Escondido, California
Escondido California and check it out, Dan’s neighbors are throwing a party for me, catered, free drinks and all their friends…ok, not really, but it was a fun party that Dan and I sorta crashed. We were known as the wedding crashers all night because it happened to be a wedding reception for Jeff and Shannon who had run off to some island and gotten married and were having a party at Bruce and Anita’s. A beautiful place and they not only had it catered but had a live band that was playing for us late into the night – a perfect way to wind down from a days riding and one that was filled with much…maybe not much riding, but plenty of stories.
The ride from Yuma to the mountains of California was pretty uneventful except for a couple immigration check points and for those of us on bike, they just wave us thru…remember that because that comes into play later. Once in the California mountains and out of the desert heat the temps were great, sometimes downright chilly. There were plenty of warning signs for strong winds and didn’t get a picture of it, but every mile was radiator water for those overheating vehicles, good thing this bike doesn’t have a radiator, oh yea a 10 mile stretch where they suggested turning off the AC to avoid overheating…so, yep, turned off my ACC switch. Once I got off the freeway it was a nice ride thru more of the mountains and a number of small California towns, many with a little café’s so picked one to have a little something to eat…it was ok, but oh well, can’t be to picky now can we?
Saw quite a few bikes going the opposite way, but I was heading for the coast so took a trip around Otay lake into Chula Vista which houses an Olympic training center…just missed the tour, but they showed me the video which was pretty inspiring – now all I have to do is find a sport that I can go to the Olympics for…oh yea, curling. Got directions to head to the US/Mexican border, just so I could say I was there again…remember Mexico a day earlier? Well, ran into Vinnie, border patrol so had to keep his identity hidden, but he told me about the border wall and the No Dig signs. If you notice all the cement patches along the road, those are all tunnels that had caved in and had to be filled in and like he said just over the wall is most of the Mexican gangs that are either dealing drugs or something illegal. Went to the end of the wall to take pictures of where everyone was walking in and was going to consider that good enough, but Vinnie said it’d be easy riding my bike into Mexico and just turning around and coming right back out…right, easy. Well once I got into Mexico of course it wasn’t that easy finding the road that went back out, remember this is Mexico and I’m just a Midwesterner that doesn’t know these roads. Eventually found some Mexicans that spoke English and told me where to turn so was finally headed in the right direction until I came upon some cops on motorcycles and asked if the lane I was in was the right one…’Si’ and for what little Mexican I know, that’s ‘Yes’, right? well that lane took me downtown again. Ok, same turns and back to the same cops and this time asked if I should stay in the far left lane…once again ‘Si’, but hell this time it took me south on Hwy 5, not toward San Diego…oh yea, and the other thing I’m running short on fuel. Ok found another Mexican that spoke English and finally back where I came from and in the lane I should be in and the vehicles aren’t moving getting into the US and remember, I’m running low on fuel. Anyway, some guy gets out of his vehicle and asks if this is my first time and yep, on the bike into Mexico it is, well he told me I can just work my way between vehicles cuz they normally don’t stop bikes and as long as the cars move, they’ll let me thru. Well, finally started doing that and the only other thing I had to watch for was the Mexican vendor’s setup between vehicles trying to sell something. Finally, after who knows how many hours stuck in Mexico I’m heading toward the border officer, well, I thought for sure she had just waived me thru, remember the waive earlier, but once she yelled for me to stop and come back…I got a scolding – can’t just go over the border without showing my id or passport. Ok, for that stupid move by me, she wrote me up and sent me to secondary inspection where you got it, I had to tear most of my packed bike apart to show them I wasn’t transporting anything back from Mexico, hell where’s an illegal going to fit on my bike…ok, I know what they were checking for. I told the officer at the secondary check what had happened and he said if I wouldn’t have stopped they would’ve arrested me and then I’d be in deep caca. Finally in the US and had to find a gas station quick.
Happy to be back and on my way to the ocean and Coronado island….yep, same island I stayed on when was in town for the Packer/Bronco’s Super bowl, which wasn’t a win for the Pack, but oh well, the island hadn’t changed much. Check it out, finally coast to coast from the Atlantic Ocean on the East, the Gulf of Mexico to here, the Pacific Ocean. Did have another incident there though, got around a nice Lexus and into the right lane, in front of them and eventually had to hit the brakes hard because the vehicles ahead of us stopping, well, they took the hit for me from a Jeep that wasn’t paying attention – hell that could’ve been me. Well they jumped out of the vehicle and ran around to make sure their kid in the back was ok and everything was fine and they told me there was no reason to stick around…ok, enough for the day, let’s just get to Dan ‘s. Well, not exactly straight to Dan’s cuz the road I was suppose to take connected south of where I was than North…ok, after a few other turns finally made it and wouldn’t you know it, the neighbors are having a party and we haven’t been invited...time to crash the party. Tomorrow let’s see a little more of California. Border patrol pics.
The ride from Yuma to the mountains of California was pretty uneventful except for a couple immigration check points and for those of us on bike, they just wave us thru…remember that because that comes into play later. Once in the California mountains and out of the desert heat the temps were great, sometimes downright chilly. There were plenty of warning signs for strong winds and didn’t get a picture of it, but every mile was radiator water for those overheating vehicles, good thing this bike doesn’t have a radiator, oh yea a 10 mile stretch where they suggested turning off the AC to avoid overheating…so, yep, turned off my ACC switch. Once I got off the freeway it was a nice ride thru more of the mountains and a number of small California towns, many with a little café’s so picked one to have a little something to eat…it was ok, but oh well, can’t be to picky now can we?
Saw quite a few bikes going the opposite way, but I was heading for the coast so took a trip around Otay lake into Chula Vista which houses an Olympic training center…just missed the tour, but they showed me the video which was pretty inspiring – now all I have to do is find a sport that I can go to the Olympics for…oh yea, curling. Got directions to head to the US/Mexican border, just so I could say I was there again…remember Mexico a day earlier? Well, ran into Vinnie, border patrol so had to keep his identity hidden, but he told me about the border wall and the No Dig signs. If you notice all the cement patches along the road, those are all tunnels that had caved in and had to be filled in and like he said just over the wall is most of the Mexican gangs that are either dealing drugs or something illegal. Went to the end of the wall to take pictures of where everyone was walking in and was going to consider that good enough, but Vinnie said it’d be easy riding my bike into Mexico and just turning around and coming right back out…right, easy. Well once I got into Mexico of course it wasn’t that easy finding the road that went back out, remember this is Mexico and I’m just a Midwesterner that doesn’t know these roads. Eventually found some Mexicans that spoke English and told me where to turn so was finally headed in the right direction until I came upon some cops on motorcycles and asked if the lane I was in was the right one…’Si’ and for what little Mexican I know, that’s ‘Yes’, right? well that lane took me downtown again. Ok, same turns and back to the same cops and this time asked if I should stay in the far left lane…once again ‘Si’, but hell this time it took me south on Hwy 5, not toward San Diego…oh yea, and the other thing I’m running short on fuel. Ok found another Mexican that spoke English and finally back where I came from and in the lane I should be in and the vehicles aren’t moving getting into the US and remember, I’m running low on fuel. Anyway, some guy gets out of his vehicle and asks if this is my first time and yep, on the bike into Mexico it is, well he told me I can just work my way between vehicles cuz they normally don’t stop bikes and as long as the cars move, they’ll let me thru. Well, finally started doing that and the only other thing I had to watch for was the Mexican vendor’s setup between vehicles trying to sell something. Finally, after who knows how many hours stuck in Mexico I’m heading toward the border officer, well, I thought for sure she had just waived me thru, remember the waive earlier, but once she yelled for me to stop and come back…I got a scolding – can’t just go over the border without showing my id or passport. Ok, for that stupid move by me, she wrote me up and sent me to secondary inspection where you got it, I had to tear most of my packed bike apart to show them I wasn’t transporting anything back from Mexico, hell where’s an illegal going to fit on my bike…ok, I know what they were checking for. I told the officer at the secondary check what had happened and he said if I wouldn’t have stopped they would’ve arrested me and then I’d be in deep caca. Finally in the US and had to find a gas station quick.
Happy to be back and on my way to the ocean and Coronado island….yep, same island I stayed on when was in town for the Packer/Bronco’s Super bowl, which wasn’t a win for the Pack, but oh well, the island hadn’t changed much. Check it out, finally coast to coast from the Atlantic Ocean on the East, the Gulf of Mexico to here, the Pacific Ocean. Did have another incident there though, got around a nice Lexus and into the right lane, in front of them and eventually had to hit the brakes hard because the vehicles ahead of us stopping, well, they took the hit for me from a Jeep that wasn’t paying attention – hell that could’ve been me. Well they jumped out of the vehicle and ran around to make sure their kid in the back was ok and everything was fine and they told me there was no reason to stick around…ok, enough for the day, let’s just get to Dan ‘s. Well, not exactly straight to Dan’s cuz the road I was suppose to take connected south of where I was than North…ok, after a few other turns finally made it and wouldn’t you know it, the neighbors are having a party and we haven’t been invited...time to crash the party. Tomorrow let’s see a little more of California. Border patrol pics.
posted by Dalej Webb at 9:49 PM
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