Today is the final day of my 50th year on this planet. For months now I've had an urge to do something special before I turned 51, something epic. Perhaps this is what people refer to as a midlife crisis, I don't know. I don't think that I'm in any particular state of crisis, but I do often feel as if I have yet to achieve anything particularly monumental, something befitting such a significant landmark as half a century. Some…
There are those who find comfort in the thought that everything happens for a reason. Working on that premise, perhaps we acquired our tire problem so that we could: get experience patching flat tires? meet our friends from Tijuana? visit the beautiful town of Loreto? get to meet and learn from Manny, the bike professional here in Loreto? acquire all new tires, and other spare parts? That's a whole handful of good reasons! After calling upon our friend Salvador to…
I'm not sure what feels better: arriving to a town after several days of traveling where we can find ourselves a cheap hotel room with a shower and a comfortable bed, or getting back on the road after a couple of days off. At this point, I'd have to say that they both feel equally good. Loreto was a great place to visit, perhaps especially so because it wasn't on our planned itinerary, but it was just as nice to…
You may be familiar with the Kenny Chesney song about the American businessman who, in conversation with a Mexican fisherman, comes to realize that the life he truly desires is one of simplicity instead of wealth accumulation, specifically of fishing during the day and spending time with his family and friends at night. While I don't think it's actually the case, I kind of imagine that the fishing village Mr. Chesney was visualizing for that song is the one where…
I don't recall where or when I first learned about topographic maps, their squiggly little lines used to turn a flat piece of paper into a 3D representation of the earth. It's not the kind of thing that the majority of people have a use for. After all, except in extreme situations, your car or truck doesn't really care if there's a little uphill or downhill. Cycling is a different matter though. Trying to read these maps, and then extrapolate…
Our resupply chart says that we rode over 2200 km to get to La Paz. Even though the distance we have traveled may be slightly different than that given our diversion to Loreto, when we add to that the miles that we put in prior to leaving our daughter's house, and that which was necessary to get to the beginning of the Divide route, I suspect we're probably close to 3000 total kms ridden. Not bad, eh? Time for a…
