Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! 
Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to 
andyc740
0
$%^%*$)! Our latest outing to Mexico was off to a horrible start and I hadn’t even left the house. I’d been trying to get Rocinante cranked for half an hour at dark thirty in the morning, something I’m sure the neighborhood didn’t appreciate, and she wasn’t cooperating. Mike the Mechanic told me when I picked her up Wednesday with the new chain and sprockets that my nearly-new battery wasn’t taking a full charge. I figured it had enough kick to get me through the weekend, but apparently I was wrong. Forty-five minutes total, after two sessions with the battery charger on high output, she finally fired. Once she was running, we were going to be OK.
At our breakfast rendezvous, a phone call to one of our party revealed he had overslept and was running late. Double $%^%*$)! I texted Bato to tell him we were going to be late to our scheduled 11:00 hook-up in Eagle Pass. He was happy to get the news. It was in the sub-30’s leaving Kerrville for him, almost 20 degrees colder than Corpus, and that let him take more time on the ride down from Kerrville. He would arrive at least partially thawed.
Dale, Rick and I were making our last Mexico foray of the year to the Rutas en el Desierto rally in Monclova, Mexico. We went to the rally two years earlier and enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. The Tamaulipas governor’s border rally, Moto Fronterizo, November last year, wasn’t being held this year due to the border wars between the narcos and the police, so we decided to wrap up the year in Monclova again.
Some of our Hebbronville Gypsy buddies were also going to the Monclova rally, but they decided to ride there on Thursday and return on Monday, making their trip several days longer than ours. Must be nice to have the time. Bato, a fellow Two-Wheeled Texan, was originally from Monclova and wanted to ride down with us. We never turn down having a local along.
With the crummy start, I figured the trip was bound to be a great one. Our route was FM 624 from Corpus through Orange Grove to Cotulla, up to Big Wells, left to Carrizo Springs, and then Eagle Pass, where we met Bato. The second half of FM 624 is a lot busier from the intersection with Hwy 16 to Cotulla than it used to be. Development of the Eagle Ford shale means lots of oilfield traffic on the road these days and the road surface is suffering because of it. Parts of the road almost look like Corpus Christi streets. There is not a hotel room available within 50 miles of Cotulla or Carrizo Springs these days. We gassed up in Cotulla, texted Bato with our time and kept moving. Bato arrived at the intersection of Hwy 57 and 277 on the outskirts of Eagle Pass at the same time we did, 11:30, perfect timing. Distance from the house, about 240 miles.
We had fast food for lunch, (note the full parking lot in the cheap hotel next door) then crossed over to Mexico on the Camino Real bridge, fuelling up at a Pemex a mile or two across the bridge and changing money at the same place. Very convenient.
South of Piedras Negras, the scenery is flat. The area is strip mined for coal and there are coal-fired power plants and other industry along the highway, including a shiny new Corona brewery. At the Immigration/Aduana offices 40 miles south of town, Bato and Rick got their tourist and bike papers. Not nearly as much drama as our trip two years ago. Once past the checkpoint, we took the libre instead of the cuota. It turned out to be a good choice, the road was freshly paved and traffic wasn’t bad, just enough to make passing on the two-lane road interesting.
When we rejoined the cuota at Nueva Rosita, Bato took the lead. We were immediately pulled over by two pickup loads of local police. Bato got off his bike and started talking with them. When the group began exchanging abrazos (hugs, for you non-Spanish speaking types) and phone numbers, I figured we were fine (wasn’t really worried anyway). Bato made a phone call, the police checked our drivers’ licences and said we were good to go. We stopped for a bit in Sabinas and Bato said the chief of police in Nueva Rosita was a friend of his and that was who he called. Like I said, it’s usually a good thing to travel with locals.
At our breakfast rendezvous, a phone call to one of our party revealed he had overslept and was running late. Double $%^%*$)! I texted Bato to tell him we were going to be late to our scheduled 11:00 hook-up in Eagle Pass. He was happy to get the news. It was in the sub-30’s leaving Kerrville for him, almost 20 degrees colder than Corpus, and that let him take more time on the ride down from Kerrville. He would arrive at least partially thawed.
Dale, Rick and I were making our last Mexico foray of the year to the Rutas en el Desierto rally in Monclova, Mexico. We went to the rally two years earlier and enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. The Tamaulipas governor’s border rally, Moto Fronterizo, November last year, wasn’t being held this year due to the border wars between the narcos and the police, so we decided to wrap up the year in Monclova again.
Some of our Hebbronville Gypsy buddies were also going to the Monclova rally, but they decided to ride there on Thursday and return on Monday, making their trip several days longer than ours. Must be nice to have the time. Bato, a fellow Two-Wheeled Texan, was originally from Monclova and wanted to ride down with us. We never turn down having a local along.
With the crummy start, I figured the trip was bound to be a great one. Our route was FM 624 from Corpus through Orange Grove to Cotulla, up to Big Wells, left to Carrizo Springs, and then Eagle Pass, where we met Bato. The second half of FM 624 is a lot busier from the intersection with Hwy 16 to Cotulla than it used to be. Development of the Eagle Ford shale means lots of oilfield traffic on the road these days and the road surface is suffering because of it. Parts of the road almost look like Corpus Christi streets. There is not a hotel room available within 50 miles of Cotulla or Carrizo Springs these days. We gassed up in Cotulla, texted Bato with our time and kept moving. Bato arrived at the intersection of Hwy 57 and 277 on the outskirts of Eagle Pass at the same time we did, 11:30, perfect timing. Distance from the house, about 240 miles.
We had fast food for lunch, (note the full parking lot in the cheap hotel next door) then crossed over to Mexico on the Camino Real bridge, fuelling up at a Pemex a mile or two across the bridge and changing money at the same place. Very convenient.
South of Piedras Negras, the scenery is flat. The area is strip mined for coal and there are coal-fired power plants and other industry along the highway, including a shiny new Corona brewery. At the Immigration/Aduana offices 40 miles south of town, Bato and Rick got their tourist and bike papers. Not nearly as much drama as our trip two years ago. Once past the checkpoint, we took the libre instead of the cuota. It turned out to be a good choice, the road was freshly paved and traffic wasn’t bad, just enough to make passing on the two-lane road interesting.
When we rejoined the cuota at Nueva Rosita, Bato took the lead. We were immediately pulled over by two pickup loads of local police. Bato got off his bike and started talking with them. When the group began exchanging abrazos (hugs, for you non-Spanish speaking types) and phone numbers, I figured we were fine (wasn’t really worried anyway). Bato made a phone call, the police checked our drivers’ licences and said we were good to go. We stopped for a bit in Sabinas and Bato said the chief of police in Nueva Rosita was a friend of his and that was who he called. Like I said, it’s usually a good thing to travel with locals.
