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And so the adventure continues...

Loving this pic/ride report....certainly getting the 'ol going south juices churnin.

Much abliged !!
 
Great fotos and story. I too had an unforgettable time with Meeltone in that area and this report brings back fond memories. Saludos.
 
Allow me enter the dialog here and try to catch up.
Two of my favorite riding companions.


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Historic Hotel Hacienda Santa Engracia.
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From the notes of my first visit to Santa Engracia, July 2001:
I met fair skinned Carlos Martinez on the front porch — 52 years old, the heir of Santa Engracia, a true aristocratic gentleman. He spoke English with very little hint of an accent and used big words like “anecdotes” and “sanguineous”. His grandfather had been governor of the state of Tamalipas,… until he was assassinated, and his father had been one in the series of owners of Santa Engracia. Old pictures of his father and mother were in the game room. He showed me the library/billiard room, with its display of authentic Spanish armor. I was impressed.
I think Carlos went to UT. I remember talking to him about Barton Springs.
Santa Engracia seemed like a logical place to stay. In my book at least. But Richard had other plans.

My ever patient wing-man Scott on what I'll call Richard's Pinche road.
Beautiful country, right?

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Here is the pinche part. Broke a rib on my first fall. Oh, what’s another rib at this point?
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Riding way out of my league.
Every time we stopped, I was the only one gasping for breath. Mis compadres acted like it was a walk in the park.

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Sometimes you grow so accustomed to Mexico you don’t even notice the most obvious things. This photo, for instance, inspired by Richard, represents the Pemex station’s employee break room. (In Mexico you don’t pump your own gas, you know. There is always an attendant there to do it, take your money and make change.) Anyway. That broken two-legged table in the pic, would’ve been in yesterday’s trash back in the ‘States. Here it is returned to use, propped up against a wall. A three-legged chair? No problem. You’ve got balance. And the blue chair, the seat has been punched thru and is wired back together, reinforced with newspapers. Ahh….., Mexico. Nothing dies.

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Awesome. Great to hear your POV.
(I notice you are not the only one reclining at rest stops.)
 
Here is the pinche part. Broke a rib on my first fall. Oh, what’s another rib at this point?
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Camino pinche de Ricardo parece un buen lugar para la Aventura! No??:rider:
 
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Do one of you speak fluent Spanish?

Bob and Milton are both good with Spanish. I know a few hundred words. Scott knows how to order beer and tequila. So between the 4 of us, we've got it covered. :trust:
 
We exited the mountains about 3 pm and decided to ride into Miquihuana for a late lunch. As we rode toward town I discovered I had a problem. Entering one of the many sharp curves on the highway leading to Miquihuana my bike failed to decelerate as I rolled off the throttle. I don't run hot (i.e. at 100% as fast as I can go) so the bike not slowing down as I entered a turn was not as big of a pucker moment as it would have been if I had been pushing the limits. Still, it was a surprise and I needed to react quickly or become a giant fireball of death. I grabbed both brakes and managed to slow the Husky down enough to navigate the curve. After that, I began to experiment with my throttle. It wasn't stuck wide open but it was definitely stuck open. With the judicious use of my clutch, gears, and brakes I managed to safely arrive at the outskirts of Miquihuana. In town, I needed a new procedure. So I allowed the bike to accelerate to an unsafe speed and then would simultaneously pull in the clutch and hit the kill switch. I would coast as far as I could then restart the engine and repeat the procedure. In short order I made it to the plaza without killing myself or running over an unsuspecting pedestrian or stray dog.

We decided to grab lunch at a nearby restaurant and then tackle my bike problem.

After a fine meal, we checked in to the El Presidente Hotel where we were made to feel like big shots (Presidents, actually. :)) I figured it would be the best place to disassemble my bike. :miffed:
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We checked into our rooms and unloaded our stuff. Once that was done I began the process of trying to figure out what was wrong with my Terra 650.

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I figured this was going to be a long painful job, but to my great surprise and pleasure I spotted the problem as soon as I removed the seat. My bike had been serviced right before this trip and the mechanic had left too much slack in an accessory power cable. The cable had gotten caught under the throttle body and was preventing the throttle from completely shutting off. I managed to pull the cable out, which fixed the problem. I zip tied it so it wouldn't happen again and happily celebrated the easy fix.

Now what should we do? It was 4 pm, relatively early. Should we go exploring south of Miquihuana? Ride somewhere else? Or just enjoy a leisurely afternoon and evening in Miquihuana. Decisions, decisions.

Ultimately, Bob decided to stay in his room and read the Bible, while Milton, Scott, and I decided to find a cantina and have a drink.

As we walked through town looking for a bar, we spotted these "fences" made of giant cactus. They were an amazing sight.
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A door overgrown with cactus.
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Initials carved into the cactus.
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The cantina was tiny. It had two tables and a maximum capacity of about 20 people. Which was probably about right for the size of Miquihuana. It was early and we were the only patrons. The bartender wasn't sure about the three gringos who suddenly arrived as he was going through the process of opening, but he let us in and served us cold beer and good tequila.

After a few hours of drinking alone, some of the locals began to arrive. First one guy showed up and sat at the end of the bar and drank topo chico. Milton took the only other stool at the bar and made Stingray stand up.
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Then another guy showed up and started drinking beer. He brought his own blue bar stool with him, so now we had three stools for five guys.
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Eventually those two guys got together and invited the bartender to join the conversation.
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The more beer we drank, the better the tequila tasted. I'm not sure of the physics of how that works, but that's what happened. Honest.
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Eventually three other guys showed up and it turned into a party. The locals weren't too sure if they liked the gringos drinking in their bar but after we bought a round for the house and then another round for the house they decided we were okay.
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The locals were amazed at the size of El Gigante (Stingray).
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After way too much booze, we decided it was time to wander back to the hotel and check on Bob. When I asked the bartender what the damage was he did some math in his head and said "497 pesos". Using the current exchange rate of 20 pesos to the dollar I did some math in my head and realized that we had drank a case of beer, an entire bottle of tequila, bought two rounds for the house, and had a most memorable night for the grand total of just $25. I love Mexico.
 
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.....Using the current exchange rate of 20 pesos to the dollar I did some math in my head and realized that we had drank a case of beer, an entire bottle of tequila, bought two rounds for the house, and had a most memorable night for the grand total of just $25. I love Mexico.

That right there is priceless. :clap:
 
A "behind the scenes" look at the guys working hard to capture the moment:

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Sometimes it seems as if The Famous Milton Otto is the subject of a documentary or maybe on one of those reality TV shows.
Here the paparazzi are capturing the roadside repair of his riding britches......
Apparently he tore them while doing a stoppie on that Italika in the background... :rider:
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Bob using his smart phone to figure out how much further to Valle Hermoso :mrgreen:
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Not sure who here was the most excited about Richard fixing his bike....
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Hanging out in this cantina with the locals really was a special night. Great memories!
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Bob really does a great job communicating with the locals, I'm truly envious.
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My favorite roadside snack
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A few awesome examples of electrical work we found along the way
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The downside of a $7 room, you learn to made do (no pun intended)...
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Nice to see you posting again Scott. Don't be such a stranger.
 
Early the next morning we were up and ready for the another great day of riding. Little did we know what lay in store for us ahead...

Our plan was to ride a back road from Aramberri to General Zaragoza. Milton and Jimmy Ridge had done this route about six years ago so we knew the road was there but had no idea of its condition since no one else had ridden it since. Milton's description of the route made our group want to ride it but it took six years for us to finally get the opportunity.
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First, we had to get gas. Miquihuana doesn't have a gas station but you can buy fuel from a 55 gallon drum at the local convenience store, which is a slow process at best. It took a while but eventually we were all topped off and on our way.

Waiting for our tanks to be filled
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The ride to Aramberri took close to two hours of mostly pavement riding, so we decided it was time for a short break. Milton took advantage of the stop to repair his riding pants with some new strips of duct tape. Note that this wasn't the first time he repaired this particular tear with duct tape - he had done previous repairs more than a year ago on another trip and the old tape was no longer getting the job done. Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.
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Bob and Scott patiently wait for Milton's repairs to be complete
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Once the repairs were complete, it was time to get dirty. The dirt road out of Aramberri got better and better as we headed up and into the mountains east of town.
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We passed a few abandoned houses/huts and went through a few gates but there was no evidence that anyone lived on this remote backroad.
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The road started as a class 2 but the further we rode the more difficult and steep the road became. It's always tough to accurately illustrate the steepness of a road in pictures so this was the best I could do.
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The steepness, the rocks, and the general disrepair of the road made me wish I was on a lighter bike. While the Terra 650 is a fine bike, at more than 400 lbs it was heavier than I prefer when riding class 3 roads.

Along about this time, Milton began to struggle. The steep, steep, steep switchbacks, in particular, were vexing him and he dropped his bike on more than one occasion. Each time, his carbureted DRZ400 would flood and refuse to start. In order to prevent killing the battery trying to restart the bike, we reverted to bump starting it - a difficult and time consuming process. By the end of the ride we informed Milton he would have to get a lighter, fuel injected bike before our next trip to Mexico.

Despite the challenges (or, perhaps, because of them) we remained in good spirits and were having a wonderful time.
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This is Bob's most sensuous pose
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A feed trough carved from a tree trunk
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The road ahead
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Just great riding
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At 2 pm we rode down the steepest section of road yet and hit a dead-end. The road was washed out and, as indicated by the overgrown vegetation, had been for some time.
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Now what do we do?
 
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What did you do? Don't leave us like this!:shock:
 
Love the story, especially the photos, guys! Keep 'em coming!! :clap:
 
Highway south of Ciudad Victoria
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Pemex station in the town of Jumave. Probably a nice place to stay once you're away from the highway.
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We crested at 10,000' elevation. Near the top of the loop, Asseradero. (which means saw mill in Spanish).
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That's the way you do it
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Valle Hermoso. Those specks in the distance are thresher machines harvesting grain, and waiting trucks to accept the grain.
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Fun, fun fun
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