Santa Anna Mexico

Day 1
Today was great!
The drive down to Spokane was uneventful and nowhere near as crappy as my drive down last year. We had good weather and had a nice brunch and dropped off Dexter at the doggy daycare at 11:00 and arrived in Spokane around 3:30. There's a nice restaurant in the hotel so we stayed in, had an early dinner and and made it an early night.

The flight to Phoenix was fine - arrived on time with no issues - and all our luggage etc made it too. Sorry, no wild story's to relate, just the way it should be. Dad and Carol picked us up at the airport and we went out for a very nice lunch on the way to their place. I spent the afternoon getting our gear sorted out out and last night we all went out for dinner with Mick and Sharon and Bonnie and Ward. A good time was had by all.
This morning we got off to a late start but it's not unexpected. It always takes a while to get into the groove and we took a while to get everything loaded etc etc, plus it doesn't get light here until close to 7:30. But, sharply at the crack of 7:45ish we rolled out the gate. It was a bit of a wobbly start though, and I'm guessing the bon voyage group were wondering what the hell? In my defense, I haven't ridden in over three months and the bike weighs a ton! After a few miles though, things started to fall into place and we headed south! We went south to Florence and then did a dogleg west to I10 so we could pick up the interstate before going through Tuscon, that way we avoided city traffic by staying on the freeway right through the city. We stopped a couple of times for coffee/gas/breaks etc and finally made it to Nogales. But.....between Tuscon and Nogales the wind REALLY picked up. From the side at first and then head-on. It made the trip after that really fatiguing. We crossed the border without incident but it still took an hour. Actually, it only took 10 minutes but I had to stand in line for 45 minutes before I could get to the window to pay for my visa.

Nogales on the Mexican side is a HUGE shock to the senses, and REALLY different than the US side. Hard to believe they're only across an invisible line from each other. Diesel fumes, sewer gas, roast chicken and all the rest that we've come to love - but.....it's definitly not for everyone.

From Nogales south, the road is fantastic. 21 klm down the road you hit the road-side check point where you get your Visa etc, and we stopped at a small VERY Mexican road-side cafe to join the locals for some hot soup and quesadilla's. Did I mention it's cold? It was really cold first thing but as the day wore on it warmed up to just cool but still not warm enough to shed very many layers. We're wearing long-johns, vests, our mesh gear and rain gear to cut the wind. In another day or too it should be in the high 20's so we'll be shedding a lot of layers the further south we get.

We arrived in Santa Anna around 3:30, which is approx 400klm today. We stopped for gas, which took us to 3:45 and we decided to call it a day. It's another hour and a half to Hermosillo, where we hoped to stop but the wind didn't let up all afternoon and we're beat. Plus, we don't want to push it too much on Rosi's first day. She's done GREAT by the way. A great co-pilot!

So, we're in Santa Anna. We're going to go out for a nice dinner in a little bit and hope to get an early start tomorrow. We need to put on at least 500klm tomorrow if we're going to make it to Mazatlan in just three days.