The Flight of Bear Canada

Day 11- April 23rd
Phoenix, AZ to Yuma, AZ

Today was another nice day to ride. One thing I do have to say is that one doesn't go to Arizona for the roads. Damn straight and flat. One upside to Arizona is the cool places. I visited the old prison and the quartermaster's depot in Yuma.

0177

Cellblock of the Arizona Territorial Prison, Yuma, AZ.

0188

Inside of a cell. Can't this mistake this for Club Fed.

0191

The guardtower.

0193

"I wonder why Ranger Bob doesn't come for coffee anymore? Maybe he's being antisocial."

I did a check on the rear wheel and found it's wasn't spinning as smoothly as it should be. Further digging resulted in finding that the rear bearing was worn out.

0200

Old truck and an old section of the plank road. This is how they crossed sand in the 20's. Glad things have improved. The plank sections didn't stretch from one destination to another, they had to be moved along in sections. Also they got so beat up and vehicles had such poor suspension that going more than 10mph. would get you bounced off the road into the soft sand.

Day 12 - April 24th
Yuma, AZ to El Centro, CA

I managed to do some digging and found the numbers for the generic bearings. One good suggestion would be to have these kinds of numbers stored on a website, zip drive and a piece of paper. I did raid a NAPA auto parts store and got the bearings. Working in the motel parking lot, I managed to replace the bearing within 20 minutes. I am kind of thrilled that I could do it in the field, but I think I should have caught it before going on the road.

0202

The V-Strom mobile repair shop.

I hit the Mexican border at San Luis around noon. I am kind of kicking myself for hitting a border at the singularly worse time to hit a border. But the lineup went well. One thing that is noticeable is the level of unorderliness. Locals in the lineup suggested in lane splitting to get ahead in the lineup.

The rest was an eye opener. One, I have been trying to learn Spanish, but hitting the border indicates how way over the head I actually am. I sort of slog through the border and things are OK. Until I try to get some paperwork done. I need a tourist card and import permit to head beyond the border zone with the bike. Now I had made sure that my registration, passport and driver's license had my Hungarian birth name on it. My credit card has the English version on it. "Sorry no permits for you".

So I returned to the US to get things sorted out. I decided to head west to cool off since it was cooking. So I'm going to try to hit the border at Mexicali.


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Contents Copyright (C) Michael Fodor 2012.