Dispatch from Chiapas Day 7

“The truth is always in the middle!”

Never a dull moment when riding in Mexico. This morning at 0630 Bryan and I are in the parking lot, greeting the morning and doing our best from getting bitten by all the flying mosquitoes.

The riders are all loading and packing up for the days ride ahead. We have a short day ahead so we can tour the Majico town of Santa Clara, Chiapas. I ask Bryan for some ride dirt stories about his ride team Bravo.

Let me back up a little, just in case you’ve missed the last six days of ride dispatch stories. Team Alpha consists of Joey, Todd and Ralph. Team Bravo consists of Tracy, Bryan, Dale and Bob. And then there’s team Charlie. More on them tomorrow.

Bryan tells me there’s no drama in team Bravo. He may be right! Now I ask you what is drama? Is it Team Alpha stopping at some tires burning on the side of the highway; and me setting up some wooden blocks for a ramp, so that those two hooligans that I am riding with, can jump said ramp with their motorcycle, for the sake of a good picture? Or is it drama when Todd encourages Joey to do some wreck less hooliganism style behavior such as trying to wheelie over the open flames?

Yes, I totally agree with you that, that’s shit real holy shit drama. Drama as in almost every motorcycle rider we know will say take my money Yoda Roberto or GPSKevin I want to tap in now!

And as always there’s also the rest of the story and that is that Joeys rear wheel caught fire but, only ever so slightly, and then Todd picks up a nail on his rear tire on account of one of those boards that I laid across as a jump ramp. Oops! Now that’s real ahh shit drama. That’s why we ride our ride! There’s motorcycle riding tours and then there’s US! This is the ultimate way to go when you don’t feel like signing up for a ride to play follow the leader. Different strokes for different folks. In the GpsKevin model we have tracks we follow. And then eventually you click with someone that rides the way that you do; and are really good at it. It all grows from there.

And now as you read this motorcycle ride story you wonder is this guy a writer or a storyteller? A writer, by definition is: “a person who uses written words in various styles and techniques to communicate ideas.” A storyteller, on the other hand, is someone who conveys events in words, images, or sounds. Storytellers of the past used to fling their own feces at cave walls and smear it about with a dull stick until it feels right.

In my defense I like finding the obscure, the weird, the funny, and — and on days like this — I just watch the movie going by that we’re now on and report to you about it.

Like for example this morning’s fog was so thick that were that cow in the middle of the road now; one of us would’ve likely had roadkill for lunch. No one got seriously hurt, killed or maimed so why now report on it. In other words it wasn’t funny.

Am I now embellishing the fire jumping story, maybe just a bit for the sake of making a significant emotional event memorable memories for us? You decide. All I know is that I’ve bonded considerably enough with these guys over the last few days that now I’m even willing to take a bullet for them.

I have so much more that happened today like taking a road detour that took us through a river crossing. And then the traffic was all confused cause no one knew where to go to get back on. This stuff would take way more time to explain than I’m willing to do except that Brian told me that when he passed by he hit an orange road barrier that spun and spun around and into incoming traffic. And what did all the Mexicans do? They all stopped and laughed. That’s why we like it here. Why get so serious about life when we’re all gonna end up at the same place in the very end anyway.

We have now for the sake of argument now moved onto the third and final stages of long distance riding, according to me. This is the stage where our bodies have now overcome any and all gnawing discomfort, the tiredness, the stomach flu or other unknown ailments have now all disappeared.

We have now abandoned any concerns over the bike’s reliability, and our sights are firmly set on the days destination. One thing about Mexican roads, like all their foods is that they’re not boring. Today we ate hanging sausages, some other stuff that I can’t pronounce and drank cowboy coffee.

When you ride with Todd or Joey you will know that the miles will fly by. Everything and everyone is now in harmony. We have reached a ‘zone’. Thank you Roberto. You are the missing salsa for making this a most memorable ride!

End