11NOV08 and Dallas We have a Problema

I am constantly amazed at how the mind works.

There I was, standing in the cockpit door of my airliner, talking to the people as we flew over Paris in sight of the Eiffel Tower, trying to locate my pants when suddenly I woke up and knew I needed to unplug the GPS power cord or risk draining the battery. Weird.

La Hacienda was a perfectly adequate motel, particularly for the price, and the internet and free breakfast were icing on the cake. The only tarnish was that breakfast didn't open until 8am, and I really wanted to be on the road by then. Oh well, free breakfast to an airline pilot is like a sardine to an aquarium seal. We'll do about anything for it. So I wasn't until 9 that I was in que for the first check-point in the border crossing.

From the hotel one simply gets back on I-35South and heads, uh, south to the bridge. Bridges. There are 3 bridges at Laredo. One, two, and Columbia (for commerce). I crossed on #1 and went immediately to the customs booth. Here you play the odds with a green/red traffic light. Push the button and get green - you are good to go. If it shows red, however, you will be among the (un)lucky few who have to unload and open all your bags for inspection. Verde, gracias.

From here if you intend to explore the interior beyond 25km, you'll need to visit the immigration/vehicle immigration station, which is not connected to the customs building. In fact, you get your first taste of Nuevo Laredo traffic by winding this way and that through the streets just south of the border following blue 'vehicle inspection' signs through some amazing intersections that defy verbal description.

The immigration depot has a large parkinglot and two doors at opposite ends far apart. How long it will take to transit from one to the other is up to the gods, your preparation, and luck. First you show your passport and fill-out the personal application for tourist card. Then you get copies made of your passport and the application, and if you have a car (motorcycle) of your drivers license and registration. Now you move to the Bancijerito line. Here is where the real fun begins as you make payments and leave deposits. Mexico wants to make sure that if you were to leave your vehicle they would still get the tax on it's sale, so you will pay 1) a fee for your personal travel card 2) a fee for your vehicle travel sticker 3) a returnable deposit of about 10% of the vehicles value according to their sources. Also, more copies and stamps. If your name is spelled the same on all your documents and all the dates are correct and and and, you will receive receipts for the above as well as a paper personal travel card (never asked for it again, but keep it safe anyway) and a sophisticated and important looking sticker for the windshield of your vehicle. I do not know what you do if your bike doesn't have a screen, as it is like the registration sticker here in Texas with the numbers/info on the sticky side so as to be visible from the opposite side of the glass.

Gracias.

Now slap that bad boy on your windshield, carefully store all your documentos, and drive out of the parkinglot. Not bad. Really.

The first 8 miles or so is just city traffic. Watch out for taxis and busses, follow the signs for Monterrey 85 Cuota, and keep moving. I like to get out of town ASAP and out where people are friendlier. After that you are on the Autopista, a fine brushed concrete road for about 100 miles of poke me in the eye boredom until about 20 miles north of MTY when the mountains begin to appear from the smog. You'll also pay about 300p for toll as you leave 85 and turn west on 40Cuota to Saltillo.

Note that many of the signs are vague as to the route number, but pretty specific on destination. You'll need to look at your mappage in a slightly different way than you may be used to doing.

Right turn and I'm heading around MTY and it's concrete plants. I joked that what you see from the highway is a facade - once you get around the back side the mountains are being carved away hollow to make concrete to put up the buildings on the front.

Another 150p fee and a turn south onto 57Cuota and it's just about to get interesting. Really interesting.

I was cruising towards a tollbooth at about 65mph, when the bike felt a little squirrelly - like a tire gone flat (had one of those last year, for comparison), quick visual showed nothing amiss, but at stopped at the booth I noted oil drops on my boot and the center stand was shiny. Hmmm, not good. So I pulled over into a service plaza . Well, it was a row of tiendas, panadarias, and towel snappers (window washers). When I got off the bike I saw immediately that the entire rear end was covered in oil - not just any oil but the highly fragrant transmission oil! Including and especially the rear tire. I got on my hands and knees and saw the cause - the transmission drain plug had vibrated off and fallen away! NOT good. Not good at all!
So now what? Well, to make a long story short, the towel snappers and I fashioned a replacement plug from a pipe fitting (peened over to close it), the tienda (store) happened to have 80-90 wt transmission oil, and I filled it back up. Rather than continue into the mountains and rough roads on an uncertain patch job and questionable transmission bearings, I called my rescue team of Jeff B and James P who volunteered to meet me in Laredo (neither has permission to leave the country). I turned about and headed north. Dammit. It was just getting good.
I may be overly conservative, but I'm not a Ted Simon type who can suffer a breakdown and just sit by the road and wait for karma to deliver salvation. It had, in the form of a plug and oils, but now I needed to not over tax it's abilities by breaking down a second time in the rough mountains of MX.
I got to the end of the northbound Cuota 85, 60miles south of Laredo and stopped at dusk at hotel El Rancho, which is sort of an oasis park with hotel, restaurant, store and gas station. Like Howard Johnson's on the interstate when you were a kid and your parents made you go swimming in your underwear.

An interesting day.