Axolotl
0
I told my fellow motonauts (or maybe just motonuts) on this excursion that I would write up a ride report. When I got back on March 16 I got hit by a backlog of work and family stuff piled up, so I've put it off, but here goes:
Saturday, March 10, 2018: Ride from Round Rock, TX to Donna, TX
Mexico? Are you nuts? Do you know what THEY do to people down there? Have you seen the clips on the internet?
It was hard enough to justify the trip when I was planning to go with a big Mextrek group last October, but when I had to tap out of that trip for family reasons and placed a notice on TWT asking if anyone wanted to join me in March, friends and family were fairly incredulous. Going to Mexico, on a motorcycle, with people I'd never met before, who could very well be Cartel members posing as friendly Texans? Why don't you do something a little safer for fun? Like juggling flaming chainsaws on a crappy tightrope over an abyss.
On the other hand, if you are a father of four living in a Texas suburb, where the HOA will fine you if you do not remove the wilted palm fronds from your ornamental palm tree, you just need to get away sometimes. You will balance the cartels on one hand against another weekend in the Sienna frantically running the circuits of practices, birthday parties, church, little league, Happy Meals, strip malls. And you'll choose the Cartels.
The trip did not start well. A nail appeared in my fairly new K-60 scout on a preride check. Thought about replacing, but plugged it.
Got on the road on a bright Saturday morning and dodged 18-wheelers and texting teens down to San Antonio and hit a road closure on 410. Blessing in disguise. I pulled off the Strom in a motel parking lot, and noticed that the cool rubberized waterproof duffle bag I'd bought just for this trip had shifted backwards in the wind. There was a funny smell. It had sagged over the muffler, which had burned a hole in it, and it had incinerated my toiletries bag, some shorts, and a few tee shirts. A sticky goo of exploded shaving cream, contact solution, toothpaste and other unnamed creams had leaked down onto the back fender as I rode, where it had formed a slick ugly paste. I have abused my Strom in a number of ways since I bought it a year and a half ago, but this was a new low.
Saturday, March 10, 2018: Ride from Round Rock, TX to Donna, TX
Mexico? Are you nuts? Do you know what THEY do to people down there? Have you seen the clips on the internet?
It was hard enough to justify the trip when I was planning to go with a big Mextrek group last October, but when I had to tap out of that trip for family reasons and placed a notice on TWT asking if anyone wanted to join me in March, friends and family were fairly incredulous. Going to Mexico, on a motorcycle, with people I'd never met before, who could very well be Cartel members posing as friendly Texans? Why don't you do something a little safer for fun? Like juggling flaming chainsaws on a crappy tightrope over an abyss.
On the other hand, if you are a father of four living in a Texas suburb, where the HOA will fine you if you do not remove the wilted palm fronds from your ornamental palm tree, you just need to get away sometimes. You will balance the cartels on one hand against another weekend in the Sienna frantically running the circuits of practices, birthday parties, church, little league, Happy Meals, strip malls. And you'll choose the Cartels.
The trip did not start well. A nail appeared in my fairly new K-60 scout on a preride check. Thought about replacing, but plugged it.
Got on the road on a bright Saturday morning and dodged 18-wheelers and texting teens down to San Antonio and hit a road closure on 410. Blessing in disguise. I pulled off the Strom in a motel parking lot, and noticed that the cool rubberized waterproof duffle bag I'd bought just for this trip had shifted backwards in the wind. There was a funny smell. It had sagged over the muffler, which had burned a hole in it, and it had incinerated my toiletries bag, some shorts, and a few tee shirts. A sticky goo of exploded shaving cream, contact solution, toothpaste and other unnamed creams had leaked down onto the back fender as I rode, where it had formed a slick ugly paste. I have abused my Strom in a number of ways since I bought it a year and a half ago, but this was a new low.