretty good fever yesterday evening and none of us got much sleep last night. It's 10:30am, Laura is out cold, Jeremiah is in bed goofing around on his iPad. I think our friends must be out for a walk or something, which I guess means I will be solely responsible for eating all the pastries I just brought back to the house. Sigh. ;)

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We made it Mazatlan after another uneventful day heading down MX 15. The protesters must be centered further north, or maybe the whole protest thing was dying out because we got to pay several tolls today. Each time we reach a toll point a funny conversation ensues - not with us, but between the toll collector, a supervisor and at least one other toll collector (and sometimes some other seemingly random folks); it seems while they have a price for a car and a moto and a trailer, they don't really have a procedure for a moto pulling a trailer. The "moto" price is always half the "auto" price, and usually they decide we are an auto, which seems quite reasonable as we are that size, but sometimes we skate by as a moto, and at least once they have charged us the moto price and added the price for a single trailer axle (which, amusingly turns out to be the same as an auto, but required a hand written receipt). Mostly we just smile and hand over money while the conversation swirls around us.

 

We arrived mid afternoon or so and found our Airbnb without any trouble, though the approach to the "golden zone" was significantly more developed than we'd been there before in the year two thousand. We had a great room with a private balcony and made ourselves at home before heading out to explore.

 

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I'd suggested a rest day in Mazatlan not because I thought we'd need a rest day, though it turned out I was quite glad to have one, but because it was the only place in Mexico I'd ever really been before and it was where I proposed. Laura was on board for the idea and was curious to see if we could find a certain cafe where the bartender had brought her bottles of Fanta on his head 16 years earlier. Guess what?

 

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We had a great dinner there and found out that the bartender was the owner, and had just opened the place when we'd been there before. Our second night in Mazatlan we had a really disappointing dinner in a new/fancy sushi place (Yokiro Sushi - get it?) and ended up back at the same place as the first night for dessert (and by dessert, for me anyway, I mean Don Julio and Pacifico) which helped make up for dinner.

 

Here's the rig tucked safely away. Laura and Jeremiah are there too, if you look, and that's our balcony upstairs (actually, that whole front part of the upper story was ours!).

 

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I was up early the next moring (having clearly not had enough Margaritas at Margaritas the night before) to see if I could get a picture of the sunrise -

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oops- I mean this one:

 

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Eventually I got Laura out of bed as well and we wandered through the touristy parts of town, took a pulmonia to the city center, and walked back along the playa. I'd have some pictures of that for you, but instead I just have this picture of my phone its fancy waterproof case. Can you see how good a job it's doing of keeping that water in there? Fantastic!

 

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Amusingly I'd almost replaced my iPhone 6 with a 7 at the beginning of this trip both to get the better camera and water resistant phone and because my screen was acting up. Instead I replaced the screen and got a waterproof case. Ha on me, said the universe!

 

We made a point of winding our way through el centro on the way out of Mazatlan and I rembered that we'd decided if we ever came again that's where we'd stay. Oops. Next time.

 

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We branched off from the toll roads to the free highways at Tepic and continued south to Puerta Vallarta for the night, and then on to Barra de Navidad the next day.

 

Random Sena shots from PV and some construction along the way

 

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Since the guy at the map and flag store in Tuscon didn't have any good/recent maps of Mexico ("We don't have much stock because no one goes there anymore because they're afraid they'll be killed in the drug wars." also "You won't be able to buy a map in Mexico because Mexicans don't use maps." and, in response to me saying there must be stores in Mexico that stock maps for tourists, "They don't stock maps for tourists because no one goes there anymore because they're all afraid they'll be killed in the drug wars." ...he was a REALLY cheery dude...) we've been relying on our phones for directions. Mostly they are great but they were unable to even find our street in Puerta Vallarta, and in Barra they got us to the right street - sort of - but not the right block. Eventually we found our friend Steve's actual block, thanks to some construction workers,

 

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and even his front door, thanks to Laura spotting the address (it took about thirty seconds of her pointing and saying it's right there above the door! for me to find it...)

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For closing in on a week we've been taking advantage of his hospitality, and his pool -

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communing with the wildlife both inside

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and outside the house,

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(this is me distracting one of the many local street dogs - all very friendly - so Laura can get our always so friendly but doing better every day dogs down the block for a walk)

 

eating lots of food, sometimes in restaurants that are also living rooms,

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and seeing the sights (sites? definitely not cites, as I have lost all reference)

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and taking our host our for a ride in the rig (note, he's only the second "person" to take us up on our freely given offers of rides - and the other person was a boxer...)

 

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Steve's family owned a motorcycle shop in Oregon City in the 60s and 70s, and we've been having a great time chatting about that and all sorts of things with our host and his brother and sister-in-law who are also here. In fact, you might recognize his brother from his performance in On Any Sunday. (start at 6:05, watch for the cartwheels into the hay)

 

https://youtu.be/4qklwSsBlbk

 

In general we've been having a great time, with the exception of Jeremiah's fever which started last night, but we should probably be going soon. There are a couple of other activities we'd like to get to here, but we're only insured through the 26th and Laura has decided we need to see at least one pyramid while we're here. There's a lot of the country left to see as the weather starts to warm up - hard to figure out where we want to be when!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Your boxes are here!

 

We will be back in Texas late next week.

 

L and L

 

Fantastic - thanks for letting us know :)

 

I hope you both have a good time wherever you're going.

 

We are still in Barra de Navidad; planning to leave maybe Friday or Saturday, spend a couple of nights in Tequila (Laura said something about a pyramid or some other ruins, but I have other goals for that stop), and then spend a couple more days through Mexico and then work our way to SA. Looking forward to seeing you.

josh

 

 

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Ok - not planning to leave Friday or Saturday after all. Went for a little ride to a beach about 7 miles away this morning and got to hear a neat noise. Seems our FD has decided to eat itself again. Hopefully in the AM I can find a heatgun or torch and a 30mm socket, and then we'll go from there.

 

Definitely going to need more tequila.

 

 

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Grrrrrrr........................

 

Tequila makes your FD fall off!!!!!!! :dopeslap:

 

I admire your ability to deal with problems. For many riders this would be an insurmountable obstacle and they would give up and go home.

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Grrrrrrr........................

 

Tequila makes your FD fall off!!!!!!! :dopeslap:

 

I admire your ability to deal with problems. For many riders this would be an insurmountable obstacle and they would give up and go home.

 

 

There are two problems with that, the first, smaller, problem is that we'd still have to do something with the rig as Mexico will get mad at us if it doesn't go back across the border (and I don't think our friend would much care for it taking up one of his two courtyard parking spaces); the second, maybe larger, problem is that we don't have a home to go back to! :)

 

 

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Grrrrrrr........................

 

Tequila makes your FD fall off!!!!!!! :dopeslap:

 

I admire your ability to deal with problems. For many riders this would be an insurmountable obstacle and they would give up and go home.

 

 

There are two problems with that, the first, smaller, problem is that we'd still have to do something with the rig as Mexico will get mad at us if it doesn't go back across the border (and I don't think our friend would much care for it taking up one of his two courtyard parking spaces); the second, maybe larger, problem is that we don't have a home to go back to! :)

 

 

Homelessness is a bitch! :wave:

 

Difference between disaster and ADVenture? Attitude. You've got this covered! :clap::grin:

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Tequila makes your FD fall off!!!!!!! :dopeslap:

 

 

I guess I should have had more tequila maybe and then I wouldn't have had to have spent three or four hour today tracking down a 30mm socket :)

 

I am pretty excited about my new torch and the canister that I think is the gas that goes with it... won't it be funny if it turns out to be expanding insulation foam or some such stuff....

Edited by szurszewski
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As an update, our FD is headed north for investigation and potential rebuilding. Another FD is headed south, hopefully toward us (though apparently UPS's computer wasn't sure either of the two addresses we supplied were "real"). In the meantime we plan to do our best to clear the land of the twin menaces of tequila and pineapples.

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NIce trip, great memories.

 

For "what's going on?"

Post Tae kwan Do spar, checking shoulder for damage?

 

Best wishes for a safe and happy journey.

 

"Also a good guess, but no - I'm pretty sure I have never seen her spar when packing :)"

 

I thought the youngin was wrapped up to go sparring in an earlier picture, that was the thought.

 

Don Julio to the rescue?

Edited by tallman
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NIce trip, great memories.

 

For "what's going on?"

Post Tae kwan Do spar, checking shoulder for damage?

 

Best wishes for a safe and happy journey.

 

"Also a good guess, but no - I'm pretty sure I have never seen her spar when packing :)"

 

I thought the youngin was wrapped up to go sparring in an earlier picture, that was the thought.

 

Don Julio to the rescue?

 

 

Yep - he was - makes sense.

 

I've only had one "serving" of Don Julio since we've been down here - it was good. Almost bought a bottle yesterday but opted for something I'd never seen/head of before instead. It's ok but not as good.

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...still waiting for the first of two packages coming our way. The second caught up quickly with the first Guadalajara, where they have both been for several days with the first -at one time- scheduled to arrive today....

 

 

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Whip just told me you need a place to leave the bike for a week. I live in Austin. I have a locked, fenced back yard with a wide gate, be happy to keep the bike for you. For a small fee I can even take you to the airport. Depending on whether it's my naptime. :wave:

 

I have a cover for the bike. No room in the garage. Can't keep dog, though, but we have a good kennel very nearby.

 

Call me or text me if you want to leave the rig here. The gate is 4 ft wide.

 

Mark: 512-415-069two

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Thanks Mark!

 

I think we have an offer on ADV to park the rig somewhere already, and we can barely fit through a giant redwood - I'm not even sure we could get through a 4' gate if we split the rig apart.

 

BUT it would be great if you've got time to get together for a coffee or meal or whatever. I'm talking to Whip right now - we've got stuff to pick up from their place in TX, but the timing likely won't work...so I think we'll meet up with them after we get back to TX from WA/OR (flying to SEA on 11th, and back to AUS on the 20th). That means we'll have some time to explore Austin between the 9th and 11th or so. :)

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How are the repairs now that both packages have arrived?

 

We're driving north from Mazatlan beginning Tues morning. Any chance you'll be on 15D?

 

Great questions! The bike now has a seemingly functional FD - took it around town some yesterday, and we just now returned from a run to Manzanillo (85 miles roundtrip). I'm going to go over the back end later today and make sure everything seems as it should, and assuming I don't find anything amiss, we plan to head out tomorrow morning.

 

Route is still up in the air, but we will not be on 15. Ultimately we're planning to cross to McAllen or Brownsville, so we'll be heading north and east - probably Tequila, and then Zacatecas, and then... uh - I forget where after that :)

 

I'll try to get an update on here before we go, but I need to get some photos uploaded first - the last few times I tried to do that the upload failed after just a few of thirty or so pics... (which is why ADV has been getting pics [direct upload to posting there seems to work, but Flickr does not] and this thread has not).

 

I also owe you an email reply!

josh

 

 

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