All the way south

I am now unemployed! Well, that isn’t entirely true as I am really on an “Unpaid Leave” if you talk to the folks at HR. It is basically like I’m having a baby and taking it on a motorcycle trip to South America. That is what most people use unpaid leave for in the US. I’ve started to put my final schedule together and I’m probably going to leave Friday July 11th or the Saturday the 12th. The main reason for the delay is all the domestic travel I have and all the non-motorcycle trip preperation I did not anticipate.

Bike wise, I’m ready to go except for the minor detail that the bike isn’t actually running right now. Well it is running IFF you push start it because I still have not received a replacement starter relay.

Currently I am on the road in Dallas heading north to Kansas City with my pup INDY!. I’m going to drop him off in KC and family is going to take came of him. This is the first of two trips: Hou -> KC -> Hou (wedding) -> Atlanta (wedding) -> New Orleans (family) -> Houston… THEN I start heading south.

Much has happened since I last updated.

After thinking it over a bit, I think I’m going to try fairly quickly through Mexico until the Yucan.  I’d still like to goto Zacatecas and Aguascalientes, but everything else north and central in Mexico is going to be for another trip later.  When planning, I think six months is a massive amount of time, but I have the feeling that when I get on the road, time is going to fly.  Mexico is very close to Texas and I’ll be able to visit it as a long weekend trip, as opposed to say, Ecuador

Through the HUBB, I met Wayne who is in temporarily in Houston with his wife.  Wayne is my new hero.  He and his wife are  obviously into long distance motorcycle travel AND they fly a Cessna 180 (it is a tail dragger) all around the continent.  Pretty cool.  Anyway, he gave me lots of information about the countries he visited and forwarded some contact information along.  Thanks Wayne!!

Last Saturday, I was going to Gulf Coast BMW to get some spare parts and saw a fully loaded big GS in the parking lot with a HUGE gas tank.  I inquired who owned the bike and serendipitously I met Michael, a Danish Canadian who is on his way back from Tierra del Fuego.  Pretty amazing coincidence.  He’s currently staying at my house until he gets to have a technical behind-the-scenes tour of NASA.  Sounds like it’ll be great fun.  After Houston, he’s going to ride to Flordia and watch a shuttle launch.  Awesome.

Back to the bike…. So spare parts.  I have lots and I’m going to make a page about what spares I’m bringing later.  I now have my front TKC 80 mounted and am going to wait to do the rear until just before I leave. Also, with the help of Michael, we were able to get my damaged pannier back on the bike.  I don’t think I’m going to take it off again.  I’m not 100% that it’ll make it on.  There was some pretty serious convincing that we had to do to get it remounted.

I’m trying to come up with a list of things to check out while in Mexico during my 6 month trip to Tierra del Fuego. Here is a list of route/cities/stuff in Mexico:

Starting in Houston

Brownsville
Ciudad valles
x badass swimming hole/road near!~!
Guanajuato (maybe)
x great colonial town. Been here before but try to find local riders there for mountain tracks
Aguascalientes
x multiple days with Friends’s family — a few days
Zacatecas
x revisit la quemada, colonial town, etc
Guadalajara
x stay a couple of days, find some locals to ride with
** Hang out in some pacific side beach town with good diving but not crowded????
** Somewhere else in southern Mexico
** Somewhere in Oaxaca
San Cristobal
x ????
Palenque
x Ruins
x ????
Mérida
x Check out Uxmal
x Chichen Itza
Buzz Cancun
Possibly take ferry to Cozumel
x scuba diving
Akumal
x more Diving
Tulum
x dive some more
x ruins
Akumal (diving!)
Belize City·
x Dive http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blue_Hole

Then to Guatemala from the north!

Basically, if any of you have any ideas for my ***’d sections, I’d greatly appreciate it. That.. or anything else I’m missing. I’m sure I’ll ignore this list and just wander like I usually do, but it is nice to have a plan.. just in case =]

Sorry about having another post without pictures!  I swear, the next one will.