Tomorrow I will be leaving headed for south of the border.

I plan on taking a slow ride down and will be crossing the border at Reynosa on May 4.

Plans are to ride down to the Yucatan. Hopefully will have an extra day or two to play. The wife and my sister will be flying into Cancun on the 12th and we have a condo rented on the beach in Akumal. On the 17th they will fly out of Cancun. I will then do a slow return trip home mostly up through the middle of Mexico. A little more coastal area and hopefully quite a few mountains, returning home some time around the end of May.

Miles: 418
Time on road: 8h 45m

Woodstock, GA to Foley AL

I had planned a short day so I was planning on a slow start so that I could miss the Atlanta traffic. By 8 am I was ready to leave so I went ahead and took a chance on the traffic. Not the best decision but I got through without too much problem.

I headed south out of Atlanta on I-85. I crossed the Alabama state line and shortly after passing Auburn I left the slab and headed south on Hwy 29. Turned out to be a good road. Mostly two lane and very little traffic. Added a little extra time to the ride but well worth it. Good weather and a relaxing ride.

Picked up Hwy 31 in Flomoton and followed it over to Hwy 59. Traffic started increasing on 59 and once I crossed under I-10 it slowed down. Took Hwy 59 on down to Foley and spent the night with my Aunt and Uncle.

A little bit of LA (lower Alabama)

Miles: 377 -- Total miles: 795 (almost a full day's ride)
Time on road: 8h 45m

Foley, AL to Sulphur LA

Left Foley this morning at 7:00 am CT. Continued south on Hwy 59 and then took Hwy 180 out to Fort Morgan. Got there a little too early and had to wait around an hour for the ferry to arrive. Short and choppy ferry ride over to Dolphin Island and then took a couple of back road up to I-10 just west of Mobile.

Waiting on the ferry

Ferry ride

I was not wanting to ride in rain today. I was not looking for rain, but the rain found me. Clouds had been getting darker and as I crossed over into MS the rain and I met up. It would rain hard for a while, then it would rain harder slowing down traffic. Also, there was plenty of lightning to keep things from getting boring.

Realized the first thing that I forgot to do before leaving home. I did not treat my face shield for rain. Paid the price for this one.

Crossed into LA and the rain stopped, for a while. Had another couple of rain bands to come through but they did not have the thunder storms like the first one did.

Finally rode out of the weather system just west of Lafayette and was able to dry off again. Stopped for the nigh in Sulphur, just west of Lake Charles.

Tomorrow I hope to have another short day and stop in McAllen, TX with a border crossing on Friday.

Miles: 491 -- Total miles: 1,286
Time on road: 8 hours

Sulphur LA to Pharr, TX

Really great riding today. That is if you like riding slab. And straight roads. Flat. Windy. Hot And boring. Otherwise ….. As I said, today was just getting to the border.

At least there was no rain today. Heard on the Weather channel last night that the weather system that I rode through yesterday dumped almost 7” of rain around Mobile, AL. Maybe it really was as bad as it seemed to me riding in the rain yesterday and not just that I am getting old and wimpy.

Should be crossing the border in the morning, getting lost in Reynosa and driving around in circles trying to find my way out.

Miles: 303 -- Total miles: 1,589
Time on road 8h 30m

Pharr, TX to Manuel,Tamaulipas, Mexico

Got a semi-early start this morning and left the motel around 7:00am.

It was about a 15 minute ride down to the border. I knew when I was in Mexico because of the sudden appearance of topes. Also plenty of the steel half grapefruit on the road spaced about two inches apart and up to four rows at a time. Makes being on a bike fun. Tried to go through Customs but the gate would not rise and let me enter. Bike could not trigger the gate. Finally a Customs Officer came over and had the car behind me to move up which trigged the gate and let me in. Customs Officer started asking me the usually questions. After finding out that I was headed to the Yucatan he said that he was from Cancun. After that I got a 15 minute education on where to go and what to see in the Cancun area.

Asked him where I needed to go to get my Tourist Visa and Vehicle Import Permit. He said to go to the building to our right. Asked him where to park and he put me into one of the secondary inspection slots. Said to park there as long as I needed and the bike would be fine.

Parked the bike and went inside the building. Wrong building. Needed to go down the road about two blocks. Walked down and verified where I needed to go to get the permits. Went back and got the back. rode back to Immigration.

Got the paper work started and all was going well. Went down to the Banjercito to finish up and pay. Lady behind the desk checked my paper work and did not like my Georgia registration. Wanted the original title to the bike. Most people use their vehicle registration to get their vehicle permit. That's what I used last year and did not bring my title. She told me that I had a problem because the registration showed only the due date and not the expiration date. Could not get the permit without the original title to the bike. Finally a Immigration Officer came over and check the registration. Asked me if I had insurance on the bike and wanted to see proof. Gave him my insurance card and he sent me off to get a copy of the card and then come back. Got a different clerk this time. Good to go. Another 10 minutes and I had both permits.

Got on the bike and headed south out of Reynosa. The Zumo worked much better than my Quest II did last year. Out of Reynosa and didn't even get lost. Got to be a first.

Riding south of Reynosa

Came to my first check point. Checked my permits, had me open up one pannier and the top box, and I was on my way again.

Heading south from Reynosa was very similar to riding in southern Texas. After about an hour it started to get hilly with a few mountains in the back ground. The road was one of my favorite type of Mexican road. A two lane with wide shoulders. Drive to the right, half in your lane and on the shoulder. Traffic passing uses the center of the road. Biggest vehicle has right of way.

South of San Fernando I hit my first military road block. I have been through quite a few military road blocks, but none like this. These guys were not fooling around. They were loaded for bear. Grizzly bear that is. They had placed dirt across the road and made about 6 super sized topes, around 2 feet high. Several machine gun nest and several mounted on trucks. Lots of personnel moving around. Traffic going south was light and they waived me through so there was no delay. Traffic heading north was stopped and backed up for about a quarter of a mile.

Came to a Pemex but it was still a little early for gas and there was another one about 40 miles down the road so I continued on. Passed a lot of military trucks that had machine guns mounted and several trucks carrying troops. Came to the next Pemex. Closed. Finally made it to the next one but running very low on fuel.

The good road ended as I encountered road construction. About 5 miles of hard pack with lots of loose gravel and rocks on top. Air pressure in the tires was set for running slab and was way too high for the dirt. After dancing around for a while the construction finally ended and I was now on an old deteriorated two lane with numerous pot holes. Road finally improved in some sections so the final ride in was not too bad.

I had noticed an absence of topes in most towns today. Only went through one that had a few baby topes.

Made it into Manuel and found a hotel for the night. After checking in I walked up the road to an open air restaurant. There were 3 young adults sitting at a table toward the back an it appeared that ran the restaurant. Walked back there and started talking to one of the guys. No English. No Spanish. Next to this guy was his girlfriend/wife/sister(?) eating a bowl of seafood soup that looked rather good. She was wearing a very low cut top and she also looked good. She was looking very good. I pointed at her and said I will have what shes has. They brought me seafood soup instead.

Town of Manuel

Motel