Story, sunshine and brighter days.

When things are bad they can only get better. The clouds parted finally and we have had sunshine for the past week, a small blessing but welcomed with open arms. After our bug ridden night on the beach just past Cuidad Del Carmen we rode onwards to the colourful city or Merida. There we spent our first night, as recommended to us by the Lonely Planet, at a hostel called Nomados. There we found some respite from the heat in a pool surrounded by palms, lounges and hammocks which we spent a lot of time in relaxing.

Come nighttime we retreated to our room which had three fans, three bunk beds and some lockers. Despite the fans and no windows it was hot as all buggery, so the next day we moved a couple of blocks away to the air conditioned Hostel Luna Nueva where we spent the next two nights. In Merida we picked up a part for the KLR which our wonderful sponsors M&M Motorsports had shipped to a local FedEx store. Once installed the KLR was up and running and now filtering oil as it was missing the oil filter bypass pin. Chris and Shaun road to some nearby cenotes and had them pretty much to themselves. For those who don't know what cenotes are, they are sinkholes that are filled with crystal clear water for the most part, or if you are Mayan they are portals to the underworld. Whichever definition you prefer, they are simply amazing and we'll worth a trip to see.

Leaving Merida we set off towards Tulum with a stop along the way at the Coba ruins incedentally, our first of the trip. It's amazing to think that a culture that hadn't invented the wheel built these towering stone pyramids in the middle of the bush. Climbing to the top provided a 360 degree view of the surrounding landscape which was thick forest as far as the eye could perceive. From there we pushed onwards and arrived in Tulum where we had booked a hostel that provided free bikes to pedal our way across town. Once unpacked we made or way to the beach for a dip. On arrival we were met with disappointment that the entire beach was covered in a thick layer of seaweed. Asking around we found that the entire Caribbean had been affected this year with copious amounts of it. With that realisation we hoped back on the bikes and went into town for some tucker. Mmm Mexican food is great and Mexican pizza is even better! The next day we changed hostels yet again in the never ending effort to save money. Packed and unpacked once more we set out to see the Grand Cenote. The name is well suited, it was quite grand and worth the $150 pesos to enter. Snorkeling in amongst cave systems, fish,  and turtles is immensely fun, so much so that we spent 2 hours there.

Today Chris and Shaun went to Cancun to pick up Chris's passport and see a dentist to fix Shaun's tooth which looms good as new. Tomorrow we will be moving on to our last stop before Belize: Bacalar! See you there.

https://plus.google.com/100072007748025786103/stories/808001d8-6549-3dfb-b9d3-a2608a2bf30214d84f89ca5?authkey=

Lessons from the road:
1) After a long hot day of riding alongside some postcard picturesque Caribbean coastline you may find yourself thinking that camping on the beach is the greatest idea you've ever had. So you find a secluded spot, ride your bike off the road and through the sand (with a few stacks for good measure), set up camp and jump in the ocean for a well deserved cool down. It's only a few hours later, just after you've fallen asleep, that the wind dies down and you awaken in covered in sweat and tiny biting insects that have somehow made it through the gap where your zips close. Then you are faced with a choice: do you get out of bed, find your insect repellent and spray yourself with so much that you can only feel the burning sensation of deet; or, do you lay there and hope that the insects drown in your sweat before they completely drain your blood?

Michigan to Monterrey Google story.

Just finished up a Google story for the first time, wanted to let everyone in on our trip and this is another neat way. Hope you enjoy, let us know what you think.

https://plus.google.com/100072007748025786103/stories/fb820227-2646-304b-bda6-d7598d3f19f714d54fa69a1?authkey=

Rough couple of days...

We left Monterrey after spending two awesome nights there with our host: Jon. As we were leaving it was as if the rain gods had decided to unleash all they had on us, there was torrential rain, lightning and lots of thunder. Needless to say we were very wet, and the roads were very slick which led to Shaun taking a spill at about 35mph (55kph). We were stopping on the side of the road as Chris had forgotten to latch his helmet up after we had refueled, the moment Shaun touched the brake his front end slid out and the bike went down in a shower of sparks as metal scraped on the road. Unfortunately none of the cameras were rolling, but Shaun came off spinning and got right back up with only minor whiplash and some torn riding gear. The bike fared reasonably well; mechanically it is fine, the side cases however, are fairly busted up. Word from the wise: invest in good metal cases or pelican cases.

After that, we continued on to Real De Catorce: a old mining town in the mountains near Matehuala. It sat abandoned after the price of silver plummeted in 1900, and was rediscovered and is now a popular tourist destination. We stayed at a quaint hotel that cost $11 each. After getting our gear sorted there we went for a hike up to the top of the mountain to check out the sights. Once again the rain gods laughed as they dumped everything down on us and we ended up spending about an hour huddled under an archway, playing heads up charades, waiting for the rain to pass.

The next morning we packed our gear up and headed back down the 24km cobblestone path that leads to Real. Another bout of bad luck struck Shaun as he was packing his gear up, a bungee strap sprung loose and hit him in the face luckily not taking out and eye... just a tooth. Another word from the wise: don't trust bungee straps, they are out to get you! So when we get to Mexico city Shaun will have to go to a dentist to get it fixed. Continuing on the road to Queretaro we encountered yet again more rain (just cant seem to get enough of it) and after a long ride ended up at our couchsurfing host's place. Ricardo has been nice enough to let us into his home, shelter us, and give us lots of good info for the road ahead. We are very grateful for Ricardo's hospitality! Tonight we are going to rest up, put all of our bad luck behind us and wake up to a sunny morning (hopefully). 

TLR2015 out.

It happened in Monterrey.

We arrived today in Monterrey after spending a near sleepless night in a truck stop just before the US-Mexico border. We left early this morning to get to the border nice and early. Before crossing we learned that we had to get vehicle insurance in order to avoid ending up in a Mexican prison if we had an accident; so, after an expensive insurance trip and uneventful border crossing (we were amazed as we didn't get our passports stamped or even looked at!) we rode through some crazy traffic and arrived at our hosts home. Our host Jon has been kind enough to set all three of us up in his place in Monterrey and has shown us around town a little tonight. We walked around downtown and took in some of the sights, then took a taxi to a quaint authentic Mexican restaurant and had our first real meal in Mexico, needless to say it was delicious! We then went to a hidden bar that was extremely hipster and had a few drinks and listened to some live jazz. Afterwards Jon took us for an evening scenic drive around the city and into the hills to see the sheer size of Monterrey; such a pretty city and crazy big! Tomorrow we plan to explore the city a bit more and give our bodies a rest from riding.

Waiting in San Antonio

It was an interesting three days for us. We are currently hanging out in San Antonio Texas awaiting the arrival of Tim's new helmet. In the past 1,500 miles we have spent two nights at rest stops and one night at a campground. The first night in Dongola Illinois was enjoyable with comfortable temperatures and friendly truck drivers. We were half expecting to be escorted out at 3am by some local police.  But thankfully we slept undisturbed. On day two we rode from Dongola to Texarcana, TX through Missouri and Arkansas. This route was essentially an 8 hour tour of America's finest corn and dust fields.

Almost instantly after entering Texas the roads and scenery improved vastly and we decided to test our luck at another rest stop just outside of Texarcana. That evening was filled with booming thunder and unfortunately soaked gear. We stored our gear under an awning that turned out to be no match for a Texas thunderstorm. So on day three we packed our soggy gear and headed south with no particular destination in mind. While on our way, we passed through many interesting small towns and beautiful prairie vistas. So far Texas has definitely been our favorite state.

While on a major highway we got caught in a torrential downpour and pulled over to quickly chuck on our rain gear. But after riding for about an hour in the rain, everything was thoroughly soaked. When the rain stopped we were in Wimberly Texas, a cute little town with some antique shops and "cowboys". At this point we were looking for a little more luxurious stay so we found a campground on google about 20 miles south of Wimberly. Lazy L&L. We setup camp and enjoyed our first shower of the trip.

This morning we woke up and had breakfast with some nearby campers who were eager to hear about our adventure. We left the campground around 10 am and fought the San Antonio traffic to get to the UPS location. And now here we are, inside of a Hilton typing this post. We are aiming to get close the the border tonight and cross into Mexico tomorrow morning.

San Antonio!

Camping in Dongola

Bridge to Arkansa

Loosening Tim's chain

A beautiful bridge in central Texas

And we're off..

A big THANK YOU to M&M Motorsports for going above and beyond in making sure our bikes were in tip top shape, and that we had all the riding gear we needed.  Last but not least, they gave us a wonderful send off on Wednesday morning.  We are still amazed at how enthusiastic these guys were about this ride, and the WWP.

It is good to finally be under way.

New departure date

Due to some visa issues we unfortunately had to move our departure date to May, 6th. Only a few days and we will be on the road.