Run for the Boarder

Well, after the new tires were fitted and my trigger finger was all tired out, I headed off South toward "Copper Canyon" in Mexico. I was presently still in Arizona, and I got lost in the reworking of a highway in the city of Tuscon and didn't get to where I had planned for that night. So I just set up camp near the boarder at a highway junction and tried to stay out of sight. I was however discovered at about 9pm by a boarder patrol officer who seemed a little anxious until it became clear that I was a harmless (and defenceless) Canadian. He gave me the big "talking to" about how dangerous it was and that there was no way he would camp where I was but that it was a free country and I could if I wanted ...
I decided to stay where I was and apparently against all odds I made it through the night with no further interruptions or visits from "Bad People" - I dont think its actually that surprising that police officers in any country seem to think the world is full of bad people given that that is the type of people they end up having to interact with a lot of the time.

Next morning, I packed up and headed South again via Tombstone. This town seems to have been making a very nice little living off the exploits of the Erp family some hundred years ago (Wyat Erp and the Gunfight at the OK Coral legendsof the old West!). The whole town is "the Old West" and everyone is in costume and they have daily gunfights etc. And when I say the whole town it must be a square of 4-5 blocks in each direction that is completely "in character". Anyway, they were getting ready for a really big shindig with hordes of tourists expected ... so I "got the hell out of Dodge" so to speak and "made a run for the boarder"!

The boarder was relatively easy to cross with the bike and it only took an hour or so to get things done (tourist permit and Bike insurance) but I realized that my Spanish was very rusty. On first contact with the locals I was getting only about 15% of the words! - Guess Ill get better with time. So I rode on into Mexico and figured out how to use the bank machines (again a little tricky in Spanish). I also figured out that Id be paying cash for fuel at the smaller towns, and that Burritos are good for lunch since there are little stalls all over the place that sell them. Then it started to get late so I decided to stop in a town and get a cheap hotel for the night - my first since the rainy day back in Golden a month ago.

The hotel was only about $15 for the night so that was good. It was a Saturday night and I wandered around town and watched all the local farm workers and young men cruising up and down the main road in their trucks and cars and the local girls dressed up and either driving their own cars or walking along the side walks - Its a dance that I'm sure is played out in country towns all over the world every Saturday night - fun to watch :)

Sunday morning was very relaxed and I sat in the town square and watched the town slowly coming to life (I was actually waiting for an Internet cafe to open) It sounds more interesting than it actually was and at 12:30pm I decided these Mexicans could easily take another 3-4 hours to get themselves going and I would do the Internet thing later, - So I hit the road again.
On to the next attraction...