Hell’s Half Acre

Standing in the middle of the parking lot of the motel, I realized that today we’d have to travel 533 miles to get to my sisters. It was going to be a long day in the saddle.  This was a really painful day. Just best to get it over with as soon as possible. [...]

We had a late start from Wilcox so I could exercise in the morning, but I figured we’d make up for it by driving late in the evening.  Well, that was the plan.  I honestly don’t remember much of Arizona other than hazy skies, lots of desert scrub, some lovely hills, lots and lots of [...]

Our motel was clean and it blasted A/C directly at Pike and Jesse’s bed and I was able to dry most all our newly washed clothing by hanging it around the room, but I felt a little ripped-off with the price and was looking forward to the prices of Motel 6, where we had planned [...]

We had such a lovely time in Cuatrocienegas.  I’d read about the place in the Lonely Planet Mexico book (I think I have the 2004 edition) and thought that if things worked out it might be nice to visit.  We have turquoise waters in the Caribbean and had seen the turquoise of the Huasteca, so [...]

I have dragged the trailer twice through this route and once we got on MX57 it became the Most Boring Drive to date.  It was a lovely road – 4 lanes and good surface, but very very very boring.  We made amazing time and were in Saltillo in about 2 hours.  For some (bad) reason [...]

We spent a long lazy day in Jalpan getting Jesse out of the sun and Pike and I decided to visit the mission at Landa de Matamoros.  The road up to Jalpan had been incredibly windy (and expected) but I was really tired of doing eleventymillion curves at 40km/hr.  So it was with a little [...]

I think I went through a little culture shock in Coatpec.  Well, that and we just about froze to death.  I was about ready to pack in the whole trip – head straight for the border where the roads are easy to manage, where you can drive 600km a day without a second thought, where [...]

When we woke this morning, we found our car completely blocked in by other vehicles.  I’d already planned to leave later (6:30am) as the sky would be starting to get light then and I felt the roads would be better to travel then, but seeing all the cars made me wonder if we’d ever leave [...]

I forgot to mention the other day that on my way out of Merida (at 6:30am) I somehow managed to scrape the side of an urban bus in the very narrow lanes or so the driver claimed when he forced me to a stop and blocked the street to talk to me.  He kept calling [...]

It isn’t a Hopcia trip unless the vehicle gets stuck at least once.  Today we left Merida at 6:30am – later than I had originally planned, but going to bed after midnight for the past 2 nights required a later start.  The road from Merida was super wide and with shoulders all the way past [...]