Getting Ready For the Big Trip

First, let me introduce Alex Marentes.  Alex just started motorcycling within the last year, but has become interested in motorcycle touring, and wanted to take this trip into Mexico.  He is an Albuquerque city policeman, and speaks fluent Spanish, so both are real advantages.  His command of Spanish will help my "reasonable" Spanish knowledge that I have been improving through "Conversational Spanish" classes at University of New Mexico extension classes.  

Alex has been into Mexico on a trip several years ago, but not on a motorcycle.  I went into Mexico last year, with a motorcycle tour group, but this is the first time on my own.  So this 5,000-mile trip, much further into Mexico, will be quite an experience for both Alex and I.

To go into Mexico for a 2-week motorcycle road trip posed some interesting challenges, besides the task of planning where we wanted to go.

First, we wanted to be sure the motorcycles were reliable, and wouldn't break down in Mexico. We are riding the ultra-reliable Honda Gold Wing motorcycles, but who knows what service facilities are available if we should have a breakdown?  In our "Gold Wing Road Riders Association" reference of 70,000 Gold Wing riders in the USA, Canada, Mexico, and 50+ other countries, there is ONE Gold Winger listed in all of Mexico.

Deane is riding his 2001 Gold Wing this time, and has been to Labrador and back with it (in 2001), with no problems, so that bike should be no problem.  I just changed the oil, had a new front tire put on, and had the bike thoroughly checked over.

 Alex is a relatively new rider, having bought his 1990 Gold Wing about 9 months ago, as his first motorcycle ever - quite a challenge to start with a motorcycle as large as a Gold Wing.  But Alex was determined to get up to the level of riding that could sustain him for a two-week 5,000 mile trip.  So he and Deane have been riding progressively longer rides to bring him to that level.  Also, since his Gold Wing is several years older, he had it thoroughly checked out at a good motorcycle shop, had it tuned up, changed oil and fluids, put on a new tire, new coolant hoses, and anything else that needed to be done.

Then, we had to get Mexico motorcycle insurance.  The obvious thing is to have Liability and Property Damage insurance, but in Mexico one may need a lawyer to keep oneself out of jail in the event of an accident.  So, the insurance covers that.  To get Collision insurance, the only available deductible is $5,000, so that is a consideration.  There is only one insurance company offering motorcycle insurance for Mexico, so that was an easy choice.

Another task that was bigger than I thought it would be, was making hotel/motel reservations in Mexico.  This got complicated, so I wrote up a separate description - you will find it on the following page, under the title of "Making Reservations".

An interesting question came up as to whether we could get Cell Phone coverage in Mexico.  Yes, with Verizon, which both Alex and I have, they have affiliates that cover most of the cities we'll visit and routes we will take.  They will program our connections to look like we are in the USA as far as the Cell Phone goes.

Another question was whether I could get into the Internet, with my laptop PC, via AOL.  The answer is that AOL has "local" numbers for me to reach in all but one town we are to stay in - very interesting.

Anyway, we are Ready to Go!!

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