Casas
Grandes
to
Madera
Monday 3/29/2004
In the morning we stopped at Manuel’s home. Manuel is apparently a descendant of Paquime people who made pottery, and his family has passed the techniques down through the generations. Here are some pictures taken at his place:
We picked up lunch at a little grocery store, got some cheese, tortillas, cans of chipotle which is some kind of marinated pepper, and various other stuff. This was the first day we rode on dirt.
Jay and Bob, probably getting ready for dirt.
Getting the tires inflated properly when switch from pavement to dirt and back was pretty funny, with one sometimes-working gauge we could easily spend 20 minutes trying to get everybody setup.
One of Luis Terrasa’s Hacienda. Our guide at LT’s Hacienda.
There was some freeway construction going on which got us lost for a bit but we were soon back on track. I almost hit a cow that ran out in front of me – the fastest cow I’ve ever seen. It was common on the ride to see lots of animals: cows, dogs, burros, chickens, etc. Bob claims to have been chased and threatened by an “attack chicken”, and I saw one or two giving him the evil eye, so maybe I believe it.
Some of the landscape. Dad as we rode up into the hills. Dad and I on a break.
We did some pretty fast riding on the dirt. One time I tried to pass Bob up a twisty logging road and he got on it pretty hard, and pretty soon we were both blazing around these dirt road corners – great fun! For a 68-year old he’s got some serious game. Jay’s bike was way better than everyone else’s on the road, but on the dirt it’s not as good: way heavier and has less traction – he did amazingly well with it I thought.
There was one section of road that was perfectly flat in the middle but water-filled clay tire ruts on either side. I tried to make it across on the center but dropped off into the water just before the end. It was extremely slippery and I got sideways on the bike and had to stomp hard to stay up. I lurched out of the rut heading off the side of the road and almost hit a tree, but luckily got some tracking and got back into the road. Everyone else was a little wiser and just rode through in the ruts!
Alfonso pulling up to our lunch spot. Our lunch spot in the hills.
We pulled off the road right under some spectacular cliffs and had some lunch. Alfonso cut up some avocado and cheese and we wrapped that in tortillas. I thought the chipotle was some kind of marinated beef and loaded my tortilla with them. That made for a pretty hot burrito!
Some of the scenery on the ride. Some of the bluffs up close.
Some of the roads after lunch were covered with very coarse gravel which made for hard riding. We had to deal with some logging trucks also, both passing them and oncoming. I was riding behind Bob when he passed one of them, and the truck driver couldn’t see him coming and veered over to the side where Bob was passing. Bob had to ride off into the ditch, but pulled off the pass anyway. It was a little dicey, but it’s so painful to sit back there and eat dust that we all ended up doing some aggressive passing.
Dad on the road.
Dad and I on a break, waiting for Alfonso to catch up. Most of the time Alfonso was right with us, but on the roughest dirt roads we’d usually get ahead some.
Jay ready to ride.
When we got back on pavement Bob evidently had an itch and we ended up going about 80 mph around some hairpin turns trying to keep up with him. We did it for awhile but then Dad had enough and we fell back.
Dad looking pretty happy to have found a drive-through liquor store (although he never drank any). We saw a few of these stores with the same design, must be some kind of chain.
Driving through Madera Jay said “Ever seen a town with
so many teenage girls walking around?” and he was right, about 90% of the
people we saw on the street were teenage girls. Then
I noticed that the guys were all in the cars and were just driving up and down
the street! Hadn’t seen that
kind of cruising for awhile, guess it’s popular in
Hanging out having a beer at the motel in
We had dinner at the motel restaurant and were the only ones in there.