andyc740
0
Late starts; it seemed I couldn’t get things together this year. I finally headed out for my 6th annual winter trip to Huatusco, Veracruz at 8:00 in the morning. Normally, I’m on the road by 6:00, but decided not to hurry. The first day’s ride is pretty straightforward; cut over from Corpus Christi, hitting Highway 281 at Falfurrias, then just keep heading south till I get past Tampico, then start looking for a place to spend the night.
Note: These trip reports seem like they get longer and longer. If you want to go through and just look at the pictures, you won’t hurt my feelings. I didn’t take any pictures the first day on the road, so there’ll just be a couple maps and lots of verbiage. The first day’s ride is not too exciting.
Last year, Bato came along for company, but he wasn’t available this year so I was doing the trip solo again. (Last year’s ride report is at: Coughs, Coconuts and Coffee in Huatusco, Veracruz, Mexico) I did have the Spot Tracker along so my wife and friends could keep up with my location along the way and I also had a GPS this time, loaded with city maps for Mexico, a Christmas present from my wife. I hadn’t time to wire up the GPS, so it was in the trunk, conserving its battery charge.
The slow start was compounded by hitting every red light on Business 281 in Pharr (grrr!), then needing some extra time to renew my paperwork at the border. When I renewed my plates for the bike in June last year, I made the mistake of doing it at the local grocery store instead of mailing it in or taking it downtown to the county courthouse. The receipt the grocery store gave me had their name on the top of it as a subcontractor, instead of listing my name and the bike details.
The officials at the border had objected to the paperwork and I wound up paying an extra $20 for some cooperation. My six months’ papers for the bike had expired since then and the issue came up all over again at the border. This time, they didn’t seem to take the situation as seriously and settled for an extra fifty pesos, about $4.00. I could live with that. Looking back, I should’ve taken the receipt down to the courthouse and gotten another one with my name on it. Oh well, I know better now.
I was further delayed by being behind a family of Central Americans in line who had transmigrante visas, had come up to the border, then paid a visit to the US side. They were being told that their exit from Mexico had invalidated their 6-month visas and they would have to cancel the old ones and pay for new visas. I’m not sure how that turned out. I know they didn’t budget for paying for visas again.
I was on the road again by 1:00. The day warmed up nicely. Nobody at the border was interested in seeing my paperwork or looking in the bags and the same thing happened again at the aduana checkpoint 10 miles down the road south of Reynosa. Usually they ask to see the papers there. Traffic seemed to be up on the highways compared to previous years. Heading south from Reynosa, I couldn’t spot the place where I ran over the dog in June on my way back from San Luis Potosi and I didn’t see the dog, either. (Stretching Our Legs - Bike Rally, San Luis Potosi, Mexico) I stopped for lunch at a restaurant near San Fernando, then pushed on to the turnoff to Soto La Marina, where I stopped for gas 175 miles south of the border. There’s a checkpoint 4 miles before the turnoff for northbound traffic on the highway and the trucks were backed up for 3 miles waiting to get through the checkpoint. Good thing there’s a separate line for the cars (and motorcycles).
In keeping with the leisurely nature of the ride, the gas station on the north edge of town was out of Premium, so I had to ride on to the next one to fill up. Previous trips have shown that it costs just about a peso per mile for gas for the bike so that is how I base my fuel budget, but this fill-up worked out to almost P1.35. Wow. I would be short on money if that kept up. Later fill-ups ran between P1.15 and P1.25 per mile, which I mostly attributed to higher gas prices. The generally higher elevations in Mexico and the lack of ethanol in the gas usually means my gas mileage improves once I’ve gotten the US gas out of the system.
South of Soto La Marina, I ran into the construction zone. The road has been under construction for the past number of years, but the zone under construction keeps working its way south towards Aldama. This year, construction started about 20 miles south of Soto and continued off and on for another 25 miles. Road surfaces varied from new pavement to hard-packed dirt, to dirt and gravel to loose gravel to old pavement, with an occasional detour into an arroyo where a bridge is under construction. I was glad it had not been raining. The Guzzi would’ve been a handful in the mud. I eventually made it to Aldama, where the road turns west toward Estacion San Manuel, took a brief break, then pushed on.
Twenty miles after Aldama, the road intersects the Victoria - Tampico highway. At that point, it’s four-lane divided highway all the way into Tampico. In Tampico, I took my customary beach route bypass. The highway through downtown Tampico doesn’t seem to have very good signage, includes miles of stoplights, and I always seem to get lost. The bypass only has one stoplight until you turn off the beach road headed downtown, and by then, it’s only a couple miles till you hit the bridge across the Rio Panuco. The only tricky part is, once you go under the bridge, you keep going till you turn right at the light at the supermarket, then keep bearing right until you’re on the bridge approach.
There’s usually a police car or two at the first light on the bypass, so I take it easy on that stretch of road.
There were lots of people leaving work when I came past the Pemex refinery at 6:00 (there always seems to be people leaving work when I come by there) and by the time I crossed the bridge, daylight was pretty much gone. I stopped at the first hotel I saw down the road, a 3-story hotel across the street from the gas station, got a room and got some supper next door. Maybe I should’ve stayed across the street at the less-imposing Hotel Corral, they probably would’ve had some hot water. Anyway, the price was right, P200.00, $16.00. Mileage for the first day, about 525 miles, if I remember right.
Note: These trip reports seem like they get longer and longer. If you want to go through and just look at the pictures, you won’t hurt my feelings. I didn’t take any pictures the first day on the road, so there’ll just be a couple maps and lots of verbiage. The first day’s ride is not too exciting.
Last year, Bato came along for company, but he wasn’t available this year so I was doing the trip solo again. (Last year’s ride report is at: Coughs, Coconuts and Coffee in Huatusco, Veracruz, Mexico) I did have the Spot Tracker along so my wife and friends could keep up with my location along the way and I also had a GPS this time, loaded with city maps for Mexico, a Christmas present from my wife. I hadn’t time to wire up the GPS, so it was in the trunk, conserving its battery charge.
The slow start was compounded by hitting every red light on Business 281 in Pharr (grrr!), then needing some extra time to renew my paperwork at the border. When I renewed my plates for the bike in June last year, I made the mistake of doing it at the local grocery store instead of mailing it in or taking it downtown to the county courthouse. The receipt the grocery store gave me had their name on the top of it as a subcontractor, instead of listing my name and the bike details.
The officials at the border had objected to the paperwork and I wound up paying an extra $20 for some cooperation. My six months’ papers for the bike had expired since then and the issue came up all over again at the border. This time, they didn’t seem to take the situation as seriously and settled for an extra fifty pesos, about $4.00. I could live with that. Looking back, I should’ve taken the receipt down to the courthouse and gotten another one with my name on it. Oh well, I know better now.
I was further delayed by being behind a family of Central Americans in line who had transmigrante visas, had come up to the border, then paid a visit to the US side. They were being told that their exit from Mexico had invalidated their 6-month visas and they would have to cancel the old ones and pay for new visas. I’m not sure how that turned out. I know they didn’t budget for paying for visas again.
I was on the road again by 1:00. The day warmed up nicely. Nobody at the border was interested in seeing my paperwork or looking in the bags and the same thing happened again at the aduana checkpoint 10 miles down the road south of Reynosa. Usually they ask to see the papers there. Traffic seemed to be up on the highways compared to previous years. Heading south from Reynosa, I couldn’t spot the place where I ran over the dog in June on my way back from San Luis Potosi and I didn’t see the dog, either. (Stretching Our Legs - Bike Rally, San Luis Potosi, Mexico) I stopped for lunch at a restaurant near San Fernando, then pushed on to the turnoff to Soto La Marina, where I stopped for gas 175 miles south of the border. There’s a checkpoint 4 miles before the turnoff for northbound traffic on the highway and the trucks were backed up for 3 miles waiting to get through the checkpoint. Good thing there’s a separate line for the cars (and motorcycles).
In keeping with the leisurely nature of the ride, the gas station on the north edge of town was out of Premium, so I had to ride on to the next one to fill up. Previous trips have shown that it costs just about a peso per mile for gas for the bike so that is how I base my fuel budget, but this fill-up worked out to almost P1.35. Wow. I would be short on money if that kept up. Later fill-ups ran between P1.15 and P1.25 per mile, which I mostly attributed to higher gas prices. The generally higher elevations in Mexico and the lack of ethanol in the gas usually means my gas mileage improves once I’ve gotten the US gas out of the system.
South of Soto La Marina, I ran into the construction zone. The road has been under construction for the past number of years, but the zone under construction keeps working its way south towards Aldama. This year, construction started about 20 miles south of Soto and continued off and on for another 25 miles. Road surfaces varied from new pavement to hard-packed dirt, to dirt and gravel to loose gravel to old pavement, with an occasional detour into an arroyo where a bridge is under construction. I was glad it had not been raining. The Guzzi would’ve been a handful in the mud. I eventually made it to Aldama, where the road turns west toward Estacion San Manuel, took a brief break, then pushed on.
Twenty miles after Aldama, the road intersects the Victoria - Tampico highway. At that point, it’s four-lane divided highway all the way into Tampico. In Tampico, I took my customary beach route bypass. The highway through downtown Tampico doesn’t seem to have very good signage, includes miles of stoplights, and I always seem to get lost. The bypass only has one stoplight until you turn off the beach road headed downtown, and by then, it’s only a couple miles till you hit the bridge across the Rio Panuco. The only tricky part is, once you go under the bridge, you keep going till you turn right at the light at the supermarket, then keep bearing right until you’re on the bridge approach.
There’s usually a police car or two at the first light on the bypass, so I take it easy on that stretch of road.
There were lots of people leaving work when I came past the Pemex refinery at 6:00 (there always seems to be people leaving work when I come by there) and by the time I crossed the bridge, daylight was pretty much gone. I stopped at the first hotel I saw down the road, a 3-story hotel across the street from the gas station, got a room and got some supper next door. Maybe I should’ve stayed across the street at the less-imposing Hotel Corral, they probably would’ve had some hot water. Anyway, the price was right, P200.00, $16.00. Mileage for the first day, about 525 miles, if I remember right.