Motorbiking the Americas: June 2006

Lolo. The Red Cross Children's Hospital mascot.

Lolo
The Red Cross Children's Hospital mascot.

War torn, battle scarred and happy to be at the end.

Loza Luff
Lolo

The End. Humm! Time to plan the next one.

Today was FANTASTIC!
Perfect in everyway, even the weather played along.

From Santa Cruz, I cruised up the coast towards San Francisco where plans were made to meet up at the Golden Gate Bridge with another South African friend, Mark, Stacey and friends.
I had mixed feelings about getting to the end. Excited to be getting there but a pity that it was coming to an end. As I got closer this all turned to excitement when I got glimpses of the bridge and then a bit mushy when we met up (I am a boy shouldn’t admit to emotions). It was FANTASTIC to here.
23270km (14459 miles) across South, Central America and part the USA. Three months and eighteen countries.

1 Argentina
2 Uruguay
3 Brazil
4 Paraguay
5 Chile
6 Peru
7 Bolivia
8 Ecuador
9 Colombia
10 Panama
11 Costa Rica
12 Nicaragua
13 Honduras
14 El Salvador
15 Guatemala
16 Mexico
17 Cuba
18 USA

Leaving LA

LA to Santa Cruz
USA

Is it mandatory to take a photograph of the famous Hollywood sign in LA?
Well I wish someone had told me it was not because I rode all over town (parked in the No Parking zone) and got entangled in traffic to get this photo.
From there I set out to ride along the coastal Pacific Highway and took the wrong off ramp (a mistake to be avoided on these big highways and busy traffic) and soon found myself heading out into the desert. Eventually made it back to the coast and onto the right highway. It is an excellent road with amazing turns perfect for motorbikes. It took restrain to hold back the desire to touch the foot pegs on the road around the corners. I kept reminding myself that this was the last stretch of this trip and to be careful.

In Santa Cruz I met up with a SA friend, Tony, who now lives here. We grew up together back in the teenage/surfing days so you can imagine how the conversation was dominated with stories of times gone by.

Have a Great Day
Ricky

Aviation Museum

More Weird and Wackey signs

Pacific Pond

Made it to the Pacific

LV TO LA
USA

Los Vegas was really worth the visit if not only to see the enormity or extent of extravagance that we are capable of. Every part of that city is fabricated, completely unnecessary and does not fulfill any basic human needs other than for pleasure. It is amazing how much we are prepared to spend on pleasures. And why not?

The desert heat was already setting in when I left early in the morning for Los Angeles. It was a straight forward ride along highway 15 through the mountains afterwhich the temperature dropped dramatically and I was into the flow of the LA traffic. I had been warned about the traffic but it was not bad. Yes it is very busy but the drivers are disciplined and things work well. I am staying with friends in LA and enjoying a bit of luxury before heading North on the final stretch to San Francisco.

Today I met up with Todd from Honda USA who was in Buenos Aires at the same time as I was there. At an evening diner in BA we promised to meet in LA and that I would bring a mate' gord (bowl) and he would bring the mate' and enjoy an Argentian specific drink. Today, to his surprise, I arrived with the gord that I have been carrying for over 22 000km and we did our little ritual.

Tomorrow it is off to Santa Cruz to visit an old South African friend and the next day to San Francisco where a few friends have planned to meet me at the Northern end of the Golden Gate bridge with beer and champagne. Now all I have to do is not fall off the bike on the last stretch to the end.

Hold thumbs. (if something I fall off it will be because you didnt hold thumbs. No guilt trip intended. )

Have a great day
Ricky

What a name for a business?

The past and present image of USA

Mixing with the right crowd

Its important to be seen with the right crowd

They Cubans think they have it bad?

They Cubans drive in luxury.

A Time and travel Warp

12 June 2006
Howdy from Cowboy Country

Today was a weird and wonderful day.
I rode along part of Route 66 which had that feeling of a time warp. Passed lots of very old cowboy towns with their original buildings, wagons/carts and real cowboys too. Added to this time warp was a travel warp which took me over the original London Bridge and then the Eiffel tower.
No! I am not loosing my marbles.

I left the quaint little town of Seligman with it's route 66 memorabilia and rode into a small town called Kingman and stopped at one of my favourite Subway grub stops. Sat down to have brunch and read the postcards next to the table. There was one with a photograph of London Bridge in the USA.
Yes! That is right!
The London Bridge that was built in London in 1824 is now in the USA.
I checked out the location and headed South, way off track, to go and see this bridge. It is at Lake Havasu City in the middle of the desert on the Colorado river. The ORIGINAL London Bridge, spanning across a section of the Lake.
It was bought by McCulloch Oil Company in 1968 and was dismantled in London, each piece numbered, shipped and trucked to Lake Havasu where it was reassembled and completed in Oct of 1971.
If you don’t believe this I can’t say I blame you but I saw it, rode over it, touched it and everything else to confirm that it was real and it is.

There it is. The original 1824 London Bridge

Together with the British flag

At the tourist information they recommended I visit a town on Route 66 called Oatman. It was backtracking from where I had just come from but was a bit further North. I rode there and “blow me over with a feather” there was this very old cowboy town with the original pub, hotel and supplies store with cowboys wearing guns and all. It was like being in a time warp.
They got touchy when one of their local pony’s took a shine to mine and threatened to shoot me if I didn’t leave town soon.

I left in a hurry and continued North and found myself riding passed the Eiffel Tower, Venice, Luxor in Egypt together with a massive glass pyramid and several other world renowned sites. I am in Las Vegas.

It is absolutely amazing and soooo real. They have taken this desert town and turned it into a massive gambling mecca. Each casino is built as some famous part of the world.
I visited various casinos and was gob smacked to see the extent and detail of the buildings. It is super impressive. And all this from gambling? They got NONE of my smackeroos. I am too much of a Potgie.

Ciao
Ricky

Roadkill

This is a bit of a rough menu.

For breakfast, lunch and supper.

Route 66

Grand Canyon

11 June 2006
Seligman
Arizona
US of A

Millions of Harleys riding around and an equal amount of parties to follow. Its really festive and I assume it will slow down after the weekend.
Got to the Grand Canyon today. Boy! Its impressive. I went for a flight in a small four seater Cessna through the canyon for an hour. It was more doing an impression of a ping pong ball than flying. It was very hot and the thermals were booming and bouncing us around.
That was a good and worth while trip. After sneaking into the park through gravel roads with the help of a local it was time to blend in with the visitors and screach "Got to get a shot of this" type of comments like everyone else.
Visit an airforce museum and dicovered a section of the old Route 66 and followed it to Seligman where i am now.

Got to get off the computer. Borrowing one form a local.

Have a good day
Ricky
In The Usa

More weird and wackey signs

So Hitch hikers will have free acommodation?

Weird and Wackey signs along the way

Billy The Kid

10 June 2006
Springerville
Arizona
USA

Man this country is HUGE! I ride the whole day and only make a tiny dent of progress on the map. I am in Springerville in South Eastern Arizona state. It is only two thirds of the way from Houston to Grand canyon and I have been riding my bum numb, for two whole days. Hopefully I will get there tomorrow.

It is sooo cool to ride through the USA. This is doing things in style.
There are stacks of Harley's cruising along and most ride slow so I can follow them. In Buenos Aires we fitted some foot pegs in front of my engine (more as a crash bar than anything else) and I put my feet up on them, lean against my back pack and do my best to look Cool like the Harley riders.

Today I stopped at a small town because I saw some old cowboys sitting on the porch of an old building. Started chatting to them and it turned out to be the town of Lincoln which is famous for the story of Billy the Kid. He was a really cowboy and that is where he "shot the sheriff", escaped being hung and later died there in a shoot out. Great unplanned stop.

Still no luck with photos. Will keep trying

Have a great day
From USA
Ricky

9 June 2006
Carlsbad
New Mexico
USA

All well here and pony running like a stallion across the USA.
I left Corpus Christi and headed up the coast. Bid the Carribean farewell and headed in toward Houston. Spent the evening there visiting friends and left this morning on a major long ride and have made it to a town called Carlsbad in New Mexico. It is blerry hot around here.
Great riding on the perfect roads and it also a lot easier to find my way around. The drivers are generally very good, even getting in and out of the congestion of the Houston traffic was a breeze.
Battling getting access to internet so expect some delays on updates.
The computer that I have smokkeled can't edit photos so those will have to wait too.

I am heading for Grand Canyon and and then to LA and on to San Francisco. I expect to get to LA about the 14th and San Fran about 18th or 19th. That ofcourse is if I do not get way laid along the way.

From here it is 3000km to go so there is still a long slog ahead but its easy riding around here.

Have a good dey!
Ricky

7 June 2006
Corpus Christie
The US of A
Yesss! Yippeee! I am so happpy to be here. Partly because it feels like a big mile stone to have made it so far and partly because I have been stressing that the immigration may give me a hard time for having visited their not so favoured neighbouring country but all went well.

Suddenly all these foreigners who speak English? Hopefully I wont look like a fumbling Mr Bean anymore.

There is a lot of news going on about the illegal border crossing between Mexico and USA. I went to a supposedly quiter border crossing at Reynosa/ McAllen and it was crowded and jamb packed with cars. If that is the amount of legal crossing one can only imagine how huge the problem actually is.

Tomorrow I will ride to Houston and from there move towards the west/northwest.

I am by no means on the home stretch yet. there is still about 3500km to go and add to that a little Grand Canyon to visit along the way. At 100km/hr that will still take a while.

Ciao

Gringo Ricky

Met up with the boys in Monterey

5 June 2006
Monterey
Mecxico

The primary reason for heading to Monterey was to meet up with some flying buddies Martin and I had met when we flew through here.

With Poncho accompaning me for half the distance made the ride feel like a short trip. It was a mere 500km ride.

I found my way to Artuo's house partially by recalling what the area looked like and the rest with a small map Arturo emailed me and the rest was luck.

It did not take much time before I was bundled into the back a a flying gizmo being Arturo's Husky. The wind was blowing more than I was comfortable with but how was I to show my fear? Before long we parted with mother earth and bounced around in turbulence between the mountains with Arturo trying to convince me that it was all fine and that we were not flying in a flimsy trike. I flew for a while and and played around in the air.
Monterey is surrounded by some big mountain cliffs and is an extremely beautiful area. I really appreciated the flight, admittedly more so once we had landed.

The evening ended with a Mexican barbeque with tortillas and a few beers to extinguish the hot spices.

I am stay here for an extra day to catchup with everyone and have the pony serviced.
From here the "plan" is to cross into USA and initially head for Houston.

I am fabricating stresses about what the US immigration may say if they find out about the little detour to the "forbidden country". Tomorrows problem.

Ciao
Ricky

Crossed the Tropic of Cancer

The next day

Poncho rode with me from Zacatecas and along the way we crossed the Tropic of Cancer. From here it become increasingly steep down hill.

4 June 2006

Zacatecas

Mexico

I battled to find my way out of Mexico City in the rain but fortunately it was early on a Sunday morning so the traffic was reasonable. I rode to Zacatecas to meet up with a microlight pilot Francisco (nicknamed "Poncho") who had invited me to visit and stay over. The weather remained bad for most of the 600km ride.

When I got there we did our boy pilot stuff and visited his microlight. An Australian Airborne 912 with the same type of engine as Alan and I used. They are pretty much the best trikes in the world.

The rest of the day was spent walking around the sites of Zacatecas and ended with a pleasant dinner which included his wife and friends. I really enjoy meeting people in this way. One can visit tourist sites and in a way they start to become similar but people are always interesting and different.

Adios

Ricky

Things don't always run smoothly

Well things don't always run smoothly. Poncho (Francisco) got a puncture on his back wheel half way between Zacatecas and Monterey. His back tyre was not in good condition so he opted to ride back to Zacatecas. We bid each other farewell and I continued to Monterey to meet up with Arturo, Estaban and the rest of the flying fraternity.

In Mexico

Pyramid of the moon

3 June 2006
Mexico City
Mexico

Back in good old Mexico City. Went to visit the Pyramid ruins outside the city and am now getting ready to ride out of here tomorrow. Will be heading to Zacatecas about 600km North west of Mexico City.

I am looking forward to getting to USA and getting around with English only. Hopfully will be able to meet up with ultralighting people and do some small presentations on the microlighting expedition to promote the Freedom Flight book while I am there. If you know of any interested groups out there please let me know.
Just received some great news. The book is complete and on the ship from China on its way to Australia and South Africa. It will be on the shelves in the first week of July. Five copies were couriered to South Africa and one copy is on my desk. Damn! It´s going to be a biggg surprise to see it for the first time.

Ciao
Ricky

2 June 2006
Havana
16) Cuba

I have left Cuba with mixed emotions about it.
It was hellish expensive and old Fidel has turned Cuba into a nation of beggars. There is a constant drone of "Amigo, uno Pesos" (= one USD) and every street is lined with propaganda of some sort. Most people will give a limb to get off the island.
Met a young taxi driver who was so excited because he had received a visa to go to Italy and was swore blind he was not coming back.

I travelled by bus to Santa Clara in the South East, to visit Che Guevara’s museum. He is promoted here as a state hero. Some vagueness as to whether or not he was supportive of Fidel turning to the communists, why he left Cuba and if there was some input into him being killed in Bolivia.
Scary looking at the photos of Fidel and Che in the early days and to imagine those hippies/dope head looking guys were taking over the country. No wonder the world panicked.

Also went to Vinalles, then a sea side town called Trinidad and did the tourist things like visiting cigar factories etc.

In general the place has an amazing atmosphere and is great to stroll around the old world, listening to Salsa/Jazz music. The real dangers of walking the streets at night is that a piece of old building might fall on your head.
Met some nice people and time past quickly.

Adios
Ricky

I have met my match

I have met my match.

Meet Joyce from Tronto, Canada.
So far she is beating me to visit every country in the world. Her story is truely inspiring.
Since she retired 12 years ago she has been traveling all over the world and has done almost all of it on her own. The middle East, Africa, East and West Europe, South America. Asia and has challenged me to go with her to Mongolia and North Korea. She is 70 years old, is an incredibly positive person, travels on her own and so far has travelled to over 150 countries. Now how is that?
The world is our oyster when we move beyond our fears.