Todt and I were starving, hot, dirty, and tired. He went in to negotiate for our rooms, I stayed with the bikes, and shot a short video. The wind was howling, so the sound didn't come out. Too bad, I really wanted to use it here.
Since we didn't have reservations, this felt a little precarious, but I noticed a family loading up to leave, and knew we would get at least one room. Just then Todt appeared ta-daa, two rooms with two beds for two nights, hooray! $80 US per night, per room.
We unloaded the bikes, took our stuff into our fly blown room, sans air conditioning. Quickly changed into our swimsuits, and leaped into the Sea of Cortez. It was like bath water, warm and crystal clear.
Feeling much refreshed, I returned to the room, rinsed of the salt, donned my tourist gear, and met Todt at the dining porch. We had beer, fish tacos, chips, salsa, and more beer.
After eating, we moved to the porch in front of our room, where I shot this video. Better sound this time.
We kicked back with Todt's two way aircraft radio on, and waited to hear from Sunny and Bill.
About an hour later, I awoke to Todt saying, "they're here!" So I jumped up, much to the dismay of the flies, and we ran out to the runway.
Sunny flew over, gear down, to test the wind and approach angle. It was blowing at 12 knots (14mph) from the right, and his plane was "crabbing". Being the only member of the party who isn't a pilot, it looked damned impossible to me.
But he circled around, and this is how it went...
Now that we were all here, it was time to party. First I had to hydrate, Sunny gave me a half frozen bottle of water, and Bill gave me a big bottle of room temp water. If I could have spared the moisture, I would have cried.
We took another dip in the sea, chased some crabs around, and watched schools of fish jumping out of the water to avoid being eaten by something.
Now it was time for dinner, I don't remember what we all had, but I remember it was delicious, and beer was involved. We met a couple of dogs in the restaurant, they were very sweet, and loved all the attention they were getting.
Whiskers
Matty
Bill, and Sunny had brought a case of ice cold beer with them, good idea.
We sat on the beach and watched the stars come out. It was breathtaking, no light pollution = super bright stars.
Bill is quite the astronomer, and was giving a great tour of the light show God had put on for us.
(He might argue it was just a happy accident. He's a nice guy, and very very smart. But, we all come to our own understanding of how the universe works. For me, it's all intelligent design, free will, and the love of my Lord and Savior. There is plenty of room in my religion for science, and vice versa. Okay, I'll stop thumping my Bible now.)
The only hamper to perfection was the three Mexican guys a few rooms down from ours. They were friendly enough, and just enjoying the resort like us. But, they insisted on having their porch light on. Bill said he wished they would turn it off so we could see the night sky better. I told him, "fat chance, they haven't even started the music yet." This caused a bit of laughter, pretty soon we were all telling jokes, and laughing our fool heads off.
We settled down just as they turned of the porch light, and yes, it was even better. Bill pointed out a faint light that I had never seen before, he told us it was a galaxy, like ours, that was on a collision course with us. Of course, this is millions of years away, but I just love how those sort of things make you feel so small, and life is so short. It lights the fire to experience all I can, in the time I'm given.
There was a bit of disagreement about how far down the beach Sunny had landed. So we grabbed our flashlights and fresh beers, and walked the runway looking for clues. In the end we came to the conclusion that we weren't going to find the tracks that night and staggered off to bed.
There was only one light in our room, in the center of the ceiling. Not wanting to disturb my roommate, I put on my lighted reading glasses to read a little before I fell asleep. This caused a whole new round of laughter, and Todt had to get a pic of my super secret spy specs.
Day 4: 105 miles
We woke up early, and watched the sunrise, waiting for coffee to be served at 6am then breakfast at 7am.
I had one cup of coffee, and decided to switch to Pepsi. As we waited for our breakfast to be served, we started reading the stickers that were all over the windows of the outdoor dining area.
As our breakfast arrived, the owner, the cook, and the security guard, surrounded our table. I was thinking, "Y'all better go round up some more guys, or this will go badly for you... we'll wait."
The owner told us that he had made a mistake, and there wasn't going to be any rooms available for us tonight.
We looked at each other accusingly, what did we ever do? It's not like we had Sunny put on a turban, and take a back pack into the restaurant, to clear a spot for us... Or drag race our motorcycles on the runway... Did we? I don't think so, but alcohol may have been involved in our decision making.
So, after much discussion, we decided to beat feet for San Felipe. It would be a 4-5 hour journey for Todt and I, and about an hour long flight for Bill and Sunny. They would find a hotel and take a cab from the airport. We would ride to the airport, find out where they were, and meet them there.
That settled, we loaded up again, happy at the prospect of spending the day riding, as well as checking out San Felipe a bit better. Todt took our money in to pay the bill, upon seeing a wad of US dollars, the owner said something just came available, and he could now accommodate us. Todt came out of the office to let us know, we all agreed we should tell him to perform a lewd act on himself.
Walking out to mount the bikes, I told Sunny that he had to pay our bill too, he laughed and said he'd put it on the credit card. We told them we would see them in San Felipe.
We mounted up, and rode off. This time I set my suspension correctly, and turned off the ABS, what a difference.
We made it nearly 5 miles, when we hit the first military check point. Thanks to our previous three experiences, we knew we had nothing to worry about. The kid checking me out didn't speak English, and seemed frustrated by my poor Spanish. He looked through my bags like he was sure he would find something. Then he made me empty my pockets. He got pretty excited when he saw my Leatherman case, and equally disappointed when all he found in it was a Leatherman. Still certain I was the one that would elevate his career, he pressed on. Now he was onto the coin purse Julie bought on our last trip to Mexico.
"Qué hay en esto?" He asked
I unzipped it, and showed him.
"Pesos" I said, as flatly as I could. (I don't deal well with unwarranted accusations, even from children with automatic weapons.)
Then he snatched my pipe.
"Qué es?"
"La pipa, para tobaco!" I handed him my tobacco pouch, to prove it to him.
He pulled one sliver of a leaf out, sniffed it, and growled "Mota!"
I said, "No, tobacco!"
About then Todt, who had been enjoying a nice conversation in English with his soldier, noticed things were escalating to a bad point. He whipped out his badge, and said, "Policia, I am Policia, no druggas, mi amigo, no druggas!"
His guy came over, took the tobacco pouch, smelled it and said, "tobacco".
Then my guy looked at me, an asked, "No mota?"
"No!"
He handed back my pipe and pouch, and I started to reload my pockets, when he spotted my pill case.
Now, I have a variety of ailments, not the least of which is a seriously jacked up back. So I carry a selection of both over the counter and prescription drugs on me at all times. Something for allergies, bee sting, acid reflux, chest pain, insomnia, asthma, and some pretty heavy narcotics for severe back pain.
He opens it up, looks at all the different pills, then at me. I say, "para alergias".
He says, "alergias?" and pretends a sneeze.
I say, "si".
He hands it back to me and says, "okay".
I dig a cigar out of my top box, clench it between my teeth, light it, get on my bike, and leave.
Picking my way through the gnarly trail they call a road here, I'm feeling much more confident about my skill. Todt catches up to me and as I think I'm about to get a compliment on my riding, he laughs, "Dude, you totally just got raped!" Thanks buddy.
When we finally hit the pavement, I pull over to reset my suspension, and tell Todt, "I'm getting violated by a 12 year old with an automatic weapon, and I can't even enjoy it, cause you're distracting me by rolling around on the ground laughing!"
Heading into the mountain, the road was still strewn with rocks, and the wind was extra challenging. This time, it was blowing us clear across the lane. There was some traffic along the way, driving at less than half the posted speed. Normally passing a car, especially a slow one, is a simple twist of the wrist. Today, it was crazy, hanging on for the ride, and hoping for the best.
We were so busy trying to ride, we didn't even notice Sunny and Bill dropping down over us for a fly by. Later, they told us that when they got down low, the wind scared the crap out of them, and they pulled up asap.
The dips in the road weren't quite as violent this time, we rode all of them standing, and a little slower. And the sand had blown over the fresh oil on the road to the airport, making it a more friendly ride.
We pulled into the airport parking lot, and were surprised to see Bill and Sunny walking out of the door. We followed their cab to our new resort. On the way, Todt almost got stuck in a sand drift near the side of the road. We pulled into the parking lot of Hotel El Cortez. So stoked!
