First Meeting

Saturday 3/27/2004

We did a lot of hanging out Saturday waiting for the bikes to show up. Dad had asked to get them early so he could do some riding to get familiar with the bike. We also had to change hotels because the Pancho Villa reservation had been moved to the Radisson, a block away from the Hawthorne Suites Inn. Around lunch time we spotted the bikes out in the parking lot and were over checking them out when Jay rode by on his BMW GS. Dad flagged him down and we met him and decided to go over the Applebee’s for lunch. While we were there we spotted a truck (Pancho Villa) and it turned out to be our guide Alfonso. So we met him and went over to fill out the rental paperwork on our bikes.

Jay’s pretty cool, totally unpretentious and laid back in a California surfer kind of way. He complains about not remembering stuff but remembers everything about every place he’s ever been – especially where the Costco is. He’s also ultra-perceptive – he’d notice and remember lots of things that I’d just ride by and never even see.

When we got our bikes Jay, Dad and I went for a ride in El Paso. We rode over to a motorcycle shop where Dad and I both bought some warm-weather riding gloves. Then on to a grocery store where we picked up some last minute supplies.

When I inspected my bike for the rental agreement I didn’t see anything major and signed right away, but after our ride Jay noticed a huge dent in the front rim. It looked pretty dangerous, like the seal could break at any time. So we told Alfonso about it and he said we’d change is later that night. We didn’t end up changing it that night, but did it the next morning before starting to ride.

We met Rene and Bob later out in front of the hotel by the bikes. They both seemed great right off the bat – cool and friendly. Rene had driven from New Mexico with his bike in his truck, so we helped him unload it. Bob was also renting a bike.

We had our start-up meeting in our room. It went well – got to know Alfonso some and got a good overview of the trip. Alfonso’s accent started tripping Dad up some, Alfonso was telling us that the Spanish word “topes” means bumps, so watch out for bumps. Dad said “bombs?” and it took a few repeats to clear that up. Dad said he was wondering if they knew where the bombs were long enough to put up signs, why didn’t they just remove the bombs!