For many years Mexico has been one of those places that I have wanted to visit. For one reason or another it just seemed to never work out but it still remained on my bucket list. This year the stars were in alignment and a trip to Mexico became a possibility. However, almost everyone that I talked to about my plans told me not to go. They reminded me of all of the recent media reports, the killings in Mexico by the drug cartels, the violent crimes, the corrupt police and military, and the numerous dangers to American tourists. Taking all of this into consideration, it helped to make up my mind about the trip. I had to go. Just adds to the adventure.

Mark and I will, of course, be making the trip on V-Stroms. Both bikes are DL1000's, a K2 and K3.

Mark speaks Spanish, and I, on the other hand, only speak Southern.

The plan was to leave early tomorrow morning from Woodstock and Atlanta, GA and to make the border crossing at Eagle Pass, TX by Monday morning. Mark has found out that he now has to work on Saturday and does not want to delay the schedule. He suggested that I go ahead and leave Saturday morning and that he will leave after work around 4:15 and catch up with me Saturday night at the motel in Tillman's Corner, AL. This will give us one shorter day of riding than planned, and Sunday will be a longer riding day than planned, but we should still be able to make the border crossing by Monday morning.

Our overall plan is for a 16 day trip. It should take us two days to get to the border. Once in Mexico we will be riding at a slower pace for four days down to Mexico City. Mark will be meeting his wife in Mexico City (his current wife is flying in to Mexico city, Mark will not be meeting a new wife for the first time to take back home with him) and I will continue touring in southern Mexico for the next four days. Hope that they speak Southern in southern Mexico and not Spanish. Mark and I will meet back up in Acapulco and then for the next four days we will continue the trip by riding up the western side of Mexico and eventually arriving back at the border. Another two days and we should be back home in Georgia.

Woodstock, GA to Tillman's Corner, AL

376 miles

One of the disadvantages of taking LD trips is that you have to get there and then get back home again.

Today was day one of "getting there".

Today was not an exciting day, but it was a good riding day. Mark had to work until 4:00 pm so we had to make it a short riding day. Also, it was all interstate. It was sunny as I was leaving Woodstock this morning and the temperature was around 55. Traveling I-575 to I-75 to I-285 to I-85, the temperature increased up into the mid 60's. The wind also started increasing with side winds around 20 to 25 mph around Montgomery, AL. Going south from Montgomery on I-65 the winds started gradually decreasing and the temperature was in the mid 70's by the time I got into Mobile, AL. After a few miles west on I-10 out of Mobile I stopped for the night in Tillman's Corner, AL. Mark should be in later tonight. As I said, not an exciting day, just a "get there" day.

Tomorrow will be almost the same, except that it will be almost twice as long. Our objective is to make it to the west side of San Antonio, TX by tomorrow night.

Tillman's Corner, AL to Lytle, TX

684 miles - Total miles: 1,060

Today was day two of "getting there".

Again, it was mainly all interstate (I-10 to I-12 to I-10 to I-35) to get us to the border as soon as possible which will give us the maximum amount of time to spend in Mexico. Not much to add to what was said about yesterday's ride. 10 degrees warmer today by the time we got into Texas. Coming through LA we had a slight tail wind, which for me seems to be an unusual occurence. By the time that we got close to Texas the wind begin to shift into a cross wind coming up from the south with wind speeds up to 20-25 mph.

12 hours after leaving AL this morning we are now just SW of San Antonio. Not really a long day, but it was enough slab for one day.

Tomorrow the real ride begins. If all goes well be should be making a morning border crossing, process the paper work and head further south into Mexico.

Lytle, TX to Monclova,Coahuila

Miles: 290 -- Total miles 1,350

Today was a very interesting day and a very educational day.

After 20 miles on I-35 we turned off on to Hwy 57 and this ended our time on the slab. Hwy 57 is a two lane road that has a lot of straight-a-ways, lots of passing lanes and light traffic. Time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Hwy 57, Texas

After about an hour and a half were in the border town of Eagle Pass, TX. After a quick stop for gas it was on to the border. The border crossing was very quick and easy taking only a few minutes. The "fun part" to come later.

Once across into Mexico we were to take Mexico Hwy 57 south to Allende. The map showed Mexico Hwy 57 as a continuation of US Hwy 57, so we continued going straight on the road that we were on. One thing that we learned was that Mexico does not waste money on road signs. My GPS was showing us to be about 3 blocks to the west of Hwy 57. I headed back to the east and found the road that the GPS was showing as Hwy 57. Wrong road. I am not sure if the fault was that of the GPS, lack of road signs, or as some people may claim that I was paying too much attention to the Mexican cuties and not watching the road, but I soon became as lost as a new 2nd Lt. with a map and compass. We stopped and Mark asked some locals for directions on getting back to Hwy 57. The directions were given in a few short sentences and about 453 exaggerated arm gestures. I believe that it must be a law in Mexico that when giving directions you must include 73 exaggerated arm gestures for each spoken word, as this behavior repeated itself a few more times during the day.

After locating Hwy 57 again we continued south toward Allende.

Allende was suppose to be just south of Nava so we continued on into Nava. Round and round she goes and where we finally stopped nobody knows. After touring the town of Nava we once again came upon an intersection and a sign for Hwy 57. Hwy 57 turned to the right - got it. Hwy 57 also continued straight ahead - OK?? And just to make sure that no one missed Hwy 57, it also turned to the left. No way to get this one wrong. We took a right. Wrong road. We went back to the intersection and this time we found the correct Hwy 57 that went to Allende.

Getting into Allende we got the paper work started to obtain our tourist visa and our vehicle import permit. You get the tourist visa and then go to the bank side to pay for the tourist visa and also to apply for the vehicle import permit. Everything was going fine until Mexico decided that it did not like Mark's credit card. This meant a $480+ cash deposit. After about 30 minutes Mark was finally able to get through to his credit card company and the issue was resolved. After all fees were paid it was back to Immigration to get the required stamps on the tourist visa. We were planning on doing a money exchange there but that was a no go. We had to go to a different bank.

Next town down in Sabinas we locate a bank, find a safe place to park the bikes, go inside the bank and get to stand in a very long line. After about 15 minutes of waiting we are told that the banks are no longer allowed to exchange Pesos for US dollars. We are given directions on how to get to the local money exchanger in the shady side of town. After touring the shady side of town and eventually finding the hole in the wall that the money exchanger was hiding in, we exchanged a minimum amount of cash to get us by for a few days, and then made a quick exit from the area. Very few places accept credit cards so the the pesos were a must to be able to get food, gas, and motels.

Leaving Sabinas we again find the enchanted Hwy 57 and continue south. We begin an easy ride through the valley floor with mountains around us in the distance and temperature of 100+.

After around 10 hours and covering an amazing 290 miles for the day we arrived in Monclova and found a cheap motel. They could afford to be cheap. No AC and no water.

Dorthy, we ain't in Kansas no mo.

Monclova, Coahuila to Cedral, San Luis Potosi

307 miles -- Total miles 1,657

Today was more of a slow paced day. We made an early departure from our great motel and headed south toward Saltillo. It was a good ride going through an arid country side with mountains in the background. We did go through a couple of mountain passes which was good for a change.

Getting into Saltillo we made a lunch stop. After lunch we tried again to find the local money changer but had no luck. Once again a little trouble finding the right roads out of Saltillo.

Hwy 64 south was again a good ride and smiliar to our morning trip down. After about 50 miles we headed back east on Hwy 62 at San Tiburcio. This was a narrow two lane with great views and going through the middle of no where.

Arriving in Cedral we stopped for the night. This time we really did find a great motel for $38.00. Even has running hot water.