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It's Sunday morning and the church bells are
ringing. Slowly the town comes to life outside our window. This is not the
loud rap music, horn honking kind of noise, but rather the shuffling and
muted tones of quite talking. I can't think of many better ways to wake
up.
Antonio opens the gates to a private garage we had and out come the
bikes ready for another day. We will head toward Parral for the evening
which looks like a long day. We have over 2 hours of dirt ahead of us.
It's sunrise though and the roads should be clear. Needless to say the
scenery should be great with the shadows sunrise creates. |
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I was looking forward to riding uphill, which is
usually easier than downhill. As it turns out, the big GS has such a tall
first gear that it was a genuine challenge to keep it from stalling in the
tight switchbacks. About half way out of the canyon I pick a bad line and
stall it. The brakes are on but I'm still sliding backwards. Before I
stopped my shorts were so far up my cheeks I could taste cotton in my
mouth. A 3,000 ft drop is not the way to start the morning. The tall first
gear and questionable seat are the only faults I have with the big GS.
Otherwise I absolutely love this bike and look forward to getting on it
every morning. |
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We are, once again, going from the sub-tropic to
alpine conditions. Riding through the pine forest is great. Lunch was
especially tasty at a funky little restaurant which served fresh chicken
hot off the grill with some lime flavoring. It was lip smackin' good. |
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We continue on to a high prairie along Highway
23 and see some amazing fence work. Boulders are used since that is the
common material and the fences stretch for 10s of miles. I can't imagine
how much work this took. |
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Outside of Parral we are stopped at a serious
looking checkpoint. There is a guard tower and very menacing looking
bunkers. Behind those bunkers are serious weapons. The soldiers are very
polite and want to see inside our bags. We oblige and are shortly on our
way.
Then we are in Parral. If you can't say anything nice about a town,
don't say anything at all. So I won't. Our motel echoes that sentiment. In
truth, we were tired and our main concern was finding a nice, clean motel
for the night. That didn't happen. Add to that a town that isn't very
pretty and you know where we are coming from. At least Forrest had a
mirror above his bed. He couldn't sleep though because every time he woke
up it looked as if someone was about to fall on him. These were easily our
cheapest rooms at $15.00 US each. Yes, we had to get two rooms since they
don't have double beds. Can you get the picture, mirrored ceilings, single
beds…. |
