No Jobs, No Responsibilities, No Better Time
Nearly three years ago I had a dream, conjured up in the midst of a summer tryst in South America, backpacking during a year off from school.



I will ride my motorcycle around the world. Alone? Maybe. With friends? Perhaps. With a significant other? Possibly. Either way, it was pivotal. That moment was the beginning of a mental journey draped over the cutting board of the past three years, mixed with a college education, hammered into shape by a strong determination, and cooked into a possibility by the efforts of unexpected employment.

My university graduation took place on June 12th, 2010. It was a nice warm, sunny Saturday afternoon in Bellingham Washington. I now had a degree in International Business, with a Spanish minor equivalent. Congratulations Alex. Round One Complete.



Work started two days later, Monday June 14, 2010. Location: Juneau Alaska.

In the past seven days, I had taken and passed 4 university level final exams, written 12 pages between two papers, received 40hrs of instruction on how to drive a commercial vehicle, taken and passed my Commercial Drivers license examination, moved all of my personal belongings from my college apartment back into old room at my parents house, moved 3 motorcycles home, packed for work, and flew away to Juneau, Alaska.

Unknowingly I was to remain there for 6 months. Working 6 days and often over 50+ hours a week, I made my home in an Extended Stay hotel. All expenses minus personal food and my cell phone were provided. I had less than $300/mo in personal expenses. My income was magnitudes greater. What did I do? I saved every cent earned. Why? I was riding around the world on my motorcycle. When? Yet to be determined.

I worked as an emergency services contractor for the local Home Depot.


You might ask… YOU DID WHAT? I delivered appliances. That's right. I graduated from a 4 yr university, and was employed delivering appliances and material for Home Depot, and I liked it. They paid the best, and I wasn't in it for the long term. Saving money was the goal. Best decision yet. But even better yet. I can bring my own assistant. Meet Kristi!
Kristi. She’s my favorite. She knows all about my goal, and even listens when I tell her all about them, two, three, four times in a row. Better yet, she knows her goals as well. School first. She works with me in the summers and continues her schooling otherwise. Her planned graduation date is the summer of 2012. She wants to come. Maybe we leave then? Awesome, I’d like her to come. She’s capable, adventurous, fun loving, and spirited. Can she ride a bike? Not yet. Would she be willing to learn? Of course she would. Did I like her enough to have her along the whole way? Well, we’ve been together for 3 years. I like her a lot. Meet Kristi!



I liked my job. I worked for a good man who paid me well. I told my friend. He got a job and liked it too. He was paid well. He liked my idea too. Third piece of the pie? It so happens that I’ve known Tom for 16 years. Long enough to know he could handle it. Around the world? So what, big deal. Hence, Tom came to work with me and learned to drive big trucks. We’re fellow Eagle Scouts. Tom studied International Business as well. Tom speaks Spanish too. Ball is rolling now. Are we getting somewhere? Meet Tom!

We worked and we saved, and we worked and we saved, and we studied.

We were making headway. We set goals. We’d start the summer of 2012. We’d ride around the world. We’d spend 25 months doing it. We’d hit 6 continents, see 70+ countries, ride 60k+ Miles, and ride…. What kind of motorcycles? See the link to the decision making process here. Yamaha WR250R vs Honda XR650L vs Suzuki DR650 - ADVrider
Decision made, Dr650’s the steed of choice. Awesome, Let’s buy some. Done. Bikes purchased. Congratulations, Alex, Kristi and Tom. Round Two Complete.
Tom’s Motorcycle

My Motorcycle

Kristi’s Motorcycle

Yay! Motorcycles are bought! Let’s ride the hell out of them in the mean time! And so we did. Even in the snow.

Until…
We got LAID OFF!
What did you say!?!? We got laid off. We worked as independent contractors, for a contractor who supplied emergency services to a company that delivers for 70% of all of the Home Depots in the United States and Canada. Someone quits, can’t be replaced locally, we fill the job temporarily, they find a new guy, and we train the new guy, than we leave. Our employer charges a lot. The company we contract too doesn’t like it. My employer doesn’t like them. So he stops contracting to them. So 15 guys like me lose their jobs. Tom and I now have no jobs….
Well what now you ask?
Plan B. This sucks. Not everyone can be happy. But circumstances exist, opportunities have arisen, decisions must be made. And made they were. Tom and I will leave early, and go until we have to stop! How much earlier? 14 months earlier. How long will we last? We saved about 50% of our goal. Half way sounds good! Congratulations Alex and Tom. Round 3 Complete. (No more job!)
What about Kristi? School is important. She will continue her schooling and visit us during her school breaks. She’s bummed, but understanding. She’s wistful to join, but determined to ace school. Now’s not the right time for her. However, it IS the right time for us.
Time to modify motorcycles!
Tom’s Motorcycle!

My Motorcycle! (sans top pelican case, since added)

Modifications are now complete. Elapsed time is around 9.5 months from date of completion of round one. We leave 27 hours. Saturday morning, April 2nd, 2011. It will be Tom’s birthday. He’ll be 24. I am 24. We’re young, but we’re prepared. We’re Eagle Scouts, remember?
Our new goal is to travel for 9+ months. Destination is “South”. We hope the generic hope, to reach Ushuaia. Will we? Yes we will. When? We don’t know. Why you ask? Because. It doesn’t matter where we go, just as long as we go. And go we will. Like the wind. Stay tuned brothers and sisters, Round 4 is just beyond the horizon!!!

__________________
NJ, NR, NBTTN

Me like. Nice post, safe journey.
Waving hankey.
Peter, in Oslo

You lucky sod!!!
Godd luck and watch out for the tin boxes.

Awesome. Best of luck on the journey and post plenty so we can follow along.

Ahoy! Day one is underway, and we have reached Eugene Oregon! We are staying at Tom’s Dad’s friend Tom’s house. That’s right, there are two Tom’s today. We left this morning from my parent’s house at 7:10. Tom was nice enough to wait on me. I was running late. Why? Because I stayed up until 3am packing, and taking care of business. Did we cover all the bases? Most likely. We’ll see how it goes! If you can fix it, don’t worry. If you can’t fix it. Don’t worry.
Taking off! We’re on our way! Tom is in Orange. I am Dark Green.

Onward! Time to get fuel. Haha. We were already low on fuel, and Tom had to pull over on the side of the highway in the first 10 miles. Why? His bike sputtered out and he couldn’t switch to reserve fast enough. Luckily, we’re both have a Sena SMH10 Bluetooth communication devices. They are good for nearly 1000 yards, and work great. They are also the most weatherproof that we could find. We got a complete dual pack for a great deal from Rocket Moto in the vendor section. Check them out! Tom simply let me know he was on the side of the highway. I pulled over, and he caught up, and we rolled along. Awesome.
First fuel stop,

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn it. The first 180 miles was nothing but rain. The headsets held up well, and are still in great shape. We’re wearing Rev’it Cayenne Pro Jacket’s and pants. They zip together, and are WATERPROOF. AWESOME. Tom’s wearing a pair of leather, waterproof work boots, and I have a pair of Alpinestar Web Goretex Boots. We’re getting along pretty well.
First pit stop, damn rain was so dense it was like driving through fog at times. Pretty gnarly.

Being able to talk to each other is great. We can make plans on the fly, stop for fuel at good any time. We’ll around 11:30 we were getting hungry, and we needed fuel. Vancouver, Washington was a good spot. We made it 180 miles before Tom ran to his reserve while on the fly, and we averaged 42mpg at 65-70mph the whole way, fully loaded. Not bad in our opinions.
Time for food,

Well, after food, we made plans to stop in Eugene for the day. 300 miles in total. It’s been good so far. We’ll Tom’s Dad’s friend Tom brew for a hobby. So we had some !
Time for Beer,

Meet Tom and Tom,

Tom’s gnarly ‘Stasche

Time for Food!

It’s been a good day one for us. We’re enjoying our time on the road despite the crappy weather; we’re having a great time! Chalk 1 up for day one! Awesome!
Tomorrow we’d like to ride about 5 hours. That would put us in Redding California. Can you hear that C THRU U? We’d love to take you up on that offer for a place to crash.
Onward!
--Alex

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NJ, NR, NBTTN

Terrific couple of opening posts!

Maybe you should find someone back home to act as agent, get you hooked up with a publisher, there must be possibilities there.

Btw, unless I missed it, you never introduced us to the little lad teaching you on the computer.......

Have a great journey.

__________________
TTR250 - London to Cape Town

A great start, keep it coming!

Well, we’re back on the road again! Day 2 started out well, and we were on the road by 10am. Not as early as some people like to embark, but early enough for us. Our riding style is relaxed. And we stop whenever we feel like it. Everything is a fluid as possible. Room for reasonable reasoning as I like to call it. We rode from Eugene Oregon, to Phillipsville California. It was some good riding, and the sun was out nearly the entire day. We even broke out the summer weight riding gloves for part of the ride. Our goal was to ride the 101 for as long as we saw fit. Other people had their own agenda. Due to the rock slide over 101 just north of a town called Garberville, we came to a halt around 8:30pm. It was a good time to take a break anyway. We chatted it up with the road crew worker who was directing wayward travelers such as ourselves. He was paid double time on Sunday’s and was all sorts of happy about it.
Leaving Tom’s in Eugene

On the way there we stopped at the Bigfoot Cavern.

And had a couple of burgers.
We ride some awesome road through Hwy 101

We’ll Tom picked up a flat tire around the same time. We noticed it was running flat just as we pulled over for a break. The fixing of the flat tire took about 25 minutes (we’re still getting used to it) and it has held up over the past 300 miles just fine.

And right after we fixed his flat tire, we found a great place to camp (thanks to the sober guy at the bar that gave us directions, and thanks to our LED offroad lights, purchased from advmonster.com)

We slept for about 8 hours, and then it was time to break camp. No tents this time around, and it was about 40degrees that night. Not bad for just some sleeping pads and sleeping bags. It was a good time.

Day 3
We crossed the newly fixed landslide slide area, and rode the 101 all the way to San Fran. About 243 miles. Nothing to intense. We saw lots of big ass redwood trees, and no less than a few hundred curvy roads. The weather approached 75 degrees as we grew closer to San Francisco, and the layers started coming off.
We stopped at a few “vista points”

And took a picture of my bike,

Stopped at a Denny’s for some food, cause we didn’t eat breakfast

Rode some more awesome highway 101 tracks,

… And rode to meet, Brady “Bones” Flynn in San Fran at his apartment.

On the way there we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge.

Then we hung out with Brady. Meet Brady!

Tom and Brady went to Gonzaga University together. Brady’s apartment has a bitchin view.
Brady “Bones’” view

Then we went to some bars and had some food. I had a blue cheese burger and it was delicious.

Now, we’re hitting the sack. Sleeping on Brady’s couches and enjoying being off the ground. We had a good couple of days.
It turns out that Tom didn’t bring his bike registration or title with him, so we’re having his Parents mail it ahead to a Post Office in San Diego. Of course he needs these items to get into Mexico, and though I have mine with me, we failed to communicate the necessity before we left a few days ago.
The documents will be waiting for us this Wednesday afternoon. A minor ordeal, but an important one for sure.
I went to the REI today here in San Fran to buy some compression sacks, and a couple of stuff sacks for the trip. I ended up with a 15* bag to replace my ghetto 32 degree bag, and the before mentioned stuff save.

Today has been a good day! Tomorrow we plan to make it to Los Angeles. Hopefully we do’!
--Alex

__________________
NJ, NR, NBTTN

Ahhh, we went to bed late last night. Tom straight up passed out. He looked like this when he went to bed

And some during the night he underwent a metamorphosis.

We woke up at about 9am this morning. No rush for anyone around. Yes, we planned to reached L.A. today, but so what. 432 miles down Highway 101… 8 hours. Easy.
I wanted to make sure I fit into my new sleeping bag fit. Did I mention? I’m 6’6”. I Fit!

And Tom had to catch up on the local entertainment and news.
(Victoria’s Secret)
We had to take a jaunt up the staircase to the Roof again. It’s a nice view.

Notice Brady’s computer engineer/programmer roommate, working from home on the deck. Aged 24 like the rest of us.

Get a parting photo.

Back down the stairs! Watch your head!

We left Tom’s friend Brady’s apartment in San Francisco this morning at around 10:45 and headed straight for the R.E.I. to exchange a waterproof stuff sack that I bought, for a bigger one. Tom bought 15 feet of bungee cord. For miscellaneous tie downs. We didn’t leave the R.E.I until Noon. Shit.
We proceeded to haul ass for 60-70 miles at a go. 65+Mph all the time. Until we realized that we hadn’t eaten much of anything since the night before.
Time for food. Tom had Beef Curry, I had a Beef Rice Bowl. We didn’t realize until we entered, but we chose to stop for food at a Japanese Grocery Mart. We were two of less than 10 Caucasian people of 400+ Japanese. It was like we stepped into Japan! The food was good too!

Alright, then we hauled some more ass. 77 miles this time around. We have a habit of just telling the other person (via the Bluetooth headsets) that we want to pull over. So we pull over anywhere ,

preferably at a place with grass, so we can just

After our last jaunt through the sunny valleys of the coastal California highway 101, we were getting pretty tired already. We slept poorly, and had already ridden 140 miles. Soon enough, it started to get colder as well. We left San Fran and it was 70*. Tom removed his waterproof and thermal pant and jacket liners. I removed my thermal ones. We were glad we had when the temps reached the low 80’s. But, of course with the cloudless sunshine comes the cold clear nights. Sooner than later the temps dropped back to 60 degrees, and with just our jacket armor on, we had to toss on some warmer clothing underneath.
Toms chose his long johns! I chose a micropuff down jacket.

We stopped more than once. Riding into headwinds, on single cylinder thumpers, at 65+ miles an hour, for hours at a time, is tireing to say the least. It sucks.

But! We arrived in Glendale (L.A.) three hours ago, and promptly met up Charlie, the Australian, riding a 2010 Yamaha Tenere 660. We’ve been in contact with him over the past week or so, and planned to meet up when we arrived here. No pictures of that yet, you’ll have to wait.
We’re tired as hell. 432 widing slow miles. About 9 hours of riding. The last 2 hours were in the pitch black. It was rough going the last 120 miles or so. But we’re safe and sound at a RodeWay Inn.

We’re heading to San Diego tomorrow, and will stay there tomorrow night with a friend from High School.. Thursday will mark entry into Mexican territory. It should be good!
More to come!

__________________
NJ, NR, NBTTN

What a great read.....

I'll be here tomorrow, Coffee in hand, same time, for the next installment

Read your story and wish you a safe ride.Enjoy.

__________________
Luc

Ahhhhh, Day 5. Yesterday was too many miles. We woke up LATE.






We didn’t get on the road till about 3pm. But in the mean time, meet Charlie, the Australian!






Charlie has been in the States for 3 months. He was only here for 5 days before he had a nice run in with a pickup truck. Luckily he was carrying full coverage insurance and it covered him completely. He’s staying with a family friend named Bill. A self proclaimed semi retired management company owner. Only bothers managing his personal properties now. He was an awesome guy! He fed us cheese and crackers with apples and the night we met him, and bagels with cream cheese with coffee the next day. Meet Bill.






Charlie, Tom, and I spent the morning sorting through our belongings, trying to repack, reorganize, and better sort our shit. It worked… For the most part. I still feel like I have too much stuff. Charlie is overloaded, and Tom is on the fence. This process will continue for the next many months to come. Things will come and go. We already know this.






Well. After that, Tom realized that he left his fuel petcock on, and his float bowls stuck. It flooded his bike. This of course is hindsight. What we did to fix the problem consisted of, removing the side covers, seat, gas tank and finally the carburetor. Then we took off the carb float bowl cover. This was a process in itself as the screws were stuck, and after beating the hell out of them, they had to be replaced with some spares. Yes we had some spares. We’re prepared. Eagle Scout style. Then we found out nothing was gummed up in his carb. Damnit. It ran well after that, all the way to San Diego, our destination for the day, and where we currently are now.
We met up with Chad, a high school friend of Tom and myself. He’s an Electrical Engineer and has an apartment near San Diego State University. Awesome. Soon after arriving, we headed to a local spot for some s.





Meet Chad.






See his apartment and all of our things laid out. When we arrived. He cooked us food! We had burritos. A place to sleep and free food. Thanks Chad! You're part of the Adventure. (Don't forget about Tom's dad's friend Tom either. He did the same!)








Finally, we found a nice place to sleep. I got dibs on the couch. Saweeeet.






The traffic on the way here was the only challenging bit of the day (besides Tom’s temperamental bike.) Having the Bluetooth com units was nice when Charlie unleashed his Aussie prowess and rode a few shoulders, and passed a few cars via lane splitting during traffic jams. I was plenty willing to keep up. Tom on the other hand is wider, and less experienced, and thus unwilling (rightfully so). It didn’t matter that I couldn’t see him, I just had to ask him where he was. Problem solved.
We plan to cross to Mexico tomorrow, and make it to Ensenada, Baja California. We need to pick up a package for Tom at the post office (bike registration and title), grab some spare spark plugs at a shop, and be on our way. We can’t wait to find a cheap place to hang out for a while to enjoy our time at a slower pace. Mexican time. YES!
--Alex

__________________
NJ, NR, NBTTN

Ahoy! Dia seis y siete están aqu

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NJ, NR, NBTTN

Ahoy! Dia seis y siete están aqu�*. Estamos en Ensenada, y entonces necesito escribir y conversa en espanol! Jajaja. (Hey! Days five and six are here. We are in Ensenada, y so, I need to write and converse in Spanish! Haha)
Just kidding! So far so good. We crossed the Mexican border yesterday at Tijuana. It was pretty straight forward…. Not. He is DAY SIX
We woke up pretty early in comparison to the days before, and were out of Chad’s apartment at about 10am with a few goals in mind.
First, let’s get the hell out of the parking lot. That took a while…





Second. Get Tom’s bike title and registration from one of the 4 major San Diego post offices. THAT took a while. We went the one that said they had his mail, 18 miles away. They didn’t. 22 miles back the way we came, and we were at the one that DID have it. Success!
Third. Buy some spare sparks plugs for our bikes because the lame ebay vendor that sold me 10 sent them to late to arrive before we left Seattle. Dammit. Well, we just never got that taken care off.
Fourth. Put my cell phone on standby. Easy. 5 minutes and I was done.
Fifth. We’re hungry. We need to buy some food. But we’re in a hurry. Ugh. Lame AM/PM food to the rescue. It did the trick.
Sixth. Cross the Mexican border, FINALLY. Haha. That was a joke. We just drove through. Oops. Mr. Australian needs a passport stamp. We’re in Mexico. Turn around. Drive back to America. Drive right in. Easy. Turn around. Drive back, get in the Declaration line, park our bikes, Tom stuck around, and we searched for stamps. Not only does he need a stamp, Tom and I needed a tourist visa as we plan to be in Mexico for more than just a few days. Soooo, we walked back into Mexico via the border agents advice. Why? We wanted to import our vehicles. We cross. It didn’t work. No we need to wait in line to get back to the States again?! What? Hell no. So we talked a border agent.



He says, “Ahhhh Mayne, just walk back unda that bridg dare, back the way you come. Justa keep goin when yous see thata sign dat sayes no entry. Ifa soldier getsa mad, just tellem you needa stampa en your pasaporte. Yous a tourist. Tell hima youra tourist. No problem. You justa walk back in dataway.”



So, we did just that. We walked back into the United States of America, like we owned the place. An American and an Australian. And not one single person even noticed. Nothing happened whatsoever. We just simply walked right in. What a joke.



Finallly we all three ended up with a tourist visa, and we decided not to import our motorcycles as of yet as it isn’t required in Baja. It’ll be a necessity when we take the ferry from La Paz, Baja to the mainland of Mexico. That can WAIT.



And so, we were in MEXICO BABY!!!! Sweet. Next stop is Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico to meet numero cuatro of our newly formed posse of motorcycle adventurers; Sara, of New Mexico, formerly Colorado, riding a 2005 Yamaha XT225.



We hauled ass after we crossed into Tijuana Mexico. We didn’t really want to be around that area for long. Too many people with too much interference in our lifestyle. More relaxed please. So, we jumped on Highway 1 to Ensenada on the Toll Road. 81 pesos later each ($6.90), and 100 kilometers (60 miles) we were in Ensenada at the Motel America. Cheap when split 4 ways. $8.50 each. Check it out!





Check out our Motorcycles, AGAIN! Add the XT225 to the group and all of a sudden our bikes are massive.






And the room. Is it small? Yes. Do we care? No. Are two of us sleeping on the floor? Um, yea. So what. We rotate it. Right on.






Well, first step first. Chat with our new friend.






Oh right. Meet Sarah!





Next, time for some food. No pictures for this one as I spazzed and left the camera in my tank bag in the motel room. We had asado (grilled beef) tacos with guacamole and cilantro on our choice of corn (maize) or flour (harina) tortillas. They were 14 pesos each ($1.20) and I ate 5. They were so good. Tom had 3. Charlie had 3. Sarah had 1. We ate 11. It was awesome. After stuffing face, we headed back. It was time to finish.
And now it’s time for bed! Tom caught the floor that night. Both he and Charlie volunteered. Good men.






And so ends day five. 1500+ miles into our journey already. Now, we’re slowing the hell down.



And so begins day SEVEN! Up and awake at 9am, I decided I wanted to go to the grocery store for some breakfast. On the way there I swung by the Marina.






The boats were either fishing boats or personal vessels. Probably some tourist operations in there as well. I don’t really know.



Back from the grocery store we started cooking. On the menu this morning, eggs with a diced red pepper, seasoned with local (or so we think) chorizo sausage, and cooked in a camping fry pan with some olive oil. Scrambled and tossed into a flour tortilla, and we’re eating breakfast burritos. Bitchin.






Off for a jaunt around town, and we stopped at the local wifi joint/coffee shop. Sarah has discovered the wifi password (1234567890) and we had something to drink. Tea for Sarah. Coffee for Charlie and Tom. A coca for me (coke). Happy as clams we all were.






For those of you interested in an updated ‘stache photo. See Tom’s scruffy cheeks and progressive ‘stache.






It’s progressing nicely. We’re all happy for him…..
Cruising the streets today was good, and we saw some local stuff. Nothing too exciting.






Bird of Paradise Flower. First I have ever seen in person. My first thought was. Damn, that looks like a bird. And was future educated by Sarah as to its name. Well. That made sense.






Check out the Dog. He was king of the block. Don’t F with him.



Nothing too much more exciting happened today.
PSYCHE!
We went off road! And all the photos are on Tom’s camera, because I spazzed out again and didn’t snag my camera on the way out the door. Suffice it to say. We hit some gravel trails. Sarah saw her first real offroad experience. I rode her bike down some gnarly hill of a trail for her, Charlie realized the full weight of his bike, Tom’s panniers got in his way, and I hit 65mph on some dirt. Saweeeeet.


Let’s get lunch. Sweet. More tacos. Same stand, different location. Great asado tacos. Reminder, don’t eat the damned roasted jalapeno. Not hot, by Mexican standard, is HOT AS HELL. No I can’t eat spicy food. Yes, it f’s me up. Lesson learned. Damn that sucked.
Lets go back to the hotel. No photos here either.
Let’s go to the beach! Sweet. Sarah opted out, so Tom, Charlie and I rode down the coastal waterfront road looking for access to the beach, on our moto’s. Hell yes. We found it. And Charlie and I hauled ass on the beach. 60mph? Yes please. We rode to the end, and we rode back. And we rode down again, to where Tom finally was. He doesn’t like the sand. He wasn’t happy going fast enough to glide over it. AND his panniers were fully loaded. Not so much fun. So he took off, finding a road re-entry point at a different spot.
Charlie and I kept messing around, riding the beach. What an experience. It’s normal to do this here, so no one cared, and politely moved out of the way when they heard us coming. Thanks everyone!
After Charlie and I were done, we headed back to the hotel. Wait? Where’s Tom? Well, he’ll be ok. Let’s drink a . Beer’s finished. Where’s Tom? Should we go back? Maybe his supposed re-entry point didn’t re-enter very well. Is he bogged down? Stuck? In need? Ok, I’ll go back.
PSYCHE! Tom arrives! Did he get stuck? Yes. Bogged down? Yes. F’ed re-entry point? Yes. He hat-tricked the beach. Dammit. No more sand in his near future. Eh… We’ll see about that. Hopefully not!





He was tired, and hot, and sweaty. Hahaha. And soon, he was back up to par!







And we then headed back to the coffee shop.






And here we are. Wired in, updating our respective sites. Enjoying our time. Eating some fries, drinking a coke, having a good time. Not going anywhere soon, we plan to spend tomorrow here as well, and continue on south in two days time. Expect to see photos of the off road and beach in the near future. For now, it’s Taco time!
Until next time, I hope you enjoyed!
--Alex

__________________
NJ, NR, NBTTN

Ahah! Off road! Awesome.




Under the advice of the local tourism agent, we headed out Avenida Ruiz, all the way to the end. We ended up on a local hill top. It was awesome. Check it out!


We got to see some of the local government housing. It was quite the site.




They all are about the same size and shape.






Just on the other side of the hill, Tom spotted some horses as well.
Tom’s hilltop.





The horses. A mare and her colt?





And then thought he’d like to pet one. So he did.






We also noticed a wacky rock.


El stone de hairy ass.



View from the rock was good too. If not full of mini homes.






It was soon time to eat. So we found our favorite taco stand.
Ahhhh, taco stand. Yumm!





Then we hit the beach. On our moto’s. It was awesome. Great weather for while as well.






Sarah headed back to the hotel, Tom stuck around for a while, and then headed back. He doesn’t like the sand. Charlie and I just hauled ass. It was great.






Charlie began to ponder if it gets better than this. I assured him that it does. It will. And we’re on the right path. He agreed of course.






We leave Ensenada tomorrow morning, headed for midland Baja Mexico. Our first destination is a park of some sort. Should be good to camp in. The day after we’ll head to La Bahia de Los Angeles. If we’re lucky, we’ll see some whales. We’ve all seen whales before, but this should be good anyway.



We looked at the map of Baja Mexico that Sarah brought along with her. It’s a damn big place. It gave us a good dose of reality. We’re 60 miles south of the US border. Soon enough, we’ll be much further south, with MUCH more to go. We can wait.



As a notable side note. Tom is keeping tabs on our vacation in his own blog on blogspot. His writing is not to be missed, and covers much of the detail that I might not add on my posts. His photos are generally complimentary to my own, if not the same. You’ll likely enjoy it just as much as this ride report as well. Here is a linky.



The Tom Report

Until next time. Onward!


--Alex

__________________
NJ, NR, NBTTN