Oct. 4, Matehuala Mexico, (writings from my journal)
Yesterday we took off out of Lockhart, TX after blessing the motorcycles with a nice ceremony. We took Hiway 183 S. The road was lined in soft white cotton and barb wire fencing. Following the sun all the way into the horizon, we made it into Laredo to sleep at the Motel 6 (5star).
Speaking with my mother, who worries about me dearly, asks, ¨Sean, do you really want to go through with this?¨ I sort of chuckle and reassure her that everything is going to be fine and that I promise to be safe and call often. She goes ¨sure, but make sure it is after 10PM on Saturday.¨ My mother is hilarious...I miss her and my father very much.
Today we crossed the border, which required us to have MExican motorcyle insurance, a driving pass, a vehicle security deposit and a Mexican declaration of auto title. So even though we started out at 8:30 from Laredo, we didn´t get off into MX until 12:30. After finishing our registration and going by the bank in Nuevo Laredo, we set off on I85 to Monterrey. It was absolutely beautiful...sunflowers created the pathway with blue mountains behind them and an influx of Monarch butterflies parading our entrada into the foreign land. Past Monterrey toward Matehuala, the mountains came up from underneath us as we rose from 1000 to 6000 feet and th edeserrt air turned cool and arid. In front of the mountain view lied a strange forest of large finger-like projections with pineapple fingertips...Lou calls them Jonathan Trees...the look more like pineapple finger palms to me. And they were bunched up in a dense coating of finger pineapple orgies It was amazing.
Coming into Matehuala at sundown, we found a great run-down hotel called Oasis Hotel. It looks as though it used to be something very special. I could almost guess Frankie Avalon was once a guest here. Now it is us and this guy Jonathan from NYC who likes to talk about money, but does share his Brandy. Tonight I had enchiladas con salsa roja, and we are using puified ice cubes from the front desk and melting it into our water bags for drinking.
I almost forgot, on the toll road down to Matehuala, we saw 15 donkey, 9 horses, and 4 herds of goats eating grass between the 4 lane stretch. At first I wasperplexed by the animals creeping towards the tarmac, but when you look at the finger pineapple palms in the distance, you realize there is not much grass to choose from out in the open desert.