Everyday that G/H, and I were on the road, we planned on getting an early start to beat the heat. I think the earliest we got on the road was 9:30. That is just the reality of traveling with friends and having fun at night. Since I am now solo biker, I made it my mission to be get out early. I did quite well, if I can be so humble. I was ON the bike and had even made a few wrong turns before the official sunrise time (6-something AM.. my GPS switches from a black background to a white one when sunup occurs).

Re: GPS and wrong turns. The deal with GPS is that you always know EXACTLY where you are at any moment. The problem is that it lacks context. I tried to get some latin america/world maps loaded onto my GPS (Garmin Zumo). I had to give back my garmin station (erm, my work laptop) so I was unable to really get it loaded properly. So that leaves me with only the base map. The base map outside of the US is really only an approximation of roads could be. It isn’t like in Houston where I-10 moves a couple of hundred feet a year. Of the roads listed, they are never even near the map’s location. I am now mostly using the GPS as a track log so that if I take a wrong turn, I am able to back myself out of it. It also has key cities on there so I can do an absolute range and make sure that I’m heading in the correct cardinal location. Don’t get me wrong, I still love GPS.

I start heading to Tampico:

Immediately after making my last turn for the final 50 km to Tampico, I see a group of 4 sport bike riders at a tire fixing shop (vulcanazadora). I flip a U’ey and went to talk to them. I attemped to speak to them in DavegSpanish and after studdering and stammering Juan Carlos stepped up and started speaking to me in English. We chatted it up for a few minutes about the standard things motorcyclists talk about and he invited me to ride along with them to Tampicos. The coolest thing every. I was really impressed with the spontaneity of it all. The next thing I know is that we’re drinking my 750 ml traveler of Wild Turkey by the beach. Como chinga no, wae? They were a really cool group of guys, despite the massive langauge barrier. In talking to one of the guys, I figured the key to foreign languages. He spoke english extremely well and was self taught because he played video games! Coolest thing every. Plus, I got to nerd out about gaming for a little bit. I really figured that the only people who I would have any non commercial contact (like at restaurants) would be other tourists. Hanging out with los Mexicanos de Monterrey was awesome.


^^ Never used my name, only called me Gringo

ps.. I’m going to rotate those images later.