I’m in Del Rio, TX, right on the Mexican border. I drove here on Tuesday, straight from Katy (just outside of Houston). My time in Katy (where Stephen and Caro Burns and their sons Dan and Pixie live) was pretty productive, thanks to their help. I ran a heap of errands, got a bad haircut, did a bunch of work on the bike and ate lots of food. I set off again on Tuesday, heading west. I was happy to stay off the freeway the whole way here, although it wasn’t a very exciting road. Add to that a touch of the flu and steady rain all day and it turned into a pretty crappy trip.
The bike feels very different now…not sure why. I added an engine/crash bar and a center stand, as well as highway pegs, so there’s some extra weight. I also added a higher windscreen. Then I added a jury-rigged tool box to the front, under engine (PVC pipe, plugs and hose clamps, painted it all black) and tied my new tire onto the top of my bags at the back (my current rear tire still has a few more km in it…bald down the middle, but I’ll get another 1000 out of it I hope). I also played with the dampening on my suspension, tightened it off a wee bit (did too much at first, so had to back it off again). The bike feels heavier, more sluggish than before. Or maybe it was just my mood. I’ll have to play around with the suspension some more, or dump some weight. I may also have to move the tool box a bit, as the tire hit it when I bottomed out in a rut in some dodgy fried chicken restaurant parking lot. (Why is all the food fried here? I would kill for some good Chinese food, or even a salad.)
I was hoping to camp in a nearby park, but it was raining when I arrived so I opted for a cheap room instead. I fell asleep in my riding gear and woke up 4 hours later, feverish. A good night of sleep helped. Woke up this morning to more rain, so I’ve opted to stay here for a day and do some work for a client in HK. Gotta pay for the petrol somehow, cause God knows that writing books doesn’t pay the bills!
I’m hoping to set off early Thursday morning and spend the next night in Presido, TS, and then cross into Mexico on Friday morning.
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