Happy New Year from Manzanillo

So after going to the restroom for 2 days straight I'm think I'm out of the woods. Dane and I are shoving off on Jan 2. Happy New Years everyone. Be safe. Have a great night

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What's in my Ipod

What's in my iPod?

Well there are many things that I do to pass the hours on the bike. The first part of the ride I mostly pray and think about life. This is my time to connect with God and try and stay at peace in relationship to Him. I have no idea how long I do this. I just pray until my mind is empty. My heart is full and my life feels right. Then I enjoy listening to several different things. I have 17 full concerts from NPR'S all songs considered podcast. It is great being able to listen to a whole show live insted of just 1 track. I listen to the harvard business review "ideacast". I download like a dozen at a time and fly through those. I have Henry David Thoreau books "walking" "a fishers boy" "walden" and "the discourse on civil disobedience" that are great. These come from my app called free audiobooks on my iPhone. It costs $1.99 and you get 2947 audiobooks. A pretty great deal. I stop and take pictures and shoot video and pull over wherever I want and enjoy the scenery. I also collect thoughts for my blog I write each day. I also have a couple hundred songs in my iTunes.

So between praying, concerts, audiobooks, taking pictures, shooting video, enjoying the scenery, and collecting blog thoughts I easily fill a 4-5 hour bike ride.

At night I sometimes watch Avatar. I have the whole movie on my iPhone. I've considered lately buying the first season of the office because I think that show is hilarious.

Here are some pictures from our Hotel here in Manzanillo that we are at with Danes Parents.










And for the first time on this trip I have gotten a bit of Montezumas Revenge.

So I'm laying low today here in Manzanillo. First on my agenda is feeling better so I'll keep you posted. Hope your all great.

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92 miles to Manzanillo DONE

Well today I got a bright and early start. I met some guy in town with a sister who owned a house i rented for the night for $24. Yep $24. I heart Mexico. It was furnished. Microwave. You know I got my behind kicked when I break down and rent or pay for lodging.



Thanks to my thrifty mother and some hard lessons in life I find it increasingly difficult to part with even a dollar of my money but I was mangled from the 78 mile thrashing of yesterday. When I figure out how to get the topographical data of the Mexico 200 highway I will pass it on to you. I'm dyin to know. The numbers never lie. I'm either still a complete kook on a bike or yesterday indeed had epic numbers. But on to today.

Today I had been told it was flat.

WRONG. Another big fat serving of sufferin on tap. 70 miles of power climbing that culminated before Mulaque with a Beast of a climb that took me 45 minutes. I was out of water but I stopped at the summit before the descent and LOL at this sign someone before me had written on.


I had definitely had these exact thoughts.

Amazingly the last 25 miles were fine. Manzanillo is like the 97th amazing place I've been since I left Ohio. You sort of get numb to all the ridiculous things you see everyday. Like these trees making a cavern for me to ride through a I go up the mountain.



Today I saw a dead iguana as rode kill. THATS when you know your trip has gone tropical dude-when you start seeing iguanas dead in the street INSTED of dogs.

I rolled into Manzanillo feeling great. 92 miles done.

BUT the last 2 miles to the hotel were a joke. 10-12% grade with large cobbles to ride up. I was getting strange looks from everyone and NOT because I look like a power ranger. It was the type of look people were wondering what the heck I was doing riding up it. Let me be clear. I have gotten a ride in a car 5 times on this trip since leaving Ohio because of mechanical issues and 2x because it was so foggy I didn't want to die BUT I have NEVER quit going up a hill EVER. I would rather die than be a quitter. I never quit. I'm as stubborn as my father and I'm proud of it. Quitting is for posers and I have never been one surfing and don't plan on being one as a cyclist. A man has to have SOME pride in this life and I have learned that I can be as PROUD as I want to when I ride. That's the proper place for it. In the last 2 days I have had my honor tried BIG time. I have cursed roads and today I had a 10 minute conversation with the last climb. I kept saying out loud to the road-you will not break me. You will not break me. You will not break me. When i get to the top of you I'm going to urinate on you. And I did. I took a picture of the sign and urinated all over that cursed piece of asphalt.

So I finally finished and the guy at the security gate asked me where I road from and I told him Ohio. He just shook his head. It's getting fun now tell people where I started because it's so ridiculous. He let me in. I found Dane and his parents. Life is good. Right now I'm geeking out in a Starbucks in Manzanillo. After 170 HARD miles I'm taking tomorrow off and I'm gonna rent sea doos with Dane do laundry and have a beer. What the heck. Hope your all doing great and thanks for reading today.


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78 miles of HURT

Today's ride has had it all. I climbed over 5000ft in the first 18 miles. Then I descended for a while. The road has been everything today. Perfectly paved to not paved at all with dirt and gravel everywhere with massive potholes. The climb I did this morning lasted from 8am to 10am. VERY tough.



I'm sitting down for lunch at the moment. I have ridden about 45 miles and my legs HURT!

The terrain however has been breathtaking. I started the day staring at palm trees and at the top of the climb out of Puerto Vallarta at 5000ft there were pine trees. Palms and pines in the same ride. That's never happened to me before.



Time seems to stand still here. There has been very little traffic today. No one is in a hurry and everybody has been waving to me as I ride by today. Midway through my ride I crossed from the state of Jalisco to Tomatlan. Each time I cross another state border things seem to get a little more relaxed which is had to imagine because everybody seems SO chill already.



This lunch is so good. I'm starving and they brought an enormous portion to me. This all costs 45 pesos. Which is about $4. It's worth every penny.



Well I finished my ride to Jose Morellos. Suffice to say I am in the HURT locker from that little 78 mile jaunt today.

I'm going to eat and go to bed soon.

I got no blogging skills tonight. I got nothin. I'm out.


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Jeanine Josh and Haley I will miss you guys

Enjoying my last evening with Josh, Haley, and Jeanine. Gonna miss you guys!!! This is a pic of Josh and haley in the condo we have all been staying in.









This is a pic of the meal Haley made Lastnight. I gorged myself. Sooooo good.









After 3 days off I have 77 miles today and 92 on tomorrow I'll be riding solo as Dane has met up with his parents and they are in Manzanillo. I will be meeting them Tuesday night after my 92 mile ride.

Josh Haley and Jeanine ALL my best to you. So glad our paths crossed.

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Hey Quinn! This video is for you.
Love Dad

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Christmas Eve in Mazatlan

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How did I end up on a yacht after riding 60 miles on Dec 23

Today was the 8th day of riding in a row and we had 60 miles to do and I was pretty tired but I slept GREAT.



We got it goin about 7:30am and the first 40 miles were climbing and my legs were thrashed. The last 20 miles were all power climbs and we had a pretty GNARLY headwind. It started to get really bad so I got angry and turned on the after burners. The last 20km I gave it 100%. I left I all o. The road as I headed j to La Paz. I was thinking how I only had a few miles left til me riding in Baja was over. My legs hurt like crazy but I flew into La Paz right at noon. 60 miles in 4.5 hours but we had over 3000ft of climbing again today. I did not k ow that in Baja I would rather over 1000 miles and climb over 20,000 vertical feet. So much for my dream of it being flat enjoyable Riding by the ocean. Dane, Jeanine, and I were supposed to meet at the El Cardon trailer park at kilometer 4 and get cleaned up, go on the Internet, and do our laundry. To bad the place had closed down and didnt exist anymore. Well it turns out meanings travel book gave us bogus intel so I just kept rolling into town until I saw a papas and beer o. The beach with blue water and sailboats. It was weird. After riding through so much barren dessert La Paz is just prestine and truly tranquilo as the locals call it. As I was taking a picture I asked as employee if he knew of somewhere I could take a shower and he pointed Kentucky marina across the way.



So is strolled over to the marina office and was getting the run around and aady overheard the whole thing I told me I was her new guest. She took me over to the marble ted bathrooms and let me in and asked mr to cone have a beer with her and her husband when I was done getting cleaned up. So I got cleaned up and headed over to their boat slip. You know- the 80 ft one with the biggest sailboat I ve ever seen.


It had everything it had blah blah blah blah you get the point. They made me margaritas. They brought me a beer. We became BFF's. I looked at the Sea of Cortez and it seemed like a fitting end to Baja. Of course I should end up randomnly on an 80ft yacht sipping a margarita and staring at the sea and pontificating about my wonderful existence. Why the heck not.

I called Quinn and checked my email and Jeanine had read my tweet about papas and beer and we there. I went and got her and her, myself, Kim, and mike from the yacht went and got dinner at a dope mexican place. Kim and mike insisted on buying us dinner THEN they gave us a ride to the ferry in Pichilingue. AGAIN my luck in totally nuts. Stoked. Stoked isn't an adequate word so how about flippingtastic. Yep is it flippingtastic.

So we met Dane at the ferry.


He ended up riding there. We are hanging out watching this Mexican dude croon and sing and getting buck wild with his cowboy hat.


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Made it to La Paz... I'm at Papas and Beer on the Beach

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A Saturday afternoon ride

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Sea of Cortez Video

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Umm so a retired security guard from Fulsom Prison(yeah Johnny Cash) his bike from Santa Cruz to Panama...his name is Ray

Umm so a retired security guard from Fulsom Prison(yeah Johnny Cash) his bike from Santa Cruz to Panama...his name is Ray



I have met enough characters in Baja alone to write a book and I'll add Ray to the list. We finished our ride yesterday and were chilling in our hammocks when a 56 year old comes strolling by for a bite to eat riding his surly long haul trucker with ortleib panniers. He took his glasses off and had a serious case of coon tan around the eyes but he had a BIG grin. Started in Santa Cruz he said. Rode a 100+miles the past 2 days. I even ride at night that's why I got these headlights on my bike. At night I thought? Dangerous to ride in Baja-maybe. Dangerous to ride solo-maybe. Riding solo in Baja at night with headlights in your bike-You Betcha. He talked alot about God and Asked me and Jeanine if we were "Christians.". Jeanine replied without missing a step " yeah ima Christian but with a small "c." Leave it to the Canadian Mountain bike momma to drop the catchy cuplet on our new friend. Couldnt have said it better myself.

We slept great except the Mexican music they played until 10pm with the generator on. I put my earplugs in they didn't work. I pulled my beanie down to my throat that didnt work. I prayed for the radio to blow up that didnt work. In Ameeericka I would have asked them to turn it down but if there is one thing I have learned in Baja it's this. If you buy a sound system it is your right to play that thing as loud as you can turn it up! In the middle of the day you will hear music so loud it will peel the paint off a wall. At night it's even worse. And then it hit me. Maybe that's why when I was growing up in Guada La Habra they played those darn things so loud. O-DA-LAY-PUECE HOLMES. Ya learn somethin everyday.

If I do a Gran Fondo ride tomorrow of 125 miles I can make La Paz. I haven't decided yet. We are in Costitucion today.

More pics from yesterday














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Todays ride to Loreto

Man today's ride kicked my beeee hind. Lastnight we crashed and I couldn't get any water so I was already dehydrated. I woke up and just has coffee. The lady told us a store was 6 miles away. Well it ended up being 12 miles away. I had no water and it was about 1500ft of climbing.



I was annihilated by the time I got to the store and spent the whole day feeling the effects of it.
But the store did have an awesome Christmas tree. Feliz Navidad or in this case Tecate Navidad.



I drank almost a gallon of water in the bike. Jeanine and i were cruising. Dane on the other hand was well rested from having some time off getting his bike straight. I watched him eat almost an entire jar of nutella for breakfast and drink a few cups of coffee. He went off the front like a bat out of hell. We caught up with him with about 10 miles to go into Laredo. I rode his wheel as we bombed into town. Dane has ridden motorcycles for a while so he just bombs any kind of downhill so that was great. He rocked the last 10 into town and I am really glad that ride is over.

It's Sunday here and there is a big Mass at church happening along with. City wide farmers market I will be going to here shortly.

We asked directions from a store owner and she told us where the bank, supermarket, and farmers market were. She even wrote down directions AND offered toilet us stay the night! DONE. This all took about 15 minutes. Crazy. THEN she told us she had a hotel room for us for free. Man I can't make this stuff up. I mean really. You walk into a convenience store and you walk out with a free room at the best joint in town. Seriously it makes ZERO SENSE.






SO am I worried about Mexicans killing me yet? NAH in fact they have rolled out the red carpet for Dane and I.
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Yesterdays scenery was amazing

Today's scenery was unbelievable. See the pics


















I actually felt like I worked a bit today even though we only rode about 40 miles. First of all I hate 11am start times. I like to be done at 11am not starting. Then we lolly gagged taking pictures and took a one hour lunch after riding 13 miles. It ended up feeling like a long day. We ended up doing over 2400ft of climbing as well. We stopped and decided to eat and camp at this restaurant on the aide of the road. In Baja it is so easy. You stop to eat dinner somewhere and the owners are more than happy to let you camp for free. You wake up and have coffee at the same restaurant and you are on your way. It's perfect.

My Spanish is coming along albeit slowly. I keep deferring to Jeanine cuz she knows it fluently but the situations where im alone this far it has been no problema or te nada.

I can't believe we are almost to La Paz. We should be there on Tuesday. Another 1000 miles done just like that. The days blur together now I usually don't know what day of the week it is. I just ride. Call my loved ones on skype. Listen to audiobooks. Write blogs. Shoot pictures and video. Pay bills on my iPhone. Eat alot of food. Go to bed early. It's all a blur a times.

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Diiiiiiiinner

It's the first ever DOUBLE BLOG. The double blog is VERY rare, but tonights meal is so far out of hand it defies description. Our friend Josh is from Seattle and owns a restaurant and is an amazing chef. He took it upon himself to go and buy several pounds of fresh cervina fillet fish. He then grilled fresh veggies, made beans, grilled tortillas, and I just ate enough food to fill an
army. Here are some pics.






This brick oven stove with wood was in our campground








How did I end up getting so amazing food for dinner. Man it is so fricken dope the cats you meet on the road. Crazy
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Onward to Mulege

You know that place you've heard of in Mexico where all the pissed off ex Vietnam vets live? Ya know the place where the A Team got its narrative from. Yeah it's called Mulege and I rode my bike there today. The ride was fine another gorgeous one. Check the pics.






But seriously this place Mulege is lame. First I must clarify. I thought that it was going to be another quaint seaside village full of old pueblo mission buildings, palm trees, and dudes selling fresh fruit and moncheca everywhere, so my expectations were high. HOWEVER they were dashed.

Again let me explain-What's cool about Mexico IS THE MEXICAN STUFF!!! The food. The architecture. The Missions. Learning the language. The panderias. The locals etc. What's NOT cool is Americans building what are clearly American track homes in little villages and putting security systems in and surrounding everything with barbwire. That is just plain tasteless and soooooooooooooooooo Caucasian. Well Mulege is full of these types unfortunately. All the waterfront properties have been bought up and bastardized by white people showin their money off. LAME. I mean if you wanna have a house in Mexico and live there that's totally cool but can it please not look like the IRVINE CA homebuilders expo. Seriously people.

I did however meet a wonderful local lady who made me coffee con leche y sucar this morning. She was rad.



She made empanadas as well



To me the cool thing about traveling is the locals and their whole vibe NOT white people building little fiefdoms in foreign countries.

That's just ridiculous.

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