Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog

Jim was up early as usual, and when I asked what time it was, he replied 6.20am, so I got up and showered, then when I went to put my watch on I noticed it was only 6am... it took a little while before we worked out why the room clock said 7am... we'd crossed another time zone and were now on central Mexican time, some 6 hours behind the UK.. good job I'd had an early night, as I couldn't have lost another hour's sleep!

After breakfast I wandered round town for a while, as we had a late departure planned with just 240-odd miles to do, and then managed to get hold of Tracy on the phone, the first time we'd spoken in several days. As usual, speaking to her significantly lifted my spirits (which were pretty good already). I then went to have a look at a minor problem on my bike, the “rider information display” which shows the oil temperature, fuel level and gear position had crashed when leaving one of the toll booths yesterday, stuck showing I was in first gear and with half a tank of fuel. Switching the ignition on/off made no difference, so I removed the fuse and put it back and that seemed to cure it. I then packed and loaded my stuff on the bike, and whilst doing so noticed Gerald was not looking at all well. He was quite weak, Montezuma's Revenge having struck him last night and he'd been unable to get away from the toilet since 3am, completely draining him of energy. There was no way he was fit to ride, so his bike had to go in the van along with Danielle's which will be there for at least a week until her wrist is strong enough for her to ride again. Fitting 2 large motorcycles in the Transit, along with panniers and all the usual luggage was a challenge, and Gerald's bike would not go in forwards, so I helped Jeff & Kevin load it in backwards... the result was a very full van...





With the bikes loaded, I got on mine and headed out of Zacatecas, following the one-way system through the narrow cobbled streets and into the rush-hour traffic. Riding alone I managed to find my way out of town and found a petrol station so I could fill up before joining the main road towards Aquascalientes. The route notes made it clear that the next turn was difficult to spot, as we needed to get on the ring road round Aquascalientes, but they also said it was at 87 miles... when I got to 72 miles out, I noticed what looked like the ring road, so turned left onto it, and was right... the notes were right about it being poorly signed, though! From there it was a pretty simple run to the town of Ojuelos, where I thought I'd grab some lunch. On arriving at the outskirts of the town, the road was blocked and a diversion in place – the lead group of Richard & Karen, Nigel, Aaron and Chris & Danielle (Danielle now riding pillion with Chris due to her wrist) were there under a tree taking a break and contemplating their next move, and soon we were joined by Max & Christine. I ate a van-snack bar and then we all set off again, following the diversion signs across a dirt road and through town before rejoining the main road again. After a quick pee-break, I left the group, riding on ahead at my own pace, pushing on to make the distance.

The rest of the route was pretty straight-forward, and before long I was only 25 miles or so from our destination, the town of San Miguel de Allende. I slowed my pace right down, dropping into the flow of traffic and soon Chris & Danielle appeared in my mirrors, and we rode together through some roadworks on the outskirts of town, once again on a dirt road. Then we hit another deviation, this time taking us away from the route-notes which described how to get to the hotel. The deviation took us onto a rutted cobbled street, and eventually back onto the main road, but then we ended up obviously off-route right in the centre of downtown San Miguel, a complex of small one-way cobbled streets past beautiful red, orange and yellow buildings, through a market by the canal, and into a residential area. Now we knew we were not where we wanted to be, so I put the coordinates for the hotel in my sat-nav (which, despite having maps loaded doesn't know about any of the roads and shows us as constantly about 300m from any road...) and set it to compass mode so I could see the general direction of the hotel. Then we asked a local for directions, and followed them, only to get further away from where we wanted to be. Another u-turn later, and I started to follow the compass, with Chris happy to follow me despite the obvious lack of knowledge as to where we were going. I then saw a policeman standing by the road, so we asked him, and following his rough directions (lots of arm waving) and the compass, we negotiated our way round a few more one-way cobbled streets and emerged onto the road we wanted... which was another steep cobbled one-way street with no sign of the hotel. A little further down the road, I spotted a sign painted on a wall, which was the name of the hotel, so we stopped and a little man appeared and ushered us to and through a big wooden gate into a large pretty cobbled courtyard... we'd found the hotel and were first to arrive...

Some time later the rest of the lead group arrived, with similar tales of riding round town unexpectedly (there's no such thing as getting lost, you just go places you didn't expect to). After showering and changing, we waited a short while for others to arrive, then gave up and went in search of a beer. We found a lovely little roof-top bar just up the street and had a couple of beers and some excellent nachos and fresh guacamole, then after about an hour returned to the hotel, the van having just arrived and most riders there safely (having followed Kevin, they didn't do the scenic route round town on the way in...). Finally Jim, Mac and Edwin & Lorraine arrived, all riders now present and accounted for, most with tales of navigational challenges at some stage...





With the group now present and correct, we headed off into town to a restaurant/bar recommended by Kevin, Momma Mia... yes, it was Italian of sorts. The beer was good, though, and on draught for a change (I'd got sick of bottled beer), and the food (spicy curried beef with pasta) equally good. The guitarist who played on stage behind us was brilliant, playing classical style, his fingers a blur of movement as he contorted his hands to make the right notes. Then the tequila shots started and things got a little merry. When Kevin, Julia, Ed and Lorraine arrived having been to the bar we went to earlier to sample the very strong margaritas (two for the price of one) things went from merry to very merry quite quickly... I left them in the bar just after midnight, walking back to the hotel in the pouring rain...